MECHANICS OF THE FAITH - V

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

THE MECHANICS OF THE FAITH - V

Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Yahushua Messiah for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This climax to the first sermon ever preached in the “church age” reveals a divine pattern.  The pattern is not set in concrete; but it is the divine intention that it be followed whenever possible.  This pattern establishes three elements of discipleship that are essential to a life of successful service to the Master.

1.  Repent 
2.  Be baptized
3.  Receive the Holy Spirit


Let’s examine how this pattern is observed in the book of Acts.  There are four other incidents recorded for us in this early church history that demonstrate the divine intention.

We already see on the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2, that those hearing the message of Peter first repented.  Then they were baptized.  Then they received the Holy Spirit.  Let’s look at the second experience recorded for us.  The whole story is contained in Acts 8:1-25; but we will look at the pertinent verses to our discussion.

Acts 8:5  Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Messiah unto them.
12  But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of Elohim, and the name of Yahushua Messiah, they were baptized, both men and women.
14  Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of Elohim, they sent unto them Peter and John:
15  Who, when they were come down, prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit:
16  (For as yet he was fallen upon none of them: only they were baptized in the name of the Master Yahushua.)
17 Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

First, the gospel was preached by Philip, and the people of Samaria believed the gospel.  In the setting of the book of Acts, believing on the gospel was manifested by the synonymous act of repentance.  Secondly, they were baptized.  Now, according to modern day theology, they should already have received the Holy Spirit; but according to this passage of Scripture; they were repentant believers, baptized in water, but had not yet received the Holy Spirit.  In fact a goodly number of days must have transpired for the word to have reached Jerusalem that Samaria had responded to the gospel; and for Peter and John to make the journey to Samaria.  Once they arrived in Samaria, Peter and John laid their hands on the believers, and “they received the Holy Spirit.”

The second recorded incident is also found in Acts 8:26-40, with Philip’s experience with the Ethiopian eunuch.

Acts 8:35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Yahushua.
36  And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized.
37  And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Yahushua Messiah is the Son of Elohim.
38  And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
39  And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of IAUE caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.

The Ethiopian eunuch was an important official in the Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.  He had traveled more than 1,000 miles to come to Jerusalem to worship IAUE.  On his way back home, the Spirit had united Philip with his chariot to overhear him reading from the book of Isaiah.  This opened up conversation that allowed Philip to reveal the Messiah to him.  When the eunuch believed the message that Philip was preaching, he inquired why he could not be baptized right then and there, given the availability of the water.  Baptism was the logical response in the mind of the Ethiopian; as well it was in the mind of Philip.  Repentance unto life was followed immediately with water baptism.

Now, we had just seen demonstrated in the earlier portion of this chapter, Philip clearly did not see himself as one who was either qualified or authorized to minister the Holy Spirit to those who responded to his preaching; even though he ministered by the Spirit many signs and wonders.  Peter and John had to be sent from Jerusalem to Samaria to get that job done.  We see that broken pattern again here with the Ethiopian eunuch.  We have no record here that the Ethiopian ever received the Holy Spirit; though we can be confident he was born of the Spirit in response to his faith and repentance.

The third recorded incident is in Acts 10, with the household of Cornelius.  Again, we will look at the pertinent verses of that record.

Acts 10:44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all them which heard the word.
45  And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit.
46  For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify Elohim. Then answered Peter,
47  Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?
48  And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Master. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

Peter had been given a vision three times in preparation for the call to go to Caesarea and speak to a house full of Gentiles.  That was something that no torah-abiding Jew would have done; but IAUE had revealed to him that the sacrifice of Messiah was efficacious for the Gentile as well as for the Jew.  Peter willingly went inside, and met a houseful of Gentiles who had gathered for one purpose alone---to hear the words of life.  As Peter spoke, Cornelius and those gathered in his house received the words of Peter and their hearts responded accordingly.  IAUE then poured out His Spirit upon them; and the Gentiles who had believed the gospel received the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Peter had not ministered this to them; nor was he likely intending to do so.  This was something beyond his imagination.  He was content to share the gospel with them; and even expect that the Father would give them “repentance unto life” (see Acts 11:18); but he certainly did not expect that IAUE would make the Gentiles completely equal citizens of the Kingdom of Elohim by giving them the gift of His Spirit. 

