You Must Be Born Again

 " Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.' ”

John 3:3

What does it really mean to be born again?

We have all heard the term 'born-again' Christian as it became popular during the Jesus movement of the '70's, but it was never really defined. Often it seemed to be used to describe a certain type of Christian -- 'A born again Christian,' as if to differentiate between born again Christians and other types of Christians. Gradually it seems to have lost it's meaning entirely to the point that the rebirth, or regeneration has all but vanished from the church's lexicon.

When Nicodemus came to Jesus he was obviously confused when Jesus said that unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God. Jesus explained that when someone is born again they become something that is completely new and completely different:

"Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.' ” - John 3:5-8

The first thing to notice is in verse three. The word for 'see' can be translated 'to perceive' or 'to understand.' What Jesus is saying is that without the rebirth the Kingdom of God is completely incomprehensible. In verse three Jesus isn't even talking about entereing the kingdom. The kingdom isnt something that can enter the un-reborn mind. Paul expressed it this way:

"For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." - 1 Corinthians 1:18

To the unregenerate mind the gospel message is nonsense. I remember years ago talking to a man who had gone with his girlfriend to see The Passion of The Christ. I asked him what he thought about it. His response was, "It was OK if you believe all that stuff." Apparently he didn't believe it and it made no impact on him at all.

Paul also states:

"But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”—  these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God." - 1 Corinthians 2:9-10

This passage has been grossly misused by many, particularly those in the word/faith and the health/wealth movements. It has been interpreted to mean that God has a wonderful plan for your life, to prosper you beyond your wildest dreams. This is a continuous thought from chapter one. Paul is talking about the gospel. The key is verse ten; "God has revealed to us through the spirit." Without the revelation of the Holy Spirit the gospel is nonsense.

In the mindset of Nicodemus' day, the idea was that Messiah would come and the 'kingdom' was going to be the restoration of the Israelite kingdom which all the people would participate in. So Jesus was explaining that the kingdom of God was something that could not be perceived, let alone entered into, with out being born again.

In verse six Jesus makes it apparent that there is a vast difference between the earthly birth and the spiritual birth. Paul explains the new birth as making us a completely new creation:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." - 2 Corinthians 5:17

Verse eight explains that the wind blows but we cannot see it or know where it came from but can see the results. Unregenerate man can see that a born again individual has become very different but cannot understand what caused the change. The change from simply natural birth to spiritual birth is so radical that it is obvious to others around you but the cause is still a mystery... until they are born again as well.

The next point is a little bit puzzling because Jesus seems to imply that Nicodemus, being a teacher of the law, should have understood this. While the concept of rebirth or regeneration is not stated as such in the Old Testament, the process is explained in both Ezekiel and Jeremiah.

"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." - Ezekiel 36:26-27

The contrast between a heart of stone and a heart of flesh is that one is inanimate, nonliving, or dead, and a heart of flesh is one that is alive. Spiritually, a person that is not born again is dead. What God is saying here is that he is going to remove the dead heart that cannot respond to God's call and replace it with a heart that is alive and can respond to God's call. He also says that he will put His Spirit in us and that His Spirit will cause us to be obedient. When Peter preached his first sermon on Pentecost it says that the people were cut to the heart and asked what they needed to do. Peter responded:

"And Peter said to them, 'Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.' " - Acts 2:38

This indwelling of the Holy Spirit was foretold in Ezekiel. It was also foretold in Joel which Peter references in Acts 2:17-21. Jeremiah explains that God was going to make a new covenant with Israel in which he would write his law on their hearts. This is accomplished by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.


"Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” - Jeremiah 31:31-34

Interestingly, these prophecies weren't always understood to mean the giving of the Holy Spirit. In Acts 19 Paul encountered some believers who had been baptized but had not received the Holy Spirit.

"And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John's baptism.” And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.
There were about twelve men in all." - Acts 19:1-7

The Old Testament never explicitly calls Him the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is refered to as 'The Spirit of God' or 'My Spirit.' However, any Spirit of God would be certainly a very Holy Spirit. So the giving of the Holy Spirit is not a new idea. It was spoken about in the Old Testament centuries earlier.

WHEN DOES THE REBIRTH OCCUR?

