0311. Ye Must Be Born Again

Ye Must Be Born Again

"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again" (Joh_3:7).

When God says "must" we certainly can afford to use no word less imperative. There is nothing indefinite, nothing optional in "Ye must be born again."

He who would see the Kingdom of God, he who would enter the Kingdom of God, must be born again.

Salvation is not a patching up of the old man, it is a new man created of God in righteousness and true holiness.

Salvation is not the cleaning up of the outside of the platter but it is the cleansing of the inside of the platter. Christ said, "Cleanse first the inside of the cup and the platter, that the outside may be clean also."

Salvation is a new creation. "If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature." "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus."

We should never speak of regeneration as "A change of nature" or as a "change of heart." Regeneration is not a change, it is a generation, a new generation; it is a second birth. "Ye must be born again."

There is nothing about the old nature that God will accept. It is "corrupt according to deceitful lusts," "there is no soundness in it," it is full "of wounds and bruises and putrifying sores."

The old nature is too weak to follow Christ, "Ye cannot do the things that ye would." They that are in the flesh cannot serve God. Can a bitter fountain give forth sweet water? Can an evil tree yield good fruit?

The description of the old man is given us in the Word of God: "Their throat is an open sepulcher; their tongue has used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: there is no fear of God before their eyes."

How are you going to reform or patch up or change such throats and tongues and lips and feet and eyes as these? It is impossible!

Back of all these members there lies a nature which is "deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." "Ye must be born again."

Churchianity, signing the pledge, turning over a new leaf; none of these can be accepted as substitutes–"Ye must be born again."

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR