Discipleship & Revival
“Jesus answered, I tell you the truth, no one can ENTER the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” John 3:5 Does this have anything to do with what we have been talking about? This is what Jesus told Nicodemus when he asked Jesus “How can a man be born when is he old?” This is supposed a chance for some of you to respond and consider your own experience. What say you?
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-yes, even his own life-he CANNOT be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me CANNOT be my disciple.” Luke 14:26-27 What does this mean to you? Is it not a dying to yourself and all you are to be made into something new, who you were meant to be? Why are you still trusting yourself and not releasing your life into the hands of your only Saviour? This is the entry point for all who long to be God’s children and to gain access to the Father. There is no other way in.
I really want some feedback on this point before I move on. Tell me what you experienced in your own life.
To be born again is to begin life again in God’s provision and on His conditions. The life we were living is gone, crucified with Christ. That life is doomed to failure and death. The new life is the only way to the Father and the hope He offers us in Christ. When I became a Christian many years ago I was not told that God did not need my skill or wisdom. He didn’t need my education or compassion. He needed to make me into His child, as Jesus made the disciples into His men. We begin by surrendering all we are and offering our lives to Him (Rom12:1-2) as a sacrifice. We cannot then collect our lives back for our purposes. We must learn from Him (Jn11:28-29) how to live a new life for His glory and His kingdom. I was only asked to raise my hand and walk to the front. No one said it would cost me everything to follow Him. I learned that later after many years of struggling to live for Christ in my own strength. How about you? How did it start for you?
So not much action from you guys reading. Only one brave soul with a comment. The question I asked was what does it look like for you and I if we die or are “crucified with Christ”? Jesus told Nicodemus that a man must be born again. So in dying we must also start anew. So it is dropping our life to pick up a new life we have in Christ. All that we are and long to be must be forfeited in order to receive the new man we can become. To persist in your own identity and life is to miss out on the man or woman Christ will “make” you into. He spoke to the disciples and said “Follow me and I will MAKE you fishers of men” and they left everything and followed Him. (Mk1:17; Mt 4:19-20) Who we are when we meet Christ is not who we are meant to be as we become God’s children. And surrender and dying to all you are is the correct and only way into access to our Father. What say you?
The new man or new birth takes place at the cross. For each of us to gain access to our Father and inheritance in Christ, we must follow Jesus to the cross. (Rom 6:3-4; Gal 2:20) Our being born again comes through faith in what Christ did and in believing, following Him to our own death in order that we might have a new life in Him. What does this look like for you and me? How do we die now with Christ? And how are we born anew? I’m longing to hear more from you.
Thanks for the two comments posted about being born again. When we started this discussion we were dealing with the issue of our inheritance. And we said that we have God and so much more as our inheritance as His children, but first we must gain access to Him. This led us down this road of discussing the new birth. We did not really look at the issue of our need for new birth. And you are right in saying we must establish that need. If a man does not see his need for a Savior he will never understand what is needed in our new birth. So do we back up to see who we are in Adam before we can move into who can become in Christ? I believe a man knows his own wickedness. It is apparent in his inability to do what is right all the time. (Rom 7:7-25) The struggle for us is understanding, by God’s grace, who we can become in Christ, and how we enter into the new man we are called to be. (2Cor 5:17-19) Tell me which way to go with this discussion.
In John 3 we see Jesus discussing with Nicodemus that a man must be born again in order for us to see the Kingdom of God. For you and I to enter into God’s Kingdom and family we must be born again. Our first birth, from our mothers, was inadequate and therefore who we are by birth is inadequate. A new man or woman must be born in order for us to enter God’s family. And the new man or woman we are to become is not something we know already. It is a point of genesis for our new lives in a new family. How are we born again Nicodemus asks? What say you? All we are to become hinges on the correct understanding of what this is for our lives.
I love the comments you all have given. They show you have looked more intently into the scripture to know what God truly has given us in Christ. Now let’s push it out a bit. First our inheritance can only be ours if we are children of God. This means we must be changed. We are born children of Adam. So access into our inheritance and to our Father must come through a new dimension other than how we are born. What are your thoughts? I know it seems simple but let us look closely lest we miss something profound for our own lives. Remember others are reading and learning along with us. Thanks for reading!!
Yesterday I asked the question how do we take the information that God Himself is our inheritance and make that something practical that will guide our lives here and now. I did not get any response so let me first try to start by saying that as God’s children we have all that we need to live the life God has called us to because we have God and His fullness in us. So for starters we have access to Him. Before we could not relate to God and now all children of God have access and are partakers of His great inheritance for our lives. This is not just heaven. Heaven is the grand finale reserved for us when we are done here on earth doing His work. But what we have received is meant to be used here on earth until that day arrives. What are your thoughts about access and having His fullness for the life we live now?
