BORN AGAIN!––Are You?
By David Berg - March, 1984
Jesus came to try to make Salvation as easy as He possibly could!––And that's why they crucified Him, that's why they killed Him, because the Church System of the day as good as said it couldn't be done without them, without following all of their complicated laws, traditions and religious rigmarole!
But Jesus came and showed them that they didn't have to go to church on Sunday––or Saturday or Friday or any other day of the week! They didn't have to follow the Church laws and rules and regulations and the Ten Commandments and all the rest. All they had to do was simply confess that they were sinners and needed salvation and ask Jesus to give it to them!
The whole idea is so simple and so childlike that Jesus said that you must become as a little child to enter His spiritual Kingdom of love, joy and happiness here and now in this life––as well as a beautiful, wonderful and thrilling Eternity in His Heavenly Kingdom in the next life! He said, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven!" and "Except a man be born again, he cannot even see or understand the Kingdom of God!" (Mat.18:3; John 3:3)
Of course, nobody can really fully understand salvation. That's why Jesus said that you must be like a little child and just accept it by faith! The Bible says that the love and peace of God "passeth all understanding." (Eph.3:19; Phil.4:7) It's a love which passes your understanding and lands right down in your heart! It is something you don't have to understand. In fact, you can't understand it, it's impossible to understand God's Love!––All you can do is receive it!
Does a baby understand the love of its mother? Does a little child understand the love of its father?––No, he just feels it, knows it, accepts it and receives it! Even before he understands language, before he even learns to talk, he understands love, he feels love and he trusts His parents because they love him. He hasn't read it in the Bible, he hasn't read love letters from his mother, he simply feels it in her love and sees it in her actions. So you don't have to understand all about God to know His wonderful love and Salvation in Jesus.––All you have to do is receive it!
Don't try to figure Him out––just let Him in! It's just that simple! All you have to do is receive Jesus, God's Son, as your Saviour by asking Him into your heart! You can do it right now, if you want God's answer to all of your problems and His love and happiness to fill your heart and life with joy and with a new plan and purpose in living! He'll meet all your needs and solve all your problems! He's just that wonderful, and it's all just that simple! Why not try Him?
Jesus said, "I am the door"––into His Father's House, the Kingdom of God––"by Me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved" (John 10:9). Therefore, if you want to get to Heaven, you have to walk through Jesus, the open Door. All you have to do is believe in the Door, walk through it by faith, receive Jesus, and you're saved!–– You've entered the Heavenly sphere of Salvation, Heaven on Earth, the Kingdom of God, just by walking through the open Door, Jesus!
The Bible tells us that "God is love"! (1John 4:8) And what did God do to prove that He is Love, that He loves us?–– "God so loved the world"––you and I––"that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16) God loved you so much that He gave Jesus to suffer for your sins, to take the punishment and the judgment that you deserve for you. "In this was manifested the Love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him." (1John 4:9) Jesus is the manifestation of the Love of God.
"Oh, why can't you just leave Jesus out of it?" some people ask. "Why do you have to use that Name? Why does He always have to be the symbol? Why can't you just say God, and speak of God only? Then we could accept it much easier, if you wouldn't insist on using that name of Jesus!"
"Well," I usually reply, "why not?" If He really is God's Son, and God has chosen Jesus to reveal Himself to the world and to show His Love, then God Himself has insisted on it!––"Love Me, love My Son!" These are God's conditions, not ours. "Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: But he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also." (1John 2:23) God has insisted that we recognise and love His Son, and Jesus Himself said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me!" (John 14:6)
So all you need for Salvation is Jesus! We can't even comprehend God the Father, He's too great a concept for us to even dream of! "As high as the Heavens are above the Earth, so high are His ways above our ways and His thoughts above our thoughts; and even the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain Him!" (Isa.55:9; 1Kings 8:27) None of us can really grasp how great and how marvellous and how wonderful God our Father is, far beyond the mind of man and our wildest imaginations, for He and His Spirit surpass the whole universe! But He has stooped to send us His Son, Jesus Christ, to show us what He Himself is like.
This then, is the most important will of God for you: that you recognise Jesus as the Son of God and believe on Him as your Saviour and receive His Love from God manifested in His death on the cross, when He took the punishment demanded by God's perfect laws for your sins, so that you could be forgiven, so that you could be saved.
Why do you need to be forgiven?––Because we are all sinners. The Bible says, "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom.3:23), and "the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, His Son." (Rom.6:23)
So we must first confess that we know we're sinners. But some folks say, "I'm pretty good! God will surely give me credit for being pretty good, at least a lot better than many others."––No, I'm sorry, that's not enough. Because you can't go to Heaven unless you're perfect, and nobody's perfect. Everybody makes mistakes, everybody's sinned.
That's why Jesus died, because we're all sinners and it was impossible for us to be perfect, it was impossible for us to keep God's perfect laws like the Laws of Moses, impossible! No man can keep the Ten Commandments, it's just impossible! Only Jesus was perfect and that's why He could pay the price of our sins and God could forgive us, because He took our punishment for us. He was the only One Who was perfect, and that's why He could give us salvation as a gift, because we could never earn it, we could never be perfect, we always make mistakes and commit sins!––You!––And me!
