THE NEW BIRTH

Theme: “Men must believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead and confess him as Lord to be saved.  Anyone who does this is “born again” and becomes a new man spiritually.”

Romans 10:9-10:
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

God’s conditions for being saved are very simple.  You must believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess Him as Lord.

Salvation is strictly by faith, not by works.  While good works are important and demonstrate our faith, they do not earn you a place in heaven. Only trusting Christ for your salvation gets you a place in heaven.

Ephesians 2:8-9:
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

John 3:16:
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Romans 3:23-24:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Just before this, Paul says, “There is no difference.” In other words, a sinner is a sinner and a believer is a believer – it has nothing to do with how many sins you commit. One sin is enough to make your righteousness fall short of what God requires. Only His righteousness will do!  This righteousness is a gift (Romans 5:17) to those who believe.

Romans 6:23:
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Salvation cannot be earned; it can only be received. You receive salvation by receiving Jesus Christ Himself:

John 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.

These scriptures are basic and should be committed to memory by anyone who presents the gospel to other people.  You don’t have to quote chapter and verse (this sometimes puts people off rather than being helpful, unless they challenge you to show that what you say is in the Bible), but you do know need to know what these verses teach!

When you receive Jesus Christ, you become born again.  You become a child of God.  Before, you were a creation of God, but not a son. When you are born again, God becomes your Father, which means that He wasn’t before! The oft-repeated religious statement that “we are all God’s children” is true only in the sense that He created us all – but NOT in the sense that He acknowledges us all as having the rights and privileges of sons of the living God. Only Christians can truthfully relate to God as Father.

When you receive Christ, you are literally born a second time – “born of the Spirit.”  Obviously, you were born physically already, which I believe is what Jesus meant by being “born of water”, but when you are born a second time (“born again”), it is your spirit that is reborn.

John 3:3-7:
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”  Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’”

If you are a Christian, you are not a sinner saved by grace. The old man who had your name and your body and was a sinner is dead and gone. A new spirit lives in your body and uses your name.  You were created after God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 5:24). Lack of understanding of this important fact holds many Christians back. They think they are hopeless sinners, doomed to a life of sin and domination by the flesh, when the Word teaches the very opposite!

Peter talks to believers thus: “Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the word of God which lies and abides forever.”  (1 Peter 1:22)  He also says, “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” (1 Peter 2:2).

There are 7 references in 1 John to being “born of Him” or “born of God.”

Being born again is a very literal event.  The world has cheapened the phrase, but it still means literally the same as it ever did.

You do not have an old man and a new man cohabiting your body! Confusion on this has also held Christians back.  You have your flesh to deal with, but your “old man” – your previous spirit – is GONE and REPLACED with the “new man” when you are born again!

2 Corinthians 5:17:
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new.

You still have to renew your mind and put off the ways of the old man, but you do not consist of two spirits (and old one and a new one)! You are only one spirit, and a different one than you were before you were born of the Spirit. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”  (Ezekiel 36:26
).
 

Question 6-1: James said, “You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.” (James 2:24).  Isn’t James contradicting Paul?

No.  You have to read the context in James 2:14-26.  James makes the point that “faith without works is dead.”  In other words, if someone says he is a believer, but is an unrepentant sinner, we cannot accept his testimony that he is a Christian. The works James talks about prove your faith, but they do not replace your faith as far as your salvation goes.

The kind of faith James is talking about here is really “mental assent”. To cite James’s own example, the demons believe that there is one God. But obviously their “faith” (assent to this fact) does not do them any good. They are not in faith as far as salvation goes and will spend eternity tormented in the lake of fire, despite the fact that they “believe” in God. In fact, we can go one step farther. Demons believe that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and know the truth about salvation. The demon-possessed girl in Acts 16 cried out, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” (Acts 16:17). The demons in the country of the Gergesenes addressed Jesus as the Son of God (Matthew 8:29). The demon in the synagogue in Capernaum cried out, “I know who You are – the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:24).

