Jesus Teaches Nicodemus ( John:3 )

[DustyRhodes]

Need To Be Born Of The Spirit,

In scripture, the Spirit and the flesh are very different.
Jesus explained to Nicodemus that he has to be born
again into the Spirit. This meaning we are all started
in being born of the flesh. What Jesus meant by that
is that the flesh was the old law under which we were
under the guardian of Abraham. So in being born again,
we are now under the Spirit. Flesh begets flesh and
Spirit begets Spirit. The flesh and the Spirit can not
coexist within us. It is either one or the other. Paul says
that once we are born of the Spirit, we are a new creation.
We are now in the Spirit if we have surrendered to God.
New creation is the Spirit. Christ is within us and we are
in Him. So if for example someone says I was back
sliding, it means that person had never surrendered to
God. Through scripture we are assured that once we are
in the Spirit, we cannot then fall away from the Spirit. We
are now forever in the heart of God. So once we are in
the heart of God, scripture says God will not let anything
snatch us away

Heaven and earth are full of God's glory. We need only to
reach out and embrace it.

 

[dodgingstones]

Good thoughts. Paul also taught about carnal and spiritual christians. Both saved, but one being sanctified by the Holy Spirits indwelling.. presence. The carnal Christians are the new believers who are in danger of backsliding. They ARE saved!

 

[EleventhHour]

Good thoughts. Paul also taught about carnal and spiritual christians. Both saved, but one being sanctified by the Holy Spirits indwelling.. presence. The carnal Christians are the new believers who are in danger of backsliding. They ARE saved!

Amen... they are saved!

 

[Nehemiah6]

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus ( John:3 )

1. That Jesus even had to teach these truths to Nicodemus is remarkable in itself.

2. Nicodemus (Greek Nikodemos, Hebrew Nakdimon) was a Pharisee, which means that he was learned in the Hebrew Tanakh, and very strictly Torah observant. A stickler for the minutiae of the Law.

3. Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews, a member of the Sanhedrin, hence a very influential man in Israel. Yet he was religious but lost.

4. The fact that he came to Jesus by night indicates that he did not want the religious leaders in Israel to know that he was impressed and affected by the teachings and works of Christ. He believed that Jesus had come from God, therefore he was open to the words of Christ.

5. Jesus -- as usual -- cut to the chase. Rather than engage in small talk He immediately told Nicodemus that he must be born again. And that is probably how Christians must approach the unsaved. After all the small talk we must ask bluntly "Have you been born again?"

6. Nicodemus was taken by surprise and could not fathom what Christ meant. So he resorted to an absurd question -- does a man have to go back into his mother's womb? He probably realized his faux pas as soon as he finished asking.

7. Jesus immediately went back to the revelation of the New Covenant in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and made it clear that the New Birth is supernatural. It requires the work of (1) the Holy Spirit and (2) the Gospel (the Word of God). "Water" is a metaphor for the Word of God in Scripture. The Gospel is the "seed" of the New Birth (1 Peter 1:23-25). This is the "clean water" mentioned in Ezekiel".

8. Neither the Catholics nor the Calvinists have understood this teaching. For the Catholics the water is the water of baptism, while for the Calvinists, the New Birth must occur BEFORE a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. That is putting the cart before the horse. Only those who repent and believe receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and it is only AFTER that that the Holy Spirit regenerates the believer.

9. There are many other Christians who naively believe that this "water" means the amniotic fluid accompanying human birth, but that is as absurd as imagining that any man could re-enter his mother's womb. Jesus already had dismissed the natural to focus on the spiritual.

10. Jesus made it perfectly clear that no one can either see or enter the Kingdom of God without the New Birth. This is called "the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Ghost" which results in (a) a sinner becoming a child of God, and (b) a sinner becoming a new creature in Christ (Titus 3:4-7).

11. All of this is found in the Old Testament, but it required the New Covenant in the blood of Christ to go into effect. The gift of the Holy Spirit could not be given until and unless Christ has finished His perfect work of redemption and entered into Heaven with His own blood.

12. Only those who have been born again are within the family of God and the Body of Christ. These are the ones who have been elected and predestined to be perfected and glorified -- "conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom 8:29,30). No one is predestined for either salvation or damnation, and whosoever will may take of the water of life freely (Rev 22:17).

 

[DustyRhodes]

Good thoughts. Paul also taught about carnal and spiritual christians. Both saved, but one being sanctified by the Holy Spirits indwelling.. presence. The carnal Christians are the new believers who are in danger of backsliding. They ARE saved!

Amen

 

[DustyRhodes]

Good thoughts. Paul also taught about carnal and spiritual christians. Both saved, but one being sanctified by the Holy Spirits indwelling.. presence. The carnal Christians are the new believers who are in danger of backsliding. They ARE saved!

amen

 

[DB7]

Through scripture we are assured that once we are
in the Spirit, we cannot then fall away from the Spirit.

