Taking your spiritual temperature

James 1:25-26 26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is 

this: to visit orphans and widows in        their distress, and to keep oneself unstained

                                     by the world.

How to practically assess one's Christian spiritual well-being- three areas in which to take your spiritual temperature

So how are you doing?  This common question can be a good question to ask yourself in evaluating the health of your Christian walk.  How do you practically do this? the Christian walk deals with almost endless variables and details.  James gives us a three-fold way for determining how well we have digested the Christian faith in its doctrinal, supernatural and practical dimensions:

1. How well does your current level of Christianity control your tongue? (James 1:26)
James' first area of evaluating your spiritual health has to to do with the area of your speech.  What he writes echoes thoughts from several Old Testament passages.  Psalm 34:1 for example states - "Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit." Psalm 39:1 tells us in the KJV - "I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me."  

2. How much compassion do you have towards those whom we would classify as widows and orphans? (James 1:27)
As a regular reader of the Old Testament, James would know how God repeatedly throughout its pages modeled to His people the need to have compassion towards those less fortunate.  As the Holy Ghost moved upon James to write his words, passages like Isaiah 58:6 might have been on James' mind: “Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke,  And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke?"

3. How concerned are you about holiness? (James 1:27)
The three areas of speech, compassion towards widows and orphans and holiness carry their way from the Old Testament, through James' writing and into the New Testament.  The areas that measure spiritual health in either testament mark are spoken of by James.  Keeping oneself from being influenced by the world is mentioned again and again in such Old Testament texts as Exodus 19; Leviticus 11:55 and Isaiah 1:16-17.  
 

According to James, these three areas are the three benchmarks that will tell you and I how well we really are doing in our Christian walk.  I call these three areas the way in which one can take their spiritual temperature.  As James wrote with Old Testament categories on his mind, he clearly was writing about what God desires for every New Testament Christian in terms of a healthy spiritual temperature.

Jesus defined a healthy Christianity by these three benchmarks

When you look at what Jesus taught about the church, we can see evidence that His concern dealt with these three areas.  In regards to the area of the tongue, Jesus states in Matthew 12:36-37 36“But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. 37“For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”  

In terms of how people were to regard widows or orphans, Jesus throughout his ministry had much to say about the treatment of children.  In Matthew 18:5-6 5“And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me; 6but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."  In the judgment scene where Jesus has the nations situated before Him, we read in Matthew 25:45 “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me."

Then in regards to the purity and personal holiness of his church, Jesus placed it first priority.  In Matthew 18 we have Jesus giving the first set of instructions to his church as to how she is to restore her membership and how she is to promote holiness and restoration.  Before Jesus ever issued the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20 or even the Great Commandment of Matthew 22:37-39, He issued what I term "The Great Concern" of Matthew 18. 

The remainder of the New Testament defines healthy Christianity by the realms of the tongue, treatment of children/widows and purity

Just like Jesus and James, the remainder of the New Testament took the spiritual temperature of Christian health by these three benchmarks.  For example, in Acts 6 we see the Apostles having to instruct the church to appoint Deacons to deal with the dispute among the Grecian and Jewish Widows.  The Apostles knew that if the early church could not minister to her widows properly, then their whole Christian witness would be questioned.  This is the main reason why the Apostle Paul had an entire chapter dedicated to the care and listing of widows in the early church in 1 Timothy 5. 

Numerous passages have the Apostles urging their readers to watch their tongues and to practice godliness in the realm of their speech-life. (Ephesians 4:21-24; 1 Peter 2:1-2, 3:9)  In fact, James himself at one point states that in the natural realm, no one has been able to tame the tongue - since it is an unruly member. (James 3:8)  So then if no one naturally can tame the tongue, then only the Holy Spirit governing the moral and spiritual dimensions of a person can tame it!  To have a Christianity that legitimately tames the realm of speech is to have a unique claim - since such a feat is not natural, but supernatural!