Note that James starts out by saying, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can faith save him?”  It becomes obvious that James does not consider someone to have faith who says he does if there is no evidence by his corresponding works. For example, Abraham proved his faith in God by obeying Him in being willing to sacrifice the son that he had been given supernaturally. The bottom line is that “faith” without works is dead.

If we were to believe that James actually was preaching a “gospel” of salvation by works, we would have to see that consistently in his letter. However, James emphatically preaches the opposite.  He writes earlier in James 2 that if you keep the whole law, but stumble in one point, you are guilty of violating all of it as far as God is concerned (see James 2:10). In other words, one sin is enough to send you to hell. James urges us to act as men who will be judged by “the law of liberty”, not the Law of Moses from the Old Testament.  If you want to count your righteousness according to the Law of Moses, one sin does you in.  James definitely does not teach that you can be saved from hell by good works irrespective of Calvary’s sacrifice!
 

Question 6-2: If someone says he has confessed Christ as Savior but has not confessed Him as Lord, is he saved?

A lot of hair-splitting goes on in Christian circles about this. There are whole books written on both sides of the issue of “Lordship Salvation”. Some preachers teach that you must follow Jesus as Lord as well as confess Him as Savior to be saved.  I won’t argue that Jesus needs to be Lord of your life, but I wonder whose standard we are supposed to apply.  Who knows if He is really Lord?  Does the presence of sin in your life mean that He is not Lord? That can’t be, because everyone sins, including Christians! If we do sin, Jesus is our Advocate before the Father.  God will not judge us for what Jesus was already judged for.  If you trust in Christ alone to be righteous, you do not need to doubt your salvation.  Unfortunately, some of this teaching unsettles good Christians who are on their way to heaven.

The bottom line is in John 1:12 cited above – the sinner needs to receive Jesus Christ personally.  He needs to receive Him, not just teaching about Him. He needs to ask Him to come live inside Him. If anyone has asked this and meant it, the person is a Christian.  He may have a lot of rough edges, but He is still on his way to heaven. Whether the person confessed Him as “Lord” or “Savior” or “Lord and Savior” can amount to debating over words.  You can’t receive the Savior part of Him without receiving the Lord part of Him!

There is no such thing as receiving Christ as Savior but then letting your eternal destiny be based on how well your works are consistent with Jesus being your Lord.  You are not saved by works! You don’t have to worry about it.  The Scriptures shown in this lesson are sufficient to establish that by receiving Christ, you received eternal life. You have it now – you don’t lose it then get it, lose it then get it again, based on how good your works were today.  That kind of erroneous thinking just puts people into unnecessary bondage!

This is not an excuse for deliberate sin and deliberate forsaking of the Lord, which we will get to in one of the following questions.
 

Question 6-3: Why didn’t you include Revelation 3:20 in your list of Scriptures to quote to sinners?

It wasn’t written to sinners!  It was explicitly written to the Church of the Laodiceans.  Christ’s statement, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock” was written to a lukewarm church that had lost its zeal. Sadly, He was knocking on the door of His own church, not the door of sinners outside the church.
 

Question 6-4: A Christian who loves Jesus is tortured for his faith and ordered to deny Christ or be tortured until he does. He then denies Christ in front of his torturers, who then kill him immediately. Is this man saved or damned?

It is quite debatable in the first place that the Spirit would not strengthen such a person so that he does not deny Christ even if it means death. But suppose the man really does trust Christ for his salvation, but after months of starvation, beatings, and being a guinea pig for experimental drugs, his mind is fuzzy and they do get him to say “Jesus is not my Savior anymore; I reject Him.”

