Month: December 2009

Jn 1:12,13
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

We’ve previously considered the three ways identified in our text above that we are NOT born into God’s kingdom; but, perhaps the most important point to our text is how we are born again. We are born of God. That’s great news! This work is a work of the unstoppable God! Why would we want it any other way? What if my heritage isn’t too prestigious? That’s okay, it’s not of blood! What if I have failed in my flesh time and time again? Perhaps my life could best be characterized as ungodly or immoral, and, like the prodigal son, I’ve wasted all I’ve had fulfilling the lusts of my flesh. That’s okay, it’s not of the will of the flesh! You say, “But I’m just not that smart. My mind is a place of constant turmoil and failure. I’ll decide today I’m going to do better, and by tomorrow, I’m back into the same things.” That’s okay, it’s not of the will of man! It is of God!!! It’s time to throw up your hands! It’s time to turn it over to the One with the power to do what you cannot. Cry out for His mercy! Cry out like Peter did when he realized he was sinking: “Lord, save me!” God will put a new creation in you. He’ll birth you from above. He’ll do such a good work that the flesh and the mind will be brought into submission to Him. Cry out to Him. If He performs a work in you, it will last and carry you into eternity:

Ph 1:6 “…being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…”

No matter your disadvantage, nothing can stop Him. God is able!

John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”

God has blessed us above what we deserve. He has done for us that which we never could, and it was no small feat. I pray we would celebrate every day, not just certain times of the year, the next few words following our main text above: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (Jn 1:14) For God to become flesh required Him to be made very low, but in doing so, He has raised His children to heights we could never have attained otherwise. May we glorify Him this day and everyday because He is worthy!

2 Cor 5:21: “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.”

Jamie

Jn 1:12,13
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

We’ve been looking at the verse above to understand the three ways that the Lord reveals a man is NOT born into the kingdom of God.  How needful this concept is for us to effectively evangelize!  We’ve already seen we are not born by bloodline into this family nor are we born throught the works of our flesh.  We will consider the third and final point today, namely:

3) Nor of the will of man

When I first read this phrase, it seemed very much like the preceeding one.  How does “the will of the flesh” differ from “the will of man”?  The Lord used the following passage clear things up in my mind.  2 Pet 1:16,20,21 says:

“For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty…knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

This passage reveals clearly that the Bible is not a collection of carefully crafted stories invented by the imagination of men, but the word of God was given by direct inspiration of the Holy Ghost.  Scripture is NOT a series of “cunningly devised fables” created by “the will of man”; thus, the phrase “the will of man” is connected to man’s intellect, reasoning, and decision making–the things that man thinks up in his mind.  Comparing this passage to our text in Jn 1:13 shows us that we did not become children of God through human reasoning and thought!  We didn’t simply decide one day to be a better person.  Salvation is not attained through “the power of positive thinking!”

One of the great heresies of our day has been preachers pressuring men into “making a decision for Jesus” and then assuring them that they are eternally secure!  I sat in a funeral one time where the preacher asked everyone to close their eyes, and then he said, “Raise your hand if you know you’d go to hell if you died this instant”  Apparently, some hands went up because his next question was, “Now, how many of you want to go to hell?”  Well, who in their right mind does?  Of course, all the hands went down.  “Now,” he continued, “how many of you want Jesus to keep you from going there?”  “Look at that!” he exclaimed.  “Four people were just saved!  It’s that easy!”  I couldn’t believe it!  Who has the right to tell anyone that he or she is definitely saved simply because they said a prayer or made a decision at that instant in their mind?!!!  Only God can do that!  Only God looks into the heart of man and sees what no one else can!  One thing I know about man, because I am one, is that anything man decides, he can undecide!  Yes, it’s true that if a man believes on the Lord Jesus, he will be saved (Ac 16:31), but belief is far more than a simple decision of man’s intellect.  It’s a heart, mind, and soul experience (Mk 12:30) that only God can validate.  That’s why Paul’s advice to the professing Christians of Corinth was to: “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.” (2 Co 13:5)

I’m thankful that my eternal security is not based on my reasoning and decision making.  I didn’t become a child of God by my will nor the will of any other man.  As Lk 10:22 reveals, no matter how smart we are in the eyes of man, we can’t even know God by our own ability: “no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”  Was it first our work or the Lord’s?  It was His!  Does it get any clearer than Rom 9:16?  “So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.”  God initiated this work!  We didn’t decide it.  God did!!!  We love Him why?  Because He first loved us! (1 Jn 4:19) Thank the Lord He has now birthed me into His kingdom and is conforming my will to His.  “Now may the God of peace…make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen” (Heb 13:20,21)

Jamie

Jn 1:12,13
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Last time, we began looking at the text above. Our text reveals three specific ways the new birth does NOT occur, the first of which we’ve already considered, namely that we are not born of blood into the kingdom of God. Today, we’ll look at the second way in which this birth does not happen:

2) Nor of the will of the flesh

Do men really think you can become a child of God by the will of the flesh? Do you know what the flesh is by definition? It is the nature of man apart from the influence of God! It is the body and soul without a spirit made alive to God. What can the flesh do? Just listen to the horrible list of the works of the flesh in Gal 5:19-21:

“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Does anything in that list sound like something that would make God decide to adopt us?!! These things are an abomination to Him! Some might say, “But what if in my flesh I instead did those things that God said to do? What if I lived by His law and rule?” Gal 2:16 answers that question! “…knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” Further, Titus 3:5 reminds us that it was “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit…”

In Rom 7:18-19, the Apostle Paul took an honest assessment of his flesh and came to this conclusion: “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.” How can a man possibly be born into the kingdom of God by the will of the flesh if Paul said after he was saved that the will of his flesh was still coming up short and committing sin?

Of course, we understand that he is not saying in this text that we shouldn’t strive against sin? There are too many verses telling us to strive, resist, fight, etc. The problem is when we are confident in our ability! Too many people pick one or the other. That is, either it’s all up to me or it’s all up to God. In reality, we need to strive as if it depends on us while continually crying out to God, confessing we can’t make it unless God does it in us and through us! He works it in, and we work it out according to Ph 2:12,13: “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Only AFTER this work of God in me can I walk in a manner pleasing to God (Gal 2:20). To say we’re born by the will of the flesh is to get the cart before the horse! God originates this new life!

Jamie