Then a truly healthy Christianity will hate worldliness and cling to what is holy.  Again numerous New Testament scriptures emphasize the believer's personal purity and holiness. (Romans 6:12, 12:1-2; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 2 Corinthians 6; 1 Peter 1:15-16)

So how are you doing? My prayer is that you and I will have a healthier Christianity that is strong in the realms of a controlled tongue, compassion and concern for holiness. 

Distinguishing The New Birth, Justification & Adoption

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Romans 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:16-17 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

Yesterday we looked at three pieces of Goodnews that the Gospel states becomes realities in the life of a person upon saving faith: regeneration, justification and adoption.  If you will recall, all three simultaneously solve the sinner's spiritual death, legal guilt and alienation.  I wanted to look at these three again and consider how they relate to one another and are to be distinguished, since we often either lump them together or neglect one or more of them. 

The New Birth - The Forgotten Doctrine of the Baptist Church
In Baptist circles particularly, no one hardly ever hears any discussion of this doctrine of the New Birth.  I have a good Pastor friend who once term the doctrine of regeneration as the "forgotten doctrine of the Baptist church".  We have grown accustom (at least in Baptist churches) to asking people: "have you made a decision for Jesus Christ?"  or "have you ever accepted Christ as your Savior?"  These phrases have some biblical backing, however they fall short of the starting point the scripture urges us to begin in our Gospel presentations: "have you been born again"?.

The 2000 Baptist Faith and Message (2000 BFM) says this about salvation:
"Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord."

As you go into its next paragraph of the BFM 2000, the first topic discussed is the doctrine of regeneration: "Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace."  This move by the current edition of the SBC doctrinal statement retains what I believe is the Biblical pattern for presenting the Gospel - placing the New Birth first on the table.

Justification - the article by which the church rises or falls
Regeneration must and should always be at the head waters of any discussion of how a man, woman or child is to gain access into God's salvation in Jesus Christ.  However we must also give people the hope that is the Gospel.  As we saw yesterday, man's spiritual deadness is not the only issue, but also his guilt.  The 16th century witnessed a movement that came to recapture a doctrine that had been at the heart of the biblical Gospel - Justification by Faith alone.

At issue was whether faith by itself was deemed sufficient by God to declare the sinner righteous in God's sight.  Martin Luther and others like him taught that faith alone is not only necessary, but sufficient for being deemed innocent by Holy God.  The righteousness being credited in saving faith was the righteousness of Jesus Christ.  The church of Rome strongly disagreed, stating that in order for a person to be deemed right with God, he would have to become right by participating in baptism and the rest of the Church's rites and ordinances.  To this day Roman Catholicism still advocates justification as still being attained by faith plus participation in its system (i.e a faith plus works system of salvation). 

The 2000 BFM defines justification in this fashion: "Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God." 

Adoption - A sinner is made into a son
Regeneration, justification and adoption are three different ways of looking at the same moment of saving faith.  Logically speaking we mention regeneration first - since the dead sinner is suddenly seen with the life of God and saving faith pulsating through their heart.  Justification is viewing the same event from a legal point  of view, since at saving faith we are seeing God declare a guilty sinner to be an innocent saint in His sight.  In adoption, we are viewing the same moment of saving faith through relational eyes.  Passages such as Romans 8:16-17 and Galatians 4:1-7 both spell out the believer's adoption as a son.  According to numerous other passages in Paul's letters, the little phrase "in Christ" reveals my being united to Christ in His death and resurrection.  Hebrews 2:11-15 unfolds the fact that Christ is my older brother in the flesh by faith.  The language of "rights and privilege" is used when describing our places as God's adopted sons and daughters.

Though there is not a formal place in the 2000 BFM on the topic of adoption, there is one area where the subject is indriectly referred to.  Under Article IX entitled "The Kingdom", we read this thought:  "Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ."

In having considered these three headings of regeneration, justification and adoption, my prayer is that you and I dear reader have gotten into our minds and hearts a richer view and appreciation of the gospel. 
 

