Childrens Sermons on Being Born Again How to Explain Being Born Again to a Child
Most professing Christians sincerely believe they have been "born once more," but practise non understand the Existent Pregnant of the second nativity. The TRUTH about being born once more is startling — the most AWESOME revelation of your bible!
NICODEMUS was a high-ranking Pharisee — one of the rulers of the Jews. He knew Jesus was a phenomenon-working prophet sent by God, and was deeply interested in His teachings. "You Must Be Born Once more!" Two Literal Births Man the "Dirt Model" Who and What is "God"? The "LORD" of the Erstwhile Testament The POWER of God The Nature of God A "Father-Son" Relationship Man Created in God'due south Epitome Our Awesome Destiny! What information technology Ways to Be "Born Again" Begotten Sons Now — Non Yet Built-in Again Born Over again at the Resurrection The Great Difference Betwixt "Begotten" and "Born" The Greek Discussion You Must Be Born Again!
Just because Nicodemus did not desire to be seen speaking with this man most of the other Pharisees called a "heretic" and a "deceiver of the people," he came to Jesus secretly at nighttime.
During that coming together, Jesus told Nicodemus a profound truth — something that completely mystified the man.
Nicodemus, thinking of physical birth, was totally perplexed. He asked Jesus: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be built-in?" (Verse four.)
Jesus went on to prove He was talking nigh a completely different kind of nativity (verses 5-six). "Curiosity not that I said unto thee, Ye must be built-in once again," He told the Pharisee (verse vii). Merely Nicodemus simply did not sympathize (verses 9-12). How like so many people today!
Nearly professing Christians retrieve they were born once more when they "accepted Christ." But what it actually means to be "born again" they do non know.
The second nascence described in the Bible is FAR More than than most in traditional Christianity have assumed. When Jesus spoke of being "born again," He did not mean what nigh people recollect He meant. It is vital that nosotros understand.
But then Jesus explained that to enter the Kingdom of God we must be built-in over again — not again of the flesh; not again entering the womb and being born again physically, as Nicodemus thought He meant. Jesus explained that we must also exist built-in of the Spirit — born of God! God must exist our Male parent this time! As nosotros were built-in of the flesh through fleshly human parents, yet nosotros must be born of the Spirit of our spiritual heavenly Father.
Jesus showed that there are ii different kinds of birth — one physical, the other spiritual. When you were born of your parents you were equanimous of flesh. Simply "that which is born of the Spirit is SPIRIT" (John three:6) — no longer composed of flesh, but of spirit!
At that place will be no blood in the body of ane "born of the Spirit." He will not have to exhale air to be. He will literally be COMPOSED OF SPIRIT, declared Jesus.
That's the plain teaching of your Bible! The second birth is not an emotional feel, but a literal nascence!
To further analyze to Nicodemus the meaning of existence born of the Spirit, Jesus continued to explain: "The wind bloweth where it listeth [where it wills], and thou hearest the audio thereof, just canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither information technology goeth: and so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (poetry 8).
Notice that carefully. When you are "born once more" — born of the Spirit of God — you lot will be invisible to mortal eyes like the wind (unless you lot choose to manifest yourself every bit Jesus sometimes did after He was resurrected). The effects of the wind are easily discerned, just the wind itself cannot be seen.
Conspicuously, Jesus compared the spiritual birth to the physical birth — the physical beingness a blazon of the spiritual. Human parents pass on a concrete nature to their children; when we are born of our heavenly Male parent, nosotros volition possess His spiritual nature in its fullness!
What God created was a physical, fleshly man — a mortal flesh and claret human. Adam was a perfect physical specimen. He was the perfect "clay model" which God — the Principal Potter — planned to mold and reshape spiritually into a perfect SPIRITUAL Son of God!
Adam was a complete physical cosmos, but incomplete spiritually. He was created to need a SPIRITUAL birth! Then is everyone who has ever lived.
But how? When? Why? All of these tremendously important questions will be answered from the Bible with the guidance of this lesson.
And so exist sure to turn to and read the scriptures cited in respond to the questions asked in this lesson. (Too, it is highly recommended that y'all copy these verses in your notebook and then you lot tin easily refer to them after.) PROVE to yourself from the pages of your Bible exactly what Christ meant when He said we must exist "born again."
