Christianity Is The Only Way To Salvation (two)

(…continues from part 1…)

2)            What does it say in John 3:3? “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” What is this doubly uttered ‘verily’? It is amēn (am-ane’) in the Greek, meaning: ‘(properly) firm, that is, (figuratively) trustworthy; adverbially surely (often as interjection so be it)’. Know of certainty that ‘born again’ come from the Greek gennaō (ghen-nah’-o) anōthen (an’-o-then). Gennaō is procreation – spiritually. And what is anōthen? It is ‘from above; by analogy from the first; by implication anew.’ The adverbial ‘Verily’ means ‘truly’. Who is the Truth? Jesus. Who is the Amen? Is it not the same Jesus of today, yesterday and forever? The veridicality of John 3:3 begins with the double Amen! If it is firmly established that the death, resurrection, ascension and His session of Jesus Christ is for the rebirth of the lost souls who assemble in Church to worship God the true Saviour, then it suffices to agree that Christianity is the only way to eternal salvation.

                Why ‘born again’? “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). The Adamic original sin did engender the facticity of Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” The natural birth of humanity is fraught with wickedness. The day I came to the understanding of Psalm 51:5, with shock I realized that without making the sound of a syllable, I already have my dwelling in sinfulness, even from my innocent period of foetal existence! Nicodemus, to whom Jesus made this salvific verse known, was a religious leader of the Pharisee sect of Judaism. The way to salvation of the soul cannot be traced to any religious affiliation.

Jesus hosts Nicodemus in John chapter 3

                Being a born again Christian is the path that heads straight to the new and the living way established by Jesus Christ when He said, “For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28). Nicodemus went to meet with the very Foundation and the Head of the Church, the pillar and the ground of truth, where Christianity is practised. The new birth is actually midwifed by the Holy Spirit, God from above. ‘Except’ and ‘cannot’ are two strong negating terms showing the impossibility of salvation without going through Christianity founded by Jesus.

                Encapsulating the entire Bible is John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Salvation to all mankind through Jesus, whose atoning blood erases the sin that herds unbelievers into hell, is what John 3 verse 16 makes known to all. Where is this taught? The Christian Church. The eighteenth verse reads, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” You either come to Jesus and be saved, or go elsewhere which seems right in the sin contaminated perception of humanity and perish forever. Christianity awaits all and sundry; “Come unto me all that labour and are heavy laden,” Jesus calls out, and concludes with the most reassuring, “and I will give you rest.”

                How does one get born again, you may ask? Romans 10:8-10 is the text for the salvific prayer formula: 8) “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; 9) That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Who carry out the evangelism of the soteriology? Christians. The word ‘confess’ of the ninth verse is homologeō (hom-ol-og-eh’-o): ‘to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent.’ What are you expected to confess? The Lordship of Jesus Christ over your life; that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; believing that Jesus died for your sin; believing that Jesus rose from the dead; and from your heart, believe these things as you say them. Say the prayer truthfully and the Holy Spirit enters your heart to vacate it no more. You have become God’s child and that is forever. Amen!

                Getting born again is a conscious effort on the part of an individual. Get born again. Say this sinner’s prayer.

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(…to be concluded…)

Read part one here

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Will You Lose The Genuineness Of Your Salvation? (7)

(…continues from part six…)

7)            Let us gothrough some theological facts.

                Does it make an availability of essence in our thinking prowess that the safety of the truly born again Christian becomes, immediately, the personal responsibility of God? Why would God make the divine promise of, “And I will give you rest” of Matthew 11:29? Does it not occur to our understanding that ‘rest’ in this verse is anapauō (an-ap-ow’-o), which means: ‘To cause or permit one to cease from any movement or labour in order to recover and collect his strength; To give rest, refresh, to give one’s self rest, take rest; To keep quiet, of calm and patient expectation’? Anapauō comes from ana (an-ah’): ‘Into the midst, in the midst, among, between’ and pauō (pow’-o): ‘To make to cease or desist; To restrain a thing or person from something; To cease, to leave off; Have got release from sin; No longer stirred by its incitements and seductions.’

Get born again: Solution the sin question.

