You Must Be Born Again (Conclusion)!

    
          Jesus said a man "must be born again," but he doesn't "born
     again" himself.  Being born again is not something a person
     does, but it is something that is done to a person, by the
     power of God.
    
          We are unable to come to God on our own to be born again.
     "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.
     And I will raise him up on the last day" (John 6:44).  We receive
     new life as a gift from God.

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          Jesus said, "You do not believe because you are not part of my
     flock" (John 10:26).  Being part of His flock precedes belief, but
     belief inevitably will happen for those who are His children.

    
          So, the bible teaches that regeneration precedes and always leads to
     saving faith.  It's like flicking a light switch which causes light to
     fill a dark room.   The flicking preceeds the light, but just barely.

          Regeneration is an act of God whereby eternal life is imputed
     to believers.  Once we are born again, God guarantees that we will
     never lose our salvation.
          "And you also were included in Christ, when you heard the word
     of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  Having believed, you were
     marked with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit
     guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are
     God's possession - to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:13-14).


          Regeneration makes us new people.  "Therefore, if anyone is in
     Christ, he is a new creation.  The old has passed away;  behold the new
     has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).
          We are no longer God-haters, but God-lovers.

          In Jeremiah 17:9, we see that "The heart is deceitful above all things
     and beyond cure.  Who can understand it?"
          God removes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh (Ezekiel
     36:26-27) and puts His Spirit within us and gives us new desires to love
     and obey Him.

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          Regeneration is instant, but is also a gradual process by which a
     person grows spiritually over time.  "But grow in the grace and knowledge
     of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

          We become more Christ-like over time.  "It was He who gave some to be
     apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors
     and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body
     of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the
     knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole
     measure of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-13).

          The creation of a new person is instantaneous, but the renewal is day by day.

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          One day Jesus will return and raise dead believers and transform living
     believers.  "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud
     command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God,
     and the dead in Christ will rise first."
          "After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together
     with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And so we will be with 
     the Lord forever" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

          We will bear His image with no blemishes or scars at all.  "And just as we
     have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the
     man from heaven" (1 Corinthians 15:49).

          We will see Him and be transformed to his likeness.  "But we know that
     when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is: (1 John
     3:2b).

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          Jesus atoned for His people's sins on the cross, and imputed His righteousness
     to us, while taking on our sin.  We are spiritually, morally, and legally
     corrupt.

          We were dead in our sins (before we received Christ), and that is why we need
     to be born again. 

          "And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, 
     following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air,
     the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all
     once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and
     the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind"  
     (Ephesians 2:1-3).

          Since we were dead, we needed to be born again to have life!

          "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved
     us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ -
     by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him
     in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the
     immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."
          "For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing;
     it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are His
     workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before-
     hand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:4-10).

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          God grants us eternal life when we trust in Him.  "Truly, truly, I say to you,
     whoever believes has eternal life"  (John 6:47).

          Jesus IS the life!  "Jesus said to him (Thomas), 'I am the way, and the truth, and
     the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me'" (John 14:6).


          Emphasizing God's sovereignty in salvation, Jesus said, "It is the Spirit who gives
     life;  the flesh is no help at all.  The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life"
     (John 6:63).


          We receive Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit, as our sin forgiving, transforming,
     treasure of life.   So, because of Him, we are declared perfectly righteous the moment we
     embrace the Lord Jesus Christ in repentant faith, relying on Him alone for our salvation.
          "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life;  whoever does not obey the Son shall
     not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him" (John 3:36).

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          And how do we believe in Him?

          Dan Phillips puts it this way:  "By a miraculous work of grace, the Father takes pity
     on our dead, lost, God-hating selves.  He breathes His life into us, bringing sight to blind
     eyes, life to dead spirits, and the submission of repentant faith to hard, rebellious hearts.
          He cause us to be born again, and as surely as a newborn babe breaks out in a cry, so
     our newborn hearts embrace Jesus as Lord, and His gospel as our hope.  In Christ, we
     receive new life."

          We have been "born again!"