The answer to Nicodemus’ question, “How can a man be born when he
is old?” is: Only when he is willing to die to everything in his life,
including his rights, his virtues, and his religion, and becomes willing
to receive into himself a new life that he has never before experienced
(John 3:4). This new life exhibits itself in our conscious repentance and through our unconscious holiness.
“But as many as received Him. . .” (John 1:12).
Is my knowledge of Jesus the result of my own internal spiritual
perception, or is it only what I have learned through listening to
others? Is there something in my life that unites me with the Lord Jesus
as my personal Savior? My spiritual history must have as its underlying
foundation a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. To be born again means
that I see Jesus.
“. . . unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God
” (John 3:3). Am I seeking only for the evidence of God’s kingdom, or
am I actually recognizing His absolute sovereign control? The new birth
gives me a new power of vision by which I begin to discern God’s
control. His sovereignty was there all the time, but with God being true
to His nature, I could not see it until I received His very nature
myself.
“Whoever has been born of God does not sin. . .” (1 John 3:9).
Am I seeking to stop sinning or have I actually stopped? To be born of
God means that I have His supernatural power to stop sinning. The Bible
never asks, “Should a Christian sin?” The Bible emphatically states that
a Christian must not sin. The work of the new birth is being
effective in us when we do not commit sin. It is not merely that we have
the power not to sin, but that we have actually stopped sinning. Yet 1 John 3:9 does not mean that we cannot sin— it simply means that if we will obey the life of God in us, that we do not have to sin.
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