Plough to the beginning of the Bible. The kickoff words are: "In the beginning GOD created the heaven and the earth" (Gen. 1:1). The original Hebrew discussion for "God," here and throughout the account of creation, is Elohim. Information technology is the plural course of the Hebrew Eloah, which in English means "Mighty 1." And so Elohim means "Mighty Ones" — more than 1 divine Personage. (Notice the plural pronouns "us" and "our" in referring to "God" in Genesis 1:26.)
Thus we run across that Elohim is a plural substantive. In other words, Elohim stands for a SINGLE CLASS composed of More than than 1 individual such as the words church, family unit, or kingdom. But as at that place is the creature kingdom and the human family unit or kingdom, Elohim, as used in the business relationship of creation, shows that in that location is also a GOD KINGDOM or Family.
But who are the individuals presently composing the God Family? Let'due south notice what the Bible reveals.
1. Who was with "God" when God created the universe? John i:i. Is the "Word" besides God? Verses 1-2. Was it the Word who actually created all things? Verse iii.
COMMENT: The Greek word translated into English every bit "Give-and-take" in John 1:one is Logos. Information technology means "spokesman," or "1 who speaks."
2. By whom was all the fabric universe created — including this earth and mankind? Heb. i:ii; Col. 1:16-17. Who, then, is the "Word" of John ane:1? John 1:14; Eph. 3:9. And who is the other divine member of the God Family? I Cor. 8:6.
Annotate: John 1:1-three and Genesis one:1 are two accounts of the same outcome — the original creation of the universe. They both reveal that the two Supreme Beings of the God Family unit created all things. Together they planned the cosmos and the Word did the actual creating. Everything was created and fabricated by the divine Being who afterward became the human Jesus Christ to die for the sins of mankind!
1. Has any man being always seen the Father? John one:18.
2. But did people ever look upon the God of the Old Attestation? Gen. 17:1; xviii:one, 22; 32:30; Ex. 24:9-11; 33:18-23.
Comment: Notice in Exodus 33:18-23 that Moses had specifically requested to see the LORD in His "glory." But God prevented Moses from looking upon His glorified face lest he DIE from seeing His luminescence!
The verses cited in questions 1 and 2 clearly bear witness that the God of the Onetime Testament could not have been the "Father."
3. Who was called the "Rock" in Onetime Testament times? II Sam. 22:two-3. Did David telephone call the LORD his "Rock" and his "God"? Ps. eighteen:i-2.
Comment: The King James Version of the Bible and several other translations apply the word "LORD," unremarkably in capital letters, to translate the Hebrew give-and-take YHWH. Virtually Biblical scholars believe YHWH to be some course of the verb "to be" or "to be." Hence YHWH signifies "the self-existent Ane," One who "lives" — from eternity, and to eternity.
Revelation 1:8 clarifies the meaning of this name, speaking of Christ equally "the beginning and the ending... which is, and which was, and which is to come..." Consequently both Moffatt's "the Eternal" and Fenton's "Always-Living" are fantabulous translations of the Hebrew YHWH.
In aboriginal Hebrew, the vowels were not written. They were supplied past the reader. Since the aboriginal Jews considered the name YHWH too holy to pronounce, instead of reading YHWH they substituted Adonai (meaning "Lord" or "Master") or occasionally Elohim.
When the Jewish textual scholars known as Masoretes added the vowels to the written Hebrew text near the 7th century A.D., they wrote the
vowel points of Adonai or Elohim with each occurrence of YHWH to tell the oral reader to pronounce either Adonai or Elohim, whichever had been indicated. From the consonants YHWH and the vowels of Adonai came the hybrid form "Jehovah."
Thus the precise pronunciation of YHWH is unknown today. Obviously it is not necessary for u.s.a. to know exactly how to pronounce it, or God would take made certain that the correct pronunciation was preserved. It is clear that the pregnant of the Almighty's proper noun is infinitely more of import than its mere sound in Hebrew.
4. Co-ordinate to I Corinthians x:four, who was (and still is) the "Rock"?
Comment: Thus the Bible identifies the "Stone" — the LORD of the Old Attestation — as Christ! How surprising to those who have causeless that the God of the Old Testament was the "Begetter"!
So the "LORD" who spoke to and was seen of men was the Ane who afterwards became Jesus Christ. For no mortal man has ever seen the Father (John ane:18).
