Salvation
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10. What is the new birth about which Jesus spoke to Nicodemus? |
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The new
birth is a spiritual regeneration which takes place in a man when he repents
of his sins and believes with his heart that Jesus Christ died for our sins
and rose again for our justification. A man is regenerated by the water,
which symbolizes the Word of God, and by the Holy Spirit. |
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As for the
work done by the Word of God, the apostle Peter says to the saints: “Having
been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word
of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter |
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Instead,
as for the work of the Holy Spirit, first of all it must be said that it is
the Holy Spirit who convicts a man of sin, and of righteousness and of
judgement (John 16:8); and secondly that since He is life (Romans 8:10) when
He comes into the heart of a man who believes He brings spiritual life to
him. And I would like to make it clear that the Holy Spirit enters a believer
when he believes and not when he is baptized with the Holy Spirit because in
this case (that is, when he is baptized with the Holy Spirit) a believer is
filled with the Holy Spirit, that is to say, he receives a measure of the
Holy Spirit which is bigger than that he received when he believed. |
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This
spiritual regeneration can be called a spiritual resurrection because he who
experiences it is no longer dead in his sins and trespasses for he becomes
spiritually alive (Ephesians 2.1-6). |
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This
spiritual regeneration causes a man to see things in a different way, he has
new desires, new aims, and as a consequence his behaviour also is different,
for it becomes holy, right and good. He who has been born again does not
present his members as slaves of sin, but he presents them as slaves of
righteousness to honour his Saviour and to bear fruit to God (and not to
death as he did formerly through his wicked behaviour). That’s why Paul says
to the Corinthians: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;
old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians
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When this
regeneration takes place, it does not pass unnoticed. It can be seen by
everybody, whether believers or unbelievers. And whereas on the one hand it
produces joy in those who are already born again, on the other hand it causes
indignation, regret, and shame in those who know the person who experienced
the new birth, who are still dead in their sins. |