                Anapauō is divine solution to the sin question. Check out every scriptural pointer to the soteriology, it contains not any string of: ‘do’, ‘do not’ or ‘if you do not’. The only scripture I know of, with an attachment of a serious and huge string is found in John 3:3, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The attached string, ‘except’, which is ean mē (eh-an’ may): ‘if not, unless, whoever … not;’ makes a categorical, “unless you accept Jesus as Lord and Saivour, there is no salvation. This is the most incontrovertible fact of Scripture – no Jesus, definitely, there is no salvation. This exception is quite different from the 5th Article of The Remonstrance, “unless you continue to persevere” – with works of Adamic toil – one stands to lose the salvation, inspired by Jacobo Arminius.

                Five negatives intended to strengthen Divine promise are the employment of Pauline writing of “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5); where ‘never’ is ou me (ou mee’): ‘a double negative strengthening the denial, “not at all.” The word ‘nor’ is oude (ou-d̮e’): ‘not however’ and ou me of the above. ‘Forsake’ is egkataleipo (eng-ka-ta-lei’-pō): ‘1. to leave behind in some place. 2. (in a good sense) let remain over. 3. (in a bad sense) to desert.’ What is the reason why God will not leave nor forsake the born again? God is love. One of the characteristics of love is in 1Corinthians 13:8 “Charity never faileth:” and the word ‘never’ is oudepote (ou-d̮e’-po-te): ‘not even at any time, i.e. never at all;’ while ‘faileth’ is ekpipto (ek-piyp’-tō): ‘1. to drop away. 2. (specially) be driven out of one’s course. 3. (figuratively) to lose, become inefficient.’

                Another reason is that God, as a Businessman, will never want to lose the ownership of any of His properties. The born again Christian is Jehovah’s personal responsibility. Nobility of Divinity will not accept irresponsibility. We of the regeneration are His by the oath of His pronouncement. We belong to the Most High. The eternality of God’s accountability towards His purchased property makes the destiny of the Church towards celestial rest an onliest concern of the Godhead. Does it say from Scripture, “…should not perish but have eternal life,” then the onus of the practicality lies squarely and secured on the shoulders of the Most High Jehovah through the Empyrean Insurance Corporation. The germinal essentiality of salvific trait is the simple ‘belief’ in the individual’s heart’s exercise. True salvation is conditioned entirely on faith, absolute faith in the Word of Scripture. “That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ. 13) In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:12-14).

                The first stance of soteriological existence is the act of faith. ‘Trusted’ of verse 12 is proelpizō (pro-el-pid’-zo): ‘to hope in advance of other confirmation.’ It does say somewhere, “faith cometh by hearing;” and when the heard substance is led to the state of digestion, the risen hope transforms into a deeply rooted faith in the rhema of the Logos. The LORD God, seeing this display of sheer intent of the abiding faith, the Godhead takes it up from there: for He alone can bring the objectivity of faith into its destined consummation.

                It is God’s business transaction, which requires not a less in Divinity of participation. Another Entity of eternality, the Holy Spirit, must, as of divine requirement, serve as the earnest. God the Father did not perfect the payment of regeneration of the Christian with the denarii of the Roman tentacles of nations’ occupation. He did not pay with the British pound sterling to save Europeans; the globally sought after US dollars was not the currency of transaction; neither is the Nigerian naira offered for the redemption of Africans. The tectonic relevancy and divine bourne is the onliest reason why God must use Himself as the down payment for the Church: God’s biggest dream.

                You can be part of the winning Christianity of Jesus Christ. Get born again by saying this sinners’ prayer:

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(…to be concluded…)

Read part 6 here

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OBEDIENCE AND SUBMISSION [eight]

(…continues from part seven…)

8)            Noah. Of Noah it is said, “But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee” (Genesis 6:18). There were probably more than two million people in the world. Only eight souls, led by the patriarchal Noah were righteous enough to be saved from the impending annihilation. In a mad sinful world, Noah made a difference. He lived to please the Most High. His obedience earned him the patriarch of today’s world population.

                Abraham became the father of faith. Genesis 22:1-3 “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. 2) And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. 3) And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.” What he did sounds stupid and callous. Faithfulness to the word of God has always made the person of faith look stupid. Human philosophy has succeeded in vitiating God’s word of instruction. Satanism.