 

The Gospel solves three major problems

Ephesians 2:5 "even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)"

How the Gospel addresses man's three-fold dilemma
In the Gospel I find that when I am born into this world, there are three sets of issues that are all interrelated and of which I cannot solve on my own: I'm spiritually dead to God, I'm legally guilty before God and I'm relationally alienated from God.  What the Gospel tells me is that upon the heels of the Spirit's work in my heart through saving faith, the glorious Gospel delivers the following Goodnews:

Man's Spiritual Deadness - Solved by Regeneration
The first issue of man's spiritual deadness is the most damaging of the three - since man is utterly dead in his tresspasses and sins.  For the past several days we have been looking at the truth of the New Birth, and how man must be born again.  In the doctrine of the New Birth, God addresses my spiritual deadness by bringing to me resurrection life.  Mankind is not merely a sick patient in a hospital needing an injection of moral improvement, nor is he merely an ignorant man in need of enlightenment, rather man is a corpse in need of a resurrection.  Jesus states in John 5:24-25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. 25“Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.

Regeneration, or the New Birth, comes from God, brings with it the necessary change of heart and includes faith and repentance.  We can view salvation from three angles, one of which is this supernatural angle - whereby a man or woman dead in their trespasses and sins is raised from darkness to light, from death unto life.  This first problem is solved.  But notice also another problem that is simultaneously solved all at once  by the Gospel.

Man's legal guilt - solved by Justification
Man upon receiving the New Birth by grace through faith is declared legally right with God by what the Bible terms "justification".  Romans 1-3 spells out in detail all of the legal problems sinful man has before Holy God.  In three Divine courtrooms man is guilty in the eyes of God.  The first courtroom is that of creation - wherein mankind's guilt is declared universally in creation. (Romans 1:18-31)  Then in the courtroom of the conscience, man knows deep down inside what his heart confirms - that he is not right before God, and that no amount of right living will make him clean. (Romans 2)  Then the courtroom of God's law makes the final declaration - man is a lawbreaker, worthy of death. Romans 3) 

To compound things further, man had inherited the guilt and condemnation of Adam's Sin, which came as a result of the Fall. (Romans 5).  What is man to do?  There is nothing he can do.  But thanks be to God what man could not do, One Perfect man did - Christ.  He alone lived the perfect life  demanded by creation, the conscience and God's law.  Furthermore, Christ died the death also demanded by all three.  As a result, when you and I by faith trust in what Christ accomplished, God credits us with His life and death - as if we lived perfectly and paid the price of justice. 

 Romans 4:25-5:1 states - "He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

So what the Gospel does is tell us that by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, my spiritual deadness to God is solved by regeneration and my legal guilty before God is solved by justification.  But what about my relational alienation from God?

Man's Relational Alienation - solved by adoption
Ephesians 2:12 states - remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.  Outside of saving faith in Jesus Christ, the profound alienation from God cannot be bridged.  What the scripture teaches is that in the grace of adoption, the formerly dead, guilty and alienated sinner is by grace through faith made alive, declared innocent and deemed a son. 

Romans 8:16-17 states - "The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. "  Galatians 4:7 "Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. "

Thus the Gospel is truly Good news.  In it, by grace through faith, I'm raised from death to life in regeneration, transferred from guilt to innocence in justification and termed a son by way of adoption.  Three issues gloriously solved by One Grand Message -the Gospel, which credits it all to One Grand Person - Jesus Christ. 

The New Birth predicted in the Old Testament

Ezekiel 36:26-27 26“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27“I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

Even though the New Birth reality would not be in full function until after the Holy Spirit came in Acts 2, the prediction of it came centuries before the New Testament.  As we saw yesterday, The Holy Spirit was already doing a work in human hearts, a proto-type to the New Birth called "circumcision of the Heart".  In seeing His work in the Old Testament, the time would be inaugurated for a new, deeper and more abiding work.  When we arrive in our Old Testaments to the prophets, prophets such as Ezekiel and Jeremiah are the primary prophets we look to when grasping what would be the greater work of the New Birth.