5. Was the One who became Christ also the One who spoke the Ten Commandments? Ex. 20:1-2.
Comment: The Hebrew word for "LORD" in Exodus xx is YHWH. So it was the Logos, the "Spokesman," who later became Christ, who actually spoke the Ten Commandments!
But why is this understanding important for us today?
Understanding the truthful identity of the God of the Quondam Testament is vital to condign reborn with the spiritual nature of God. For the God of the Quondam Testament, usually believed to accept been harsh and stern, was really our SAVIOR — loving, kind, merciful and only (Ex. 34:5-7).
1. Is God'due south Spirit the Ability by which He creates? Jer. 32:17; Gen. 1:one-3; Ps. 104:xxx.
Annotate: Information technology was by the Spirit of God that the Eternal (YHWH) — the Logos (Christ) — created the entire vast universe. Invisible spirit energy was literally transformed into the cloth creation (Heb. eleven:3). And it was by the ability of His Spirit that God renewed the surface of the globe (Ps. 104:30).
2. Exactly how did the Eternal God utilize His Spirit of ability to bring His various creations into being? Ps. 148:i-v. Notice the word "commanded" in verse five. Also read Psalm 33:viii-9 and Genesis i:2-3.
COMMENT: Christ�the Logos, or "Word" (John 1:i) — "spake, and it was done." He is the I who said, "Allow there exist low-cal." The Give-and-take willed that spirit free energy emanating from Himself be TRANSFORMED into physical energy and matter. That is how the creation of the universe was washed.
3. Is God'south Spirit omnipresent — does it fill the unabridged universe? Ps. 139:7-8; Jer. 23:24. Is it past His Spirit of power that God is also able to sustain and rule His vast creation? Heb. ane:2-3; Neh. 9:half dozen; Ps. 66:7.
Annotate: Similar the atmosphere on earth, the power of God is everywhere. That is how the Word was able to exercise the piece of work of the creation. God uses this power much equally man uses electrical energy.
David's prayer in Psalm 139:vii-8 shows that he knew God's Spirit or power was omnipresent. No matter where in the universe one might go, God's Spirit will yet be there. That is how Jesus Christ is "...upholding all things by the discussion of his Power" (Heb. 1:3). By His authority as God, He keeps all things in the universe in their place. This work is washed through the ability of the God Family and with the express consent of the Father.
Though the Male parent is SUPREME in the God Family, equally Christ Himself revealed (John 14:28), Jesus is the ambassador of the Holy Spirit (John xv:26). He is therefore greater than that Spirit. These two scriptures alone nullify and make void the supposition that the Holy Spirit is a person of equal rank with the Father and Son. The Spirit is not a personality, but rather the very power of God — the power by which God does His will. Information technology IS Not Another PERSON!
4. But what about I John five:7-8, which many have supposed proves God is composed of 3 divine Persons? How practise these 2 verses read?
Comment: Verses seven and eight should actually read equally follows: "For there are 3 that comport record, the Spirit, and the water, and the claret: and these three agree in one."
The words omitted in the to a higher place quote, but included in the Rex James Version of 1611, are left out of most modernistic translations of the Bible — for a very practiced reason. The added words in the Authorized (King James) Version are spurious — fraudulent! These words implying that in that location is a trinity showtime appeared in a 4th century Latin text, probably as a marginal note past a copyist who believed in the Trinity doctrine. They are not found in any respectable Greek manuscript, but entered the text of the Latin Vulgate by the eighth century after Christ.
The editors of both liberal and bourgeois Bible commentaries (ancient and modernistic) agree equally to the fraudulent origin of the King James rendering of I John five:vii-8. Notice the following quotes from two modernistic commentaries.
Says the conservatively oriented New Bible Commentary Revised: "The words are clearly a gloss and are rightly excluded by RSV [the Revised Standard Version] even from its margin" (p. 1269). Peake's Commentary on the Bible, a standard liberal work, is even more than incisive with its comments: "The famous interpolation after '3 witnesses' is non printed fifty-fifty in RSV, and rightly... No respectable Greek MS [manuscript] contains it. Appearing offset in a late 4th century Latin text, it entered the Vulgate and finally the NT [New Testament] of Erasmus [and somewhen the King James Version]" (p. 1038).
v. Is the Holy Spirit referred to in the Bible as "it" and "he"? John ane:32; Rom. viii:16, 26; I Peter 1:11; John xiv:16-17, 26; 16:seven-eight, 13.