                And when Abraham passed the trial, we read from the Scripture, “And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 17) That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; 18) And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22:16-18). If God had to swear by His name, knowing that there is nothing by which He could swear, this is an accentuation of the act of faith.

Saul cast the javelin; for he said, I will smite David [1Samuel 18:11].

                David. Even though King Saul was very erratic and deserved to die at the hand of David whom he pursued with the wicked intent of killing without no just cause, David given the opportunity, would do no such thing – this is the difference between the one who fears God and the one who does not. 1Samuel 24:4-6 “And the men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the LORD said unto thee, Behold, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good unto thee. Then David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul’s robe privily. 5) And it came to pass afterward, that David’s heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul’s skirt. 6) And he said unto his men, The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the LORD’S anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the LORD.” David’s loyalty to the crown and the military head of Israel would not allow him to kill even an enemy who desperately sought after his life. But the more important reason for not wanting to end the life of Saul was the divine ministerial office King Saul held.

The LORD forbid that I should do this thing unto my master

                At another opportunity which the LORD God furnished David with is when the Bible says, “So David took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul’s bolster; and they gat them away, and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither awaked: for they were all asleep; because a deep sleep from the LORD was fallen upon them” (1Samuel 26:12). Again, against the plausibility of military advice his lieutenant offered him, David ostensibly asked himself, “What would the LORD, my God, expect me to do?” The prevalent ethical code of divine will of “The LORD forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’S anointed:” of verse eleven prevailed in Davidic reasoning.

                None can become God’s child unless he gets born again. Soteriological establishment requires obedience to John 3:3 and submission to Romans 10:9-10 culminating in the process of the prayer involved. John 3:3 emphatically asseverates, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This is the spiritual regeneration every intelligent being of terra firma must conform to. The perfection of this new birth, midwifed by the Holy Spirit, is the prayerful rendition of Romans 10:9-10 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

                The driving force of redemption is the exhibitive character of faith. Every word of the prayer of salvation otherwise called ‘sinners’ prayer’ must be accompanied by faith. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

a reminder note with a quote of John 14:6 about Jesus

                Say this prayer, meaning it with all your heart:

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!” 

(…to be concluded…)

Read part seven here

Get the concluding part nine. Click.

THE NEW SPIRITUAL SPECIES (one)

 “…having forgiven you all trespasses…” Colossians 2:13

            Of what stunt am I expected to pull to perfect the finished toil of God as pertaining to the salvation of man? Being told of an engagement in a life-long work of morality to maintain my spiritual regeneration, doubtless, makes me the consummator of my salvation. The Christian soteriological stance is of eternal consequence (John 3:15, 16; 10:28). Do I have the capacity to containerise the essence of divine soteriology? Does theology imbue regeneracy with the power of sustenance, thereby, keeping my salvation as new as when the Author of salvation rose from the dead for my justification? What elbow grease can any Christian consummate to save himself from losing his spiritual regeneration? Having paid in full when He said, “It is finished,” how much am I still owing?  Selah!

           What did God do? He sowed Jesus as a seed faith to serve as the Divine mechanism for the regeneration of fallen Adam. Of course, Adam sinned to turn the perfection of day number six (where God said “very good” compared to “good” of days one to the fifth) into imperfection of mankind. All fell in Adam: the reason for a continual oblational act of exculpation. Then appeared Jesus. He died; the Just One. He rose to save all who would come to Him. Humanity perished in Adam, who could not save even himself. Jesus, on the other hand, rose to save, as the last Adam, and eternally too. The key of life is now in His divine hand. All Jesus had to do was to commit just one sin to plunge us back into hell bound sin. I thank God for His wisdom. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out” [Romans 11:33]!

            The germination of Jesus bore fruits. They are called Christians -the new species of the creativity of Jehovah. Is there any crop that builds a silo for itself? Is it not the farmer who puts the valuable fruitfulness into the preserving silo? Jesus is the vine -the true vine. God the Father is the Husbandman who places the regenerated new species of creation into Christ, the Eternal Son, in whom is life -life eternal. As no man can save himself, no man can, as well, maintain this newness of spiritual life in Christ Jesus, who is the Author and Finisher of the saving faith. Amen!

