Why Must We Be Born Again? From our Foundations in Genesis series.

Whenever you go to the doctor, the doctor will examine you and ask you several questions hoping to diagnose you correctly and therefore, give you the proper treatments to solve your issue. Well, it’s no secret that mankind has a sin issue and needs to be properly treated for it. But where do we turn to understand that problem? You guessed it – Genesis.
 
Genesis chapter 1 records the week of creation and Genesis 2 records the creation on man on day 6 of creation. Adam and Eve were living in perfect paradise, however, a dramatic turn of events occurs in chapter 3. Adam and Eve eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that God said they were not to eat of. Think of this: they had all the freedom in the world and could eat of any other tree’s fruit, but just not this one. What happened? Exactly what God said would happen – they died.
 
God told Adam in Genesis 2:17 that, “in the day you eat of it you shall surely die.” But how did they die? Physically? No… well, at least not immediately, but eventually. So how did they die that day? It was a spiritual death. Both eventual physical death and immediate spiritual death would ensue as a result of this decision to disobey God and forfeit their perfect relationship with Him. As their descendants, we’re all born into sin and spiritually dead.
 
This is a biblical view of anthropology (the study of man). We are dead in our trespasses and sins and must be made alive again spiritually. This is what Jesus meant when He said we must be born again. In John 3:3, when He said this to Nicodemus, Nicodemus was confused, “How can I be born again? Do I have to re-enter my mother’s womb?” Nicodemus wasn’t comprehending the biblical reality of the Fall and man’s spiritual death. He was confused, thinking literally, while Jesus meant spiritually.
 
It’s the same thing in John 6 where Jesus is teaching the crowds that in order to live they must eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood. He wasn’t going against the Law which said not to do those things – His words were spiritual – teaching them that by faith in Him they could have their spiritual hunger and thirst satisfied completely.

​In John 6:33 He said,

“The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.
​The words I have spoken to you – they are spirit and life.”

​Most folks go through life trying to treat their sin problem with religious activity and good deeds. Others go the other route and treat their longing for something more through negative things like drugs and alcohol or positive activities like adventure and exercise. But whether it's a non-religious and rebellious man or a religious and moral man, it doesn't matter if they don't have Jesus because only Jesus can fill the emptiness vacuum created by the removal of God's Spirit. We must be born again by faith in Christ to live. Jesus is Life. 

To properly treat your sin problem once and for all – I mean really be cured – you must go to Jesus, trusting Him as your Savior who died for your sins. He is the Life that reverses sin’s curse of death on us. Only when we believe in Him are we born again by the Spirit of God.

​Ephesians 1:13-14 says,

“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption
​of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”

This has been another devotional reminding you that
nothing makes sense except in light of Genesis.
 
Pastor Justin