People Who Are Born Again of the Spirit

2003-07-18 17:00

If a man is born again, he is born again of the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. Flesh walks after the flesh, but spirit walks after the Spirit. If a man, who lives after the flesh, says that he is born again of the Spirit, it is a lie. Everyone born of the Spirit doesn't live after the flesh, but after the Spirit because he is, with Christ, a child of God.

As for this matter, the Bible testifies: Put off your old self, put on the new self; the old has gone, the new has come! The faith of those whose old selves - the flesh - have not been crucified with their passions and desires, is vain and it doesn't lead to salvation. It is because that faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Therefore, The Bible says: We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life (Romans 6:4). We can be rasied only after we are buried with him.

The Bible also says: Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:1-3).

Since faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, what we die with him and are raised with him is done only by faith which is at work through love. Romans 1:17 says, For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

The Bible tesitifies the substance which is done by faith, just as it is written: In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11). The true faith is in the fact that we believe in not the thoughts of a man, but the thoughts of God against all man's hope, just as it is written: Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed … (Romans 4:18). Therefore, the faith, being born of Christ Jesus, is necessarily substantiated according to it.

Because the children of God, who are born of the Spirit, live by precious faith, now they don't live after the flesh, but the Spirit. The Bible says: I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it (John 17:14-16).

A man born of the Spirit testifies: in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:4). It is the way to the righteousness of God that the requirements of the law are fully met in us. The requirements of the law are fully met in us only in Christ by faith. It is like this: So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith (Galatians 3:24).

Furthermore, the veil over Moses' face is now taken away only in Christ, just as it is written: We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.

The glory of Moses' face under the veil is done away only in Christ. The glory, which was to be done away, is the law of sin and death that condemns and kills the old self. Moses' ministry is the ministry of condemnation, but the ministry of the law of the Spirit of life is much more glorious, just as the Bible says: If the ministry that condemns men is glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness (2 Corinthians 3:9)!

Therefore, Hebrews 7:16 says: Who is made, not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life.

The ministry of condemnation is finished through the man Jesus Christ crucified. Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. The apostle, who underwent this process earlier, testified: For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God (Galatians 2:19).

The glory, which was to be done away, is finished only in Christ. Accordingly, those who are in Christ Jesus are no longer under a schoolmaster, because they are already in Christ by faith.

The Bible also testifies: Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

God gives us a new life through Christ Jesus to make us live under grace, over which sin doesn't have any authority. True glory to God our Father for ever and ever. Amen.

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer (Romans 6:1-2)? Amen. Thank you, Lord.

The least brother, Kim Yun-gu