          Colossians chapter two is quite informative in this regard. Let us look at verse 13 which reads, “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.” The word ‘dead’ is nekros (nek-ros’): ‘From an apparently primary word νέκυς nekus (a corpse); dead (literally or figuratively.’ The next word ‘in,’ is en (en): ‘a primary preposition denoting (fixed) position (in place, time or state).’ ‘Sins’ is paraptōma (par-ap’-to-mah): ‘a side slip (lapse or deviation), that is, (unintentional) error or (wilful) transgression.’ Then we have ‘quickened together’ suzōopoieō (sood-zo-op-oy-eh’-o): ‘to reanimate conjointly with (figuratively).’ The word ‘with’ which is sun (soon) is ‘A primary preposition denoting union; with or together [but much closer than meta (met-ah’) denoting accompaniment; “amid” (local or causal) after, behind; or para (par-ah’) ‘from, of, at, by, besides, near], ‘that is, by association, companionship, process, resemblance, possession, instrumentality, addition, etc.’ Charizomai (khar-id’-zom-ahee) is the Greek for ‘forgiven’ and it is defined as: ‘to grant as a favor, that is, gratuitously, in kindness, pardon or rescue.’ We have ‘all’ which is pas (pas): ‘any, every, the whole.’ The word ‘trespasses’ is the same as the above paraptōma.

 He is risen! Forgiven forever!

            From the definitions above, the natural man’s deadness has its locational state in sinfulness. Mankind, in his Adamic nature, is nothing but a walking cadaver. Now, for the gentile nation of Colosse, which had no partaking of the Divine circumcision treaty, they were ‘doubly dead.’ Having agreed with the sooth of John 3:3 “…Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;” and had gone ahead with its Romans 10:9-10 actuation, a miracle which only God could perform occurred. His rise from the dead had established a reanimation of believing souls! Christ Jesus happens to be an eternal Being. From that eternity past the Trinity had resolved to save the Adamic race.

                Get born again and be counted among the new species of humanity, say this prayer with all your heart and meaning it:

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”     

  (…to be continued…)

Click here to read part two.

IS CHRISTIANITY AN IMPORTED RELIGION? (Part three)

 

(Continued from part two)

At best defined religion is simply man’s own way of reaching out to God. You, an individual, will decide how best to stand in obeisance before the God of adoration. The first religious appropriation was the woman of Adam’s attempt when she uttered words of Genesis 3:3, “But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die;” quite independent of divine protocol. Religion is always a total incongruity with God’s tenet. The woman began by quoting God well in that scripture only to perfect the deviation of religion by the addendum of her personal perceptive stance of “neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”

The acceptable Judaism which Jehovah allowed through Moses had, in the days of Jesus, been stained with religion, causing it to assume the four superstitious headed sects of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and the Zealots. Religion is an atypicality. It is a breeding sty of freethinkers. The seat of man’s thought becomes the architectural workshop of the construction of the relationship between God and mortal man. God has to put in place a most accepted relationship between an errant man and Himself. Christianity.

Christianity is both correctional and salvational. “…Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” [John 1:29]. Only Christianity boasts of an inevitability of the blueprint of celestial citizenry. John 3:3, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” This is essentially categorical. Romans 10:9-10 teaches how to be part of God’s kingdom: 9) “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

The word ‘confess’ or ‘confession’ is not devised to unearth your sinful acts by asking you to go into the verbal enumeration thereby throwing you into a public opprobrium. Not at all –as so many Church ministers demand before administering the sinners’ prayer. The Greek word is homologeō (hom-ol-og-eh’-o) Thayer Definition: ‘to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent; to concede.’

Strong’s Definition: [From a compound of the base of homou (hom-oo’) ‘the same’ and logos (log’-os) ‘something said –including the thought’]; ‘to assent, that is, covenant, acknowledge.’

This is what the winsomeness of Christianity is all about!

Homologeō, simply put, means to echo in agreement what the word of God says. And what sayeth the Word? 1. Believe in Jesus. 2. Believe that He died for your sin. 3. Believe that He rose from the dead –for your justification. 4. Declare His Lordship over your life (which is the same as “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus”). It is most definitely all about Jesus and His finished work of salvation. Amen! A refusal to embrace this salvation by grace is an open declaration of war against God. No religion has any true provision for this biblical heavenly bliss.

