John
5:21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so
the Son gives life to whom He will. NKJV
The Muslims say that Jesus was a great prophet
second to Muhammad and a good teacher. He is even spoken of in their Quran but
they don’t believe He died and rose again from the dead. Buddhist speaks of
Jesus as being a good spiritual teacher similar to Buddha. The Hindus even give
credence to that point of Jesus being a wise teacher, this from a belief system
that thinks god is everything and that the law of karma controls. Jews are
still waiting for their Messiah and rejected Jesus as being the Son of God
because they miss-interpreted the prophecies in the Psalms and the other places
in the Old Testament, expecting a King to come and conquer through military
might.
Here we have the summary of the entire matter in two
words death and life. All of those ideas and beliefs about Jesus listed above
come from people spiritually dead and therefore they cannot see or behold who
the Lord Jesus truly is. When people visit the grave site of some relative or
friend and appear to be holding a conversation, the person that has died can no
longer communicate with the person still living because now they are in two
separate worlds. Likewise every man or woman not connected to Jesus Christ by a
spiritual birth (being born again) cannot hear Him speak or believe that He is
the only God.
The Lord Jesus Christ did not come to this earth
with a religion. He came to the world to reconcile lost men and women to God by
recreating them. The Lord Jesus Christ came to resurrect spiritually dead souls
and transfer them from spiritual death to life in Him. The reason people will
not hear the gospel (Christ death, burial, and resurrection from the dead) or any
other words from the Bible and believe them to be the only absolute truth is
because they are spiritually dead and do not desire the Lord’s words. The
sinful nature (inherited from Adam) every person is born with is the culprit or
the reason for spiritual death. Therefore, every person needs life and not
religion to be able to love, know, commune with, and trust Jesus Christ. This
life comes from our Lord Jesus Christ to every soul that finally comes to that
place of complete brokenness over their sin. This is what our Lord meant by
these words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom
of Heaven and Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”
1
Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being." The last
Adam became a life-giving spirit. NKJV
Man can never perform his way to God but by only
what Jesus Christ can give him. God cannot commune with that which is defiled
and unclean and that is precisely what every human being is in is sight. Jesus
Christ makes men and women acceptable to God and gives them His life enabling
us to love Him. Men and women are running away from perfect love (Jesus Christ)
holding onto what is despicable, destroying, damming, and deadly their love for
sin. Sin never gives what it promises (it does for a season give pleasure) but
in the end it destroys, when Jesus Christ always gives what He promises continuously
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, faithfulness, and self-control.
Jesus Christ gives all things that pertain to life and godliness, giving us the
ability to please God the Father by having Christ life.
John
4: 13-14 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water
will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will
never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain
of water springing up into everlasting life." NKJV
John
5:24 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who
sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed
from death into life. NKJV
“I believe that a great number of people are going
to die and go to hell because they're counting on their religiosity in the
church instead of their relationship with Jesus to get them to heaven. They
give lip service to repentance and faith, but they've never been born again.”
Dr. Adrian Rogers
“I am never ashamed to avow myself a Calvinist; I do
not hesitate to take the name of Baptist; but if I am asked what is my creed, I
reply, “It is Jesus Christ.” No man hath
a right to claim God as his Father, unless he feeleth in his soul, and
believeth, solemnly, through the faith of God's election, that he has been
adopted into the one family of which is in heaven and earth, and that he has
been regenerated or born again.”
Charles Spurgeon
“To be born again is, as it were, to enter
upon a new existence, to have a new mind, a new heart, new views, new
principles, new tastes, new affections, new likings, new dislikings, new fears,
new joys, new sorrows, new love to things once hated, new hatred to things once
loved, new thoughts of God, and ourselves, and the world, and the life to come,
and salvation.” J. C. Ryles
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you
Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus
Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and
Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple
I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reader,
Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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