Preface: I want this post to be somewhere near the top....for the topic is that important. The Christian....the typical Christian in American evangelicalism....needs to ask themselves this question....'Is this what salvation really is?' I mean...if you look at it....it's really not that much....a church service here....a bible study there....an occasional mention of God's Word....(this the most glorious and awesome possession in this world)....a verse quoted possibly....if time permits and it fits in the conversation....and some Progressive got us angry enough? We live by a conservative agenda in politics that we passionately pursue....to insure that our 401s remain sound....and low-income housing stays where it should be....in the cities....and our schools don't teach says something to our child that we don't want them to teach....(our children's views on America we care about....on being born again....not so much) What is happening to Florida? Is this what we are becoming....is this our heaven on earth....golf carts and marinas? Is Rand Paul emblematic of who we have become....or Ron DeSantis who recently told a CPAC crowd of all people...."put on the full armor of God....to stand firm against the Left's schemes"....where we will be "met with flaming arrows, but the shield of faith will stop them."? I have yet to read of where any minister in America rebuked him on this gross distortion of God's Word. Is Ann Coulter saved? (I could pick any one of a number of these our avatars) Easter is coming up and she will add a tweet or two on the resurrection....is this the new Christian....is that all there is to Christianity....crass politics and a few good words thrown in for God? Tom Brady announced over the weekend that he is returning to football....and the men of the church probably commented more on that than the nearness of the return of the Lord of glory....in judgment! R. C. Sproul....after over fifty years of ministry....his voice hoarse with some ailment....gave his last sermon titled....A Great Salvation....and shortly after went to be with his Lord. Google up and listen to that sermon sometime. Billy Graham who served even longer....and warned right up to the time that he could no longer converse....also went to be with his Lord....his duty fulfilled....as the church ignored him just as the Jerusalem ignored Jeremiah. Well....I'm rambling....but at least ask yourself this question in all humility...."is this mindset that we have fallen into....all that there is to this....supposed 'great salvation'?"
At One Moment.....And The Next Moment
At one moment the soul is dead.....not just sick.....but stone cold dead. The next moment it is alive....regenerated by God. At one moment a brilliant mind can read through the entire Bible and understand concepts....retain everything....and even systematize it all with the very best of minds....but none of that information enters the heart....and there is no power. The next moment even the most simple-minded of us can read but one passage....struggling maybe with words.....unfamiliar with basic concepts.....yet those few words that were understood come with a power of which even God's holy angels must be astonished. This is one aspect of what is being born again.
God does the choosing of who is to be born again. He not only does not look at the mind....but is more likely to choose the less exalted minds....because His glory is thereby shown greater....but He also chooses at times the brilliant minds for His purposes of then having them teach....and even here these minds are brilliant to begin with....because He made them brilliant.....for this very purpose.
A person's works.....whether they would be of mercy or just fairness towards all and honesty....have no place in God's choosing that person to be born again....for God even gave those good works to men to uphold societies and governments.
At one moment a soul is a member of the family of man....in the next moment....after having been born again....that soul is adopted into the family of God....of which God will then keep His child....through thick and thin....just to use that familiar but understandable phrase.
At one moment that soul's name is not written anywhere in the Lamb's book of life....the next moment it is not only written there....but written with an ink that can never be erased.
At one moment a person may focus on God....and choose to either be devoutly religious....or ambiguous of it all....or in outright opposition to the God being focused upon. This is all his choice....but he has no choice to be born again. The next moment that same person may be dragged kicking and screaming to a realization that this God is holy....and that he this man is not. He may find.....without understanding it at all at the time....that his soul has been regenerated. He then not only believes and is born again....but the power of that salvation dominates him....and is evident to everyone around him.
I write these things for one reason....not as any kind of doctrinal teaching.....for others have done that far better than I ever could....but to emphasize here....not to the committed unbeliever.....but the professed believer....that our salvation is not something that is barely recognizable....but that which is so full of power that although we may not understand it....nor even know the day or the hour that it happened....we cannot but realize that a great salvation has indeed occurred! So if you profess to be saved....no matter what your knowledge or history or even reputation as having been saved....and you may even concur with all of the above....if the overwhelming power and glory and omniscience and sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ does not permeate every thought....every minute of every day....whether they be good or even sinful thoughts....then you must right now....even at this moment....find out why....for you may very well attest to.....and believe in what you attest to....and even be devout in your belief....but may never have been born a second time....from above!
Jesus did not say to Nicodemus...."Unless one is at synagogue on the sabbath....and attends a Torah study once a week..." He rather said...."Truly, truly,....(emphasis here)....I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3