The functions and limits of the Old Covenant
Israel as a nation had failed in her covenant obligations to God that He had outlined for them in Exodus 19-20.  Though God had given His promises to His people through the Abrahamic and Davidic Covenants, it was in the Mosaic Covenant of Exodus 19-20 that God outlined their redemptive identity.  The Mosaic Covenant or Sinaitic Covenant (so-called because it was made by God with His people at Mount Sinai), spelled out the type of righteousness God desired and expected if anyone is to have any relationship with Him.  This covenant that God made demanded righteousness, but could not deliver it.  God knew that the people of Israel would try to get to Him apart from grace, and so He gave the law to show them their inability to do so.  

The Covenant of Sinai, also called "The Old Covenant", awaited the day God would reveal a "New Covenant" to His people.  Since the people of Israel came to be identified with Moses and the "Old Covenant", the entire age leading up to the cross is called the "Old Covenant" or "Old Testament Age".  A " New Covenant" was needed.  Hebrews 8:7 "For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second."

The glorious revelation of the New Covenant
When God began to reveal His New Covenant promises to Israel in passages like Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Ezekiel 36:25-27, He was originally pointing to a completely future time, the final age in which Christ would reign on earth - the Millennial age.  Israel the nation was promised by God to be restored at Messiah's second coming.  The people as a nation would look upon the One whom they had pierced and be saved. (Zechariah 12:10)  What the New Covenant promises were designed for was to give hope to a nation that had been sent to exile in Babylon for 70 years.  They would become not only a nation once again, but would end up fulfilling the destiny which they forfeited.  

That time for Israel will come, and the New Covenant Promises do ultimately speak to them.  However from what we gather in the New Covenant scriptures (another name for the New Testament), this New Covenant has been spiritually inaugurated in the life of the Church.  When you read passages such as 2 Corinthians 3-5 and Hebrews 8-9, you discover that the "Age to Come" is overlapping with this current church age.  We as Christians, by way of the New Birth, are partaking spiritually of the promises communicated in Jeremiah and Ezekiel.  

How the New Covenant exceeds the Old Covenant

When we turn to passages such as Hebrews 8:7-13, we discover just how wonderful our salvation is in light of the fact that we are spiritual partakers of the New Covenant.  Let the reader take note:

Old Covenant                             vs                         New Covenant
Hebrews 8:10                                                      Hebrews 8:10
-Demands godliness                                             -Delivers godliness
-Principles for holy living                                      -power for holy living
-God was unapproachable                                 -God is approachable

Hebrews 8:11                                                       Hebrews 8:11
-I know about God                                               -I come to know God

Hebrews 8:12                                                       Hebrews 8:12
-sin is shown as sin                                              -sin is forgiven

Hebrews 8:13                                                       Hebrews 8:13
-change is not available                                       -change is expected

As you can see, by gaining an understanding of the New Covenant versus Old Covenant systems, we can better appreciate the background leading up to the work of the New Birth.  I hope this brief summary today has shed light and edified your heart dear reader. 

Comparing Old and New Testament Salvation

Deuteronomy 30:6 “Moreover the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live."

We have been exploring the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Birth/ Regeneration/ Born Again experience these past several days.  Fundamentally the scripture asserts that in order for true salvation to occur, it must come from God, bring a change of heart and include faith and repentance.  Jesus was shocked when Nicodemas, a teacher of the Old Testament, did not understand what He meant when He told Nicodemas of his need to be Born-Again.  As we explore the Old Testament, you will see why Nicodemas should had been more aware of what Jesus was communicating in regards to being born again.  In today's blog we want to look further at the Old Testament background of the New Birth and the developments that prepared the way for it. 

