STUDY THEME: GOD’S GREAT SALVATION. 6-05-05

“LIFE BEGINS AT RECEPTION.” JOHN 1: 10-13; 3:5-8, 14-18, 36.

JOHN 1: 1-5, 10-13; 3: 5-8, 14-17, 18,36.

PLEASE OPEN OUR BIBLE TO JOHN 1.

For the next four weeks we will be looking at a series of lessons that deal with God’s Great Salvation. The goal we hope to achieve is that each of us may come to better understand God’s role in our spiritual birth and decide how we have expressed the New Birth.

This lesson deals with two spiritual issues about which many people miss the biblical perspective---being born again and the Trinity. Many feel no need for the new birth; others know they need a new start but don’t know how to find it.

On the other hand, many people are confused by the biblical doctrine of the trinity. They wonder how God can be one and yet three persons. This lesson will focus biblical teachings about how the triune God is involved in making possible the new birth to all who believe. God the Son is the source of the new birth. God the Holy Spirit is the agent. God the Father is the initiator.

The Life Impact we hope this first of the four lessons may achieve is that we may come to appreciate the roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in providing salvation.

During this study we will be using words like saved, forgiven, born again, regenerated, redeemed, reconciled, adopted, resurrected, justified, sanctified, and glorified.

The word saved was used, as it is today, to tell how someone was rescued or delivered from some danger. The Bible applies it to being rescued and delivered from sin, the greatest danger of all.

The N.T. looks at salvation in terms of its past, present and future aspects. Christians can say, “I was saved, (from sin’s penalty). I am being saved, (from sin’s power). I will be saved (from sin’s presence).

Today’s lesson, “Life Begins At reception,” deals with regeneration or the New Birth and focuses on the beginning of salvation. Regeneration is the work of God in which He changes the condition of a person from spiritual defeat and death to a new life of holiness.

Why do we describe regeneration as “born again?” Why a second birth? Because “we were dead in trespasses and sins.” (Eph. 2: 1).

We cannot regenerate ourselves, so it is God Himself who makes us a new creation. (2 Cor. 5: 17). The phrase “born again” can also be translated as “born from above,” which emphasizes God’s role in our regeneration. Paul reminded us in Eph. 2: 10 that we are “His Creation.” As God’s creation, we are not merely reformed; regeneration involves a radical change, a recreation in our very characters. Paul, in Titus 3: 5, described regeneration as a renewing of the spirit, when we are saved. The most complete description of the new birth is found in John 3: 1-8.

Our Baptist Faith and Message tells us: “Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is the change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

1. TEACHER READ JOHN 1: 1-5.

Although the author’s name does not appear in the gospel, the three synoptic gospels, (Matt., Mark, and Luke) identify the Apostle John by name approximately 20 times. The author prefers to identify himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” This narrows down the Apostle John as the author.

The phrase “In the beginning” parallels Gen. 1: 1 where the same phrase is used. The verb “was” highlights the eternal pre-existence of the Word, i.e., Jesus Christ. Before the universe began, the Second Person of the Trinity always existed. He always was.

The Word, as the Second Person of the Trinity, was in intimate fellowship with God the Father throughout all eternity with the Father. He willingly gave up His heavenly status, taking the form of a man, and became subject to the death of the cross. The Word had all the essence or attributes of deity, i.e., Jesus the Messiah was fully God (Col. 2: 9).

Jesus Christ was God the Father’s agent involved in creating everything in the universe. The Baptist Faith and Message tells us: “The eternal, triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.” We believe in the Trinity because this is how God reveals Himself and this is how we experience Him.

2. PLEASE READ JOHN 1: 10-13.

What happened when the Creator of the universe came to earth as a man? The world did not recognize Him. The world refers to the realm of humans. Humans, the ones created in the image of God, failed to see their Creator in His handiwork in the world around them, or when He stood before them as a man.

John used the word recognize in a relational sense; the world of mankind created by God failed to know Him because they failed to have a personal knowledge of who stood before them.

Vs. 10 summarizes what happened when Jesus came to the world, to mankind, in general.

