Salvation
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I
say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3)
Nicodemus said to Him, “How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s
womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, 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 the sound of
it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who
is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus answered and said
to Him, “How can these things be?”
Jesus answered and said to
him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to
you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not
receive Our witness. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe,
how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to
heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in
heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but
have eternal life. For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should
not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who
does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name
of the only begotten Son of God. And
this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone
practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds
should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds
may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
Ephesians 2:8-9 states,
"For it is by grace you have been
saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of
God—not by works, so that no one can boast."
“Sirs, what must I do to be
saved?” (Acts 16:30). Paul and Silas both immediately responded, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved - you and your
household.”
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new
has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17). When we are saved, we are born again,
spiritually renewed and we are now a child of God by right of the new birth.
Trusting in Jesus Christ, the One who paid the penalty of sin when He died on
the cross, is the way to be "born again."
Our souls were dead with sin.
When we accepted Christ, our dead soul is
transplanted by a new soul. Paul in Ephesians 2:1 says, "And you He
made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins". Paul wrote, "For
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Sinners
are spiritually “dead”; then they receive spiritual life, through faith in Our
Savior.