Circumcision of the Heart - Abraham's testimony of salvation
When Abraham was called by God out of Ur of Chaldees in Genesis 11:27-12:6, he forsook his old life, and by faith trusted in God, who "credited" to Abraham righteousness. (Genesis 15:12; Romans 4:3) Joshua 24:6 tells us that Abraham had been an idolater, and that he turned or in biblical terminology, "repented" from that idolatry.  Circumcision was a practice that God ordained for Abraham and his male descendants back in Genesis 17.  It was to be the "sign" of the Covenant "promise" of salvation God pledged to Abraham, never being intended to be the means of attaining salvation itself.1  Abraham, like the New Testament believer, was saved by grace alone through faith alone in the Lord alone. In this brief sketch of Abraham's salvation experience, we can see the following:
1. The Call of salvation came from God
2. A change of heart was included, since Abraham forsook his old way of life
3. Faith and repentance were included in Abraham's salvation

Circumcision of the Heart was the proto-type of the New Birth
The best way the Old Testament could describe this change of heart, was to picture it by the physical rite of circumcision given to Abraham - hence the term "circumcision of heart".  The "circumcision of the heart" was God's proto-type of salvation for the Old Testament that would operate until the coming of the greater and more effective New Testament "New Birth" work of the Spirit.

The similarities between the Spirit's work in Old and New Testament experiences of salvation
By the days of Moses God's people who believed upon the promises of salvation were saved in the same manner as Abraham - by grace through faith.  And just like him, they experienced a level of the Spirit's working in their heart that accompanied their faith and repentence.  Deuteronomy is an interesting book, since it spells out most clearly in the earliest part of the Old Testament what exactly the Spirit was doing in salvation. 

Deuteronomy 10:16 states - "Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer."  Just like Jesus talking to Nicodemas in John 3, God through Moses is appealing to the people to "circumcise their hearts".  This demand for change, though different in form from the New Birth, is the same in substance - that is, it is a demand being made upon the hearer to change their heart.  Deuteronomy 30:6, quoted at the beginning of this blog, indicates that the change being demanded by God must be supplied by God.   This "circumcision of heart" is spoken of elsewhere in the Old Testament as describing the Spirit's work in salvation. (Jeremiah 4:4) The change of heart that comes from God includes the faith and repentance of the sinner.  In fact, the Apostle Paul uses the basic argument of Deuteronomy 30:6 to highlight the greater reality of the New Birth in Romans 10:8-10, a cornerstone passage used all the time in presentations of the Gospel.

The distinctions of the Spirit's work in Old Testament and New Testament salvation experiences
In the Old Testament, this "circumcision of the heart" consituted a temporary method of God's work in salvation until the Spirit would come and establish the greater and more effective work of the New Birth in Acts 2.  It is often helpful to note the similarities and distinctions of the Spirit's work in the Old and New Testament.  We have labored to show more of the similarities - since the unity of how salvation works is essential in our understanding of scripture as a whole.  However, we must also note the clear distinctions in the Old and New Testament:

1. Out to in versus in to out.  The Spirit's work in Old Testament was outside to inside, whereas His work in New Testament was inside to outside.  John 14:17 "that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. "

2. Influence versus abiding.  The Spirit's work in Old Testament was a coming upon to influence and move a person closer to God, whereas His work in the New Testament involved a coming into and abiding in the person's heart as God.  John 16:13 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come."

3. Fluctuating work versus continuous work.  The Spirit's presence and work could fluctuate in the Old Testament, with Him taking off His restraining power and presence. (Psalm 51)  I liken the Spirit's working the the Old Testament saint's life to that of the moon on the tides of the ocean - though a daily work, the work would be stronger at times and than at other moments.  In the New Testament work of salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to be a permanent resident, providing a continuous resource of power to the child of God as a result of the greater work of the New Birth. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)
Jesus would compare the Spirit's New Testament work to that of a river of living water, constantly moving and bubbling up from inside the human spirit up into the believer's soul. (John 7:37-38)

4. Looking forward versus Looking Back.  The Spirit's work in Old Testament salvation pointed saints of God to a looking foward to the cross. (1 Peter 1:10-12)  The Spirit's work in New Testament salvation points us back to the cross and the empty tomb, from whence we draw power for daily Christian living. (Romans 6:4-11; 1 Peter 1:3, 23; 2 Peter 1:3-4)

