Dr Richard B. Nielsen D.D. D.B.S.
There are no “Have To’s”, except one! We must be born again; John 3:3; 1Peter 1:23
We
are born spiritually dead, so we need to be spiritually born before we can enter
the Kingdom of Heaven. The verse above say’s;
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God.”
This was a bit confusing to Nicodemus; John 3:4;
Jesus’ reply; John 3:5 & 6
So keeping things in context we can see that Jesus
was talking about physical birth and spiritual birth! Water birth is talking
about physical birth and the Holy Spirit gives spiritual birth to us. So then
this is our second birth!
Now a careful
study of Genesis shows us that God wanted man to be like Himself, which was a
trichotomy, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Genesis 1:26 & 27
So we were born a dichotomy, a
physical body and a soul, which gives us our personality and the ability to
think and reason. When we are born again we become a trichotomy, body soul and
spirit. This was God’s original intent for mankind.
They disobeyed God and God being a Holy God, had
made a promise that He had to keep!
As we read on we seem to find
a contradiction for both Adam and Eve continued to live, yet God said, “for
in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
What
happened is, they died spiritually at the moment they disobeyed. They were
created a trichotomy, but due to the sin of disobedience they became a
dichotomy. So, you and I, being of the seed of Adam, were born, not a trichotomy,
but a dichotomy. That is we were born spiritually dead. So anyone born of the
seed of Adam is born spiritually dead! We are born with the sin of Adam.
Romans
5:12
;
We see then that we are born sinners and what do sinners
do?
They sin!
So anyone being born of the seed of Adam is born a
sinner. No wonder Jesus said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God.” John 3:3
We can now see that we need a
spiritual birth, but being of the seed of Adam, how can we do this? We had to
find someone without sin, in order to do that, He could not be born of the seed
of Adam.
Isaiah
7:14
; Matthew 1:20 thru 23
So now we see how God made it possible for Jesus to be born without sin.
By
the shedding of Jesus’ blood on the cross, He paid the debt owed by the sin of
Adam and at the same time all the sins committed by all mankind. Romans
6:23
So through the death, burial and resurrection of
Christ we can be spiritually born, if we truly believe and accept the free gift
offered by the sacrifice of Jesus’ life, so that we might have eternal life,
and direct fellowship with God. We lost this fellowship when sin entered into
the world. That is why it was necessary to be born spiritually. Also, God cannot
tolerate sin. Therefore, we must eventually die physically. Being born
spiritually, we can continue throughout eternity in fellowship with God. If we
are not born again we will not be able to have eternal fellowship with God, and
all who reject Christ will end up in the lake of fire with Satan and his angels.
Revelation
20:10
; Revelation 20:15
I
have gone into a lot of detail to explain the necessity of accepting the gospel,
which is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. It is very clear that we
each have a decision to make, and now you know why. 1 Corinthians 15:1
thru 4
Of
all the teachings of the Church, this is really the only “Have To”;
everything else is a “Want To”. Many may tell you differently, but a careful
study of Scripture, will prove that what they say is not so. If your heart is
right with God you will have a desire to read and study your Bible. In so doing
you will find it teaches that if your heart is not in what you are doing, God
will not bless it. So, make sure it is a “Want To”, not a “Have To”.
The more you
study the Bible and get closer to God, the more peace and joy you will
experience.
