BORN AGAIN (Part One)
How many of you know what it means to be born again and how many of you know what it means to you to be born again? They are two distinctly different things.
The starting point for all “would be Christians” is Romans 10:9&10.
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
How many of you know what it means to be born again and how many of you know what it means to you to be born again? They are two distinctly different things.
The starting point for all “would be Christians” is Romans 10:9&10.
Romans 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
The word “saved” in verse 9 is the Greek word sozo and sozo means to be sound. (Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible) To be sound is to be whole entire or unhurt. ( American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster 1828). You can, also, see this in Strong’s Concordance. So, when you do what it says in Romans 10:9 you are made whole. Now the question should be, Do you mean to tell me that a person is NOT whole before confessing Jesus as lord and believing that God raised him from the dead? YES, that is exactly what I mean. When something is not whole it is missing something. When is the last time you were to blow out the candles on your birthday cake and a piece of cake was already gone? That cake, if someone had already taken a piece was not whole. The part that people are missing before doing Romans 10:9 is holy spirit.
Remember what happened to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Adam ended up eating the fruit (Genesis 3:6) but he didn’t die as we think about dying because he was still walking around. So what happened? Before Adam ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil he was a three part being, he had a body, he had a soul (soul life) and he had spirit from God laid upon him. When he transgressed the commandment of God he lost that spiritual connection, he lost the spirit from God. He did die in the day he ate of the fruit because he lost the spirit and set up in this world the grievous process of death and dying. Ever since then God had a plan for redemption, for making man whole again and God proclaimed it in Genesis 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee (talking to the devil) and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed (which was and is Jesus Christ); it shall bruise thy head (destroy the devil), and thou shalt bruise his heel.
Ever since then throughout the ages the devil has tried to thwart the plans of God and God has continually watched over His Word and His people. God’s promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, when for the first time people were filled with the holy spirit. This filling was and still is to capacity. God cannot put any more spirit in a person. We have all that is possible to have. (Romans 12:3). The two words that one must understand are the words pletho and pleroo (play ra oh). Pleroo is used when something is filled to capacity. If a glass were filled all the way to where another drop would send the water over the edge then that would be pleroo. As soon as the next drop went in and the glass of water overflowed then that would be pletho. These two words are used just like that when people are born again and when they manifest holy spirit in the world. When they are born again (of God’s spirit) they are pleroo filled to capacity. When God energizes that spirit within a person then that is pletho, filled to overflowing. For examples look at Acts 2:4, Acts 4:8 and Acts 4:31.
When someone does what it says in Romans 10:9 then spirit is created within them. Funny thing though is that spirit is spirit and cannot be discerned by the five senses. Those senses are hearing, seeing smelling, tasting and touching. But it is there. With this spirit a person becomes a child of God!
Romans 8:14-17
14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
16 The Spirit itself (God Himself) beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
Colossians 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
The new birth, being born again IS having the holy spirit created within you when you Confess with your mouth the lord Jesus (Jesus as lord) and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. You are a son or daughter of God through the accomplishments of Jesus Christ. You are whole, SOZO, complete. I Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
You are born of incorruptible seed. You can’t loose it and it doesn’t grow old and with it you are heaven bound and nothing can stop you from going.