Very likely, Peter had no expectation, going up to Caesarea, that he would be baptizing any Gentiles; but seeing they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit; what was Peter’s first reaction?

Acts 10:47  Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?

So integral was the divine order to the ministry of the gospel; that once Peter recognized that IAUE was making absolutely no distinction between the Jews and the Gentiles, water baptism became the immediate order for these new believers.  The Holy Spirit was given prior to their baptism because Elohim knew that without this sovereignly bestowed outpouring, the inclusion of the Gentiles into the church of Yahushua Messiah would not have been completed.  Peter had understood enough in his thrice-given vision to go to the house of Cornelius; but it was not enough to understand the intentions of IAUE to incorporate fully the Gentiles into the Body of Messiah.

The last incident is found in Acts 19.  Apollos, a student of the Scriptures and a man zealous for IAUE, had preached in Ephesus and had raised up disciples knowing only the baptism of John.  Priscilla and Aquila met up with Apollos later and completed his understanding regarding Messiah (Acts 18:24-28); but they did not minister this more complete understanding to those that had responded to Apollos’ preaching.  Paul ran into some of them about this time.

Acts 19:1 And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,

2  He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Spirit since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Spirit.

3  And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism.

4  Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Messiah Yahushua.

5  When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Master Yahushua.

6  And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.

It was evident to Paul that these disciples did not have the Holy Spirit.  We are not told how he knew; but for those of us who have received the Holy Spirit, we know all too well the magnitude of the transformation in our lives He makes, the empowerment and the illumination.  It can be quite apparent to the informed observer.  The first and obvious question in the mind of Paul was, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since ye believed?”  Why was this an obvious question?  It is because the divine order was 1) Repent, 2) Be baptized, 3) Receive the Holy Spirit; and it did not appear they had the Holy Spirit.

Once Paul understood they were “disciples of John,” he preached Messiah to them; and they believed on the Master Yahushua and, though recently they had been baptized into John’s baptism, this was insufficient.  They were baptized again; but this time they were baptized in the name of the Master Yahushua.

No one, today, would suggest that Paul’s message to these Ephesians would have been inadequate.  They believed what Paul told them.  They responded to the message in a manner that was approved by Paul, which was evidenced by the fact he then baptized them as believers.  No one, today, would suggest that at this point, the Ephesian disciples were not “born again;” and yet, it was not until after belief and after baptism, that Paul laid his hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

The point in this lesson, today, is that we do not receive ALL that the Father has for us in a single point in time, as a consequence of a single experience with Him that men call the “moment of conversion.”  If the Samaritan believers could live for days after repentance and baptism before they received the Holy Spirit, then we do not necessarily receive the Holy Spirit as a package deal at the moment of conversion.  If the household of Cornelius could receive the Holy Spirit in a sovereign act of IAUE, such that it surprised the apostle Peter, and those believing Jews who had accompanied him; then Peter’s own surprise testifies to the fact he did not expect their belief would have included receiving the Holy Spirit. If the Ephesian disciples, like the Samaritans, required an apostle to lay hands on them before they received the Holy Spirit, then they were believers and members of the Body of Messiah without receiving the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.   

I know there are teachers who say that Messiah gave to Peter the “keys to the Kingdom,” and that it was necessary for Peter to open the door to the Kingdom of Elohim to all peoples.  It was Peter who preached to the Jews on the day of Pentecost; and they received the Holy Spirit.  It was Peter and John who ministered the Holy Spirit to the Samaritans (half-Jew, half-Gentile); and it was Peter who preached first to the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius; but it was IAUE who sovereignly poured out His Spirit upon them.  Peter was nowhere to be seen in Ephesus when more Gentiles received the Holy Spirit; so this teaching breaks down in Acts 19.