This passage seems to imply that the rebirth and the receiving the Holy Spirit do not occur at the same time. As we have seen from 1 Corinthians 1-2, without the rebirth, the message of the gospel is foolishness. And in John 3, it is not something that the unregenerate man can fathom. Yet these men from Ephesus had embraced the gospel message but had not received the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:7 says:

"The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so." (NIV)

Without the rebirth we will reject the gospel. Paul explains in Ephesians that we all were previously in that state.

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus," - Ephesians 2:1-6

The word for dead is necros. It literally means 'dead.' Spiritually we were dead. Dead people cannot hear. That means in our deadness we cannot hear the gospel. In order for us to hear the gospel we need to be made alive. Ezekiel describes this in the well known passage about the dry bones in chapter 37. Ezekiel is shown a valley full of dry bones. These were not only dead but they had been dead for a long time. The bones had completely dried up. There was no way they were going to come back to life humanly speaking. But God demonstrated that it was possible with Him and only Him. Paul Washer stated in his sermon entitled 'Regeneration Versus The Idolatry of Decisional Evangelism' that this chapter describes the conversion of men. Just as it is impossible for these bones to live, it is also impossible for sinful man to respond to the gospel call. As unregenerate people we are just as dead as these dry bones. We are completely without hope. The only way we are going to come to Christ is if we are raised to life. 

"And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the LORD; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the LORD.” - Ezekiel 37:13-14

Notice in the latter part of these verses that God says he will put his Spirit in us. This is yet another prophecy of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The word 'and' seems to imply that it is after we have been raised to life that he will put his spirit in us. In order for us to respond to the gospel call we have to be made alive. Only once we are made alive are we able to hear the voice of our savior calling. Then once we hear and respond with true repentance we receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

WHAT ABOUT FREE WILL?

Interestingly, the Bible never says we have free will. It actually says in Romans 8 that the mind governed by the flesh is death. Jesus said that no man can come to him unless the Father draws him in John 6:44. The word for 'draw' is the same word that was used to describe them pulling in the nets full of fish. It doesn't mean to entice or encourage. It literally means to pull or drag. We have free will in the sense that our will is not controlled by outside forces, but our will is controlled by our nature. Just like a lion will make a free-will choice to kill and eat sheep because it's his nature, we will make a free-will choice to reject the gospel because, in our unregenerate state, that is what our nature will cause us to do. unless... God raises us to life and gives us a new nature that desires to follow God instead of reject him.

But you say, aren't we told to 'choose? Yes we are told to choose life. But the Old Testament history demonstrated that unregenerate man will always make the wrong choice. Unless God removes the dead heart of stone and gives us a living heart of flesh and puts his Spirit in us, we will make the free-will choice to rebel. The very fact we were able to make the choice to follow Christ was because God raised us to life so we could choose to follow him.

CONCLUSION

Years ago I had a friend whose wife died very suddenly. Literally they were walking and she suddenly collapsed -- dead. It was determined that she had died of an aneurysm. The tragic thing was that the aneurysm was in a place that it could have been repaired, IF THEY HAD KNOWN IT WAS THERE.

That is the state of the unsaved world. Just like this woman who was completely unaware that she had a ticking time bomb inside of her, most of humanity is just going along like nothing is wrong not realizing that we all, apart from Jesus, have a ticking time bomb in us that could go off at any time. In the words of Martin Lloyd-Jones, "The gospel has one message for the unrepentant sinner -- JUDGMENT." x

"And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, 'Save yourselves from this crooked generation.' ” -  Act 2:40  

The message the early apostles preached was one of warning. Judgment was coming. That message has largely been replaced by what God wants to do in your life; 'fill the emptiness,' 'heal your brokenness,' etc. Sin if it is mentioned at all is treated as something rather unfortunate and is rarely defined. Repentence has also largely disappeared from the church's lexicon.

The objection voiced by some is: But if you preach like that people won't come.

The response: True. Those who aren't truly being saved most likely won't stick around. But those who are being saved will be convicted and will be saved.

