October 2, 2015

John 3.3 unless one is born from above he cannot see the Kingdom of God.

John 3.5 unless one is born of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

John 3.6 Â That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit is spirit”.

John 3.8 The wind blows where it wishes and you can hear the sound of it, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone born of the spirit.

The term being “born again” or correctly rendered from the Greek “born from above” is something that even fooled the religious leaders of that day. As Christ said to Nicodemus “are you not the teacher of Israel and you do not know these things?”

Here we are again in a time when this phrase is more of a cliche, more of a catch phrase without any real association with it’s true meaning. And that is? To see the Kingdom of God, and to enter the kingdom of GodÂ as is evident by the scripture just quoted. Most people who say they are “born again” have never seen or entered “the Kingdom of God”. Â Most of them speak of a kingdom coming later and they call it “the 2nd coming”.

Â I would not try to say that you are not born again, but I challenge you look at that phrase in light of these scriptures and judge for yourself. Can you see the Kingdom of God? Can you enter the Kingdom of God? Maybe you can and you don’t even know it, but it may be that you have the second coming Jesus concept stuck in your mind keeping you out of the Kingdom now because they say Jesus must come back to establish His Kingdom as though there is no Kingdom yet, and He is not a King yet, and this is their grievous error. They refuse to give Christ the Glory due His name.

There is laid out in the book of Genesis in creation the law that “kind begets kind”. “each according to their kind”. There are things begat in the sea, on land and in the air, but the one of which we speak is spirit. “for that which is flesh is flesh and that which is spirit is spirit. Ye must be born again”.

Â Â Yes! You must be born of the invisible to be invisible being holy and called a saint, to be godly meaning God like, Â the element un noticable to human perceptions. And we do this by the tool of faith being our invisible embelical cord to the “invisible immortal eternal, Â the only wise God “.

James 1.27 We are begotten by the (invisible) word of truth to be a kind of (invisible ) first fruits of His (invisible ) creation”. And this transformation happens now in this age of time and matter “while it is called today, if you hear His voice” in which we put on the (invisible) eternal attributes of Christ gifted to us through the gospel and not with held Â for a (visible) second coming as many suppose.

This is another reason to run away from the 2nd coming gospel. Or as Christ said to the Pharasees who asked when the kingdom would appear and He answered them saying “the Kingdom cometh not (to the visible carnal eye) with observation”. Christ in turn told the people “do not follow them”. Christ also said of the religious leaders that ” they are the blind who lead the blind into a ditch” and that is what the second coming gospel does. It derails your salvation and puts you on hold waiting for something Â (visible) to appear.

This is why you shouldn’t wait because “the Kingdom of God is at hand “. Do you see the Kingdom of God? Do you enter the Kingdom of God? Â Are you really born again?

Godly Hope = godliness

Hope is a word generally used as a term of a desire or an anticipation. “I hope it’s sunny tomorrow”. It conveys a longing for an uncertainty. Maybe it will be maybe it wont. Time will tell. You can’t do anything about it. So there is a desire but no plan or action to pull it off. You cannot participate.

But this is not so for those who have their hope in Jesus Christ. It goes like this.Â

Colossians 1.5Â 5Â because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel,…23Â if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel,…Â I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God,Â 26Â the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.Â 27Â To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which[d]Â is Christ in you, the hope of glory.Â 28Â Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.Â 29Â To thisÂ endÂ I also labor.

Here Paul is speaking of this hopeÂ of being god-like that is not allocated to be realized at a 2nd coming, but now through the gospel. And here is the missing element for most of us is that a godly hope is not a dead hope as though we cannot participate in the outcome like the weather. “I hope it will be sunny” then click your heals like something will happen? But we participate, work at striving to accomplish and obtain in our hope so that we see our hope transform into the thing we hope for… We attain. Like Paul said “to the degree you have attained, so walk ye in it”. This is what we do. We attain Christ-like-ness in the here and now. This is our transformation “into the self same image from the glory to the glory”. 2 Corinthians 3.18

It is like this Romans 8.24 “We are saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope”… then we “eagerly wait for it with perseverance”. You cannot persevere to change the weather. A godly hope is a reaching out, a striving and a working towards a thing. “We are not as one who beats the air, or shadow boxes” as it says in 2 Corinthians. Â And what is that thing for the one who has a mature faith in Jesus Christ? The hope is the Glory of God. And here once again as we have said before, what the 2nd coming gospel does is it derails you from persevering and participating in the accomplishingÂ this hope to attain and tells you it is later. That when you see Jesus as a new man then poof! you will be like Him automatically. This becomes a new gospel of a new day to be accuated some day in the future. But it says in Colossians 1.23Â Â if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel”. And the gospel of?

Christ in you, the hope of glory. And if Christ is in you He inspires you to put Him on and become more and more like Him. To strive to be like Him and His several invisible attributes gifted to us through the gospel for our transformation. For what? To be godly. For it is Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ”. And this is not the Christ seen as a man who gives you something at a second coming when you see him robed in white with wings coming through the clouds with a bright light behind him, but now through the gospel. We strive (a tool used in godly hope) “for the attaining of all the riches and full assurance, understanding and knowing the mysteries of God In Christ in whom are hidden all His treasures” not to be revealed to us at some second coming no, but now through the gospel. His word we absorb in the here and now, Him being “the bread of life come down from heaven that gives life to the world (John6). We hope, we strive, we attain to “all the riches and full assurance of this mystery. (Col 2.2) And the mystery once again is Christ in you, the hope of glory, for this we strive to attain.

And Paul emphasizes further here with a stern warning saying (2.4) Now i say this lest anyone should deceive you with persuasive words”. And that is what the second coming gospel message does…. It steals you away from striving and reaching toÂ acquireÂ and obtain through this living hope and gives you a dead hope of another coming Jesus to come and do something for you as though scripture is dead words on paper that leaves you hanging there waiting for another savior. What you expect a 2nd coming Jesus to come and do for you has been done by the first Jesus and mapped out for you in scripture. We call it the Gospel.

John 3 term “Born again”

Godly Hope = godliness