The Joyful Heart by Jim Hughes: New Critters

1 Corinthians 2:14

(AMP)

The natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.

(Geisler)

It's not that we are so dead to perceive the truth, we're just so separated from God that we are unwilling to receive the truth.

John 3:3

(AMP)

Unless a person is born again (anew, from above), he cannot ever see (know, be acquainted with, and experience) the kingdom of God.

Genesis 2:17

(AMP)

Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

Adam and Eve died at the exact moment they ate the forbidden fruit. But their death was spiritual, their spirit man died. This means they were spiritually separated from God now; but they were still able to see and talk with God, even in this new fallen state.

Genesis 3:9-10

(AMP)

The Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you? Adam said, I heard the sound of You [walking] in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.

Now fallen man was banished from freely accessing God, banished from God’s presence. That’s why Jesus we must be born again, regenerated into a new creation, start over again from scratch.

2 Corinthians 5:17

(JPH)

If anyone is in Christ they are new critters! Aliens, a whole new species from another planet, Heaven!

Now the new critters can welcome and accept into their heart the things of God!

Ezekiel 36:26

(AMP)

A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

So how does this regeneration happen?

Romans 10:17

(AMP)

So faith comes by hearing [what is told], and what is heard comes by the preaching [of the message that came from the lips] of Christ (the Messiah Himself).

Ephesians 2:8

(AMP)

For it is by free grace (God’s unmerited favor) that you are saved ([a]delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation) through [your] faith. And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God;

Ephesians 16:30-31

(MSG)

The jailer asked, "Sirs, what do I have to do to be saved, to really live?" They said, "Put your entire trust in the Master Jesus. Then you'll live as you were meant to live—and everyone in your house included!"

That is how to live like we were originally meant to live with God! So, how are we saved—born again—and regenerated and become children of God? We are to receive and welcome Jesus!

John 1:10-13

(AMP)

He came into the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him [did not know Him]. He came to that which belonged to Him [to His own—His domain, creation, things, world], and they who were His own did not receive Him and did not welcome Him.

But to as many as did receive and welcome Him, He gave the authority (power, privilege, right) to become the children of God, that is, to those who believe in (adhere to, trust in, and rely on) His name— 13 Who owe their birth neither to bloods nor to the will of the flesh [that of physical impulse] nor to the will of man [that of a natural father], but to God. [They are born of God!]

References:

Norman Geisler - Why I Am Not A 5 Point Calvinist, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNm54hlfhcw

The Joyful Heart by Jim Hughes

Monday, June 18, 2012

New Critters

No comments:

Post a Comment