Vs. 11 brings it in closer to the particular race God had chosen and to whom He had revealed Himself. These were His own, a description that could also be applied in a narrow sense as His own family, His intimates, or His own friends. These people were the Jews, and they were in a special sense God’s own possession. When God established His covenant with the nation of Israel, He said in Ex. 19: 5, “You will be My own possession out of all the peoples.”

What makes John 1: 11 so sad is not that His own people did not know Him but that they did not receive Him. The Jews had an advantage in the revelation of God we call the O.T. Through the writings, the law, and the prophets, the Jews had a special revelation of God that would certainly aid them in knowing and recognizing the arrival and the presence of God in Christ. In spite of this, the Jews---Jesus’ own people----did not receive Him, a phrase carrying the idea of welcoming someone home. Instead of welcoming God Incarnate, they made a conscious decision to reject Him.

This would certainly be a grim picture if it stopped here, but there were those individuals who did receive Him. How does a person receive, or welcome, Jesus? This reception carries the idea of placing your faith in Him and giving Him your allegiance. To do so means you acknowledge His claims. This has bearing on the role of God the Son as the source of the new birth. Jesus became flesh to reveal God and to redeem sinners. His incarnate life, atoning death, and victorious resurrection make the new birth possible (1 Peter 1:3).

A great benefit comes to those who receive Jesus in this way. It’s a gift, a gift of God’s grace: He gave them the right to be children of God. That right is grounded in God’s power and authority. It is a legitimate right that God has the authority and power to give us, something we should see as a great privilege.

What a privilege to be children of God! But aren’t we all children of God since God is the Father of us all? Indeed, according to Acts 17:28 we are all the offspring of God. In the sense that He is our Creator, but only those offspring who acknowledge and receive God through faith in Christ become children of God in a true father-child relationship full of intimacy.

In all of John’s writings, he referred to believers as children—a term that emphasizes a relationship based on nature. Through Christ, we are given a new nature; we are regenerated and transformed to become children of God.

When do we become children of God? The moment we receive Jesus. The verb tenses for receive and (He) gave together express a completed, final, and simultaneous action. We are immediately admitted into God’s family to enjoy the benefits and blessings that come from this spiritual birthright. This birthright is for all who receive Jesus, whether Jew or Gentiles.

The Apostle John kept the often-prevailing view of the Gnostics in mind as he wrote. The Gnostics stressed the importance of knowledge. John countered this worldview by stressing that it is not what you known and believe that takes priority but who you know and believe. John’s reference to those who believe in His name has nothing to do with head-type information. This is a belief that leads to trust.

What are we trusting? His name. The name of Jesus means more than just a designation by which He is known: the name of Jesus represents His character and nature. David reflected this idea in Ps. 9: 10: “Those who know Your name trust in You.” When we believe in all that Christ’s name represents, we are willing to trust Who He is.

We experience a new birth to become children of God. It is important to remember, though, that just as we do not bring about our own physical birth, we do not bring about our spiritual birth. We are born of God.

John used three negative statements to remind us what is not the source of this new birth. It is not of blood. One’s physical heritage is irrelevant. We do not enter God’s family through the acts of man (the will of the flesh) or our own desires (the will of man). Jesus Christ is the source of our new birth.

PLEASE TURN TO JOHN 3. TEACHER READ JOHN 3: 1-4.

3. PLEASE READ JOHN 3: 5-8.

John 1: 13 says that becoming children of God means being born of God through faith in Jesus Christ. John 3: 1-8 emphasizes the role of God’s Spirit in the new birth.

Early in Jesus’ ministry, Jesus had an encounter with one of the Pharisees: Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, a ruler of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night. He began by complimenting Jesus as “a teacher come from God.” Jesus cut to the heart of human need by saying “except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” We know from John 19:39 that Nicodemus became a believer, but at this earlier time, Nicodemus was seeking truth. Jesus knew what Nicodemus needed to hear, so He talked about His need for salvation in terms of birth, or more precisely, rebirth.

