Lesson 6 Thinking It Through: 1. How is the least in the kingdom of God greater than John the Baptist? 2. How is being born again tied with Christ s resurrection? 3. If you are a Christian, when did your spiritual conception take place? 4. What changes does being born again entail? 5. How can someone who is born again remain a spiritual infant? 6. What is the difference between the crucified life and being born again? 7. Why can t someone who is born again continue in sin? 8. How can the Christian life be summarized? Born Again 15 Intermediate Discipleship 201 Intermediate Discipleship 201 a
Lesson 6 Preamble To be born again is to be Day 1: Read the narratives of Peter, Mathew 26:69-72 and Acts 4:1-22. What changed Peter? Day 2: Read the narrative of Paul, Acts 9:1-24. What accounts for the change in Paul? Day 3: Read the narrative of the jailer, Acts 16:22-40. What accounts for the change of the jailer? Day 4: Read the 1John 3:1-10. What does it mean to be born again? Day 5: Read Romans 8:5-14. What does it mean to be born again? Day 6: Read Galatians 5:16-25. What does it mean to be born again? Day 7: Read Colossians 3:1-10. What does it mean to be born again? Memory verse: You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3:26-27 1 Intermediate Discipleship 201 Many Christians refuse to release their control and give Lordship to Christ. They do not realize that that in itself is a symptom that they are controlled by the sinful nature with its rebellion to God. They never did what they wanted. There are two laws that affect man: the law of sin and the law of the Spirit: Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Ro.8:1-2) Both laws are similar to the law of gravity. You do not have to do anything to make your feet stick to the earth. The law of gravity causes your feet to never leave the ground. In fact, you have to willfully do something to make them leave the ground. It is the same with the law of sin; we naturally gravitated toward sin. However, once we accept Christ into our lives, the law of the Spirit causes us to naturally gravitate toward holiness: For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Ro.8:3-4) What controls the heart controls the person. Our natural bent toward sin used to control us, but now the Holy Spirit controls us. We used to be predisposed to sin; hating was a natural part of our nature: At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. (Ti.3:3) Now that the Holy Spirit controls us; we have a natural bent toward love and forgiveness. We do not have to do it; it emulates from us: Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (1Jn.4:7) The power of the Christian life is summed up in the cliché born again : This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (Jn.5:3-5) Therefore, what you believe is not as important as whether you have been born again with the Spirit of God controlling the core of your being. Don t you know that you yourselves are God s temple and that God s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God s temple, God will destroy him; for God s temple is sacred, and you are that temple. (1Co.3:16-17) Intermediate Discipleship 201 14
Lesson 6 things of God. When we were controlled by the sinful nature, we did not do what we wanted. This is clear when Paul describes his life under the law before he accepted Christ: I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (Ro.7:18-20) The sinful nature predisposed man so that he sinned even when he had the desire to do good. The sinful nature controlled man; however once we are born again, the sinful nature is dead and now the Holy Spirit controls us: Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. (Ro.8:8-9) In the same way that the sinful nature controlled us, now we have the Spirit living in us. He has now taken control of our lives. This has divided mankind into two: those controlled by the sinful nature and those controlled by the Spirit: Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. (Ro.8:5) The whole of humanity has now become a dichotomy: those who remain controlled by the sinful nature with its passions and desires and those controlled by the divine nature of the Holy Spirit with His desires: The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. (Ro.8:6-8) All mankind was born under the control of the sinful nature; it was not by choice but it was hereditary: All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. (Eph.2:3) Once the Holy Spirit lives in us, then we also no longer have a choice; for the Spirit predisposes us to holiness. In this way, a person is either controlled by one or the other. We do not control who we serve, but rather we serve who controls us: So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spi rit, you are not under law. (Ga.5:16-18) 13 Intermediate Discipleship 201 The Other Half of Truth I once read a newspaper article about a man whose heart had stopped for a considerable amount of time, and the doctors restarted it in the hospital. The caption above the story was something like: "Man born again." In the same way that the man had to be dead in order to be considered born again, we too must die in order to be born again as a Christian. When Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be born again, he responds: How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother s womb to be born!" (Jn.3:4) Born again is not a Christian variation of reincarnation; however, in order to