Читать книгу Born Again: How to Maximize Your New Life In Christ - Ruthven Roy - Страница 9

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

John 3:16, KJV

Although the effects of Adam’s transgression are great and far-reaching, the love and mercy of God exceed them far beyond measure; for where sin abounds grace abounds even the more (Romans 5:20). Sin can never exhaust the super-abounding grace of God. The Bible says that God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Sin, while threatening impending doom upon humanity, is never a threat to God’s overflowing grace. God knew that humanity could do absolutely nothing to save itself from its terrible fate, so He made the first move toward the sinful race, extending Himself in Christ to redeem the world.

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, ¹⁹namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

2 Corinthians 5:18, 19

The great truth about salvation is that through His life and in His death, God was in Christ, reconciling (making peace with) the world to Himself. In His Son, Jesus Christ, God offered to the fallen world the ONLY door to salvation and peace.

“And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

Acts 4:12

It was Jesus, Himself, who once said: “I am the door, if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture” (John 10:9). He also said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). Christ is the only door and the only way to salvation for all Adam’s children.

Truth Nugget #4: The ONLY way out of humanity’s hell-bound dilemma is through God’s total recall of the Adam-man and his complete replacement by the Christ-man.

This completely new make-over presents no other alternative for humanity’s redemption. It is the only choice available to the lost human race. No physical or behavioral modification, or intellectual upgrade of the Adam-man, is of any value to his salvation. Absolutely nothing of the old in the BEST of humanity is of the slightest good for God’s use, for nothing pertaining to flesh (or natural life) could ever please the Almighty (Romans 8:8). God’s plan entails making everything new in the perfect life of Christ. Much more concerning this will appear later.

However, the divine miracle by which God’s redemptive do-over is executed is called the “new birth” or “born-again” experience. The in-coming spirit-life of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is humanity’s only hope to bring the race out of a life of sin, condemnation and eternal death, into an endless life of righteousness, justification and eternal peace.

. . . For if by the transgression of the one [Adam] the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many . . . ¹⁷For if by the transgression of the one [Adam], death reigned through the one [Adam], much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:15, 17, brackets mine

The rest of this volume will deal with this “new birth” experience, what it really is, how it is achieved and what the “born-again” life really looks like. So keep reading . . .