Born of Water and Spirit Part 1

(GB Message)

A compendium for the guidance of those who have the anointing for the preaching of the Gospel of Lord Jesus

Who is a truth seeker?

The sole purpose for being in the church is to be trained by the guidance of the Bible to be in heaven. The Bible can be understood only with the help of the Holy Spirit or with the help of one who has the anointing of the Holy Spirit for preaching the gospel of Lord Jesus.

The opportunity we have been given to learn and understand the gospel of Lord Jesus and through it to inherit the glorious immortal life is rare and precious. It is mysterious to us that very few people avail this opportunity in spite of the wonderful blessings this opportunity entails which is also offered free of cost. More curious than even this is the fact that this situation has been foretold in the Bible. Mysterious, though it is, it is also a sheer tragedy that this blessing of God that offered to everyone through the atoning sacrifice of Lord Jesus, the Son of God Himself, is ignored by many so cheaply. The conditions for salvation could be listed as below:

• They must have been born in this world!
• They must have listened to the living word of God.
• As a result of their listening the living word of God, a saving faith must have developed in the person. Such a person is known as a truth seeker or a believer depending upon what spiritual stage or step he is in.

The Bible is the only source for all that we believe in the spiritual life. However for those who have not yet discovered this, the next best source lies in observing visible nature, created by God, with God-given intelligence.

Saving faith

The essence of faith is to believe that:

1. The Bible is the word of God for every one in this world; it explains the great gospel (good news) of God conveyed to everyone by Lord Jesus Christ. To understand this book, one needs the help of God’s Holy Spirit. It is God’s normal method to use a teacher with the anointing of the Holy Spirit, capable of expounding the word of God, to facilitate one’s understanding of the Bible.
2. There is only one God, the Almighty God, as noted in the Bible; all other gods are of satanic origin. (Eph 6: 12, 13)
3. This Almighty God is exists in three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, inseparably. God is the ultimate power, described in Latin as Omnipotent (all powerful), Omnipresent (present everywhere), and Omniscient (all knowing).
4. This Almighty God is the One who created the universe including heaven and this earth and everything in them, both seen and unseen, including human beings and all living things everywhere
5. Man’s life has a link with God’s life not only because God is the source of all living creatures but also because man, unlike all other living creatures, has been created in the image of God.
6. God loved human beings very much, and had planned to take them to His own heavenly abode.
7. But in the mean time human beings were affected by sin. God could have destroyed them, but instead He decided to give them all one more chance to retrieve their original position, renew their faithfulness to God, and escape the impending wrath of God approaching the rest of the human race who were indifferent and failed to avail this last chance.
8. The Last chance given to man was in the fact that God sent His Son (the Second Person of the Trinity into this world as God Incarnate. This Son of God was made to be born as a human child to a virgin named Mary in a supernatural manner, for she conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and not by a man. The intention of the Incarnate God was to offer Himself as an atoning sacrifice (sinlessly) in order for God to forgive the sin of mankind and to cleanse them from all iniquity. Thus the Son of God became the Lamb of God to be sacrificed to take away the sin of mankind. He is that historical Person known as Jesus. God appointed Him as the Judge to separate those who believed (with the saving faith) in this atoning sacrifice, repented genuinely for all their transgressions and sought His forgiveness, and salvation from Satan, sin and death. Only to such true believers will God grant a glorious immortal life to live forever with Him in heaven. All the rest who have ignored this magnificent offer of God will be cast into the Lake of Fire along with Satan. The world considers Jesus as one of the great religious leaders. But only true believers understand Him to be the Son of God, Almighty who came into this world. Through His Son, God will divide the all humanity into heaven-bound and hell-bound people. He died on a cruel Roman cross voluntarily shedding His God-man blood for protecting all those who believe in this supreme blood sacrifice and take shelter in His grace and benevolence from the impending terrible wrath of God.
9. God the Father resurrected Him on the third day after He was buried. It is God’s law that a person who sinned cannot rise from the dead. But in this case, Jesus rose from the dead because He had never sinned but had only borne the sin of mankind, voluntarily accepting death and shedding His blood for the salvation of human beings. In the words of the Bible, “… concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, are declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead”, Rom 1: 3, 4. This also is a proof that everyone who is redeemed by His precious blood will be raised from the dead by the same power and in the same manner as our Lord Jesus Christ. What a glorious good news this is for mankind!
10. By this process God set up a way for human beings to gain the original glory with which they had been created with a promise of heaven and everlasting life. God announced this glorious news which we call “the Gospel of the Lord Jesus” to the world through His apostles and through the Bible, that whoever believed in this sacrifice of the Son of God and took shelter in Him, should not perish but shall have everlasting life. Such a believer is saved by the grace of God through the atoning sacrifice of the Son of God. But the procedures noted below must followed strictly.

Two more spiritual steps remain, apart from saving faith for potential citizens of heaven.

• Repentance
• Baptism

Between these two steps is an important step, oral confession of faith.

Repentance

Effects of genuine Repentance: Repentance is a crucial step to receive God’s forgiveness of sin, be redeemed from the clutches of Satan and death, and get back the original God-given glory. Beware that at every stage Satan will be present to thwart the good efforts of believers.

