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"Most
assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the
Kingdom of God.
Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born
again'" (John 3:3,7).
Jesus
spoke those words. Being born again (or being saved) is the
foundation of our relationship with our Father God, His Son, Jesus
Christ, and with the Holy Spirit. Apart from being born again, we
cannot develop a relationship with God. Salvation through Jesus
Christ is the doorway to the Kingdom of God and to relationship with
God.
Adam was "born" into the Kingdom of Light. In that
Kingdom, Adam had perfect fellowship, or communion, or right standing
with God. But something happened to break that fellowship.
Adam knowingly and willfully rebelled against God's direction to
him. Satan twisted God's command to deceive Adam and Eve.
Then, Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God's clear command to
them. The results had an immediate impact on them. They
covered themselves. They hid themselves from God. These are
outward acts that were representative of what had happened on the inside
of them. The spiritual light within them was extinguished.
They no longer had the nature of God, the nature of the Kingdom of
Light.
Adam's rebellion is passed to each person born of the flesh--of the
union between a man and a woman. By our physical birth, we all are
born into the kingdom of darkness. Each of us is born as citizens
of the kingdom of darkness. Our spiritual father in the kingdom of
darkness is Satan. Jesus told the Pharisees, the religious people
of His day, "You are of your father the devil and the
desires of your father you want to do" (John 8:44).
By virtue of our physical birth, we all have the spiritual nature of the
devil. We have been trained by Satan to think the way he thinks
and to desire the things he desires. That is our nature.
That is why no one has to teach a child to lie. Our spiritual
nature, because of our physical birth into the kingdom of darkness, is
rebellious toward God and the things of God.
This is why Jesus said, "You must be born again." In
order to have relationship and fellowship with God, Who is Light, we
must have our nature changed--from darkness to light. Being born
again changes our spiritual nature from that of Satan to that of the
Father God. We are translated from the kingdom of darkness to the
Kingdom of Light. It is just the opposite process of what happened
to Adam. "He (God) has delivered us from the power of
darkness and conveyed us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love"
(Colossians 1:13).
Until we are born again, Satan, the ruler of the kingdom of darkness,
blinds us. When we hear the Gospel, or the Good News, the light of
the Gospel penetrates the darkness and we respond to the light.
The Good News, the message of the Gospel, reveals the truth that we do
not have to remain in the kingdom of darkness. Although Adam
walked through the doorway from the Kingdom of Light into the kingdom of
darkness because of his rebellion, God has made a way back through that
doorway--from the kingdom of darkness back into the Kingdom of Light.
The way into the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Light, has been made
available to us through Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said: "I
am the Door, If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved..." (John 10:9).
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