I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life, the Almighty!

It is clear who is behind Christianity and if the Personage happens to be the Lord of glory, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the One who was, is, and to come; and the Almighty, then this way of worship is not imported from Israeli’s Shem or from Europe of Japheth. It is providential: the only available avenue for relationship with the eternal Father of light, the One of the Kingdom of the celestial assizes. Amen!

Get born again to become a Christian. Say this prayer, meaning it: “Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”  (Conclusion)

Read the 2nd part here.

How To Get Born Again (part two)

 

 

 

(…continued from the first part…)

                 After agreeing with the above truths, you will then confess that, “I accept Jesus as my Lord and Saviour!” The word ‘confession’ is the same homologeō proving contextually that it is of Jesus and not about your sins. I hear many ministers warning those who answer the altar, “Confess all your sins!” The salient question is, “How many wrongdoings?” Can he, the minister remember all his sins? Who can? Which sins do they make an inference to? Sins of the past, present or future? What is needed is faith and true faith.

Another reason why many churches insist on teaching confession of sins before getting born again is predicated on 1John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It will be an exegetical anomaly to use this scripture for a soteriological ministration. John says, ‘If we,’ which does not exclude him, the apostle of Jesus. This Book is called ‘The general epistle,’ meant for all believing Christians. Christians are the true born again -people of God. The opening verse of the second chapter reads, “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” for as an apostle, he is a father figure, spiritually to the nascent Church.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Faith is the only facilitative instrumentality responsible for any transaction with God. Faith is the modulative element that fine tunes the intent of the heart, bringing it into a certain alignment, which eventuates in the harmonization with God’s aim and that of the wielder of faith.

Concerning the Jewish race their faithlessness got them wandering in the vicious circle of unbelief. Hebrews 3:19 “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Over a million of Israelites perished, unable to enter into the promised rest.

God will not ask you to do the impossible. As regarding our sins at the altar of regeneration, the answer is in Colossians 2:13-14, (13) “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; 14) Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.” Verse 13, in answer to: how many? It says, “having forgiven you all trespasses” meaning not one, twenty or a million but all trespasses. The time of the forgiving act? It is in the aorist. Before Christ came to die for our sins God had already knew that I will one day come to Him for salvation and He counted me among those to be redeemed! Ephesians 1:4, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:” your salvation is secured in Him, Jesus. To know more about the security of the believer, read my post, “WHY GO ARMINIANISTIC SOTERIOLOGY?”

Mere mouthing the sinners’ prayer does not bring one into the spiritual regeneration process. Many have got it wrong by thinking that mere ritualistic recitation of the sinners’ prayer had got them born again. It must necessitate faith in the finished work of the cross. You must see yourself as a sinner. Psalm 51:5 “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” The word “shapen,” chuwl (khool) (or chiyl {kheel}) means: ‘1. (properly) to twist or whirl (in a circular or spiral manner), i.e. (specifically) to dance, to writhe in pain (especially of parturition) or fear 2. (figuratively) to wait, to pervert.’ ‘Iniquity’ is `avon (aw-vone’) (or oavown (2 Kings 7): perversity, i.e. (moral) evil.’ Chet’ (khate) is the Hebrew word for ‘sin’ meaning: ‘a crime or its penalty.’ This is what the earthly natural birth of everyone portends. Every conceived person is a potential criminal, before the law of the Creator.

If you pray the prayer truthfully and most especially, in faith, from your heart the Holy Spirit has made your spirit realm His abode, making you a carrier of God. Ponderous! Four things you need to lubricate your spiritual life. 1) Pray always (1Thessslonians 5:17). 2) Read the Bible (Joshua 1:8). 3) Attend Church services regularly (Hebrews 10:25) & 4) Get others born again by telling them about Jesus (Mark 16:15). Pray in Jesus’ name: God wants to hear you, the object of His love; in Jesus’s name: the only Mediator between God and man. The more you read the Bible the closer to God you are. Going to church is not only an obedient act, it recharges your spiritual life. Telling others about Jesus is the great commission for all Christians.

