…what happens when you are born again, when you are reborn from above
You must die to yourself, and then be reborn – like a grain of wheat dies, to be born again to new life. Jesus said this clearly in John 3: “You must be born again.” verse 3
and most solemnly say to you,
unless a grain of wheat
falls into the earth and dies,
it remains alone
[just one grain, never more].
But if it dies,
it produces much grain
and yields a harvest.
If you have been born again, “born of God” as it says in 1 John 3:9, then you have been
washed,
sanctified,
justified
through the name of Jesus Christ
and it was all accomplished by the Spirit of the living God. (See: 1 Corinthians 6:11)
I like how the Amplified Bible version fills-out the Greek terms into English, capturing more meaning, what the original Greek terms are saying:
“you were washed [by the atoning sacrifice of Christ],
“you were sanctified [set apart for God, and made holy],
“you were justified [declared free of guilt]
“in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
“and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God [the source of the believer’s new life and changed behavior].
In other words: That moment of your “born again” happening – was done by God to you, by the Holy Spirit.
– He washed us …….through the atoning sacrifice of Christ – He washed us
– He sanctified us …being set apart for God, and made holy – He sanctified us
– He justified us ……being declared free of guilt – He justified us
“The source of the believer’s new life and changed behavior”? – rebirth in the name of Jesus by the Holy Spirit of God (1 John 3:9)
You did not save yourself.
God saved you (if you came to Him in sincerity and truth). Getting accepted by God — is “a God thing”, not “your self effort thing”. You cannot “accept Jesus – plus something else. Read: Accepting Jesus – Plus Some Other
Quotes: “Do you acknowledge the dissidence between your “want-a-be” and your whatch-ya-be? The truth is you can’t have it both ways. Salvation in Christ is what it is. God has shared His Way with us. It is not “whatever you make it to be”. Salvation is not something you make up for your own convenience. Are you saved by God? Or are you hoping your own way will be good enough?” – Source: Introduction to Accepting Jesus – Plus Some Other.
We’ve all been on God’s Sin List. Only the grace of God, accepted through genuine repentance — will take us off that list. You off it, or still on it?
Romans 6:8-10
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live [together] with Him, 9 because we know [the self-evident truth] that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin [ending its power and paying the sinner’s debt] once and for all; and the life that He lives, He lives to [glorify] God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].
FOR MORE:
Keeping sin AND getting God’s Holiness also
As if your mindset is protected by God
The message of salvation spoken by Jesus to Paul
The Security of the True Believer
Entrance Granted Into The Eternal
God’s Sin List: from the article: Balancing-out my faith with my practice
“Such were some of you.”
- 2 Timothy 3:3 …“unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips (1 Timothy 5:13), without self-control, brutal, haters of good“
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2 Corinthians 12:20 …”strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances
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Romans 1:29 …”…those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.“
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Matthew 15:19 …”For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders”
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Proverbs 16:28 …”A perverse man spreads strife, And a slanderer separates intimate friends.”
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Ephesians 4:31 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice”
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1 Peter 2:1 …”Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander”
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2 Peter 2 …false prophets
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1 Corinthians 6:9-11 …”9Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.“
Full Texts used:
1 John 3:9 Amplified Bible (AMP)
No one who is born of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, because God’s seed [His principle of life, the essence of His righteous character] remains [permanently] in him [who is born again—who is reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose]; and he [who is born again] cannot habitually [live a life characterized by] sin, because he is born of God and longs to please Him.
11 Such were some of you;
but you were washed,
but you were sanctified,
but you were
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and in the Spirit of our God.”
And such were some of you [before you believed]. But you were washed [by the atoning sacrifice of Christ], you were sanctified [set apart for God, and made holy], you were justified [declared free of guilt] in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the [Holy] Spirit of our God [the source of the believer’s new life and changed behavior].
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