It's just like a pardon: God has offered pardon to the guilty, and it doesn't matter how bad you are, how wicked you are or what you've done––it doesn't matter to God! If you'll just confess your sins to Him, ask Him to forgive you and take Jesus into your heart, He'll save you!
You couldn't lift yourself up by your own bootstraps, you couldn't save yourself, you couldn't be good enough, it's impossible! If you were good enough to be saved, you'd be God Himself!––But you're not God, neither am I. We're all sinners, we have all sinned, we all need His love and mercy to be saved, and we find that love and mercy in Jesus Christ!
We cannot save ourselves by our own works, our own goodness, our own attempts to keep His laws and to love Him, or even our own endeavours to find and follow His Truth! Salvation is a gift of God performed by a miraculous transformation of our lives when we accept His Truth in the Love of His Son Jesus by the work of His Holy Spirit.
"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God!––Not of works, lest any man should boast!" (Eph.2:8,9) You cannot save yourself no matter how good you try to be! You can't be good enough, you can't be perfect enough to earn, merit or deserve the Heavenly perfection of His Own Holy Salvation by His Own grace, love and mercy!
There's nothing you can do to get it except just receive it by faith!––That's all! You can't be good enough, you can't work hard enough, you can't get it no matter how hard you try! You just have to let go and receive it from the Lord! You have to humble yourself and acknowledge that you don't deserve it, that you're just a lost sinner, and that there's no way you can get it except just by the grace of God!
We receive salvation as a pure gift, not because we're good enough or because we deserve it or earn it, and not by any works we have done or any works of the law or law-keeping. But we get salvation just because He loves us and He gives it, and all we have to do is just believe and receive, nothing else.––It is the gift of God!
Only Jesus can free us from sin and its power and its condemnation!––"For if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness! For the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin!" (1John 1:9,7)––No matter what you've done!
He'll forgive you for every sin in the book, except one, and that's rejecting Jesus!––For that is "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost," the Spirit of Truth. (Mark 3:28,29) The only unpardonable sin is the sin of rejecting the Holy Ghost, of refusing to heed the Voice of God and of spurning His Love and His Salvation in Christ. He says that it won't be forgiven in this life, nor even in the world to come. (Mat.12:32)
So the great condemnation is not that men are already sinful, which God can forgive and does forgive if we receive His pardon through His Son. But the great condemnation is rejecting Jesus Christ! "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (John 3:19)
But if you come to the light—Jesus, "the light of the world" (John 8:12)––"there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Rom.8:1), to them that have received Christ and His forgiveness. The Lord says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will abundantly pardon. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow! Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool!" (Isa.55:7;1:18)
You can start from scratch with the Lord, for when you receive Jesus as your Saviour, you are spiritually "born again" and are a "new creature in Christ Jesus"! (John 3:3; 2Cor.5:17) God says He will "blot out thy sins as a cloud, and as a thick cloud, He'll put them behind His back, and will remember them against you no more." (Isa.44:22; 38:17; Heb.8:12)
And once you have received Jesus, you cannot lose Him, He will never cast you out! "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out." (John 6:37) If you have Jesus, if you have the Lord, then you have life, eternal life, and you cannot lose eternal life! You can lose your physical life, but never your eternal life!
Salvation is forever! Once saved, you are always saved, because God cannot lie or go back on His Word or on Himself! God doesn't change His mind! Once you've received Jesus Christ and you let Him into your heart and you love Him and you know Him and you believe on Him as your Saviour, you are a saved child of God and you're going to live forever! Once you are "born again" as His child, you will always be His child! You can't be unborn!
"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." (John 3:36)––Right now! No ifs, ands or buts about it! No "providing you're a good boy and go to church every Sunday"! It doesn't say you're going to have it, it says you have it right now!––"Hath everlasting life!" If you stand in danger of losing it 51 times a day, how can you have everlasting life?
But thank God, "they that believe have entered into rest!" (Heb.4:3) We can have rest and peace of mind, knowing that we don't have to worry about whether we're good enough or if we've been too bad or if we're going to make it or not, every day wondering whether we're going to be saved or not. If you could save yourself, the Lord wouldn't have had to give His life for you!
True, you can keep yourself in His will and in line with His blessings by obeying the Lord, doing His work, being fruitful and so on. But you can't keep yourself saved! Jesus did that once and forever, and His gift is eternal life!––Not a sometime thing, saved and lost ten thousand times a day, there's no such thing! If you haven't got eternal salvation, you haven't got salvation! If you're not saved forever, you're not saved!
Grace plus faith plus nothing!––that's Salvation! You don't have to be good to get saved and you don't have to be good to stay saved! But this does not mean that you can just live as you please once you are saved. If you are really a Christian you will always be saved, but if you commit sins against the Lord and others which are unconfessed, unrepented of and not made right, you will suffer for them in some way, "for whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." (Heb.12:6) But even if you are disobedient, rebellious and chastened of the Lord for your sins, if you are saved, you'll always be saved!