Get born again by saying this sinners’ prayer: “Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”   (…to be continued…)

Read the first part here 

Click to read the 3rd part

 

 

How To Get Born Again (part one)

Man, through Adam, fell and died spiritually. Since the Eden fall mankind had continued to sink in the opprobrium of the contravention of God’s law till it reached the notoriety of Genesis 6:5, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Regretfully, the Mosaic account of God’s position in verse 6 reads, “And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”

There is not a doubt that God had, through His prophet, Adam, told the pristine family of humanity, what to do to appease Him. Jehovah reminded Cain in Genesis 4:7, “If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.” The word ‘sin’ is the Hebrew for chaṭṭâ’âh or chaṭṭâ’th (khat-taw-aw’) means: ‘an offence (sometimes habitual sinfulness), and its penalty, occasion, sacrifice, or expiation.’ ‘Lieth’ is râbats (raw-bats’) ‘to crouch (on all four legs folded, like a recumbent animal); by implication to recline, repose, brood, lurk, imbed.’ A sacrificial lamb: a prefigurement of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ was the sermon Whom Cain repudiated.

At the resurrection of Jesus Christ He is the sole legal tender Lamb of the salvation of mankind. The Bible says in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;” signifying that man is in need of salvation. It also reminds one of Ezekiel 18:4, “Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Man has been plunged into an untold spiritual quagmire. Even Nicodemus had no answer to this deeply rooted predicament. This is the profile of Nicodemus. His Greek name Nikodēmos (nik-od’-ay-mos) “conqueror” or ‘victorious among his people,’ was accepted even by the Jewish authorities. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. He was successful. This man could boast of a PhD in theology. And he was a law teacher of the scripture.

He could not understand John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The word ‘born’ gennaō (ghen-nah’-o) means: ‘to procreate (properly of the father, but by extension of the mother); figuratively to regenerate.’ ‘Again’ is anōthen (an’-o-then): ‘from above; by analogy from the first; by implication anew.’ ‘Except’ and ‘cannot’ are words of negation, pointing to the impossibility of this new birth without following due process i.e. scriptural protocol. The permutational involvement in the rationalistic empiricism of the cultural phenomenon of the physical man beclouded the mind of Nicodemus.

This successful individual could not apprehend the spiritual context from the defining ‘regenerate’ neither could anōthen remind him of a new birth, midwifed by the Holy Ghost, coming from the decree of the One who sits on the throne of the heavenly assizes. Intellectuals, religionists, people of immense illustriousness and the wealthy class will twitch their noses in response to ‘get born again’! It is for this reason Jesus had to give Nicodemus the curative kerygma of John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” He did that to save him from spiritual neurasthenia, a contagium that has bedeviled Christendom. Failure to follow through to the end the teachings of Biblical truism is the result of Lucifer’s incursion into human affairs. Very few churches make the altar call to lead people in the sinners’ prayer of salvation. While John 3:3 is the kerygma call to salvation, the practicality of the format prayer that gets one born again is found in Romans 10:9-10.

Romans 10:9-10, 9) “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” ‘Confess’ is: homologeō (hom-ol-og-eh’-o) ‘to say the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent.’ Homologeō is not in connection with an individual’s past sins. It is an acceptability design to get one acquainted with the Lamb to an eventuation of God’s expected acceptance of the Lordship of Jesus by the individual. It must be noted that the King James Version of the Bible that I always use in my exegesis of the scriptures was written in the flowery of the Elizabethan English. Verse nine gives an overview of the context; and what the first words say in our modern day English is, “…that if you should confessedly agree and declare verbally that Jesus is (your) Lord.” The 10th verse takes one through the steps to be taken in this salvaging ritual.

You have to believe the allusion to the kerygma (biblical message) of verse eight. Your heart must believe the finished work of the cross. Your mouth must confess that:

*Jesus is the Son of God. Mark 1:1; Luke 1:35, 22:70; John 3:8.

*Jesus died for your sin. John 1:29; Acts 2:36 & 1John 2:2.

*God raised Him from death. Romans 6:4, 10:9, 1Corinthians 6:14 & Colossians 2:12.

*Jesus is Lord. Psalms 110:1; Jeremiah 23:6; Luke 3:11; John 13:13; Acts 10:36; 1 Corinthians 12:3, 15:47 & Philippians 2:11

 (…to be continued…)

Read the 2nd part here.