WHO IS A CHRISTIAN?
One of the nightmares confronting
present-day pastors is how to separate genuine Christians from false professors
of Christ. Some unbelievers in the church are ignorant of new creation
realities whereas others who are in church with devilish agenda know exactly
what they are doing.
Virtually everybody in church claims to be
born again whereas in reality only few have genuine salvation experience.
Nowadays, it is rare to hear a testimony on salvation of soul. In some churches
salvation testimony is not regarded as “hot” enough for presentation,
forgetting that the most important testimony after the incarnation of Christ is
the salvation of soul.
In the developed countries of the world
people are getting disenchanted with going to church preferring to search for
esoteric things that are unprofitable. In the developing regions of Africa,
Asia and Latin America where people throng the church the motive is usually for
creative and material miracles, producing claims of new birth from the head
rather than from the heart.
Jesus told
Nicodemus, a member of the Sanhedrin, Israeli’s highest ruling body: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”
(John 3:3, 5). One needs to be born again to “see” the kingdom of God. Again,
one needs to be born of water and the Holy Spirit to enter the kingdom of
God.
All Have Sinned
All that come
into the world are born spiritually dead destined for the lake of fire. The new
birth is a change in destiny and destination. It is attained through
repentance, restitution and deliverance from evil inheritance and incubated
satanic deposits in the body. To be born again according to John 3:3, 5 means
translation from death to life, ability to see the basic nature of things from
the perspective of heaven and the power to be on the narrow road to life
eternal.
Since God
commands all to be born again, it then means something is wrong with the first
birth. The reason God sent His only begotten Son the Lord Jesus Christ into the
world is to redeem mankind. To redeem is
to buy back. Jesus offered His sinless blood as the ransom for the redemption
of those who are willing to avail themselves of the privilege. It is an act of
grace, entirely devoid of merit. A birth gives right to life. The new birth is not reformation but a
recreation. It bestows the divine nature on the recipient. It is a new life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Translation from
death to life does not automatically put a Christian on the road to life. A
born again Christian can refuse to ‘see’ spiritual things, fail to exercise the
power to be on the narrow road to heaven by refusing to take the sincere milk
of the of God for growth. It should not surprise any careful observer that
there are many born again Christians in this category.
You Must Be Born
Again
Jesus said you
must be born again of water and the Holy Spirit to enter heaven. Since there is
a road that leads to the gate of heaven, it follows that one must discover the
road and determine to walk along it in the power of the Holy Spirit and the
Word of God. Just as repentance without
restitution is not complete even so translation from death to life is
incomplete without deliverance.
How To Be Born
Again
Apostle Paul
said “In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel” (1 Corinthians
4:15) affirming that the gospel of Christ is the power of God to salvation for
everyone who believes. The preaching of the gospel leads to repentance.
When the gospel
is preached in the unction of the Holy Spirit, it produces conviction of sin by
pricking the heart for godly sorrow for repentance or worldly sorrow for death
with three results. “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” This is an honest
inquiry on how to be saved. This amounts to calling on the name of the Lord in
faith.
A second
response could be outright rejection of the message. The people said “Crucify him;” or “picked-up
stones to throw at the preacher.” In modern parlance it means verbal and
non-verbal scoffing, mocking or throwing tantrums at the preacher, giving
unreasonable condition to accept Christ or diverting the subject-matter into
other areas.
A third reaction
is remorse or worldly sorrow for sin, which is conviction without accompanying
change of mind. The Holy Spirit alone knows when sorrow for sin is genuine and
call on name of Jesus is from the heart and not the head.
There are a
number of activities performed by the Holy Spirit consequent upon conviction of
sin following godly sorrow for sin such as sealing of the believer into the
mystical Body of Christ and highlighting of name of Hypostatic Chip in the
Lamb’s Book of Life. When a person is born again his or her name is written in
the Lamb’s Book of Life. The name does not refer to the human name of the
person concerned but the identity of the Hypostatic Chip implanted into the
person at the point of regeneration. The names of the Chips were written in the
Lamb’s Book of Life before the creation of the earth. What happens is that when
an unregenerate person is translated from death to life, the Chip that
evidenced the translation is marked with a label such as ‘allocated’ and the result is a ‘new
creation’ capable of being like Christ if the programme in the Chip is explored
and obeyed through action borne out of faith in Christ.