Annotate: Normally, the Holy Spirit is referred to as "information technology" in the King James Version. In the 14th, 15th and 16th chapters of John, the Holy Spirit is personified as one who brings help. Therefore the English pronouns "he" and "him" are used in connection with the word "Comforter."
Grammatically, all pronouns in Greek must agree in gender with the nouns to which they refer. The Greek word parakletos ("comforter" in English) is masculine in gender; hence the translators' use of the personal pronoun "he" and "him" for the Greek masculine pronouns.
It should be noted, however, that in many languages the gender of a give-and-take has nothing to do with whether the affair designated is really male or female. For case, in Spanish the word table (la mesa) is feminine instead of neuter. Gender in language is nothing more than a grammatical tool.
In Greek as in English language, the word "spirit" is neuter — neither masculine nor feminine in gender. Pneuma is the Greek word meaning "spirit." It is always grammatically neuter and properly represented by the English pronoun "it" equally in John 1:32 and Romans 8:16.
The fact of the matter, which few realize, is that the "Trinity" doctrine implies that the Family of God is forever express to three persons. Information technology denies the very PURPOSE for which Elohim created mankind! You will grasp this astonishing truth more than fully every bit you continue studying your Bible with this lesson.
COMMENT: Ane of the great differences betwixt the God Family or Kingdom and the human kingdom is that God is composed of immortal spirit invisible to human being eyes, while man is mortal mankind and claret — made from the grit of the globe and subject to death and decay.
2. Merely earlier He was taken to be crucified, to what state did Christ ask His Father to restore Him? John 17:5. Was Christ again to share His Begetter'due south glory in the God Family unit? Aforementioned poesy.
iii. How do Christ'southward and the Father'southward powerful, glorified spirit bodies appear? Rev. 1:thirteen-16. (The "Son of man" mentioned here is the glorified Christ.)
Annotate: The power of the Begetter and Christ is so swell that their spirit bodies smoothen equally BRIGHT As THE SUN IN Total STRENGTH!
4. What is another great difference between God and man — what is God'due south feature attitude and general mental makeup? Ps. 99:9. Is there anyone as holy every bit God? I Sam. two:2. Would y'all conclude that human being, of himself, is "holy"? Rom. three:10-xviii, 23; 8:vii; Jer. 17:nine.
COMMENT: The meaning of the word "holy" involves pureness of heart or freedom from sin. The two divine Beings soon composing the God Family possess a "holy" or sinless attitude and nature.
But what does all this take to do with your being "born once more"?
EVERYTHING! When born again you volition possess the same power, celebrity and holiness of God! But more than about this after.
1. What did Jesus say about Himself and His Father? John 10:30; 17:xi. Notwithstanding who is greater in authority? John fourteen:28; I Cor. xi:3.
Comment: The Male parent and Son are one in purpose and attitude. But the Father is greater in dominance. The Father has always been in supreme command in the Family or Kingdom of God — even before the Give-and-take became a man being.
2. Why did the Word (Christ) become a mankind-and-blood man existence? Heb. ii:9, 14.
Comment: All mankind has sinned (Rom. 3:23). And "the wages of sin is [eternal] death" (Rom. 6:23). The Give-and-take became a mortal man then He could die to pay the death sentence for the sins of ALL mankind. Christ was able to practise this considering His life was far more valuable than the lives of all homo beings put together. He was not just the Creator of all flesh, He was GOD made flesh! (John 1:14.)
But exactly how did the Give-and-take become composed of flesh and blood? Matt. ane:18-21. ("Ghost" in this passage, as elsewhere, is an unfortunate translation in the King James Version. It should rather be rendered "Spirit," as it is in most other translations of the Bible.) What championship did the other member of the God Kingdom acquire as a effect of this miraculous begettal? Matt. 18:35; John i:14,
COMMENT: Before Christ (the Word) was conceived in Mary, He was not the "Son of God." He was ane of the two members of the God Kingdom. He, like the One who became the Father, had existed eternally. But it is nowhere stated in the Bible that He was a SON of God prior to His conception in Mary. His homo nascency was His first nascency. He gave upwardly the glory He had shared with the other divine Being, who became His "Father," in guild to be born into the earth as a human being, live a perfect life, and then give His life to pay the penalty of all the sins of mankind.
