The “Creator and His Creation” School of the Fundamentals of Christian Faith. Lesson 20. Receiving Salvation (The New Birth). The school consists of 22 lessons. The school was founded by the Christian Bible Institute.
The Bible says that a person is dead in their sins and transgressions; therefore, becoming aware of sin, confessing it, and acknowledging Jesus Christ as Lord are impossible without the work of the Holy Spirit. To receive salvation, one must be born again.
John 3:1 There was a man among the Pharisees named Nicodemus. He was one of the Jewish leaders. John 3:2 One night he came to Jesus and said: “Rabbi, we know that You are a Teacher who has come from God, because no one can perform the miracles You perform unless God is with him.” John 3:3 Jesus replied: “I tell you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again.
How can a person be born again?
How can a person change to such an extent that they come under the authority of God rather than Satan? Can we do this ourselves? No!
Were we ourselves responsible for being born into the world as sinners? Of course not! Adam sinned, and every person born after him inherited his sin. We did nothing to cause us to be born into this world under Satan’s power.
We also cannot do anything to escape Satan’s power and change our lives so that we become pleasing to God. Our good works cannot free us from Satan’s power or bring us into the Kingdom of God. From birth, we are separated from God and therefore dead to Him.
Only God can bring us back to Himself. He is almighty; nothing is impossible for Him!
John 3:4 “How can a person be born again when he is already old?” Nicodemus wondered. “Surely he cannot enter his mother’s womb again and be born!”
Nicodemus was very surprised by Christ’s words that before a person can understand God and enter His Kingdom, he must be born again.
Apparently, he thought he had sufficient grounds for being in a right relationship with God. Besides, he could not understand what kind of second birth was being discussed.
Christ pointed out to Nicodemus that spiritual birth always involves one very important process—the work of the Holy Spirit in the sinner’s heart. Without the work of the Holy Spirit, regeneration is impossible:
John 3:5 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 3:6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. John 3:7 Do not be surprised that I told you: You must be born again.”
Nicodemus still could not understand how a person could be born again. Jesus explained it to him by reminding him of what happened to the people of Israel in the wilderness:
John 3:14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, John 3:15 so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
The Israelites sinned against God, so God sent poisonous snakes among them. People were dying from the venomous bites. When the people repented, God commanded Moses to lift up a bronze snake on a pole. According to God’s promise, anyone who had been bitten by a snake was healed when they looked at the snake.
Our situation is also similar to that of the Israelites in the wilderness. When Adam sinned against God, he died. Now all Adam’s descendants are separated from God and are dying because they are sinners. The wages of sin is death. The Israelites could not save themselves from death, and neither can we save ourselves. God saved the Israelites, and only God can save us.
What must a sinner do to be freed from Satan’s power?
Even in the Old Testament, God revealed through His prophets that He intended to establish a new order in His relationship with humanity. He called this new order the New Covenant.
Jer. 31:31 — “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
Jer. 31:32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt, because they broke My covenant, although I was their husband,” declares the Lord. “Jer. 31:33 Therefore, in the future I will make this covenant with the house of Israel,” declares the Lord. “I will put My Law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.
The New Covenant differs from the Old Covenant in that its main characteristic is the transformation of the hearts of God's children. This speaks of a change in the nature of the human heart.
Jer. 32:40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear Me, so that they will never turn away from Me again.
The essence of the New Covenant is the emergence of a new nature that honors God and therefore does not want to turn away from Him. God also spoke through the prophet Ezekiel:
Ezek. 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezek. 36:27 I will put My Spirit within you so that you will follow My statutes and carefully keep My laws.
In this passage, God describes the new birth as a radical replacement of the heart: the hard heart that resists God at the moment of being born again is replaced with a heart capable of receiving the Spirit of God.
When does the new birth take place?
The new birth is a unique work of the Holy Spirit, who brings a person's heart to life, regenerating them to new life in Christ. Regeneration takes place at the moment of repentance. Delivering a person from guilt and the power of sin, the Spirit of Christ comes to dwell in them.
Eph. 1:13 In Him, you too, having heard the word of truth—the Good News that brings you salvation—and having believed in Christ, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, Eph. 1:14 who is the guarantee of our future inheritance and the redemption of those who belong to Him, to the praise of His glory.
At regeneration, the Holy Spirit also unites the believer with the rest of the believers, bringing everyone together as one in Christ.
1 Cor. 12:13 We were all baptized by one Spirit and united into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and we were all given the same Spirit to drink.
A person who is born again becomes able to grow in Christ's attitude toward God and life. As the Spirit of Christ comes to dwell in a person, He changes their view of the world around them, giving them the ability to understand and receive the Word of God.
1 Cor. 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. He considers them foolishness and cannot understand them, because they can be judged only spiritually. 1 Cor. 2:15 But the spiritual person can judge all things, while no one can judge him, 1 Cor. 2:16 because “who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to advise Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
The Holy Spirit performs another important work in a person when they repent. Through the Holy Spirit, a person is clothed in the righteousness of Christ. We have already discussed that, to free people from the guilt of sin, Jesus Christ took their sin upon Himself and bore the punishment for it. Since people have no righteousness of their own, their salvation is possible only because Christ gives them His righteousness.
1 Cor. 1:30 Because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us the wisdom of God, our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.
Titus 3:6 whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, Titus 3:7 so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs with the hope of eternal life.
The presence of Christ’s righteousness is the only reason a person will be justified before God. This righteousness is not earned by us; it is given by Jesus Christ to every true believer.
Source: Christian Bible Institute
