What happened when you first believed?
Believe means to cling to, trust in, and rely on; when we attest that we believe in Jesus it is commitment of the heart that leads to a new life, a new beginning, and there’s no looking back because the former you is no more. In Luke 9:62 Jesus tells us: Then Jesus declared, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” This is also true for us in our service to Jesus; we are not to look back, we are to move forward.
What is this about in John where we read that the world didn’t recognize Jesus and even His own people rejected Him while those who believed in Him was given a new family and a new birth. Additionally, we are read in John 3:3 (NIV) where Jesus told Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again.
John 1:10-13 (NIV)—10He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. 11He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. 12But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. 13They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
In the verses above there are a few key points: (1) This world is His (God’s) creation indicating that Jesus is the embodiment of God Himself. In John 12:45 (NIV) Jesus says that the one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. (2) That the world didn’t recognize Him. This is something since Jesus’s ministry was just getting started, why would the world know anything about Him? To answer that one needs to go back to His birth, the story of the wise men traveling from Persia to see this miracle and gift to the world. I’m going to assume something here in that I think there were other wise men looking for that moment since we do not know just how many wisemen there were. (3) His own people rejected Him. For me, His own people obviously received Him and rejected Him as the messiah. (4) ALL who believed and accepted Him was given the right to be children of God, they were given a new family. (5) Those who accepted Him and believed were reborn or born again and not by human means but from God.
A Christians life should not contain the former life’s attitudes, beliefs, and characteristics. A born again from above believers life consists of a brand new set of attitudes, beliefs, and characteristics, all the former has been done away with. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) Paul tells us: “therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” In the previous verse Paul iterates that: “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.”
Therefore, if you claim to be a follower of Jesus and profess that you are born again from above, I do hope that your former self has been banished and that you are now a new creation in Christ Jesus. If not, I think you may want to speak with your pastor and if don’t have one, find a friend that can help you out.
The simple truth is that you must accept and believe (cling to, trust in and rely on) Jesus. Romans 10:9 (NIV) states: “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Prayer: Father God, I pray for all those who you have called, that they accept the call and believe in Jesus. That they receive the comforter and guide thy Holy Spirit and become a born again from above believer in Jesus Christ and that they will begin to study Him and follow Him no matter what. Amen and Amen.
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