And so Jesus was begotten within His human mother Mary. Just unlike all other man beings, He was miraculously begotten past the 1 who became the Begetter, through the agency and ability of the Spirit of God (Matt. i:twenty; John 1:xiv). (Here, by the fashion, is further proof the Spirit of God is not a person. Since Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit, if the Spirit were a person, then IT would be Christ's Father!) By His miraculous begettal, Christ became the "Son" of God, and the other person of the God Kingdom became His "Father." And then began the "Father-Son" relationship, which is a Family relationship!
At present let'due south brainstorm to empathise exactly what all this has to exercise with our being "born once again."
1. Later what "kind" were the animals created? Gen. one:twenty-25.
COMMENT: These verses plain country that God created fish to reproduce after their own detail kind, birds after their particular kind, and cattle subsequently the cattle kind. Each kind may have many varieties within information technology, but all creatures reproduce only subsequently their own "kind." That is why dogs reproduce dogs, monkeys reproduce monkeys, sheep reproduce sheep, etc.
ii. Merely what about homo? After whose "image" and "likeness" was man created? Verses 26-27.
Comment: In God's pattern for physical life, like reproduces like. And just equally each plant or creature reproduces after its own kind, and so humans reproduce humans. Only Dissimilar whatsoever of the animals, man was created in God's likeness.
These scriptures abnegate the evolutionary theory that man is only the "highest" of the animals, having evolved from lower mammals. They clearly land that God created man after God'southward own image and likeness! God fabricated human being Similar Himself — same form and shape.
3. Fifty-fifty though human being is made in the likeness of God, are both equanimous of the same type of "material"? John 4:24; Gen. 2:seven.
Annotate: At that place is a vast difference betwixt spirit and grit. Although man was created in the very shape and likeness of God, he was not created out of spirit. He was made of the dust of the world, bailiwick to decease and disuse. But God'southward purpose is to somewhen create him out of eternal spirit!
In I Corinthians 15:46-49 nosotros read: "Howbeit that was not starting time which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and Afterward that which is spiritual. The first human being [Adam] is of the earth, bawdy: the 2nd human [Christ] is the Lord from heaven... And every bit we [speaking of Spirit-begotten Christians] take borne the image of the earthy, we shall also behave the paradigm of the heavenly."
Clearly, homo is much more than than whatsoever animal. Homo has the potential to become divine spirit — merely as GOD is spirit!
Merely a very few have really understood God'south awesome purpose for human beings. The Bible reveals that God is REPRODUCING HIMSELF through mankind! Our destiny is to become the literal children of God — MEMBERS of His ain divine Family!
Permit'southward understand this amazing truth.
1. Is God forming and molding man as a potter works with clay? Isa. 64:viii.
Annotate: God'south creation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden was consummate but in the physical sense. They were created perfect physically — but not perfect SPIRITUALLY. They were created of the grit — not of divine SPIRIT. They were created corruptible and field of study to death — not incorruptible and immortal.
But God did non intend that mankind should remain that way.
ii. Did Job realize God was forming a special creation in his life? Job 14:fourteen-fifteen.
COMMENT: Discover especially the latter part of verse 15: "...g wilt have a desire to the Work of thine hands." The "work" was Job. Chore knew he was but a slice of divine workmanship in the hands of the Master Potter.
3. Are true Christians being fashioned by God for a specific purpose? Isa. 43:7; Eph. 2:ten.
Comment: "We" in the New Testament usually refers to Spirit-begotten Christians, as Paul intended in Ephesians 2:x. We, so — if we are true Christians — are God'southward "workmanship." We are in the process of beingness "created" — WHY? — "unto good works." God, with the Holy Spirit He has put within us, is forming in us His perfect spiritual character! With our consent and cooperation, God is creating u.s. in His ain character-image! We are to become the supreme masterpiece of all His works of creation — individuals who volition exist capable of righteously exercising the awesome powers of God!
The material cosmos of man is but the first phase. Now the clay model has to exist fashioned and molded, with our cooperation and the aid of God'southward Holy Spirit, into the finished spiritual masterpiece. An analogy of this procedure would be a caterpillar going through a metamorphosis into a beautiful butterfly. Flesh must undergo a spiritual "metamorphosis," or CHANGE — to become perfect SPIRITUAL MEMBERS in the divine Family unit OF GOD!
There are only two members in the God Family or Kingdom at the present time — God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. Just God is going to increase His Family!
Incredible as it may sound, Jesus taught that humans tin can be "born" into the FAMILY, or KINGDOM, of God!