Conclusion
Contrary to many people's perceptions today, Old Testament people were not saved by law keeping nor circumcision. Furthermore, the Old Testament saints did not just by the bare power of their human will "will themselves" to be saved - with the New Testament teaching the Spirit's working as the basis. Both Testaments uniformly teach that God in the Person of the Holy Spirit is the Agent of the change of heart.   Though there are some surface level difference and degrees of distinction, Old Testament "circumcision of the heart" and New Testament "New Birth" testifies to the sameness of salvation throughout the Bible: by grace alone through faith alone in the Lord alone. 2

1. Salvation is from God
2. A change of heart comes with true salvation
3. Faith and repentance are included necessarily and are sufficient to receive the call of salvation. 

End Notes_________________
1. Whenever a male infant was circumcised, or a male adult for that matter, they were visibly identified with the Covenant community of Abraham, and later on Israel. Circumcision represented a losing of the old way of life and a pledge to covenant loyalty and a changed heart to the New life with God. It was a "sign" that was to signify the work that had been done already in the life of the believer. Unfortunately many of the Jews by Jesus' day had come to equate circumcision with salvation, something of which scripture never taught nor advocated. Paul would deal specifically with such error in His Galatian and Colossian Epistles.  Salvation in the Old Testament was like it was in the New: by grace alone, through faith alone in the Lord alone. 

2. When we say two items are identical in terms of the ideas behind their working, we use the term "formal distinction".  That is, the ideas that "formulate" how they work are the focus.  When the appearance or materials of two objects differ, we call that a "material distinction".  Hence in the "formal" sense, Old Testament circumcision of the heart and New Testament New Birth are formally the same types of salvation phenomena, since both:
-Begin with God
-Bring a change of heart
-Include faith and repentance

Materially both are distinct, since for example, circumcision of the heart works from the outside in, whereas the New Birth works from the inside out. 

Jesus teaches on the New Birth/Regeneration P3

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

We have in our study of the New Birth/Regeneration defined it to be a work that comes from God, comes with change for the heart and includes faith and repentance.  In our past two blogs we have looked particularly at Jesus' teaching on the New Birth in John 3, noting the following:
1. It is a demand made John 3:1-8
2. Jesus describes the New Birth  John 3:9-13
3. Jesus demonstrates the reality of it  John 3:14-19

In today's post we want to finish out Jesus' teaching on the New Birth by observing His teaching about the delights that should flow from the New Birth experience.

Delights flowing from the New Birth John 3:20-21

1. The Born-Again Person Will Progress in the Light.
We read in John 3:21 “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” The word translated "practices" speaks of a "progression" or "habitual re-occurance". Truly born-again people should be moving in two directions in their Christian walk - onward and upward. I like how the various English translations render this word "practice", since they all capture the point Jesus is making concerning the Born-Again person to the light of Jesus:
-NIV = "But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light"
-NLT= "those who do what is right come to the light"
-ESV = "But whoever does what is true comes to the light"
-KJV = "But he that doeth truth cometh to the light"
The reason Born-Again people practice what is right and do the truth is because they were Born-Again.

2. The Born-Again Person aims to please God, and to see others praise God, which pleases God.
To please God does not mean doing more to make God like you (for God's love for His people cannot be added unto nor diminished, since it is infinite love). Rather to please God means to bring pleasure to Him. Thus we ask the question: why does the Born-Again person desire to continue to progress further into the light? Jesus answers in the second half of John 3:21 - "so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.” By living out the Born-Again life, others will see the fruit which the Spirit as been working in us following our New Birth by faith. Hebrews 13:14 states - "And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." Such good actions by those born-again in salvation lends to others around giving praise to our Father in Heaven. (Matthew 5:16) The sum total of a Born-Again person's Bible reading, prayer time, church attendance, witnessing, moral living and any other activity will be geared in a Christ-ward direction. 