The false teaching that a believer receives the Holy Spirit the moment he believes in Messiah is responsible for multitudes of believers living their entire lives without ever receiving the indwelling presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit. This is a crime and a shame in the church of Yahushua.  I am sharing this with YOU, the reader, so you may see in the Scriptures that this could possibly be YOU I am discussing.  If you have always been told you received the Holy Spirit of IAUE when you gave your life to Messiah, you very likely have never actually received the Holy Spirit.  Let me tell you, you are about to experience the most exhilarating element of your discipleship to Messiah. 

If you know someone that you are confident has received the Holy Spirit, ask them to pray with you to receive the Holy Spirit.  If you do not know someone who has already received the Holy Spirit; just remember the words of Yahushua:

Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

 Just ask him.

MECHANICS OF THE FAITH - IV

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

THE MECHANICS OF THE FAITH - IV

Luke 5:36 And He was also telling them a parable: “No one tears a piece of cloth from a new garment and puts it on an old garment; otherwise he will both tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.
37  And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled out, and the skins will be ruined.
38  But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins.
 
I mentioned in my introductory post to this blog that I was raised attending Southern Baptist churches.  As early as I can remember, however, I had a question, an issue with the church ever present in the back of my mind, driving me throughout my youth.  That issue was based upon a statement by the apostle John.

John 14:12  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Within the context of this chapter in the Gospel of John, the “works” to which Messiah was referring were the miraculous deeds that no one else on the planet was doing but him.  He was referring to healing the sick, casting out demons, even raising the dead back to life, performing signs and wonders so prolifically that John said the world would not be large enough to contain the books should all of his deeds be written.  In this one verse, though, he says that the one believing on him would not only do these works, but even greater works.  I looked around me in every church I ever attended (and because my father was in the military and we travelled a lot, that meant we attended a lot of different churches) I never saw one person do a single “work” that Messiah said believers in him would do.  What I did see was deacons racing out of the churches at the end of Sunday morning services to light up that cigarette that was needed to satisfy their addiction.  I saw adults dressing in the latest fashions in order to be noticed.  I saw heads nodding off to sleep during the sermon.  I saw a general apathy regarding what was, in my opinion, so obviously missing from their experience, the power that the Scriptures indicated would reflect the normal life of the believer. 

I remember asking pastors to explain this verse to me.  I wanted to know why John 14:12 was not being experienced in the church.  Every person I asked had the same answer. “We get to lead people to Messiah.  That is the greater work referred to in this verse.”  Well, I had two problems with this answer.  1) It did not resolve the fact that he also said we would do the same works he did; and, 2) Messiah said that when he would be lifted up, he would draw all men unto himself (John 12:32).  That seemed to trump the notion that our leading one or two people to him during our life was somehow a greater work.

It was not until I had graduated from high school and had enlisted in the U.S. Army that I came to know someone whose countenance reflected something beyond my experience or understanding.  There was something different about this person; something both frightening and very desirable.  When I inquired what made her different, she very humbly suggested to me that there was an experience with the Holy Spirit that was lacking in my life.  She provided me with a recorded message and a book to explain it to me.  I was dubious; but willing to learn.  Over the next three days I listened to the message and read the book about “the baptism of the Holy Spirit,” and spent the rest of the time searching the Scriptures.  It was the book of Acts that lead me to the conclusion that, regardless what name the book called this experience; there definitely was something available to the believer that was not being discussed in the Baptist church; and it was on that basis alone that I sought to receive the experience saw in the book of Acts.

The following week, I attended a meeting hosted by my friend’s brother.  At the end of his sermon, he asked if anyone wanted prayer for anything to come to the front.  I quickly made my way to the front and told the minister, “I want to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.”  He called a colleague to join him, and the two of them laid their hands on my head and shoulder and simply said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” When they said that, in my mind I was thinking, “I already have the Holy Spirit.”  That was what the Baptist church had taught me.   What I was experiencing at that moment, however, was an invasion of a powerful presence into my body.   