1. Does God plainly prove information technology is His purpose to increase His divine Family unit by bringing many sons into information technology? Ii Cor. 6:18; Heb. two:nine-11; Rev. 21:7. Isn't Jesus Christ actually the "firstborn" of MANY sons of God? Rom. 8:29.
COMMENT: To be "conformed to the image" of Christ means to become Similar Him — to exist glorified as He is now glorified — to be a fellow member of the divine Family OF GOD even every bit Christ now is.
2. But what must happen to flesh-and-blood Christians before they tin can enter God's Family? I Cor. 15:49-52; John three:iii-8.
Annotate: Jesus said nosotros must be "born over again" — Changed INTO SPIRIT! Yeah, built-in again — this fourth dimension born of the Spirit of God equally divine Sons in the Family of God!
COMMENT: Notice that although we are now the "sons" and "children of God," we are only heirs — ones who shall, in the future, inherit all that God has promised. Why? Because we are at present but begotten. It is only when nosotros are born of God that we become inheritors of God'south Kingdom — divine members of the Family unit of God.
Before the second phase of human being's cosmos — our spiritual creation — can begin, God the Father must first beget each of u.s.a. by placing His Holy Spirit within our minds to join with the spirit in human. We are then impregnated, and then to speak, by the "seed" or germ of eternal life. It is the begettal of the spiritual life of God within our minds. And much as a newly begotten physical embryo begins to grow in its mother's womb, we are to grow in SPIRITUAL Graphic symbol subsequently nosotros are begotten by God's Spirit. This growth results from Bible written report, prayer, and walking with God every 24-hour interval of our lives.
2. Now compare Galatians iii:26 and Ephesians 1:five with Romans 8:14-17.
Comment: These verses in Galatians and Ephesians reveal the same truth — that Christians are already the children — the SONS — of God, destined to inherit eternal life.
Some versions of the Bible use the expression "adoption of sons" or "adoption of children" in Ephesians i:5. Although linguistically possible, these practice not requite the real pregnant. The original inspired Greek expression huiothesia means "sonship." When we receive the spirit of sonship every bit an impregnating "seed" (I Peter i:23), that is not an "adoption." The Holy Spirit makes us the literal begotten sons of God, for we are going to be just similar our Heavenly Father when finally born into His Family.
And so all Spirit-begotten Christians have get the (as yet UNborn) children of God the Father in the aforementioned sense that an united nations born man fetus is the child of its human parents!
3. Do we really receive of the divine nature of God when begotten by His Holy Spirit? 2 Peter 1:iii-four. What are some of the divine characteristics or "fruits" of God'south nature that are made manifest in the lives of obedient Christians after they are begotten past God'southward Spirit? Gal. 5:22-23.
iv. Is love ("charity") the greatest attribute of God's nature that is transmitted to us by His Holy Spirit? I John 4:xvi; Rom. 5:5; I Cor. thirteen:1-xiii, especially verse 13. Is this the same dearest that enables u.s.a. to "fulfill" — to OBEY — God's Law? Rom. xiii:10.
COMMENT: The Holy Spirit that a person may receive from God tin be compared to the sperm of a human father. God'south Spirit transmits His spiritual attributes to the states, even equally a sperm cell transmits a man father's physical attributes to his newly conceived offspring. The Holy Spirit — the germ or "seed" (I Peter 1:23) by which we are spiritually begotten — imparts to u.s.a. the very nature and life of God our heavenly Father.
If you are truly the kind of Christian described in the Bible, then you lot are at present a Spirit-begotten kid of God. God the Father placed His Spirit within your mind, having joined it with the spirit in man. He thus begot yous with the Holy Spirit but as the sperm from a human father impregnates the ovum of the mother. You were impregnated with the spiritual "seed" of eternal life so you lot could begin the process of spiritual growth. But you are non yet built-in of God — not yet composed of spirit — non yet immortal. If you are not a Spirit-begotten Christian, and so yous have not nevertheless even begun this process!
Comment: "That which is born of the Spirit IS spirit," said Jesus (John 3:vi). Merely nosotros accept non withal been born of the Spirit. Nosotros are Even so Flesh AND Blood — capable of pain and bleeding when injured. But when built-in into the God Family, nosotros will be costless of human pain and suffering (Rev. 21:4). And with our new spirit bodies, we will be unfettered by the physical limitations of fourth dimension and space. When Christ was resurrected — "born again" — He was able to laissez passer through solid walls (John 20:19, 26). Obviously, any human beings who claim to already be born once again are completely mistaken, for they are still flesh and blood.