We must be careful that we aren't preaching a message that would appeal to an unrepentant sinner. Filling emptiness and healing brokenness sounds good to everyone. Preaching such a message will guarantee that our churches will be full of unrepentant sinners. Often these people find themselves in places of leadership. With a church literally around every corner it seems we should be having more of an impact on our culture. Maybe this is why. As one preacher said, "We don't have a lot of churches. We have a lot of pretty brick buildings with steeples and manicured lawns"

We need to get back to preaching the same gospel that the early church preached and not worry about making the message more appealing to the world. The message of the cross is always going to be nonsense to the dying world, but to the ones who are being saved it is the power of God to save. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

You Don't Have to be Perfect, But You Have to be Honest

 "And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, 'Let me go, for the day has broken.' But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he said to him, 'What is your name?' And he said, 'Jacob.' Then he said, 'Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.' " (Genesis 32: 24-28)

The fascinating thing to me is that when Jacob said he wouldn't quit until the angel blessed him, the angel responded by asking Jacob his name. If he was the Angel of the Lord, certainly he knew Jacob's name. So if he wasn't looking for information, what was he doing?

Twenty years earlier, Jacob, at his mother, Rebecca's prodding, tricked his father into giving him the blessing by pretending to be someone he wasn't. And when Isaac asked him who he was he responded, "I am Esau, your firstborn."
He lied, TWICE.

Now twenty years have come and gone. He has been tricked into marrying the wrong woman. He has been cheated out of his wages ten times. The deceiver has been deceived. The conniver has been outmaneuvered and now he is about to face the music with his brother Esau. Thus, what the divine visitor is saying, "Let's try this again! What is your name?"

This time he tells the truth and answers, "Jacob."

That's right. Your name is Jacob, the deceiver, conniver, 'the one who grabs the heal.'

Now that Jacob has told the truth, he can receive the blessing.

His name is now Israel -- 'One who prevails with God.'

The lesson we learn from this is that you don't have to be perfect in order to come to Christ. But you do have to be honest. True repentance requires us to be honest or it is not true repentance.

"Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the LORD your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the LORD."  (Jeremiah 3:13)

Furthermore, 1 John stresses that there needs to be a conscious acknowledging of our sin.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."  (1:9)

So come to Christ just as you are. BE HONEST,  and let him change and bless you.

Without Christ, The Veil Remains

 2 Corinthians 3:15-16,  "Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed."

Years ago I had a conversation with the pastor of a church I was attending about cessationism and 'sufficiency of scripture.' In particular I asked him what he thought about the support for cessationism using 2 Timothy 3:16 considering at the time Paul wrote those words, the New Testament wasn't completed. This is what he answered.

"Scripture is sufficient. It always has been sufficient. Think about this, everything is contained in the first five books of the Bible. The entire plan of redemption is there. The rest of the Old Testament is really a commentary on those five books. And in many ways, the New Testament is a commentary on the Old Testament."

In the years since then I have realized just how true his statement was. By the third chapter of Genesis sin had entered the world along with the promise that the seed of the woman would undo the curse and defeat the serpent.

Often people equate the Old Testament and the Old Covenant as being one and the same. That isn't the case. The Old Testament covers nearly 4,000 years of history, from creation until about 400 years before the time of Christ. The Old Covenant covers a time period of about 900 years from the giving the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai until the Babylonian captivity. Even though the terms of the covenant still applied until the time of Christ, it was never fully realized after the exiles returned. The ark was gone, the direct priestly line of Aaron was lost, and the shekinah glory never returned to the new temple.

So the Old Covenant was really a 'story within the story.' But even so, the Old Covenant was a 'faith based' covenant that pointed to Jesus Christ. It wasn't just about keeping the law. It depended entirely of the animal sacrifices being made to atone for sin. The entire New Testament book of Hebrews explains how the Old Covenant was a foreshadowing of the finished work of Christ that would happen in the future.

"For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." (Hebrews 10:1-4)

Then in verse 14 of the same chapter;

"For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified."

The entire Old Covenant was fulfilled by Jesus Christ. When he surrendered his spirit to the Father the veil in the temple was torn signifying that the Old Covenant was no longer necessary.

The Veil on their hearts.

The Old Covenant contained 613 laws and ordinances which included the Ten Commandments. By the time of Jesus, the Pharisees and the ruling class had added several thousand more. Jesus condemned their practices numerous times but particularly in Matthew 15:9 and then repeated in Mark 7:7.

"In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’”

Because of the hardness of their hearts and the pursuit of their own righteousness, they completely failed to see that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament. In John 5:39-40, Jesus spoke of His witness in the Scriptures.

