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Man is
dead in his sins and he is on the way that leads to destruction, and
therefore he needs to be regenerated spiritually to enter the Kingdom of God. This
spiritual regeneration is called new birth. Jesus spoke about it to
Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, when He said to him that unless one is born
again he cannot see the Kingdom
of God.
The new birth is experienced by a man when he repents of his sins and
believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is to say, when he believes that
Jesus is the Son of God who died on the cross for our sins and was raised the
third day for our justification. A person who has been born again feels
forgiven by God and reconciled to God; he is sure he has become a son of God
because the Spirit of God bears witness with his spirit that he is a child of
God; and he is absolutely sure he has eternal life, and therefore he is no
longer afraid of death, knowing that when he dies he will depart from this
world and enter the paradise of God in heaven. Furthermore, he perceives that
he has become a new person inwardly, with new wishes and new thoughts. This
change is clearly noticed by those who know what kind of person he was prior
to his new birth. He has a peace and a joy which he did not have before; this
peace and this joy are the fruit of the Spirit that God has put into his
heart. By the new birth man becomes a member of the Body of Christ, that is,
the Church of God, for he is baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Body of
Christ; and a new life begins, a life full of divine blessings, but also full
of sufferings, through which his faith will be tested. Therefore whoever is
born again must stand firm in the faith, being strong in the grace that is in
Christ Jesus, in order to stand the various tests and to receive in that day
the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.
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