be born again, we need to die. As long as we remain alive, we cannot be born again. In our last lesson, we saw from the Scripture that we died in our baptism. Now we must understand the concept of being born again: I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. (Mt.11:11) Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest one born of woman, and yet the least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than he. The obvious question is If no one born of woman is greater than John, then who are those who can belong to the kingdom of heaven? For if they are greater than John, then they cannot be born of woman. Everyone born of woman must die, being crucified with Christ before they can be born again and enter the kingdom of heaven: In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." (Jn.3:3) It is a spiritual birth that enables us to see the spiritual realm, something the physical cannot perceive. The kingdom of heaven is not some visible empire that one can join; the kingdom of heaven is spiritual: Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, "The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, Here it is, or There it is, because the kingdom of God is within you." (Lk.17:20-21) The kingdom of God is the kingdom of heaven. The difference between the two is that in the one you are identifying it by Who sits on the throne and the other you are identifying it by where it is located. Since it is in heaven, the only way we will see it is if we become spiritual by being born again. Baptism can be merely a bath of hollow ritual, but it is supposed to be the transformation form being a merely physical person to becoming a Intermediate Discipleship 201 2
Lesson 6 spiritual person. The Scriptures teach that we died in our baptism, being crucified with Christ, in order that we may experience a new life a spiritual life: We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. (Ro.6:2-4) We died in order that we could live a new life a spiritual person: It is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. (1Co.15:45-46) We had to die to what was inherited by Adam so that we could be born again of the last Adam Christ. Just as we died, being crucified with Christ, we are born again in our baptism, raised to life with Christ: If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. (Ro.6:5) As sure as I am about my being crucified with Christ, I am certain that I have been raised with Christ. We did not just die in our baptism, but we are raised through belief in the power of God that He did what He said: In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. (Co.2:11-12) To believe that we died with Christ will be of little value if we remain in the grave with Christ. We died with Christ in order to be raised with Christ: And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith....for if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. (1Co.15:14-18) Christ died to be our Savior, but He arose from the dead to be our Lord. We need to believe that just as Christ rose from the dead, we too rose with Him: In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Ro.6:11) Count yourselves believe that you are alive in Christ and Christ is alive in you: I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Ga.2:20) Your are not born again if you died in your baptism; rather, it is when you are in Christ and Christ lives in you: Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will 3 Intermediate Discipleship 201 Scriptures teach that you will not continue to sin. The whole premise is based on the one truth: Christ lives in you: You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1Jn.4:4) If Christ lives in us, then not only is sin, self, and the sinful nature dead, but Satan cannot harm us: We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. (1Jn.5:18) The evil cannot touch a child of God because Christ will protect us. Therefore, the normal Christian life is a life of victory over sin as the Holy Spirit begins to live in us, controlling our lives. Self control or Spirit control In the last lesson, we spoke of dying to self; but we must also give up the control of our lives to God so that His Holy Spirit can control us. If you ever met a person who is demon possessed, you would find that the person is totally unaware of the demon that is controlling his life or that his actions are bizarre. The demon controls his thought patterns, causing abnormal behaviour; and the person is really are not aware of his condition. However, once the demon is cast out, the person sheds all that the demon warped through its control and the person instantly regains control of himself. It is the same with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Most of the time we are unaware of His presence, and yet He is altering the way we think and act. He too alters our thought patterns so that we begin to be holy. It is not that we are trying, but rather it is His presence being manifested in our lives. He does not force the person against his will but rather shapes the person s preferences so that they naturally do God s will. The Scripture describes this as: Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. (Php.2:12-13) The way that the Spirit controls us is similar to a story of the wind and sun. The wind and the sun were arguing about who was the strongest. Finally, the wind looked down on a nice fall day and saw a man walking along the street below with his coat open. The wind said to the sun, I propose a contest to end our argument. See that man below? Whoever can remove his coat will be considered the strongest. The wind went first and blew with all its might. The more it blew, the tighter the man held on to his coat. Finally, the sun said, Enough; now it is my turn. The wind stopped blowing, the sky cleared, and the warm sun beat down on the man. He took off his coat and put it under his arm. The Holy Spirit does not force us against our will; He shapes our will by predisposing us to the Intermediate Discipleship 201 12