"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life."

They were placing their faith on their own righteousness and their own ability to keep the law. Jesus went on to remind them about how Moses wrote about Him.

"Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope.
For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:45-47)

Notice the words, 'Moses, on whom you have set your hope.' They had literally made an idol out of Moses and elevated him above God.

But what did Moses actually say?

Deuteronomy 18:15  “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—"

The only one who truly fits the mold of 'a prophet like me' was Jesus Christ.

Moses -- Old Covenant               
Led people out slavery ofEgypt.                                                    

Jesus -- New Covenant
Led people from slavery of sin.                                                      

There isn't time to go into all of the quotations of Jesus and the apostles that contain paraphrase, 'That it might be fulfilled what was written in the prophets,' but there are many such references.

One of the most striking passages is in Luke.

"Then he said to them, 'These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.' Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.' " (Luke 24:44-47)

Verse 45 is the key, 'Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures.' As it was stated in the opening passage to this article, without coming to Christ the veil remains and a person will not understand the scriptures.

I have heard it said that there is nothing more dangerous than a Bible in the hands of an unconverted person, especially when these people are in positions of leadership. The Bible has been used as a means to abuse and mistreat others as well as to defend some truly heinous acts. We see this with the religious leaders of Jesus's day. The leaders lorded it over the populous. We see the same thing today, not only with various 'Christian cults' but even among mainstream evangelical Christianity. Paul addressed this in Colossians.

 "If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations—“Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh." (Colossians 2:20-23)

While the veil remains, the Bible is nothing more than a rule book that has no actual ability to change us. But when Jesus Christ comes, the veil is removed and we are given the ability to 'understand the scriptures' as they are meant to be understood. The scriptures are no longer a set of rules that must be followed. They are the revelation of our Savior and the door through which the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and transforms us into the image of God's only begotten Son.

The Gospel Call To Repent

 Matthew 3:2  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Matthew 4: 17;  "From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”



The word 'repent' has all but disappeared from the modern church's lexicon. And when it is used, what it means to truly repent fails to be adequately explained. Often it is defined as nothing more than behavior modification which I will explain more later.

On the first Pentecost after Jesus ascended back to the Father, Peter preached a sermon that can be summed up in one sentence, 'Jesus the Nazarene was the Messiah and you killed him.' When the people heard the message we are told that they were 'cut to the heart' and said;

"Men and brethren, what shall we do?"  (Acts 2: 37)

The first word out of Peter's mouth was, 'REPENT!'

He did not issue an altar call or ask for a show of hands of those who wanted to ask Jesus into their hearts and ask them to 'repeat after me.' In fact, the altar call and 'sinners prayer' are found nowhere in the New Testament nor are they found throughout most of church history.

The first call to action the gospel gives is to 'REPENT!'

As Voddie Baucham said, the gospel requires two things of us, "repentance and faith." The gospel does not tell us to ask Jesus into our hearts, although the indwelling of the Holy Spirit accomplishes that. But look at the full response Peter gave to the crowd:

"And Peter said to them, 'Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.' "
Acts 2: 38

The Holy Spirit comes when we repent.

What is repentance?

One of the definitions Webster's gives for repent is; 'to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life.'

Essentially it means to change one's mind. often we make the mistake of believing repentance is behavior modification.

For example:
"I quit drinking alcohol."
"I used to sleep in on Sunday morning but now I go to church."
"I quit smoking."

The problem is behavior modification may change your actions but it doesn't change your heart, or your nature. You can change your behaviors and still be absolutely hateful in your heart. Jesus explained this in the Sermon on The Mount:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire."

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

(Matthew 5: 21-22, 27-28)

From these two commandments from the Old Covenant He showed us that while it may be possible to refrain from committing the actual acts of sin, it doesn't change the sinful nature.

True repentance is complete surrender to God and coming under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Paul describes it as 'putting to death the old man." (Romans 6: 6; Colosians 3: 5)

Jesus said in Matthew 16:24;

"Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.' "

The way of the cross is one of repentance. It is a complete repudiation of our old way of life and surrendering to the lordship of Christ in all things.

One thing it is not:  It is not an emotional feeling or response.

If we don't repent?

