I'm going to write this post in a conversational manner. I need to return to this topic in amongst all the Christmas and prophecy posts. It revolves around a major problem in the church and evangelicalism today. Please bear with me.
Regeneration is everything! Nothing in our lives compares to it....not family or deaths or hopes or dreams or calamities or freedoms or liberty or our country. We in the church have lost the meaning of what happens in a soul upon regeneration!
The gospel having been watered-down for so long....combined with the collapse of the country....we are now a church that only demands that a person....assent....to the facts in the gospel. Jesus is the Son of God....I am a sinner....Jesus paid for my sins at the cross....I believe that....wallah....there is my faith....therefore I am a Christian.
Here is what really happens....the soul is dead....not just sick.....dead. God quickens that soul....it is regenerated. The Holy Spirit calls....the person not only believes.....but sees that they are undone....sees that the blood of Christ shed on Calvary satisfies the Father....if we truly believe....which is not merely assent....but trust.
At that time the regenerated soul lives....is born again....saving faith that trusts follows....then the 'unspeakable joy' of knowing Jesus! One is adopted into the the family of God....and the angels rejoice! The Holy Spirit dwells within that person....a spiritual baby....but along with regeneration....our eyes are opened to God's Word! It's is like the doors of a prison opened up....doors that until recently we did not even know were there....and we run out.....rejoicing!
No one has to be born again in this Christian culture that we live in today. A pastor related to me just the other day how someone they knew showed interest in becoming a Christian....but specifically requested that he is not interested in becoming the born again type of Christian.
Even the regenerate....even the born again....are reminded that we have to constantly examine the state of our salvation.....how much more so then should we remind all church-goers and evangelicals....that something miraculous must have happened....that our ears began to hear....and our eyes began to see....otherwise....one is fooling themselves....for there is no salvation....only an administered placebo....mental relief maybe....but with no saving power.
