5th lesson : God's Purpose in loving the Human Being

Born Again in Christ.

 ...To be the dwelling place of “God is Love”.

How can I be born again, was the question that Nicodemus asked Jesus. It is so beautiful how Jesus answered him. Jesus knew that Nicodemus was teaching this all the time in the Synagogue, and Jesus points it out to him; let us check the passage out. Jn. 3:5-10: “Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to f lesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit". "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things?” Jesus makes a point of showing that Nicodemus knew this, since he was a teacher in Israel; because he asked him: "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things?” Verse 1 says: “Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. Jesus was pointing out what the Pharisees were teaching and this is stated in Ezekiel.

According to Ez. 36:25-28, let’s verify it:

 “25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

28 You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God”. 

The Pharisees were the ones that taught in the Synagogues this passage, and Jesus knew that Nicodemus had the knowledge of the fact that the Messiah would come and do this. But, at first Nicodemus did not recognize the Messiah when he met Him. Nicodemus comes and talks to Jesus, and Jesus opens his eyes so he might see the truth. Scriptures shows us that Nicodemus did open his heart to Jesus, because he defended him later on in the Jewish ruling council.

Let’s study this a little:

I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. = Jesus makes it a point of reminding Nicodemus that no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and Spirit, do you know why? Because in the Garden of Eden the human being died when he ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Gn. 2 : 16-17 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die". Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit".

-  Jesus shows us that unless we are born of the Spirit, we cannot enter Heaven because; in order to be in Heaven our spirit needs to be alive, that is to be born again; because the human beings spirit died in the Garden Eden. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols.

-  Sprinkling clean water talks about the washing us clean from sin. The Blood of the Lamb cleanses us from all our impurities, and from all our idols. Many of us argue that we do not have any idols in our life. Well the Bible makes a point of saying whatever we love more than our God becomes an idol.

 

We need to be set free. And Jesus came to do that, this is what the Messiah was sent for. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. = Jesus shows Him in this conversation that He is the Messiah, because only Gods Anointed Messiah could do this. Giving a new heart and put a new spirit in us, the human being. From the time that the human being died, after eating the fruit in the Garden Eden, he was spiritually dead. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. = Jesus reminds Nicodemus of the fact that is written in the Prophets that He would come and give them a new heart, and would put his Spirit in us. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God”. 

How does this transformation happen in us? Could it have been a coincidence that shortly after in a teaching Jesus said: "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him" - Jo. 14:23. God wants us to come to Him, to seek Him and invite Him into our lives. Have you ever had a communication, a conversation with God in which you were able to tell him that you love him and you want to keep his commandments? Did you ever at some point already invite him to come into your life, so that you can be a dwelling place for Him; so that He will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in your heart? 

 

Analyze something with me: the Bible tells us that Jesus is God and that God is love.

"We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life", 1 Jn. 5:20.

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him”, 1 Jo.4:16.

o   Jesus is God

o   God is Love

o   The Son of God has come

He has given us understanding in order to know what the truth is, and that we are in that truth, it is in his Son Jesus Christ. "This is the true God and eternal life". God shows us clearly who the real God is, for there are many false gods around us in this world. Gods who nominate themselves as such, yet they are false. But the Bible makes it quite clear that the Lord Almighty is the true God. How can we know if the one true God is in us? Perhaps you wonder why you need God living in you. Am I not okay as I am? Who can say that there is anything wrong with me? Why do I need God living in me?

 

Let's make an analogy here: When someone comes to your residence, how can they discover who lives within it?  When a person goes to the house, they find out; the one, who answers the door; is most likely the one who lives there, right? The evidence of the fact that the God dwells within us is, people will recognize Him within us and they will be convinced. When people talk and socialize with us, they will notice that the one that is within us is "God is Love". "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him" Jo. 7:38. Whatever is within us, will come out of us. When God lives within us, streams of living water will flow from within us. I believe this is one of the reasons why it is important to have God living within us. Are you a fountain of living water? Do you want people to consider you as a loving person, someone who has love inside of himself? Or do you want them to say: wow what a rebel, full of hatred?

Once we are baptized into the Body of Christ, the life of Christ flows through us, this is how people will know that Christ is dwelling in us. His Person is evidenced through our living, and this is the purpose to be lived in every instance. The Gospel of John begins with the statement: that at the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. And verses 10-11 says: “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him”.  And he continues in verses 12-13 saying: “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.”

Are we born of God, or are we the ones that do not receive Him? No one can answer this question for us, only we can answer for ourselves. We could say then that all who received Jesus as Lord and Saviour of their lives, Jesus and the Father come and live within them, and the evidence of this fact is that the world will see the love of the Father who is in them; because they act as Jesus did. Maybe you're reasoning why you should want to be a dwelling place of Love. Examine this with me, God the Eternal Father created us and gave us the Earth to live on, so we could dwell on this beautiful planet. He made the whole universe so we could rejoice in it. After the fall of the human being into sin, God sent his only begotten Son to come and die for the human being that he had created. He replaced us on that cross. Can you imagine a purpose to be lived higher than this one, that your Creator makes a point in making you His dwelling place? He could have made new human beings; no, but He decided to rescue us, and love us eternally.

 

In the Lord's Service

I greet you in His Love

Antonina Penner.

Missionary

Masters inTheology..

 

ISBN- 978-0-9881063-1-4

Copyright 2012/11/26 by: “Ministério Visão de Águias”.

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