The idea of rebirth was probably not unfamiliar to Nicodemus. When a Gentile chose to follow the teachings and practices of Judaism and was thus accepted into Judaism by its leaders, the proselyte was considered reborn. Rebirth may have been a familiar term to Nicodemus, but how would that apply to a Jew? Especially a Pharisee like Nicodemus! Jesus apparently was using the concept of rebirth in a whole different way, and Nicodemus was confused.

In vs. 5 Jesus gave a more precise statement about being born again: it means being born of water and the Spirit. What type of water was Jesus talking about? Many people have interpreted water as a reference to physical birth. After all, you can’t be born again (spiritually) unless you have first been born physically.

Grammatically, however, water and the Spirit cannot be separated as referring to two separate events. They appear together, conjunctively, to represent one birth, a birth from above.

So then, how is water a factor in spiritual birth? Many people have read baptism into this statement: Being born again involves entering the waters of baptism. But the remainder of the N.T. makes no mention of the necessity of baptism as a part of salvation.

In no other encounter did Jesus emphasize the need for physical water. Rather, His emphasis was on belief and faith. Further, Nicodemus would have not understood Christian baptism.

Over the years, various approaches to baptism and the doctrine of salvation have colored people’s interpretation of this phrase. But I do not believe the meaning was hazy to Nicodemus: therefore, we would do well to see the phrase from his Jewish standpoint.

The combination of water and the Spirit was not unknown to the Jews. With Nicodemus’s pharisaical familiarity with Scripture, Ezekiel 36:25-27 may have come to mind as Jesus spoke to him: “I will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you: I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will place My Spirit within you.”

Paul later made the same connection between the symbolism of washing, and the rebirth brought about by the Holy Spirit. In Titus 3:5 he wrote, “He saved us—not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His mercy through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

Water is used throughout Scripture---both Old and New Testaments---as a symbol of spiritual cleansing. And in John 3:5, where water and the Spirit are to be viewed inseparable, we see that the source of our spiritual cleansing is God’s Holy Spirit.

Through the work of the Holy Spirit, we are cleansed of our past and are reborn into a new life in Christ. Experiencing this new birth is the only way we will be able to enter the kingdom of God.

To underscore the necessity of the new birth, Jesus made a comparison between the first and second births. “Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh” focuses on the physical birth. While Paul often referred to the flesh as that sinful aspect in us; Jesus used the word flesh to refer to our weak and finite humanness. The only way we can experience a spiritual birth is by spiritual means, therefore, we must be born of the Spirit.

Only the power of God can transform us and create in us new lives. Jesus told Nicodemus that he should not be amazed by the conclusion of the matter: If you want to know God you must be born again, and that comes by being born of the Spirit.

The phrasing Jesus used shows this to be a passive action. In others words, Nicodemus who was used to the idea of earning his salvation through obedience to the law, was challenged to be passive and let the Spirit bring about his spiritual birth. He could not have a hand in the Spirit’s work any more than he could have a hand in directing the wind.

The wind is a fitting analogy to the work of the Holy Spirit. (In fact, the word for wind in both Greek and Hebrew is also the same word for Spirit.) The wind does as it pleases, and so does the Sprit of God. We may not know how the wind works, but we see the results of the wind blowing. God’s Spirit may be invisible, but we can still see His effect on people’s lives.

Rebirth and salvation are not something attained through visible acts of obedience to the law (as Nicodemus would have assumed): rebirth is an internal act done to us. We cannot see the Spirit’s work of regeneration, but we can see the effects in a forgiven and transformed life. It is all the work of God through His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s internal work of salvation is seen externally in changed lives.

4. PLEASE READ JOHN 3: 14-17.

Even with the explanation of vs. 5-8, Nicodemus asked in vs. 9: “How can these things be?” Jesus told him in vv. 10-13. that He had come from heaven to reveal heavenly things. When Nicodemus failed to grasp the truth in Jesus’ other figures of thought, the patient Teacher made one final effort. Nicodemus was supposed to be a teacher of the Scriptures. Jesus, therefore, drew an analogy from Number 21:4-9.