When, as a young Christian, I read John 3:36, that ended all my worries!––I didn't worry about it anymore! "He that hath the Son hath everlasting life!" That was it! I knew I had Jesus, and I knew He didn't keep popping in and out of my heart! He was there all the time. He says, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world!" (Mat.28:20) He says, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." (Heb.13:5) and "I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." (John 10:28)
So thank the Lord that we can be saved and know it! And of course, if you really are, you'll show it too. You'll no longer be like everybody else in the rest of the world, you'll be different! You'll be a "new creature in Christ Jesus, old things will be passed away, behold all things will become new!" (2Cor.5:17)––There'll be a change, a real change!
When you receive Jesus, your whole life will be changed like a newborn baby born into a whole new world with a new spirit as a new child of God! So don't be surprised if you actually feel different and even think differently and are happier than you have ever been before! Jesus said it is like being born again, becoming a new person, and the old "bad you" with all your old sins is gone forever and there is a whole "new you," much better and happier than ever before! (John 3:3; 2Cor.5:17)
His coming into your life not only renews and purifies and regenerates your spirit, but it also renews your mind, literally breaking old connections and reflexes and gradually rebuilding and rewiring you into a whole new computer system with an utterly different outlook on life, a new way of looking at the world, and with new reactions to nearly everything around you.
It's impossible for men to really change themselves, but it's possible for God to change anyone! It's never possible for us to change our hearts, it's only possible for us to ask. And when Jesus comes into your heart, everything is changed––everything! You are a new person!
If you are genuinely saved, born again, a new creature in Christ Jesus, old things are passed away and all things are become new. And if you "abide in Him and He abides in you, then you shall bring forth fruit." (John 15:5) You can't help it! If you are genuinely saved, if you are genuinely born again, if you really have God in your heart, if you have salvation, if you have Jesus, you're a new creature and you will be different. You don't have anything to do with it, all you do is ask Him to come in and He does it all!
So expect things to be different!––Not totally different perhaps, as you're still human, you're still in the flesh. But you'll find a change in your spirit, in your thoughts, in your heart and in your direction. You'll be happy and overflowing with love! Because if you have Jesus, you have Love!––For "God is Love" (1John 4:8).
Do you have Jesus? Have you taken Him into your own heart and been born again by His spirit? Are you truly changed, a new person, a new creature, old things passed away and all things become new? You don't have to walk down to an altar, you don't have to stand up, sit down, turn over or stand on your hands.––It has nothing to do with the position of your body or your eyes or your head! It's all in how you position your heart! If your heart is humble before God and you know you're a sinner and need His help, all you have to do is ask Him into your heart!
Jesus said, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." (Rev.3:20) Salvation is so powerful, but God will not force it on you. His Love is all-powerful, but He won't make you receive it. Jesus knocks at the door, He doesn't kick it in! He could break it down or pulverise it with one look, but He refuses to force His way into your heart.
He simply asks to come in and you have to invite him. That is the limitation He has set and the condition He requires. You have to let Him come in, but if you won't invite Him willingly, He won't force His way in.
So please take Him now! He wants to save you, but He can't do it unless you want Him to. You have to ask Him to come in. Gentle Jesus stands there, meek and mild, in loving patience, and perhaps has been for years, waiting at your heart's door.––Knocking again and again by His Word, by His Love, perhaps by some sad incident or the parting of a loved one, a death or sickness or pain.
But God has left the majesty of choice up to you as an individual, and nobody can ever force you to accept Jesus Christ as your Saviour. You alone can make that choice, if and when you want to. He certainly wants to be your Saviour and He will come in, just as soon as you ask Him. But you must make the decision, not us, not even Jesus! He's left that choice up to you!
Will you accept God's love in Jesus Christ as your own personal Saviour? Do you have Jesus in your heart?––Then you are saved forever and bound for Heaven and will never be lost! Are you saved?––If you're not sure, make sure right now and receive Him personally as your own Lord and Saviour by sincerely praying this simple prayer:
"Lord Jesus, please forgive me for all my sins. I believe You died for me. I believe You are the Son of God, and I now ask You to come into my life. I open the door and I invite You into my heart. Jesus, please come in and help me to love others and tell them about You, that they may find You too. Help me to read Your Word and understand it by Your Spirit. In Jesus' name I ask, amen."
If you pray this prayer and mean it, Jesus will come in! Jesus promised that if you open the door to your heart, if you ask Him to come in, He will come in.––Period! So once you do that, once you believe His Word, His promise, you are saved.
True salvation is just pure faith in God's Word, not faith in feelings. Your feelings may change from day to day, sometimes good, sometimes bad, but the Bible, God's Word, never changes! So put your faith in His Word, for "faith comes by hearing the Word of God" (Rom.10:17). The Bible is definite, so no matter how you feel, if you ask Jesus to come in, He comes in, because He said so.
Of course being born again, receiving Jesus, will result in a change in your life, as you show your faith by your works (Jam.2:18). But it is not necessarily always manifested at the moment by a big emotional feeling or outward show––although it often is. But regardless of your feelings, God's Word is always the same and Jesus will always come in when asked.––So receive Him now!
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). God bless you with His Love and Salvation!––Now and Forever!