Bible For Foreigners

The “Born Again” Experience
How can we receive this eyesight? John 12:44-46 tells us;
Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not
on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth
him that sent me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever
believeth on me should not abide in darkness. If we
simply believe on Him and turn from our wickedness with a repentant
heart, He saves us and gives us new eyesight. Old things
pass away and we become new creatures in Him. We not only are
“born again” with a new Father, but within us is the potential to
become just like His firstborn Son, Jesus.

John 14:12 goes on to say, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also;
and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto
my Father.
What kind of works was Jesus doing? He went about preaching,
teaching, healing the sick, opening blind eyes, opening deaf
ears; He performed miracle after miracle. These same works we
can do. How can such a thing be possible? This can only be possible
through the power of the Holy Spirit.

John 14:13-21 continues: And whatsoever ye shall ask in
my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in
the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye
love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may
abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the
world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither
knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you,
and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will
come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no
more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that
day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and
I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of
my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to
him.

John 15:7 gives us the key for becoming like Jesus, If ye
abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye
will, and it shall be done unto you.
How can we become like Jesus? Very simply, it is accomplished
by abiding or fellowshipping with Jesus and keeping His
words. That is why Bible study is an imperative part of our walk
with God. The Bible reveals to us the nature of God.

The greatest attribute of God is that He is a God of Love. In
I John 4:7-16 we find these words:
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and
every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He
that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was
manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent
his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live
through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that
he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one
another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one
another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because
he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify
that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God
dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and
believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

The kind of love that is mentioned here is not the kind of
love that is in the world. God’s love is selfless. He gave up His
Son that we might live.

In Greek there are three words for love: (1) Love that is
divine, called agape; (2) Love of high ideals, called phileo (our
city of Philadelphia is named for this brotherly love); and (3) Love
of physical passion, called eros (our word erotic stems from this
word). Since the original text of the New Testament was written
in Greek we know the verse above was referring to agape love
and not the other two. This is evident when we research the Greek
manuscripts. (The Old Testament was written in Hebrew with a
few passages in Aramaic.)
In studying the Gospels, we find that Jesus died an innocent
death on a cross two thousand years ago to pay the penalty for
your sins and mine. It was God’s great love for us that allowed
His Son to suffer death. Jesus conquered sin, death and hell on the
cross because He fulfilled the Father’s demand for a perfect sacrifice
which was an innocent Man without sin. The grave and hell
could not hold Him, so He arose victorious and now lives, seated
at the right hand of God until the hour for His second coming to
this earth. His death and blood atoned for our sins, and if we
accept what He has done for us, we need not take the penalty of
hell, since He took it for us. Praise God for this sacrifice of love!
John 3:16-18 tells of this love: For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God
sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but
that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth
on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of
the only begotten Son of God.

To sum up all the verses I have quoted, we conclude that
God cannot be seen physically, but we can look at Jesus and see
what He did for us on the cross. We see God’s love through the
sacrificial death of His Son. When we accept what Jesus did, and
turn from our sins, we are then “born again” in the spirit and have
new spiritual eyes with which to see God.

What great love to take our punishment upon Himself! He
did not deserve it; He never sinned. It was due to His love for you
and me that this great sacrifice was made.

Not only did Jesus make a sacrifice by laying down His life,
but the Father bore much grief also. God had to forsake His own
Son at His most agonizing moment because He, being Holy, could
not look upon sin.

Matthew 27:46 says, ... Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying
... My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The
Father’s heart was broken too, as He turned His back on Jesus
while He was made to be a sin offering for us. II Corinthians
5:21 states, For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew
no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him.

The Holy Spirit of God was grieved, as He too endured the
shame and suffering of the cross. Since Jesus offered Himself ...
through the eternal Spirit ... (Hebrews 9:14), all the members
of the Godhead shared equally in the cost of the amazing plan of
redemption. What an act of love! God the Father, loving us; God
the Son, loving us; and God the Holy Spirit, loving us. It is difficult
for man to realize the agony the blessed Trinity experienced
for man.

These past few pages have covered the plan of salvation and
the miracle of God, the “new birth.” Nicodemus, a man that came
to Jesus, did not understand this and asked Jesus what it meant.
You can read that story in John 3.
Jesus’ words in John 3:6-7 were, That which is born of
the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
When we experience the “new birth” we enter into the kingdom
of God as a newborn baby, and we must do certain things so
that we can grow spiritually.