1. They must learn to know their present miserable plight that they had hitherto not realized because of their sinful state. No one realizes it at the outset. Through the word of God, they will gradually understand their sinful state: Eph 2: 1 – 3.
2. After fully realizing their sinful state, the person will experience a deep sense of remorse for his sinful state. In the case of some, it may take time to reach this state. But they have no alternative than to wait till they reach that state.
3. They have a determination to approach the Almighty God through Lord Jesus, His Son, for the forgiveness of their sin and for being restored to their original glory with which they had been created.
4. They gratefully accept God’s plan of salvation through the atoning blood sacrifice of His Son, Lord Jesus Christ
5. They prepare to enter into a covenant relationship with God, through the ritual called ‘Baptism’, to abide by the conditions stipulated in the Bible for salvation, and for spiritual growth in the path of sanctification where the believer must progress nonstop until the end of his life in this earth.

Confession

But before this step there is a simple interim step that has a lot of significance. This step is called the oral confession or declaration of the faith which the believer has in the Lord Jesus. In this step the believer makes these oral confessions gladly, enthusiastically, and with great conviction before the church just before baptism.
The confession includes several points:

• The sinner declares his/her faith that the historical Jesus who people saw on earth is in fact the invisible incarnate Son of God referred to in the Bible.
• The sinner declares his/her faith that this Jesus is the Christ (meaning the sacrificial Lamb of God who offered Himself to die for the remission of the sin of mankind), who died and was buried, but rose again from the dead on the third day.
• The sinner who is about to begin the Christian life declares joyfully and gratefully that he/she has accepted this Jesus (through whom alone God would forgive the sin of mankind) not only as God but also as his/her own personal God, Saviour, and Master/Lord (boss).

Baptism

The final step is known as Baptism which is after repentance explained above. The ritual called baptism consists in the immersion of the person in water (typically for 2 to 4 seconds) in the name of Lord Jesus. Alternatively, the baptism may be done in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

The principle behind this ritual is very important. If one fails to take careful note of these points, this ritual becomes completely meaningless because Satan works with a vengence in this earth to render every merciful act of God to mankind null and void by misleading human beings to do things haphazardly, displeasing God. The Bible has clearly warned (repeatedly too) to be careful about Satan at every step we take in spiritual life, that we may carry out His commands exactly as He commanded.

Self examination

At this juncture it is highly desirable to introspect that the steps taken so far are appropriate and adequate.
Introspection for the candidate:

• Have I gone through the two main steps of believing and repenting very carefully, correctly, honestly, determinedly, and prayerfully.
• Is the public declaration of my faith in Lord Jesus meaningful to me and have I carefully avoided the outer man interfering with it in any way.
• Am I determined to abide by this discipline throughout my life.

Symbolic representation in baptism

By getting immersed in the water, the believer should consider that he is

• United with Lord Jesus in His death.

This means that he/she is:

• dead to the sinful attitudes of this world
• no more a friend of the outer man and is henceforth opposed to the urgings of the outer man. He/she has decided to crucify this outer man every day, knowing that the outer man cannot be put to death in one stroke but will need to be put to death on a continuous basis. The other man will continue to be a nuisance to till death and the Christian wages a battle against him tirelessly throughout his life (Rom 6: 6)

• United with Lord Jesus in His resurrection. This ensures his own bodily resurrection.

Status after baptism

Baptism is a part of the conversion process, and the last of several steps, the most important steps being those of faith and repentance.
When all these steps have been completed:

• His/her sins are entirely forgiven as if one has never sinned.
• He/she is sure to receive the promised gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit through the mercy of Lord Jesus Christ. The guidance of this indwelling Holy Spirit is indispensable as long as the person lives in this earth.
• His/her name is written in the Book of Life. All those whose names are not found in this book will be ‘cast into the lake of fire’, Rev 20:15.
• He is enrolled as a member of the invisible universal church of God and symbolically added to a visible anointed church.
• The righteousness of Lord Jesus is imparted to him in anticipation of the fact that he/she would be faithful to Him till his death.

Becoming a member of the church

The meaning and significance of being a member of the church are immense. Let us observe the following verses:

The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved, Acts 2: 47.

The church can be viewed in various angles. The church is the gathering of all people who possess the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit unites all believers within the church as one closely integrated body who “speak the same thing, without any division among them but growing to be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in he same judgement”, 1 Cor 1: 10.

It is called …“general assembly and church of the first born (who is Lord Jesus) Who are registered in heaven” Heb 12: 23.

The Church consists of “those who eagerly wait for Him” Heb 9: 28.

The Christians are commanded “not to forsaking the assembling …together…”, Heb 10: 25.

The Church is the body of Christ “. . . And He is the head of the body, the church . . .” Col 1: 18.

God came from heaven in order to take man to heaven. Christ drew all those who are going to be in heaven with Him unto Himself as members in His own body.

“The cup of blessing… is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?” 1 Cor 1: 16. Within this symbolic expression it is obvious that this communion in His blood is with the church, His body. It is stated that the church was purchased by Lord Jesus “with His own blood”, Acts 20:28. All those who are in charge of churches have heavy responsibilities entrusted by the Holy Spirit. “The Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God” Acts 20: 28.

The book of Revelation speaks of seven churches, the number seven representing fullness or entirety. There is perfect unity with healthy and useful diversity among members, making the church all the more attractive and beneficial to members mutually. In the words of the Bible, “For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body…” 1 Cor 12: 12 – 13.
You may be interested to know that the birth of the church was on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2: 1 – 21; 38 – 47) and will be completed at the coming of Christ for His own at the “Rapture” (1 Thess 4: 13 – 18).