Jesus said nosotros must be "born of the Spirit" — we must become composed of spirit — to e'er see or enter the Kingdom of God (John three:3, 5). Then the second birth is something even so to occur at the resurrection to immortality!
2. Until they are built-in over again — changed into spirit beings — what are Christians exhorted to exercise in this life? 2 Peter iii:18; Eph. iv:15. How and by whom are they to exist "fed" and nurtured so they may grow unto the stature of Christ? I Peter v:i-2; Eph. iv:11-13.
Comment: A father begets. He does not "bring forth"; the mother does that, later. Afterward the male parent's part, which begins the PROCESS, in that location is a flow of time leading to birth. At the time of begettal, birth has not notwithstanding occurred. In the case of human beings, it follows about nine months after.
During the intervening time, simply as the mother nourishes and protects the unborn son or daughter in her womb, and then God'southward Church is commissioned to attend and protect Spirit-begotten Christians in her spiritual "womb" — to "feed the flock." God'south Spirit-begotten children must be nourished on the spiritual nutrient supplied by God — the words of Scripture. They must live past every word of God in order to abound spiritually.
If by the return of Jesus Christ we accept grown in spiritual character, nosotros will then be born of God, existence "children of the resurrection" (Luke xx:35-36), just as Christ became the "Son of God" at His resurrection (Rom. 1:4).
three. Speaking of the resurrection, when the second nascency will occur, what did Paul say regarding the new body Christians will receive? I Cor. xv:42-44. Will they become as Jesus Christ is today? Phil. 3:xx-21; I John 3:2; Matt. 17:1-2; Rev. 1:13-16; Matt. 13:43; Dan. 12:three.
COMMENT: Because God is spirit, when one is built-in of his heavenly Father, he will also Be SPIRIT — he volition be equanimous of the aforementioned substance of which God is composed. He will be given a spirit trunk like Christ's and will be GLORIFIED and given tremendous SPIRITUAL Power. The power and celebrity Spirit-begotten Christians shall receive at the resurrection will be so great that it will brand their faces shine as the sun! And all who are thus born of God will be able to see God because they will be in the Kingdom — the divine Family unit — of God!
The Bible shows that this conclusion is absolutely false!
1. Did the Apostle John say that Christians do sometimes commit sin? I John 1:8-10.
COMMENT: By using the nowadays tense of the verbs in verse 8, John meant they sin after becoming Christians. Notice besides that he includes himself by saying "we."
2. Was the Apostle Paul aggress with recurring sin long after he was baptized and received (was begotten by) the Holy Spirit? Rom. seven:14-25. Is there a just human on earth who does not at some fourth dimension commit sin? Eccl. seven:20. And so isn't it plain that Christians in this mortal flesh are not now perfect, and therefore NOT YET BORN OF GOD?
3. At present observe I John 5:18. Does this poesy farther testify that Christians are not still born of God?
COMMENT: Once nosotros are born of God at the resurrection, nosotros will be able to live without ever sinning again considering we will and then possess the fullness of God's perfect character and divine nature (I John 3:9).
But as long as we are but "begotten" of God we must "continue ourselves" from sinning — nosotros must resist evil temptations. But we tin still commit sin.
When defenseless off guard or in a moment of weakness, nosotros can and practice sometimes sin!
Life to the begotten Christian is a battle against evil influences. Although a true Christian has received the begettal of God'southward divine nature (II Peter 1:4), he notwithstanding can and will occasionally manifest the traits of human nature, for the one wars against the other (Gal. v:17). (The surprising origin of the evil characteristics of what is usually called "human nature" volition exist covered in Lesson ix).
But what nearly the Old Testament men of God? Can we evidence whether they were either begotten or born of God?
four. Did David take God's Holy Spirit? I Sam. 16:13; Ps. 51:10-11. What about all the "holy men of old," including Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? II Peter i:21; Rum. eight:14; Luke xiii:28. Still who was the FIRST to be born of God? Col. 1:eighteen.
Annotate: Since those Old Testament individuals had God's Holy Spirit, and yet Christ was the first to be Born of God (by virtue of His resurrection), so information technology follows that those men of one-time were merely begotten of God — not yet born into His Family unit. They, as well equally other Spirit-begotten children of God, will be BORN of God at the commencement resurrection!