Lesson 6 the fullness of God God in every aspect. When He lives in us by His Spirit, the fullness of God lives in us. In other words, we have the divine nature: His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2Pe.1:3-4) It is because the Holy Spirit lives in us that we have His divine nature, and we will begin to act like Christ holy: And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. (1Jn.2:28-29) If the Holy Spirit lives in us, then our desires will change from that which was sinful to that which is holy. There is only one life that God s Spirit can give, a righteous life. This change of character will manifest itself in a change of action. It through the Holy Spirit that we will discontinue our sinful practices: For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Ro.8:13-14) When the sinful nature used to live in us predisposing us to sin, we had a natural bent toward sin. Now through the Spirit living in us, we are predisposed to holiness. Jesus ushered in the new covenant when the Holy Spirit resided in man at Pentecost. Now He writes His laws on our hearts and minds, predisposing us to holiness: But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises....this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. (He.8:6, 10-11) Sin used to be written on our hearts, causing us to be predisposed to sin. Now God writes His laws on our hearts, which by the power of the Spirit predisposes us to righteousness. A Christian no longer continues to sin because he has the Holy Spirit living in him: No-one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. (1Jn.3:9) If you are born again, born of God by the indwelling of the Spirit, the 11 Intermediate Discipleship 201 realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. (Jn.14:19-20) The truth is that Christ now lives in me and that I am in Christ, seated at the right hand of God: And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Eph.2:6-7) I am in Christ who is seated at the right hand of God, and the kingdom of God is within you. The Christian life is not a crucified life but a resurrected life of Christ now living in us we are born again through the resurrection of Jesus: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (1Pe.1:3) Christ died to save us from the penalty of our sin, but He arose to live in us as Lord, breaking the power of sin, self, and Satan: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2Co 5:17) Therefore, it is not enough to have died with Christ in baptism; we must believe that we are raised with Christ as He now lives in us and we live in Him. Spiritual Conception In physical life, life begins before the birth. It begins at conception but remains hidden until the actual birth. In the same way, spiritual life began long before we were baptized: God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, (2Ti.1:9) Before the creation of the world and the very first day, God chose to give us the grace to believe: For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. (Eph.1:4) Something that did not exist cannot decide its future. Hence, it is God s grace that enables us to believe in Him; hence, it is God who determines who will be born again: Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband s will, but born of God. (Jn.1:12-13) Mankind lives in the denial of and in rebellion to God. The only way that we can see the possibility of God is if the Holy Spirit starts working in us, opening our eyes to see God in our everyday life: Therefore I tell you that no-one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no-one can say, "Jesus is Intermediate Discipleship 201 4
Lesson 6 Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. (1Co.12:3) Many times I have heard people claim, I made the decision to believe in Christ ; but was it them? One day Jesus asked the disciple who they thought He was. Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. (Mt.16:16-17) Just like Peter, we may decide; but if the decision is toward God, it is because of God speaking into our lives. It is when God speaks into our lives that we accept God s Word as truth and that we are born again: He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be first fruits of all he created. (Ja.1:18) It is not through some intellectual exercise that we receive the truth that we need to be born again. Rather, He chose to give us birth through the word of truth. It is the Holy Spirit that makes the written pages of the Scripture come alive: For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. (1Pe.1:23) One day, we live in total denial of God; and the next, we believe in God even though we cannot visibly see Him. The Word of God is dead to everyone unless God s Spirit is working in them this working in our lives is our spiritual conception. Throughout my life, even before I accepted God, I was having God moments incidents where God revealed Himself to me by the Spirit: We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. (1Co.2:12-14) The Spirit speaks to our hearts. The very concept that we died in our baptism and are raised with Christ living in us is foolishness to the unspiritual, but Christ set us free from our spiritual blindness: To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."... Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.... So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (Jn.8:31-36) In practical terms, the length of time from the moment one hears the Gospel to when they are born again by obedience to the Scripture will vary as each Christian has a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. 5 Intermediate Discipleship 201 sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1Co.6:9-11) The Christian life is similar to natural maturing. We are conceived, born as infants, grow through adolescence, become young men, and die as fathers of the faith. I write this to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. I write to you, dear children, because you have known the Father. (1Jn.2:12-13) We are born in ignorance. But as children, we need to grow in our understanding of who we are in Christ: Therefore rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babes crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good. (1Pe.2:2) We need to grow in our salvation, yet sometimes this is not the case. Similar to the Corinthian church which had many problems because they were spiritual infants, the Hebrew church also struggled: In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (He.5:12-14 ) Many Christian are mere infants, still worldly, still trying to put to death the world, and not acquainted with the teachings of righteousness. They have never been taught the elementary teachings of Christ: Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instructions about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting we will do so." (He.6:1-3) The writer of Hebrews reminds them: If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. (He.10:26-27) If you deliberately continue to sin, it is proof that Christ does not live in you. For if Christ lived in you, not only did you die to the sinful nature but you would have a divine nature which is the power of righteousness. If we be in Christ, then God lives in us with His Intellect, power, character, and person. The infinite God living in finite man: For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the Head over every power and authority. (Co.2:9-11) If we are Christians, then Christ lives in us in all His fullness. Jesus was Intermediate Discipleship 201 10
Lesson 6 was part of the Gospel. Paul addresses the church about a man who called himself a Christian but still continued in sexual immorality: When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present, hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord. (1Co.5:4-5) You cannot become a Christian without crucifying the sinful nature. If the sinful nature is still alive in you, then you have not been born again; for the old has to die before the new can come: Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Ga.5:24-25) The Christian life does not center on dying to the sinful nature; the power to live the Christian life is in living by the Holy Spirit. Some Christians are like two boys who actually buried a dead cat. Every few days they dug up the cat to see how the decaying process was going. It is similar to Christians who focus on dying and keep checking how dead they really are. We are not to make any provision for the sinful nature, as it has died: Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Ro.13:13-14) The sinful nature is dead; do not make provision for it in thought, word, or deed. The death of the sinful nature is part of the process to life; so do not focus on the past. How many people, after having the physical operation of a heart transplant, spend their days thinking about their old heart that was cut out and discarded? That is ridiculous! The person s thoughts are now on the new heart beating within them. Our focus is on the Spirit of the almighty God who lives in us: So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. (Ga.5:16) Paul is emphatic. If the Holy Spirit lives in us, we will be changed and will not live to please the sinful nature. Many in the church of Corinth were infants in Christ; they sought forgiveness through the cross but never considered that Christ rose from the dead to free them from their sin. They were ignorant of all that Christ accomplished: Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God I say this to your shame. (1Co.15:34) Ignorance is not an excuse. Paul removes their ignorance, confronting them with the reality that if they continue to live like a sinner, they will go to hell, judged as a sinner: Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were 9 Intermediate Discipleship 201 In Acts 2, the Holy Spirit gives us the new covenant through Peter for the church: Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off for all whom the Lord our God will call." (Ac.2:38-39) If we are obedient to the Gospel by repenting and being baptized, we will receive the Holy Spirit into our lives being born again. Baptism is a pledge of a good conscience in which you seek repentance from sin and turn to God, yielding your life to the Spirit: this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience towards God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God s right hand with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. (1Pe.3:21-22) Baptism does not save us as an initiation rite. Baptism saves us because it is the God-given response to accepting Jesus death on our behalf. By the Biblically commanded response, we are crucified with Christ; and as we come out of the water, we are raised with Christ. Without the Spirit of Christ living in us, baptism is merely a bath of hollow ritual: Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. (Jn.3:5) Baptism is the act where we give our lives back to God, but it is through the Spirit s control of our lives that we are born again: But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, (Ti.3:3-6) People are only born again when they have died and the Holy Spirit controls their lives; until that point, they simply are not born again: And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Ro.8:11) The question for most Christians is not whether they took part in the ritual of baptism. The question that is important is Does the Spirit have control of your life being revealed through the turning away from sin? And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1Jn.5:11) If you are a Christian, then you will have the Holy Spirit living in you controlling your life. Otherwise, you are not born again and do not belong to Christ: Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, Intermediate Discipleship 201 6
Lesson 6 however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. (Ro.8:8-9) Eternal life is not some futuristic hope of heaven, but it is the reality of Christ living in us otherwise we will not get into heaven. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Co.1:27) Therefore, a person is not born again until the Spirit lives in them, controlling their lives. Anything other then that, proves that they are not born again. to a Holy Life The Christian life is not just having another life; it is about having a spiritually charged life: The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (Jn.6:63) Believing that we died, if on its own, will do nothing. If I killed a man, let rigor mortis set in and stood him in the corner, could a lewdly dressed woman cause him to sin? No, but he could not live a holy life either. Christians do not just die to sin; they live for righteousness: He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. (1Pe.2:24) It is clear from the Scriptures that not only did we die to our old self which served sin but we also were raised to a new self which was created to be like God in character: You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph.4:22-24) The way we think and do things has been affected, even to the very core of our character. Notice the tenses old self and new self : have taken off` and have put on : But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. (Co.3:8-11) We have taken on the likeness of Christ because the new life is found in Christ, who is all and is in all. Some Christians are never taught the truth of a new life and so they strive to attain it by their own strength: So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, (Ro.7:4) 7 Intermediate Discipleship 201 The Galatian church was baptized but they sought to achieve a Christ-like life, living by the law with the resolve of their will. Paul warns them of impending failure: You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. (Ga.5:4-5) Rather then wait on the Spirit for the righteous life they hoped, they sought it by their own effort. As long as a person refuses to die and give Christ Lordship of their lives, they will continue living by the power of their will; and Christ will not live in them. They believe that the Holy Spirit is in them at the same time as the sinful nature; its result is disastrous. It is similar to a plane. In some planes the pilot and the co-pilot sit behind each other, unable to see what the other is doing. There is a clear protocol for the one pilot to yield the control to the other pilot, for if both pilots try controlling the plane at the same time, the plane will be out of control and crash. Have you yielded the control of your life to God with the Biblical protocol? Paul writes that he was waiting in the pains of childbirth till they would be born again by the Spirit of Christ: My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you! (Ga.4:19-20) The Galatians were not born again. They were baptized, but many did not manifest Christ`s character in their lives. He tried to teach them that Christ was all they needed and that He would transform their lives: You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Ga.3:26-28) Holiness is not something you achieve but something you put on by faith after yielding your life to His control: I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? (Ga.3:2-3) Today, the fundamentalists try to attain holiness by human effort while evangelicals deny that practical righteousness is attainable and claim positional righteousness. For unlike the Galatian Church who refused to accept the Holy Spirit by faith, the Corinthian church consisted of people who were baptized but did not repent from the ways of the world: Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. (1Co.3:1-3) The Corinthians were infants in Christ; they did not know that repentance Intermediate Discipleship 201 8