Word for Today, Wed, 15 Aug 2007: Utmost: The Evidence of the New Birth
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
Dear friends,
The ides of August are upon us, and it is time to realize what new birth is all
about. It is about giving up what we have known and taking on a new nature.
Oswald Chambers writes about it in today's edition of My Utmost For His
Highest.
Do you know for certain that you have a home reserved for you in heaven? You
can know for certain. Read the Bible. Believe what it says.
The message below gives a solid description of placing your entire life in the
hands of Jesus Christ. I do take issue with one part of it though. I do not
know even one born again believer who is completely free from sin, so I
question the nuance of what Oswald is saying at the tail end of his message.
I believe we can be free of the penalty of sin and we can also live upright
lives that are pleasing to God and not full of constant sin. But to be rid of
sin entirely? Do you know anyone like that? I do not, so I question the
assertion and challenge each of us to read the scripture, both for the words it
says and the context in which it is written. I would be interested in your
thoughts?
Free from sin or free from the burden of sin? What do you think? I'd suggest
we can come close, but we do have these bodies of flesh, and until Christ
transforms us into His likeness, we can approach him and I would agree that as
we are "in the vine"... (see John 15) we can be free of sin.
Dear Lord, I know that I am not free of sin. I do believe that you wash me
clean and I also believe that as I submit myself to you, I am not in sin.
Please peel away those layers of me that need to be removed until I am
completely, 100% yours.
Yours in Christ,
Brian
TODAY'S MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST
August 15, 2007
The Evidence of the New Birth
You must be born again John 3:7
The answer to Nicodemus question, "How can a man be born when he is old?" is:
Only when he is willing to die to everything in his life, including his rights,
his virtues, and his religion, and becomes willing to receive into himself a
new life that he has never before experienced (John 3:4). This new life
exhibits itself in our conscious repentance and through our unconscious
holiness.
"But as many as received Him..." (John 1:12). Is my knowledge of Jesus the
result of my own internal spiritual perception, or is it only what I have
learned through listening to others? Is there something in my life that unites
me with the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior? My spiritual history must have as
its underlying foundation a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. To be born
again means that I see Jesus.
"... unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God " (John 3:3).
Am I seeking only for the evidence of Gods kingdom, or am I actually
recognizing His absolute sovereign control? The new birth gives me a new power
of vision by which I begin to discern Gods control. His sovereignty was there
all the time, but with God being true to His nature, I could not see it until I
received His very nature myself.
"Whoever has been born of God does not sin..." (1 John 3:9). Am I seeking to
stop sinning or have I actually stopped? To be born of God means that I have
His supernatural power to stop sinning. The Bible never asks, "Should a
Christian sin?" The Bible emphatically states that a Christian must not sin.
The work of the new birth is being effective in us when we do not commit sin.
It is not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have actually
stopped sinning. Yet 1 John 3:9 does not mean that we cannot sin it simply
means that if we will obey the life of God in us, that we do not have to sin.
--
Brian Masinick, masinick at yahoo dot com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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