During the Israelites’ wilderness wanderings, many of them were bitten by snakes in punishment for their sins. Many were dying. The Lord told Moses to make a serpent of brass, put it on a pole, and lift it up where all could see it. Moses gave them God’s promise that whoever looked at the serpent of brass would live. The Israelites were not saved by admiring the skilled workmanship of the bronze serpent but by looking to it with faith in God’s promise.

This vivid image serves as a type of Christ---an O.T. image or symbol of something that points to Christ. When the snake was lifted up in the wilderness, deliverance became available.

In both cases, death threatened as a punishment for sin. In both cases, God initiated the remedy, which involved the lifting up of something (or someone) in public view. And in both cases, deliverance came by looking at that which was lifted up.

However, when Christ was lifted up----placed on the cross---He far transcended anything accomplished with a bronze snake. First, the Israelites were facing physical death: Jesus died for people who were facing spiritual death. Second, the bronze serpent had no power in itself to heal whereas Christ does have the power.

Perhaps we can imagine one of the Israelites expressing his sentiment after looking at the bronze serpent: “God restored my life. It’s as if I’ve been given another life.” Remember that Jesus had been talking with Nicodemus about the necessity for a second birth. With this reference to His death, Jesus tied the need for a second birth to the whole reason He came to earth. Jesus came to earth to fulfill God’s purpose. God the Father initiated Jesus’ coming, and it was to fulfill a divine purpose that Jesus must be lifted up and die.

“Must” expressed the moral and spiritual necessity of His death. In a manner beyond our comprehension, God revealed both His wrath against sin and His love for sinners in the death of Jesus.

We cannot understand God’s love, but we can experience it by faith. Just as the Israelites were saved from the deadly venom of the snakes by looking in faith to the serpent of brass, so are we saved, by looking to the God who causes His Son to be lifted up on a cross.

Vs. 14-15 set the stage for what is probably the best known verse in the Bible---John 3: 16. This verse has been called “The Gospel in a Nutshell” and “Everybody’s verse.” Here is the good news in superlatives. It says it all. You cannot improve on it.

If the rest of the Bible was lost and only this verse preserved, it contains enough gospel for the whole human race to be saved. It tells that God in love took the initiative in salvation, that He sent His only Son to make that salvation possible, that the salvation is appropriated by faith in Him, and that those who believe enter life that is real and eternal.

John 3: 16 provides the greatest theological summary of the doctrine of salvation in the whole Bible. Vs. 16 grounds salvation in love, and it shows us the character, Author, gift, and purpose of this love. The best way to view this passage, however, is to view verses 16-18 together. Vs. 16 highlights God’s loving role in initiating salvation; vs. 17 highlights God’s purpose in sending His Son; and vs. 18 highlights the need for this salvation. When we view these verses as a whole, we better understand the full meaning of the coming of Jesus.

Our salvation is all from the hand of God: God loved…He gave. These two active verbs show the self-giving nature of God. At this point the emphasis is on the fact that He gave rather than He sent, a choice of wording that highlights the sacrifice God made n our salvation. God did not leave us to ourselves, but out of His love He did a very costly thing---He gave His Son.

The object of this incredible love was the world. This, of course, is not a reference to the planet and all its natural contents. It refers to humanity, as the rest of the verse makes clear in its reference to everyone who believes. While God is the initiator of this salvation, He has also given us---everyone---a sense of freedom and the choice to believe in Him. The opportunity to make a choice means we can believe and have eternal-life…or choose not to believe and perish.

Those who choose not to believe in the gift of God’s love will not be forced to live in His presence. If we choose not to live in God’s love, we leave ourselves no choice but to live in God’s wrath.

Vs. 17 tells us why God sent His Son. Notice that the emphasis now is on the sending of His Son rather than on the giving. The sacrifice is a part of God’s divine commission. We need to see in this sending that God’s plan has always been the salvation of humanity.

We cannot blame God for the mess the world is in when His desire is to set us free from the mess in which we have placed ourselves.

With the arrival of Christ, the Light of the world, it was inevitable that His light would illuminate our darkness. His presence reveals our sinfulness and thus our condemnation.

