The Lord’s stipulation is clear a
man cannot inherit heaven in his sinful condition. There has to be a rebirth, a
birth from above, a spiritual regeneration. Our sin creates a barrier between
us and God, and bars our entrance into the kingdom of heaven. Human efforts cannot
produce an adequate solution to the sin problem. Jesus made the only right way
for salvation at Calvary, and we participate in His effort and solution by
being born again, this second time spiritually. Verse 5 of this chapter tells
us it is a new birth of water and Spirit, pointing us clearly to the necessity
of being baptised in the name of Jesus, which is the name of salvation, and
being baptised in the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of regeneration! It may seem a
narrow way into heaven and indeed it is, but God has made that clear from the
beginning. Our gospel should take nothing away from what Jesus taught here. It should
present the way as He did without compromise or adjustments. The message of the
new birth is interwoven with the message of the death, the burial and the
resurrection of Christ, and subsistent upon it. When we have preached Christ
and His atoning, substitutionary death for us on the cross, we must along with
that preach the necessity of being born again of water and of the Spirit, by
which we identify and partake of Christ’s sacrifice. This is not some optional extra,
or a mere tag to suffix the term Christian, it is a real, discernible
experience in God; a revolutionary change of life, which renews and renovates
our thinking, desire, purpose and manner of living; a way of life in which we
must grow and continue in faithfully until the end! That end, for born again
believers, will actually be the beginning of eternity in heaven with Jesus!
http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion
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