Conclusion
In conclusion then this is what we glean from Jesus' teaching of the New Birth in John 3:1-21:
1. He makes the demand for people to be born again.  John 3:1-8
2. He describes the New Birth in John 3:9-13
3. He demonstrates the reality of the New Birth in John 3:14-19
4. He shows the delights that should stem from the New Birth in John 3:20-21

Jesus' Teaching on the New Birth/Regeneration P2

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

It cannot be emphasized enough that the New Birth represents the entry way through the gates of salvation.  We have learned from previous studies of the New Birth that it comes from God, comes with change for the heart and includes faith and repentance.  Just as life naturally begins at conception, New life in Jesus Christ begins at this juncture called "The New Birth".  As we began to explore Jesus' conversation with Nicodemas on this most fundamental subject of salvation, we noted two ideas brought out by our Lord:

1. He demands people to be born again. John 3:1-3
2. He describes what it means to be born again. John 3:4-8 
Today we continue on with Jesus, observing further how He demonstrates the New Birth. 
Jesus demonstrates the New Birth John 3:9-19
In this conversation between Nicodemas and Jesus, Nicodemas raises two questions, the first one being a two part question in John 3:2 - "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?"  The question of course is dealing with the need for clarification and description, which Jesus does in John 3:4-8.  With the description of the New Birth complete, Nicodemas asks the second question in John 3:9 - "Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?”  It is in answering this question that Jesus aims to demonstrate the reality of the New Birth to the inquisitive Nicodemas by three types of testimony. 

1. Divine Testimony demonstrates the New Birth 3:9-13
Jesus demonstrates the reality of the New Birth by starting with first hand testimony from the Triune God.  How do we know Jesus is speaking of Himself in union with the Father and the Spirit?  He has already explained to Nicodemas about the role of the Holy Spirit as the Agent of the New Birth. (John 3:3-8)  With the Holy Spirit being a member of the Trinity, that leaves two Members.  Jesus identifies Himself as being included in this Divine testimony, asserting what is probably one of the clearest declarations of His Deity in John 3:13.  The Scripture elsewhere describes the believer being united to Christ at the time of the New Birth/Born Again experience. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)  Thus we are left with the person of the Father, Whom scripture ascribes as Being the Father of the New Birth, its Proper Orgin and Author. (James 1:17-18; 1 Peter 1:3,23)  God in all Three Persons is the Divine Testifier of the reality of the New Birth. 

2. Historical Testimony demonstrates the New Birth  3:14-15
For this Jewish Teacher of the Old Testament Law, no greater example of history could be cited than Moses Himself.  In appealing to Numbers 21, wherein Moses was commanded to raise up a brazen serpent to stave off a plague, Jesus is connecting the basis of the miracle of healing to what would be the basis for the miracle of the New Birth.  The people of God had grumbled against God, which resulted in a judgment of fiery serpents biting them.  By fashioning this serpent, God said all who look to this symbol raised on a pole would be saved from physical death.  Christ was showing Nicodemas that a far greater miracle was being referred to by Him - the New Birth.  What was its base to be?  The cross!  So powerful was the cross that not only can it reach forward into time and be the grounds of the New Birth for all who believe, but it could reach back as well.  Salvation is a miracle that is grounded in the historical event of the cross - the greatest testimony ever. 

3. Living Testimony Demonstrates the New Birth 3:16-19
If Divine and Historical testimony were not enough, Jesus appeals to the third demonstration of the reality of the New Birth - Living Testimony.  We all hear John 3:16 all the time, but do we ever stop to realize what it is really saying?  The miracle of the New birth is real.  Furthermore, faith and repentance are not only necessary, but sufficient means for receiving and experiencing the New Birth.  In this particular set of verses, Jesus deals mainly with the faith expression of the sinner.  It can also be just as easily included to that repentance is involved, since those who have not believed on the Only Begotten Son are those who love darkness rather than light. (John 3:19)  A person who is truly born again believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and in repentance loves the light and hates the darkness. 

More tomorrow.......