Are you born again?
Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3. The kingdom of God consists of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 14:17.)
Kjetil Gjøsund, Norway
People experience so many things in life. They have evil days when unrighteousness, sorrow and anxiety try to steal away their joy and vitality. It is sin—the sin that came into the world through the Fall—which is to blame for all this evil. But now the Bible tells us that we who were dead in sins and trespasses can be made alive with Christ and experience the righteousness, peace and joy in the kingdom of God. But in order for this to happen, I must be born again and become a new person. Nicodemus wondered how these things could be. He is not alone in this.
Baptism is a confirmation of the new birth. Peter describes it as the answer of a good conscience toward God. It is a two-way covenant or agreement with God. We agree to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin and alive to God, so that sin no longer reigns in our bodies, that we should obey its lusts. God agrees to give us the power of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, so that by the grace of Jesus Christ we can overcome all the sin we find in our nature. This is a totally new life! Paul writes in Romans 6:4 that “we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.”
The important thing now is that we keep our part of the covenant. Then this life—which is actually the kingdom of God, whose beginning is as small as a mustard seed—grows and becomes a tree, and the birds of the air can nest in its branches. (Luke 13:19.) Our peace and joy will increase daily. The people around us will notice this—it is the life of Christ radiating from our lives! We who were dead have been made alive!
June 2009