What can we do to initiate entrance into a loving relationship with God through Christ Jesus? For starters, we don’t do anything to initiate it! Jesus Christ is Lord and King, and only He can initiate a relationship with us. Thankfully, He loves us and seeks a relationship with us through a new birth into His family. In the next verses, we wills see how we can respond to what God has initiated.

God the Father initiated every aspect of our salvation. The most incredible expression of love is seen in God’s gift to us: His One and Only Son for our salvation. God gives us eternal life now, a life full of abundance, fulfillment, and meaning because it is a life in Christ.

5. PLEASE READ FROM JOHN 3: 18, AND 36.

Experiencing new life from God is the greatest treasure a person can have. Not experiencing new life from God is the greatest loss a person can experience. The way to new life is open to all. The new birth is not automatic. It must be chosen. It’s like entering a dark room at night. Electric power is available, but it will be activated only when the light switch is turned on. Throughout all these passages, John used the word believe to describe the human response that allows God to give us new life.

The one who believes in the Son experiences the new birth through the power of the Holy Spirit and has eternal life. As a result, people who have eternal life are not condemned. In Christ we already have received the verdict of acquittal. We have confidence that this verdict will be confirmed at the final judgment.

On the contrary, people who refuse to believe in Christ and experience the new birth are already condemned. There is no neutral position before God. Those who do not experience the miracle of the new birth set themselves against Christ. We often refer to such individuals as lost persons because they are lost in sin.

The lost are condemned in unbelief. The sentence has already been given. If they do not repent and turn to God in Christ, they are without hope. They are separated from Christ in this world, and a refusal to accept Christ means also that they will be eternally separated from Him in the world to come. They are spiritually dead now, and their future existence without Christ will be hopeless, empty, filled with turmoil and anguish. Such is the experience of everyone who refuses to believe in the Son.

Some suggest the lost person will not live an eternally horrible existence but will be annihilated at death. That is, the person will cease to exist. After all, John said that those who do not obey the Son, will not see life. That is, they will not experience eternal life.

Most persons who set for the annihilation theory do so because they believe unending punishment is unethical. The doctrine of eternal punishment is not an attractive doctrine, yet one must interpret the words of John in light of the teaching found elsewhere in Scripture. Judgment is separation from Christ, and this is an eternal state of condemnation.

What kind of believing saves sinners and makes one born anew? It has at least three components: believing, repenting, and committing. Believing the facts of the gospel is not all of saving faith, but believing is foundational.

When Paul preached before Herod Agrippa II in Acts 26: 27, the apostle made a direct appeal to the king. “King Agrippa, do you believe the Prophets. I know you believe.” If the king believed the prophets, that could be the foundation for becoming saved, but the king refused to become a Christian.

Believing the facts about the gospel must lead to repentance. Repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin. Repentance is turning your life away from sin and going the other way. Faith is personal commitment to the Lord. When this happens, the committed person is saved from sin and is born anew by God’s Spirit.

Some Christians have been restrained in their teaching and preaching on eternal separation from God. It is the most terrible teaching in all of Scripture. Many individuals in modern society see the idea of eternal punishment as archaic and unjust. Yet Jesus warned us that the horror of the wrath of God remains on all people who do not respond to the good news about Christ.

If one wants to receive new life from God, then faith in God’s Son is not optional; it is essential. Without faith people remain dead toward God because their hearts remain dead spiritually. Faith in Christ is the one cure for spiritually dead hearts. Only God can bring to life the dead. He has for millions. He can for any who have not yet received Jesus.

The Source of the new birth is Jesus Christ. The Agent of the new birth is the Holy Spirit. The Initiator of the new birth is God the Father. Faith in Christ results in new, eternal life.

NEXT WEEK IN ROM. 3, 4, AND 5 WE FIND THAT ALL PEOPLE ARE GUILTY BEFORE GOD, BUT WHEN THEY EXERCISE FAITH IN CHRIST, GOD DECLARES THEM RIGHTEOUS. A.V. DAUGHERTY <altav@swbell.net>