| NO ONE can be saved unless he is born again by
the power of God’s Spirit. Christ says, in
John 3:7, "You must be born again." The
necessity is absolute-you must be born again.
No performance of religious rites will take the
place of the new birth. A great many people are
depending upon the fact that they say their prayers,
read their Bibles, go to church, partake of the
sacrament, and perform other duties; but all that
will not take the place of new birth. You can
be orthodox upon every doctrine also and yet be
lost forever.
Culture and refinement and outward correctness
of life will not take the place of new birth.
The trouble is not merely with our outward life:
the trouble is in our heart, in the very deepest
depths of our inward life, and merely to reform
our outward life will not save us.
Suppose you had a rotten apple. You could take
that apple to an artist, have him put a coat of
wax on it, and then paint it till it was the most
beautiful looking apple you ever saw; but it would
be just as rotten at heart as ever, and one bite
into it would be decay. The trouble is that without
Christ, you are wrong in heart. Mere culture,
mere refinement, mere respectability, mere morality,
is simply a painted coating of wax on the outside.
You must be changed, down to the deepest depths
of your being. "I tell you the truth, no
one can see the Kingdom of God unless he is born
again." John 3:3.
Are you born again? Jesus Christ preached, "Repent
and believe the good news." Mark 1:15. Repentance
is turning from sin to God. The gospel message
has power in it to transform your life.
John 1:12 reads, "Yet to all who received
Him, to those who believed in his name, he gave
the right to become children of God." We
are born again by God’s Holy Spirit, through
His Word, the moment we receive Christ. When you
take Christ into your heart He transforms you
in a moment. It doesn’t matter how worldly
you are, how sinful you are, how hard you are
— any one today who will throw his heart
open and let Jesus come in to rule and reign,
will be made a new creature in a moment by God
Himself. "He who has the Son has life; he
who does not have the Son of God does not have
life." 1 John 5:12.
Take the Next Step
Are you ready to receive Christ into your heart?
No matter what you have done, Jesus wants to
make you a new person. All you have to do is ask
him. Right now, in your own words, ask God to
forgive you for all of the bad things you have
done in your life. This is called confessing your
sins. Then ask Jesus to become the leader of your
life, to make you a new person and to guide and
shape you from this moment on. Finally, thank
God for loving you enough to not give up on you,
but to make your salvation possible through his
son, Jesus Christ. It’s that easy!
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