Years ago I listened to a recording of a sermon delivered by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones. While I can't remember the main subject of his sermon I remember this one sentence:

"The gospel has but one message for the unrepentant sinner -- Judgment awaits."

Jesus said something very similar in Luke 13:1-5;

"There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, 'Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.' "

This is not the message typically preached in most churches today. Generally the gospel message today centers around what Jesus can do for you. But it doesn't address our greatest need which is to be saved from eternal judgment.
Our greatest need is NOT to be delivered from addiction, broken relationships or financial problems. Our greatest need is to be saved from the judgment that our sins deserve. Gospel messages that focus on our desires or immediate needs are not true gospels. Jesus actually warned against that in Mark 8:36;

"For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?"

You may get free from addiction; you may get your marriage back or relationships with your grown children restored; you may get the dream job that allows you to get completely out of debt. But what good will it do when you die if you didn't have your sins forgiven?

If you don't repent, you aren't saved. There is only eternal judgment waiting.

A word to pastors

One of the mistakes many good pastors make today is assuming that every one in their congregation is saved. The fact is, many in churches today responded to an unbliblical gospel message so it is very likely that many in churches today are not saved.

Often messages center around encouraging words like, 'God has won your battle,' 'He is for you, not against you,' He has a wonderful plan for your life,' etc. The promises of God that apply to those he has redeemed don't apply to those who have not truly repented. But pastors often preach to their congregation as if the promises do apply without making the distinction between the repentant and unrepentant. It is imperative that preaching is always centered on the gospel and the gospel call to repent. The gospel message will convict those who are being saved. It will condemn those who are not being saved.

So what must we do?

"Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!" (2 Corinthians 13:5)

The Christian life is one of self-examination. We should always be measuring ourselves against the truth contained in God's word and striving to become more like Jesus Christ. Another way of saying it is that the Christian life is one of repentance.

I am not suggesting the possibility that someone can lose their salvation. If you are truly saved then you are saved for all eternity. What I am saying is that if you haven't repented than you might believe you are saved when you really aren't.
Earlier I mentioned Voddie Baucham's statement about the gospel requiring two things from us; repentance and faith.

"...repent and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15)

While the gospel requires repentence and faith, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit produces obedience.

 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14)

Sanctification is a lifelong process that will not be completed in our lifetime. We will not achieve perfection before we die.
But if your life is not characterized by surrendered obedience and growing in Christlikeness, then it is a very real possibility that you are not saved.

So what if, after careful examination you realize that you haven't repented? If you are still alive then there is still time. It is not too late:

"Repent and believe the gospel." 

And you will be saved.

Ministry is The Job of The Church Body

 "Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord." And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”  But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem.  And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.”  But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

        So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”  And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized;"
Acts 9:10-18

Most of us are familiar with the story of the conversion of Saul, who later became Paul. Paul would go on to take three missionary journeys which covered much of southern Europe and write thirteen books in the New Testament.

However, very little is known about this man, Ananias,  who was the first person to mentor this man who had so vehemently persecuted the church. Aside from these few verses and Paul mentioning him when he testified before the people in Acts 22, Ananias is never mentioned in scripture again. All we know about him is that he was a disciple, a follower of Christ. There is no mention that he held any position in the church such as elder or deacon. As far as we know, Ananias was simply a member of the local church.

Somehow many have gotten the idea that the pastors and elders are the ones who do the work of ministry and the rest of us, 'lay members' simply offer support both in prayer and finances. But this narrative shows us that God uses average people to do the work of ministry. In fact, the purpose for the offices within the church is to prepare the people to be able to go out and do just that.

"And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ."
Ephesians 4:11-12

In the church at Damascus, the leaders had prepared Ananias to be able to minister to this new convert who would do monumental work in the future.

Another example is Aquila and Priscilla. They are mentioned several times in the New Testament. While it is obvious that they were people of influence, there is no mention that they held any specific office in the church. However, we know they spent quite a bit of time with the apostle Paul in Corinth and then in Ephesus. Some time after Paul left them, a Jew named Apollos came to Ephesus preaching about the ways of God. When Aquila and Priscilla heard him they took him aside and taught him "the way of God more accurately." (Acts 18:26)

Paul had mentored Aquila and Priscilla so well that they were able to minister to this Jewish evangelist who passed through their town and in turn, enable him to be a much more effective minister of the gospel.