Since both begettal and nascency are included in the pregnant of gennao, nosotros must permit the Bible interpret itself in order to know which meaning is intended in a particular passage.
Here are several examples where the Greek discussion should rightly accept been rendered "begotten," not "born," in the Authorized (Male monarch James) Version: John i:12-13; I John 2:29; iv:7; five:one (three times); five:four. The King James is correct in using "begotten" in I Corinthians 4:fifteen, Hebrews 1:5, I Peter 1:3, and John 5:one.
Now what near the scriptures that call Christ the "ONLY-begotten"? (John 1:xiv, 18; iii:xvi; I John 4:ix.) Practise these, after all, disprove that true Christians are only begotten of God'southward Spirit, growing toward beingness built-in of God at the resurrection? Of form not!
The answer is that all these verses are referring to Christ's miraculous begettal in His mother Mary's womb. Christ's concrete begettal and birth (gennao) were unique. No other person in the history of mankind has been begotten by the Spirit of the heavenly Male parent in a human female parent's womb! In this sense He is — and always shall be — "Just-begotten." But others have been "begotten once again" (I Peter 1:3) and will ultimately go — through the process of spiritual growth and birth — the Spirit-born Sons of God.
Human reproduction is a type of the process past which God is reproducing Himself. Each man since Adam and Eve started from a tiny ovum, the size of a pinpoint, produced in the body of the mother. But the ovum is incomplete of itself. According to some regime, its lifespan is only about 48 hours. Unless fertilized past the sperm cell from the human father inside the limited time, information technology dies. A new human life can begin only when that sperm cell impregnates — enters — the ovum.
Spiritually speaking, each human heed is like an ovum. Nosotros were made to need the impregnating spiritual life of God's Holy Spirit so we can be created in God's spiritual image and live forever!
The physical ovum, once it is fertilized, becomes a begotten human being life chosen an embryo. A number of weeks following conception, the embryo develops into what is called a fetus. The mother'southward womb nourishes and protects information technology, carrying it in that office of her torso where she may best protect it from harm until it has grown enough to be born.
Likewise, God'due south Church building protects and spiritually feeds Spirit-begotten Christians with the Word of God and then they may abound spiritually (II Peter 3:18) in the divine character of God. But there is ane great difference in this analogy.
The human fetus does not attain physical and mental maturity earlier birth. However, the Spirit-begotten Christian must attain a measure of spiritual maturity before he or she is spirit-born at the resurrection. The newborn physical baby's chief growth occurs afterward birth, but spiritual growth in Christians occurs before their spiritual nativity (I Peter two:ane-two).
When we are "born once again" — built-in of God, inverse into spirit beings at the resurrection — nosotros will await essentially as nosotros exercise now. But our resurrected bodies volition be different bodies — composed of SPIRIT instead of mankind and claret (I Cor 15:35-44). And our faces will polish with the brilliance of the sun in full strength, as does Christ's! (Rev. 1:16.)
Now what, exactly, is the spiritual growth that is so necessary before beingness born again? It is spiritual CHARACTER Development!
Such graphic symbol is the ability, as a free moral agent, to discern correct from wrong — the true values from the false — truth from error — and then to make the right selection or decision, fifty-fifty against cocky-desire, impulse or temptation; plus the will and self-discipline to resist the wrong and to DO the right, which is obedience to God's police of love. Such spiritual character development is possible only through our feeding on the Word of God in Bible report, through prayer, obedience to God, and wholehearted participation in the work of God's Church building. (The subject of spiritual growth and character development volition be covered in much greater item in upcoming lessons.)
Then, when the glorified Christ returns to earth at His Second Coming, we will be resurrected or instantaneously changed into bodies that will be similar His! (I John three:1 -2.) At that instant, our physical bodies will be made like His glorified body. Nosotros volition be BORN Once again Equally SPIRIT MEMBERS OF GOD'S Own FAMILY — equally God's own glorious offspring with eternal life — equally His immortal Sons to reign along with Jesus Christ our elder Brother!
That, according to your Bible, is what it means to be "born over again." May God help y'all to comprehend this glorious truth, and become one of His spiritually begotten and finally Built-in children!
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Source: https://www.hwalibrary.com/cgi-bin/get/hwa.cgi?action=getbstudy&InfoID=1316263314&page=1&return=Study32
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