Unless this statement truly came from the man’s heart and not his head, I would say that such a person is not a true “Christ denier” and is saved. I imagine some would argue the point, but I would ask such people the following: Can salvation be based on words spoken with your mouth that you do not believe in your heart?  If so, I would have been saved in a laundry room at Michigan State University because I prayed a “sinner’s prayer” asking Jesus to come into my heart and save me. However, I did not mean a word of it; I just did it to get the Christian who was sharing the gospel with me off my back.  I confessed it with my mouth but did not believe it in my heart. I even told the fellow afterward that I was not really saved; I had just parroted the words to please him. I was definitely not saved, even though I said the right words, because I did not believe them – I was faked them to please man. Did God save me anyway because I said the right things?  NO! If saying the right thing without really believing it to get man off my back did not result in salvation, it is hard to accept that saying the wrong thing without really believing it to get man off your back would result in damnation.  I doubt I would ever try it and see, even in that type of situation, but I suppose that until you’re in such a terrible spot, it’s hard to say what you would do, especially if they’re drugging you.
 

Question 6-5:  Can salvation be lost, or is it true that “Once saved, always saved”?

It is definitely possible to lose your salvation, but it won’t happen because you sin too much.  Salvation never depended on your sin level, and it won’t in the future. You were saved by receiving Jesus, so the only way “out” is to reject Him. This is possible and there are many Scriptures about this. It is argued sometimes that “no one can snatch you out of God’s hand”, and that of course is a true statement – Jesus said so Himself (John 10:29). But you by your own choice and free will can choose to reject Jesus and not follow Him anymore.  Your salvation was a matter of your free will; you can decide to reject it in your free will, though we doubt you will since it’s so wonderful!

Just as you cannot be saved without knowing it, you cannot lose your salvation without knowing it.  If you have received Jesus, you never have to fear finding out that you didn’t make it to heaven, unless you have consciously told Him to leave your life forever.

Here are some Scriptures that I believe settle this issue.

Paul warned the Galatians about trying to go back under the law of Moses, echoing what James warned about:

Galatians 5:2-4:
Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.  You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.

Hebrews warns us:

Hebrews 10:26-29:
For if we sin willfully after we have received a knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?

Hebrews 6:4-6:
For it impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame.

Peter warns about the same thing:

2 Peter 2:20-22:
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.  But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to its own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

Paul’s writings to Timothy contain many warnings, too:

1 Timothy 3:6:
[talking about overseers] not a novice, lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.

1 Timothy 4:1:
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons…

1 Timothy 5:15:
For some [younger widows] have already turned aside after Satan.

1 Timothy 6:9-10:
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

2 Timothy 2:12:
…if we deny Him, He also will deny us…

2 Timothy 2:17:
And their message will spread like cancer. Hymanaeus and Philetus are of this sort, who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.
 

Question 6-6:  If you lose your salvation, can you get it back?

It depends on the circumstances. The general answer is yes, as proved by the following passage:

James 5:19-20:
Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.

However, Hebrews 6:4-6 above speaks of a class of people who were deeply into the things of God and deliberately walked away – these people will never be saved again. For some people, it is useless to even pray that they be saved again:

1 John 5:16:
If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death.  There is sin leading to death.  I do not say that he should pray about that.

There is an unpardonable sin – blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. You can never be forgiven for this sin.  If you do it, you are hopelessly lost forever.  However, if you had committed this sin, you would have no interest in reading this Bible Study or in the things of God!

Matthew 12:31-32:
Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven men.  Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.

This would not mean speaking against the gifts or manifestations of the Holy Spirit, about which many honest Christians are confused. (You won’t be when these lessons are over!)  This would only be someone who knows Who the Holy Spirit is and deliberately insults Him personally.  The context was a situation where religious people, who were aware of Who the Holy Spirit is, but basically labeled Him as an unclean spirit.  (See Mark 3:22-30). These people probably knew better and were jealous of Jesus, but Jesus made it clear that you had better not insult the Holy Spirit if you value your eternal destiny.  Having said all this, very, very few people ever lose their salvation, let alone blaspheme the Holy Spirit.  I know of only a few who lost their salvation and none who have actually blasphemed the Holy Spirit. This means that they could come back if they wanted to.

[On to Lesson 7:  Jesus:  The Only Way][Basics Index][Bible Study Index][Home]