For the body of Christ to be truly effective, it needs to abandon the model where the pastors and elders do the work of the ministry while the laity sit quietly and 'pay and pray.' The pastors and elders need to be about equipping the laity to go out and do the work of ministry. Only then can the body of Christ be truly effective.

The Seventy 'Sevens' of Daniel. It's Not What You Think It Is.

 Most of us who have studied end time prophecies are very familiar with the seventy ‘sevens’ of Daniel 9. It is one of the ‘go-to’ chapters in the Bible that scholars in the modern era use to determine end time events. Most popular interpretations teach that this prophecy, particularly  the 70th week, is where we get the scriptural basis for the seven year Great Tribulation.

But is that really what the 70 sevens are about?

When reading anything in Scripture it's important to understand, ‘a text without a context is a pretext.’ It is also vital to make a serious attempt to understand the original audience and how they would have understood it.

The context

Chapter 9 of Daniel begins with him praying. He had been studying the writings of Jeremiah (25:11-12; 29:10) and understands that the exile was to last for 70 years. At the time of Daniel's prophecy, those years are coming to an end.

Daniel 9:20-22

“While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the Lord my God for his holy hill

while I was still in prayer, Gabriel, the man I had seen in the earlier vision, came to me in swift flight about the time of the evening sacrifice.

He instructed me and said to me, ‘Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding.’ “

The first thing to understand is that this prophecy is coming to Daniel in response to his prayer. Daniel hasn't asked about the end times. He is petitioning about the Jewish people and the city of Jerusalem and the temple. So this answer Gabriel delivers is a specific response to Daniel’s prayer. Continuing in verse 23:

“As soon as you began to pray, a word went out, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the word and understand the vision: “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place. Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’ It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble. After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed. He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him. ”

Daniel referenced Jeremiah 29:10 at the beginning of the chapter and knew that the captivity was to last 70 years. 

Jeremiah 29:10

“This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.”

The seventy years are only mentioned one time in Jeremiah in that one verse. Undoubtedly he had read all of Jeremiah or at least large portions of it. So it is reasonable to assume that he had also read somewhat farther in Chapter 31:31-34.

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, 

“when I will make a new covenant 

with the people of Israel 

and with the people of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant 

I made with their ancestors 

when I took them by the hand 

to lead them out of Egypt, 

because they broke my covenant, 

though I was a husband to them, ” declares the Lord.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel 

after that time,” declares the Lord. 

“I will put my law in their minds 

and write it on their hearts. 

I will be their God, 

and they will be my people.

No longer will they teach their neighbor, 

or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ 

because they will all know me, 

from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. 

“For I will forgive their wickedness 

and will remember their sins no more.”

With that background, knowing that a new covenant was coming, Daniel would likely have understood what he records in 9:24 to be the completion and fulfillment of the Old Covenant:

“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.”

So Daniel was praying, confessing the national sins of the Jewish people and asking God to restore the nation and Gabriel came to tell Daniel the timeline left for the Jewish nation. Essentially there was another 490 years before God was going to bring his entire plan of redemption to completion.

Problems in counting.

There are a few difficulties in understanding the seventy ‘sevens.’ One of them is determining when to start counting. Jeremiah said the exile would be seventy years. In reality, Jerusalem fell in 586 BC to the Babylonians. Cyrus decreed that the Jews could return in 539 BC. That was only 47 years. But if we start counting from when Babylon first came against Jerusalem sometime around 608 BC we get closer to 70 years. Also from 539 BC, until the time of Christ is significantly more than 490 years.

But again, maybe that isn't where we should start counting. Verse 25 of chapter 9 doesn't say from the time the Jews can return. It says, 

“From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild the city.” 

Cyrus's decree was to build a temple and allow the Jews to return.” The verbiage in Daniel 9 doesn't say anything about the temple, nor does it say ‘a decree.’ It simply says ‘From the time the word goes out…’ Crucial to the restoration was building the wall. That didn't happen until the time of Nehemiah nearly a century later. If that is the case, we should start counting from the time of Ezra and Nehemiah which would have been around 450 BC. 70 ‘sevens’ would take us to around 40 AD. If we subtract one ‘seven’ we arrive at 33 AD. That is approximately the time of Christ's ministry.

