Why You Must Be Born Again(Part 1)
The phrase “unless you are born again,” used by Jesus when speaking to Nicodemus, refers to a spiritual birth, not a physical one. Every baby is born with a physical body, but also as a spiritual being into a spiritual family, or kingdom. The Bible teaches that Adam and Eve’s disobedience brought about both physical and spiritual death to all of their descendants. This death can better be understood as separation from God. Therefore, every person is born into this world as members of the kingdom of the world and spiritually separated from God’s Kingdom. This is the spiritual condition everyone has inherited from Adam and Eve. “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man [our forefather Adam], and death through sin, and this way death [separation from God] came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12).
One of the strongest statements regarding this truth actually came from Jesus in His reply to Nicodemus. Jesus said, “What I am telling you so earnestly is this: Unless one is born of water [physical birth] and the Spirit [conceived by the Holy Spirit and reborn spiritually into the Kingdom of God], he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Men can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven; so don’t be surprised at My statement that you must be born again!” (John 3:5-7, The Living Bible).
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Christians Are ‘The Light Of The World’
Scriptures confirm this truth. ‘For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves’
(Colossians 1:13).’ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord’ (Ephesians 5:8). ‘But you are a chosen people … a people belonging to God … who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light’ (1 Peter 2:9).
One of the catchphrases of the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries was that ‘knowledge brings light’. Many replaced God’s knowledge with man’s reasoning, placing human insight above God’s revealed wisdom. Mankind does not realize that our knowledge has only increased our understanding of things—science, biology, commerce, pleasure, etc. This is why the world’s vast accumulation of knowledge has only brought us to the many predicaments we see around us. We do not know what to do with our knowledge. It does not give us wisdom. Jesus taught that Christians should be this light.
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You Are “The Salt Of The Earth”
God challenges His Church today to be salt and light. In Matthew 5:13-14 Jesus makes two penetrating statements about Christians: You are the salt of the earth and You are the light of the world. Jesus gave us our perfect mission statement in these two short sentences. Our Lord is saying that Christians are the only people in this world who can preserve the good (our function as salt) and have the understanding to help in those areas that matter the most (our function as light).
SALT
For Jesus to use the word salt to describe one of the key functions of a Christian is amazing. Only the wisdom of God could have known what we do today about salt. It is one of the most stable compounds on Earth. On its own, it will not lose its saltiness. Salt becomes ineffective only when it becomes contaminated. This occurs if it is mixed or diluted with some other material or chemical.
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