I may question this part Dusty, as i think that equally, there are enough competing passages that state otherwise, i.e. that one can fall away.
You see, i have never in my life witnessed from any Christian that i have ever met, a supernatural transformation take place on any level whatsoever. There are countless people on these forums all claiming either, to have the Holy Spirit within them, preservation of the saints, and other mystical blessings. I profoundly wish that were true, for then there wouldn't be so much contention, dissension and factions amongst us, of which indubitably, there is. Case in point, there would be no need for these discussions, every Christian would have the truth inherently within them (being guided by the Spirit).
Therefore, being born of the Spirit must have a more figurative sense, which I would define it as a state of mind. Be not carnally minded, but meditate and act upon the things related to spiritual righteousness.
And you made a good equation between the flesh relating to the Law, and the spirit to the Gospel of Christ or Law of Faith.
This I think is the essence of being born of the Spirit, transcending the basal desires of the flesh, knowing that these burdensome and easily aroused bodies that we live in are temporal and not the ultimate goal of our destination, which is to live in the spiritual realm with Jesus and his saints with our new bodies, not made of corruptible flesh.
And all this, is what the Gospel of Christ teaches, die to the flesh which killed us in the first place, and live by the Spirit of Christ which brought us to faith and salvation.

 

[JaumeJ]

The events of the Word are lessons to those who are given to study them. There is nothing unusual for Nicodemus or any to hear the Word of Jesus, Yeshua, from Him for us to learn also.

 

[Webers.Home]

.
Jesus instructed Nicodemus in John 3:3-7 that the second birth consists of
two components: water and spirit. Both are very easy to obtain.

At John 4:10-14, Jesus instructed a woman of Samaria that the water
component can be obtained simply by requesting it.

At John 7:37-39 Jesus preached in Jerusalem that the spirit component can
be obtained the very same way: by simply requesting it.

So then, my recommendation is to find a private moment, and audibly pray
and ask Jesus if you could have the living water about which he spoke with
that woman, and also the Spirit about which he spoke in Jerusalem.

Don't be afraid to follow my suggestion. Jesus has given his word that no
one is turned away. (John 6:37)

FAQ: Jesus is way up in heaven and I'm way down here on the Earth. How is
he supposed to hear anything I say?

A: John 1:1-14 reveals that Christ is both human and divine. Don't worry,
he'll hear you alright; nothing escapes his notice.
_

 

[crossnote]

A born again person would agree here with Paul not only doctrinally but experientially...

2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.
(1Co 2:9-15)

 

[StrugglingTilMyReward]

I may question this part Dusty, as i think that equally, there are enough competing passages that state otherwise, i.e. that one can fall away.
You see, i have never in my life witnessed from any Christian that i have ever met, a supernatural transformation take place on any level whatsoever. There are countless people on these forums all claiming either, to have the Holy Spirit within them, preservation of the saints, and other mystical blessings. I profoundly wish that were true, for then there wouldn't be so much contention, dissension and factions amongst us, of which indubitably, there is. Case in point, there would be no need for these discussions, every Christian would have the truth inherently within them (being guided by the Spirit).
Therefore, being born of the Spirit must have a more figurative sense, which I would define it as a state of mind. Be not carnally minded, but meditate and act upon the things related to spiritual righteousness.
And you made a good equation between the flesh relating to the Law, and the spirit to the Gospel of Christ or Law of Faith.
This I think is the essence of being born of the Spirit, transcending the basal desires of the flesh, knowing that these burdensome and easily aroused bodies that we live in are temporal and not the ultimate goal of our destination, which is to live in the spiritual realm with Jesus and his saints with our new bodies, not made of corruptible flesh.
And all this, is what the Gospel of Christ teaches, die to the flesh which killed us in the first place, and live by the Spirit of Christ which brought us to faith and salvation.

I love your thoughts and the reasonableness of your tone DB7. Like you I don't believe I have ever met a professed Christian who has undergone a supernatural transformation. However I do believe I have met some who themselves believe that they have been supernaturally transformed...and that they've attained something close to Christ like perfection.

I believe I feel The Spirit at varying times, I woud say "I know I feel The Spirit" but its not anything I can prove. Most times it comes upon me when I'm attending worship, but there are other times as well. Its a feeling of non-existence and yet total existence, that I've ceased to exist as an individual and joined with something impossibly bigger than myself. The thing is, as soon as I become aware of it, that feeling slips away...like a dream.

I chose the user name struggling because I view this entire life as a struggle, but that doesn't mean it has to be hard....sometimes the struggle is a joyous one. Particularily when I read a post like your's which speaks honesty and earnestness. Blessings.