Some insight is seen in 2 Chronicles 36:21:

“The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.”

From the time of the kingdom until the Babylonians took Jerusalem was approximately 400-450 years. If the land sabbaths had not been observed then seventy years would have been needed to fulfill that obligation. With the end of the exile the debt was paid. This adds up to roughly 490 years. Now in answer to Daniel's prayer, Gabriel is telling him that there is another 490 year period necessary to complete the Old Covenant and bring in the New.

Seven 'sevens' and sixtytwo 'sevens.'

One thing that is unclear in the vision is the distinction between the first group of sevens and the second group of sevens because it is not clearly explained in the vision. Some have opined that the first group, seven 'sevens which is fortynine years was the time it took to rebuild Jerusalem. This is very plausible but I think we can add that if we are to start counting from the time of Nehemiah, then fortynine years would take us to around 400bc. That is about the time Malachi laid down his quill. Part of this prophecy was to "to seal up vision and prophecy." That would be completed with the finishing of the Old Testament. Then would follow sixtytwo weeks, or 434 years of silence from the Holy Spirit. That is approximately the time from Malachi until John the Baptist.

From the time of Moses until Malachi there had not been a time period of more than about twenty years without some divine revelation from the Holy Spirit. Now there would be centuries with no word from the Holy Spirit.

The writer of the apocraphal book of 1 Maccabbees makes this statement in chapter 9 verse 27;

"So there was great distress in Israel, the worst since the time when prophets ceased to appear among them."

The Maccabeean rebellion occured around 165bc. So by this time nearly two and a half centuries had passed since the completion of the Old Testament. The absence of the prophets must have been acutely felt because it is significant that it was worthy of mention in this history.

So it would appear that Gabriel was telling Daniel that from the time the word went out, there would be fortynine years until the completion of the Old Testament and then another 434 years of silence until the Messiah would come. 

The final ‘seven.’ 

Daniel 9:26-27

“After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing. The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.

He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”

This is where it gets complicated and there are a number of possible interpretations for this. But there are some things we have to remember;

1. Verse 25 shows us the ‘Anointed one’ and the ‘ruler’ are one and the same. That can only mean Jesus.

2. The people of the ruler were the Jews. They rejected him for the most part. 

Contemporary interpretations figure there is a time lapse and that the Great Tribulation is the final week. That is the sole reason the church believes that the Great Tribulation is a seven year period just before Christ returns. The problem is there is no indication that these weeks aren't to be understood as being consecutive. 

Up until the early part of the nineteenth century there was no church teaching that believed that this final seven was about the end times. If you study both Matthew Henry's and John Gill's commentaries, they explain the seventieth week to end with the destruction of Jerusalem. The idea that there is a time lapse between week 69 and 70 didn't come about until the teachings of John Nelson Darby and C. I. Scofield. 

This creates a serious problem because we have to ask ourselves, Was the church wrong for over eighteen hundred years and did God suddenly give us some new revelation? That would allow the possibility that the Canon of Scripture isn't closed. There isn't time to go into it here but upon investigation we see that dispensationalism, the pre-tribulation rapture and the seven year ‘Great Tribulation’ are the result of taking liberties with the texts. That, along with the ‘new revelations’ makes these interpretations completely impossible.

Here are some possible interpretations;

• The seventieth week begins with Jesus's baptism and his earthly ministry. He teaches and explains the new Covenant.

• After 3.5 years (middle of the week) He is crucified. That makes the atonement and ushers in the everlasting righteousness. At the moment he dies the veil of the temple is torn, signifying the end of the Old Testament sacrificial system. 

• 3.5 years later, Stephen becomes the first martyr which begins the persecution of Christians in Jerusalem and many Christians leave the city, thus ending the seventy weeks determined for the holy city. While the city of Jerusalem continued to survive for another 35 years or so, the end was unavoidable and the relationship with Rome steadily deteriorated until Titus finally destroyed the city and the temple in 70 AD.

