Have you ever asked a person if they were born again and they returned an answer of "I go to such and such church." This is a common retort when someone does not understand what the phrase "born again" means.
Many people, and I know them personally who believe they have become a Christian by joining a group of people at a particular building. They are even pressured to be a "member" as though as long as they do that they are saved.
In our culture today saying "I am a Christian" makes them feel safe with all the perks God has to offer them but without a desire to be changed by Him into a new creation.
The only way to become born again is to admit one is a sinner without a way of earning heaven by their works. Those who agree with God that they are despicable human beings unable to save themselves will want His sacrifice for our sins to account to them. When we trust in Christ that He paid for our sins on the cross and desire to be changed by Him, then He will do it.
He will send the Holy Spirit to live in those who are of a broken spirit over their sin and He will begin the cleansing process after He seals them with the Holy Spirit of Promise.
We do not become sinless when we are saved by Christ, but we will sin less because He does an ongoing work of cleansing. The more we confess our individual sins the more He works in us.
1 John 1:9
"9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."
Ephesians 1:13-14
"13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of the promise, 14 who is a first installment of our inheritance, in regard to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory."
When Christ changes us into a new creation we cannot return back to our old selves, it has been a work of God to change us, we do not change ourselves.
Those who attempt to change themselves are not saved. They are depending on their own version of righteousness by their own power, God will not change anyone who wants to do it their own way and they will not be born again.
Ephesians 2:10
"10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Marriage is a picture of salvation in the Scriptures. When Christ makes two people one it is a spiritual oneness that cannot be undone by man. Only death severs the marriage relationship that God created when the promises were made.
When God does a work no one or nothing can change what He does.
When a believer sins He hates it, confesses it to be cleansed as stated in 1 John 1:9 and he moves forward not repeating that same sin.
1 John 2:1 "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
We only have an advocate because we belong to Christ. It is not our Spirit that sins it is the flesh we battle because it remains sinful, the reason it does not go to heaven when we are born-again believers. Only our Spirit goes and our corrupted body stays on earth and decays.
God disciplines those who belong to Him so that they grow in holiness.
Hebrews 12:4-11 "4 You have not yet resisted [c]to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
Nor faint when you are punished by Him;
6 For whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
And He punishes every son whom He accepts.”
7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
Those who are not disciplined by God are not born again. All His children are disciplined and trained by the Holy Spirit. Every believer ought to be growing in holiness and righteousness.
Hebrews 12:8-11 "8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?
10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness.
11 For the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant, but painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness."
We can praise and thank the Lord for His purpose in our lives when we are born-again. Everything has a reason and everything is for our good and the good of all the believers in our sphere of influence.
Anyone who remains proud of how good they think they are, do not understand that pride is a sin and anyone with it will not be accepted. One must be humble to admit they are a sinner unable to save themselves. Anyoen who retains pride about their own goodness has not been changed into a new creation by God.
However, if a believer struggles with pride God will discipline them until they learn humility through trusting the Holy Spirit more than they trust in themselves.
Hebrews 12:14-17 "14 Pursue peace with all people, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
15 See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
16 that there be no sexually immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.
17 For you know that even afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears."
And finally: Christ said "you shall know them by their fruit." The fruit of the Spirit are the character qualities of Christ not works. When a believer has these qualities they will recognize other believers with these qualities. They will also recognize when someone claims to be a Christian but does not have the qualities, these are those who want to be safe but do not want Christ.
Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."
When we have this fruit of Christ Who dwells in us we will not live a lifestyle of anger and rebellion. We will automatically without thinking display these wonderful fruits because they are the nature of our soul. We cannot nor do we want to go against our new nature.
A good analogy in nature that God gave us was the butterfly. The butterfly begins in the cocoon as a worm. When it is time to emerge from the cocoon that worm turns into a brand new creature that is completely changed and can never go back into the worm state, they are changed forever into something beautiful and free to fly away from the prison of the cocoon.
The unsaved state for unbelievers is a prison they don't even know they are in, when someone becomes born again the joy and peace that comes is so wonderful that any desire to sin is removed from us. Now we have the mind of Christ, the Spirit of Christ, and the freedom to be what He wants us to be.
Isaiah 40:31 "
Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary."
Those who are in bondage to sin do not realize the freedom in Christ that born-again believers have. They have been released from the bondage of sin and given the freedom to be righteous, protected, and loved by Christ even in the midst of their trials. Trials do not go away but Christ goes through with those who have trusted in Him.
Hallelujah for God's provision of His dear Son Jesus Christ Who wants everyone to repent (change their mind) and desire to be changed by Him into a new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17
"17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
