Being born again into the family of God provides family privileges, protection and provision in God’s unfailing loving Presence.
Shocking conversations with people, who call themselves Christians prompted me to write this meditation. My opinion may be worth no more than theirs, but for all spiritual matters I rely totally on the holy, irrevocable Word of the Living God and never offer my opinion. Arrogant pride that dares to value personal opinion above the eternal Word of the Lord (Proverbs 16:18) takes its deluded victims to certain destruction.
Every person born into this world, obviously, has physical life, which is necessary to exist on Planet Earth. But every person born into this world is spiritually dead. What does that mean? Our first ancestor, Adam, was created by God and he had both physical and spiritual life. What happened? When Adam sinned (Genesis 2:17, Genesis 3:6) the holy Life of God was withdrawn from him, died out in him and Adam plunged all his descendants, yet unborn, all of us, into spiritual death. For us that meant no share in the life of God and no possibility of knowing Him. Our only hope is if we can regain what was lost in Adam.
As you know, the good news of the Gospel is that (John 3:16) God so loved us, He gave His only, beloved, sinless Son (2 Corinthians 5:21) to shed His precious Blood and give His life to make atonement for us helpless sinners. Although we can do nothing of ourselves to obtain salvation, we still have a free will and by personal choice (John 3:36) we can receive or reject Jesus Christ. Salvation cannot be earned by (Ephesians 2:8-9) good works or self-effort striving – it is the free gift of God’s grace. If it was not God’s gift none of us, not one, could ever be saved. Because how could a sinner cleanse away his own sin and make himself righteous while he is a sinner? He needs Someone outside of himself, Someone Who is so sinless, pure, holy, that He can actually take on Himself that sinner’s sin, pay his debt in full. Jesus not only cleanses his sin but then clothes that redeemed sinner with His own righteousness. Spiritual life, which was forfeited by Adam is obtained through (John 14:6) the atoning death of Jesus Christ and in no other way. Jesus did not die my death because I was already dead and never had or could become alive. Jesus had both physical and spiritual life. When He took my sin, He could and must die. God imputed to Jesus my sin and imputed to me His righteousness and then I became alive. This is the Gospel, the good news of the Great Exchange made possible by the Atonement.
For those of us who call ourselves Christians, why does God say to us (2 Peter 1:10) make your calling and election sure? Because (2 Peter 2:1) there are many false teachers who are distorting the Truth by exchanging the Truth of God for a people-pleasing lie, which can only deceive. Paul said (Galatians 1:8-9) if anyone preaches any other gospel, let him be cursed. I am amazed at the number of people who claim to be Christians and yet have neither knowledge or experience of salvation through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the Cross. At different times in one week, I spoke to 2 ladies who were totally deceived but did not want to hear anything from the Bible. One woman told me she knew God was looking after her but we have to be good people. Later I was talking to my hairdresser about the Lord and she asked another customer if she read the Bible. She responded – “no, the Bible is in my heart”. That made no sense at all to me, so I tried to say something about Jesus. Every time I tried to speak, she cut me off and would not let me finish even one sentence. She said it was all about how we treat others. Then she told me that God was telling me to be quiet. I said – “no, what God is telling me is not to waste Truth on someone who chooses to believe a lie.
We are not born with spiritual life, but we can be reborn to receive it. Eternal life is the endless Life of God Himself and it is the only Life which can exist in heaven and in the New Jerusalem.
Hell is unending separation from God, the final destination of those who have rejected the Lord Jesus, Who experienced this very torment on our behalf so that we would not have to. In Gethsemane when Jesus was made sin (everything that God hated) and so He was ripped/torn away from the loving embrace of the Godhead, when He became the object of God’s flaming fury - - - He looked into the CUP which was brimming full of all the sin of all the world with the consequences, agony, anguish, killing loneliness and He saw Hell opened to Him.
How can anyone be fool enough to think they can receive salvation and heaven without Jesus and the way of the Cross? Everlasting death is total separation from God and is all that remains for those who choose to believe that they have no need of Jesus and thereby reject Him. There is only one place where endless death can and must exist and that is in the hopeless torment in the Lake of Fire. The choice is stark and clear. Consider the gravity of personal choice - - eternal Life or eternal torment! It is the unvarnished reality truth of (Hebrews 9:27) no reincarnation, no second chance, no hope and no end. Jesus alone can make the difference in our eternal destination and we make the choice.
God grants no one entrance into heaven who has rejected, despised, insulted Jesus, those who consider His precious Blood unnecessary. The Cross was the alter (1 Peter 2:24) on which Jesus offered Himself to God as the final and only sacrificial sin offering. Jesus is precious to those who believe (1 Peter 2:7-8), but those who reject Him will stumble over the Truth and be offended by it. Anyone who proudly thinks, in their deceived and devilish arrogance, that they are good enough and that their good works are their ticket to salvation has a guarantee of doom and endless ages in which to remember how often they spurned the gospel.
Only Jesus is the Way (John 14:6) the Truth and the Life. (Dr. Swindoll) “Without the WAY there is no going, without the TRUTH there is no knowing, without the LIFE there is no living”,
There is a way that seems right to a person (Proverbs 16:25) but it ends in death. God alone (1 John 5:11-13) is the Source of eternal Life and this Life is freely given but only available through God’s Son by the Atonement. When we receive Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13) seals us forever as a loved child of God and gives us full assurance of salvation. We are born new into the family of God with all the family privileges, protection and provision in God’s unfailing loving Presence.