The Abomination that Causes Desolation

The abomination that causes desolation causes a lot of confusion and I am convinced the reason for this is we assume that when the Bible speaks of it, it is referring to the same thing. But it happened in the middle of the 2nd century BC, when Antiochus Epiphenes, the Seleucid ruler placed a statue of Zeus in the temple and sacrificed a pig on the altar. It appeared to have happened when Emperor Caligula attempted to place a statue of himself in the temple. It is possible it will happen again. But that doesn't mean that this specific prophecy applies to a future abomination.

Also, some translations translate it as the ‘abomination that causes desolation,’ others, like the King James translate it as:

Daniel 9:27 KJV

“And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”

This indicates more than one abomination. The fact that for the most part, the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah and had made an idol out of the Mosaic law, was in itself an abomination and the disobedience of the Jews caused their desolation.

Here are some possible interpretations:

• One suggestion is that when the veil was torn it allowed the common folk to enter the holy place. That would have desecrated the old temple effectively destroying it.

• Around the time that Stephen was stoned, the emperor, Caligula attempted to place a statue of himself in the temple. Apparently he had succeeded in placing statues of himself in various synagogues but never succeeded in placing one in the temple.

• Another interpretation is that once the persecution of the church began in earnest in Jerusalem and most Christians fled, it set the stage for the end of the city. Similar to the fall when God told Adam ‘on the day you eat the fruit you will die,’ Adam didn't die that day but death was now inevitable. This seems to be indicated by the sentence in verse 26:

“The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.”

When the Jews rejected Jesus as their Messiah, they had pronounced the sentence on themselves, the end was inevitable even though it didn't come right away.

Matthew 27:25

“All the people answered, ‘His blood is on us and on our children!’ ”

In Matthew 24 Jesus predicted the end of Jerusalem.

“Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

The writer of Hebrews also gives us an indication that it wouldn't end all at once.

Hebrews 8:13

“By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.”

At the time Hebrews was written, Jesus had established the New Covenant and allowed the Old Covenant to fade away. Once the temple was destroyed there was no way to continue the practices of the old system. The perfect sacrifice for the redemption of sin was accomplished through Jesus. There is no longer a need for priests, a temple or sacrifices. Jesus fulfilled all the Law.

Erroneous effects of dispensationalism.

Dispensational theology was never taught or believed until the time of Darby and Scofield. Without going into the complexities of the beliefs, this is where the idea that the rapture is going to whisk the church away and then God is going to renew the covenant with the Jews in some way, shape or form. The seventy weeks prophecy causes a problem because if you don't assume the time gap you have to conclude that God was done with the Old Covenant relationship with the Jews and Jerusalem and the Temple would be destroyed. That doesn't fit in with a dispensational view. But without taking such liberties with the text you have to conclude that with the end of the Old Covenant and the beginning of the New, the temple would be no more.

This does not mean that God doesn't still hold the Jews in a special regard. Paul indicates this in Romans 11. But we must understand that there is only one name given by which we must be saved. That goes for the Jews and the Gentiles. God has always spoken of a remnant and there exists a remnant today. There are a large number of ethnic Jews that have embraced Jesus as the Messiah and there will be more in the future.

Conclusion

“Do not go beyond what is written.”  (1 Corinthians 4:6)

Understandably, there are things in this prophecy that are confusing and as such, the answers may be somewhat elusive. What we can discern is that Daniel was shown an approximate time table of the rest of the Old Covenant and God bringing in the New. As we read this we need to look at the context. Daniel was wanting to know when God was going to end the exile. Because he understood that the captivity was to last 70 years, when the angel said seventy ‘'sevens,’ it is very likely Daniel understood that to mean 490 years. There is nothing in the prophecy to indicate that there would be a gap between the 69th week and the 70th. 

Contrast this prophecy with the 11th and 12th chapters which clearly are about the end of all things.  At the end of the book, Daniel is confused and has questions. All he is told is to seal up the prophecy and go his way because the prophecy pertains to the distant future. There appears to be no such confusion on his part about the prophecy in chapter 9.

The problem arises when we get confused about some of the verbiage and we take liberties with the text in order to make it fit our understanding. When it says, “War will continue until the end,” it is easy to assume it means the end times. But the context is the end of the Old Covenant and ushering in of the New. Jerusalem fell in 70 AD, and the temple was destroyed so completely that there is no evidence the temple ever existed. There is nothing substantive to assume the prophecy in Daniel 9 has any meaning beyond the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the Old Covenant.