Lesson One

Believing into Christ and Being Born Again

In this lesson, we will cover:

I. The Need to Be Born Again (John 3:1-21)
II. Not Improving, but Believing (Rom. 5:12; John 3:5-6)
III. Having God's Life so that We Can Walk in Newness of His Life
A. Motivation - God Loving Us and Making Us His Many Sons (John 3:16; 1:12-13)
B. Accomplishment - Jesus Coming that We May Have God's Life (John 10:10)
C. Reality - The Spirit Giving Life to Us and Dwelling In Us (2 Cor. 3:17; 3:6; 1 Cor. 15:45)
D. Issue - Believers Walking in Newness of God's Life (Rom. 6:24)

Martin Luther's Faith

As a young man, Martin Luther (1483-1546) desired to be a good person. He even joined a monastery where he studied spiritual books and tried hard to improve himself. However, try as he might, he was constantly tortured by evil thoughts, lustful desires, and sinful temptations. Luther later admitted, "Leading the life of a blameless monk, yet disturbed by the sinner's uneasy conscience, and unable to feel justification before God, I could not love, rather, I must confess it, I hated this just God, the avenger of sin. …[I] murmured loudly within myself…is it not enough that unhappy sinners, already eternally lost through original sin, are overwhelmed with innumerable woes by the law of the Decalogue, but must God heap suffering upon suffering, and menace us in the gospel itself with his justice and his wrath?"

Luther remained in this miserable state until one day while he was studying the Word of God he was struck by what it says in Romans 1:17: "For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith." Then and there Luther had a life-changing experience. "All at once the Bible began to speak in quite a different way to me. The very phrase 'the righteousness of God,' which I had hated before, was the one that now I loved the best of all." Luther's turn was due to his faith. He realized that it was his believing (faith) and not his works that could save him. As a result, he was born again. He also testified, "It seemed to me as I had been born again and as if I had entered paradise through newly opened doors."

This experience led Luther to see the matter of justification by faith in the Bible. According to church history, this truth - justification by faith - has helped millions of believers since the sixteenth century to be assured of God's salvation for them.

Reference: E.H. Broadbent, The Pilgrim Church (London: Pickering and Inglis Ltd., 1931).

The Need to be Born Again

The Bible tells the story of an old man named Nicodemus (John 3:1-21). He was a ruler of the Jews. He aspired to become a better person, so he sought Jesus by night, wanting to ask Jesus to teach him how. When he found Jesus, he asked, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Jesus' reply was interesting. He said, "Unless a man is born anew, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Nicodemus himself was a teacher, but he could not understand what Jesus was saying. Confused, he asked Jesus, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?"

Nicodemus probably did not realize that what Jesus had just told him was the most important thing God had ever said to anyone. Nicodemus only wanted to become a more perfect person. But Jesus told him that what he actually needed was to have another life - the new, divine life. Thus, no matter how old he was in his physical life, Nicodemus still needed to be born again so that he could live the new and divine life.

Today there are many Nicodemus's in the world. You can recognize them because they always want to become better people. Some are rich and famous, some are poor and common, but in God's eyes, they are all the same. As long as they have not been born of His life, they are destined for eternal perdition in the lake of fire. This is why God requires us to be born again-so that we may enter into His kingdom to live a truly satisfying human life with His life.

Not Improving But Believeing

God created Adam. Adam was the very first man (1 Cor. 15:45a). But Adam sinned by disobeying God when he ate the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:1-6). As a result, sin came into him. At the same time, sin also entered into the world. Romans 5:12 says, "Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin, death; and thus death passed on to all men because all have sinned." As a result, all of us are sold under sin (Rom. 7:14). We have sin dwelling in us (Rom. 7:20). We are enslaved to sin. Therefore, we commit sins habitually. Our life is fully corrupted by sin and has become a sinning life. This is why we can never succeed, no matter how much we try to improve to make our life pleasing to God.

Monkeys can be trained to act like human beings. They can put on clothes, eat with a spoon, and even dance to music! However, when the monkeys return to their natural environment, they go back to their old ways. They eat with their hands and swing from tree to tree. This is because they have only the monkey life. Like these monkeys, many people today try very hard to live a better life, including a more godly life. Nicodemus was the same. He was looking for teachings that could help him live a more godly life.

Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be born again, because "that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6). In other words, if you are born of flesh, you are flesh; if you are born of the Spirit, you are spirit! Just as a monkey is a monkey because it has been born of monkeys, so a man can be godly only when he is born of God. Since God is Spirit, to be born of God is to be born of the Spirit (John 4:24). Jesus' response was very deliberate, and applies to us all today. If we want to be spiritual, we must be born of the Spirit. If we want to be godly, we must be born of God. If we want to enter into the kingdom of God, we must receive the life of God.

However, Jesus did not stop there. He showed Nicodemus how he could be born again. He said, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life" (John 3:16). Here Jesus is saying that the way to be born again is to believe into Him. It is that simple! When we believe, we have eternal life. When we have eternal life, we are born again. This simple truth is also revealed in other parts of the Bible. For example, John 1:12 says, "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name." Therefore, when we believe into the name of Jesus, we are actually receiving Him. Consequently, we become children of God who are born with God's life.

Today we do not need to improve ourselves in order to be saved. We only need to accept what the Bible says - believe into the Lord and you will be born anew.

Having God's Life So That We Can Walk in Newness of Life

Motivation - God Loving Us and Making Us His Many Sons

Did you ever wonder what motivates God to give us His life? It is because God loves us. John 3:16 tells us that God loved us so much that He gave up His only Son so that we who believe into Him would not perish, but would have His life. We must be thankful to God that, because His Son has died for us, we will not perish. But God's love goes further than that. Not only He did not want us to perish, but He also wanted us to become His many sons. Men are the only creatures in the universe who can share God's life and become His family.

Accomplishment - Jesus Coming that We May Have God's Life

In order to provide a way for man to have His life, God Himself had to become a man. Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). Here Jesus' coming was God's coming as a man. This is called incarnation. Incarnation is for us - that we may have the life of God.

Jesus came to live a human life on the earth for thirty-three and a half years. During this time, Jesus suffered much. Have you ever considered why He had to suffer so much? He suffered for us! He suffered so that we do not have to suffer the wrath of God and so that we can receive God's life. Furthermore, His human living is a pattern for us to follow so that we may live a godly life that is well pleasing to God (1 Pet. 2:21).

Reality -The Spirit Giving Life to Us and Dwelling In Us

How can man receive the life of God? According to the Bible, it is the Spirit that gives life (John 6:63a; 2 Cor. 3:6). This Spirit is the Lord Jesus (2 Cor. 3:17; 1 Cor. 15:45). When we receive Jesus as our Savior, we are receiving the Spirit into us (Acts 10:47; 15:8). As a matter of fact, the Spirit Himself is the very life of God. This is why He is called "the Spirit of life," which can be translated as "the Spirit is life" (Rom. 8:2; cf. Acts 3:15). Furthermore, the Spirit of life comes to dwell in us. "The Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Rom. 8:9b; cf. Rom. 8:11; 2 Tim.1: 14).

Issue - Believers Walking in Newness of God's Life

God gives His life to us so that we can walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:24). Without His life, we cannot have a new walk. We can only remain in our old living. But when the Spirit gives life to us and dwells in us, we are freed from the bondage of our old sinful walk. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2). Now we can think differently, act differently, and talk differently. We can live an entirely different life. All this is possible because we have the life of God as the source of our walk in newness of life.

In the coming lessons, we will learn how we are to live, act, and behave as children of God who have the life of God operating in us.

Discussion Questions

1. Why did Nicodemus come to Jesus?
2. How does God view "good" men and women? [The answer to this question is not self evident from the text above.]
3. Was Jesus' answer to Nicodemus surprising to you? Why or why not?
4. Why do we try to improve ourselves and yet not succeed?
5. What can believing do to us?
6. Why did God give up His only begotten Son? Why did the Lord suffer for us?
7. What is the Spirit's work?
8. How can we walk in newness of life?

Practical Tips

Learn to enjoy God's life.

Spend five to ten minutes every day learning to enjoy God as life. Do this by singing hymns, praying, and calling on the name of the Lord. At the same time, do not let other matters distract you from touching the life of God. This includes such things as spending too much time thinking about what you have to do or trying to understand every point that you have read in the Bible.

Rely on the power of the blood of Jesus.

Satan wants to keep us in death by accusing us of our sins and errors. You can overcome him by the blood of Jesus. All you need to do is to confess your sins (1 John 1:9). If you confess your sins, they will be far away from you, as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12). If Satan continues to accuse you of the sins that you have already confessed, tell Satan (and yourself), "I have confessed my sins! I am already cleansed by the blood of Jesus."

Spend time every day in the Bible.

The Lord tells us that His words are life (John 6:63). Spend some time every day to read the Bible, which is the Word of God. You can also exercise to pray over what you have read.