The next morning, it was as if scales had fallen off of my eyes, and every word I read in the Scriptures was being read for the very first time.  Within the next four months, I experienced all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12.  I began doing the miraculous works Messiah had done.  Finally, I understood what Messiah meant when he said, “the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”  He had to go to his Father in order to send us the Holy Spirit…the gift of Elohim.

John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but ye know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you.

Just as the contemporary church has exchanged the true gospel for the convenient gospel; one that replaces repentance and obedience with a self-focused message of doing what is in your best interests; so has the church replaced the ministry of the Holy Spirit with church programs; and in so doing has stripped the church of its power.  I had been taught that when I first “gave my life to Messiah” that I was born again; that I received the Holy Spirit.  Unfortunately, there is not a single verse in the Scripture that supports this notion.  What the Scripture does support is that through Messiah we are made new; and once we are made new, it is the Father’s desire that we receive His gift.  Far too many believers mistake the wonderful change they experience when they are born again with it being the Holy Spirit.  The truth is, the wonderful change is created by the Holy Spirit; but the change is the new us.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Messiah, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

How does this new creature come into being? 

1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

What the Scriptures call “the baptism of the Holy Spirit” is not some post-conversion experience. It IS the conversion experience.  When we, by faith, trust in Messiah and bow our knee to his mastery over us, we are immersed into the Holy Spirit.  What comes out of the Holy Spirit is a new creature.  In terms of our opening verse, we are made into new wineskins.  Notice carefully Paul’s words to the Corinthians.  We are baptized into one body…and we have been made “to drink into one Spirit.”  Using the illustration of water baptism, when we are baptized in water, we are immersed in the water.  When we are brought out of the water, it has done its job upon us, but the water remains outside of us.  When we “drink” of the water, the water is now IN us.  This is the Father’s gift to us; that we can partake of a bit of Himself inside of us.

Acts 2:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Yahushua Messiah for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 10:45 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Because so many in the church have bought into the doctrinal position that they received the Holy Spirit when they became a believer, they live their entire lives without the power that IAUE intended to mark their discipleship.  This is why I was one of the 2% I spoke about in my first posting to this blog.  It is why I sat in the pew every Sunday knowing that what I was seeing and experiencing could not possibly be what Messiah died to produce. 

This posting is not intended to be a scholarly presentation of this serious matter.  Though what I have shared will stand up against the most stringent study of the Scriptures, I have shared from my personal experience.  I suspect that many who read this will identify with it.  Others will realize that what I have shared is what is missing in their own lives. 

Luke 11:13 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

The simple fact is, the Father WANTS us to receive His gift.  He is poised to respond to the heart that seeks to be united with Him.  You can wait until the next posting to read a more Scripturally developed explanation of this reality; or you can simply ask the Father to give you His gift, now.  Just know that your life will never be the same.

MECHANICS OF THE FAITH - III

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FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP

THE MECHANICS OF THE FAITH - III

Gen 2:7  And IAUE Elohim formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

What is man?  If we look at how Elohim created man, we see that his body was created first.  The body existed before there was any life; thus, the body is merely the house designed for man.  Then IAUE breathed into the nostrils of the body he had formed, and life entered the body. James tells us in James 2:26 that “the body without the spirit is dead.”  The breath of IAUE is what animates the shell, the house that is man’s body. The union of the breath of life with the body produced the “living soul.”  The essence of man is his soul, his mind, will and emotions; all of the faculties that produce a distinct personality.

When I was a child, I used to make water bombs out of paper.  They were, essentially, origami boxes.  After many folds and tucks of the paper, you ended up with a layered flat square piece of paper.  It looked like nothing in particular until you picked it up and blew a breath into it.  That breath expanded it into a three-dimensional box.  (Of course at that point, I would fill it with water and throw it on my friends.  What can I say?  I was a child. It was fun.)  My point, however, is that once the “breath of life” came into it, it produced something with unique properties that did not exist before it was animated by the breath.  Such is man.  Without the breath of IAUE, he is a lifeless carcass. Whether or not he is a follower of Messiah, he is alive only because the breath of IAUE has animated his body.  The personality that is the result is the part of man that is accountable before IAUE for his actions; and for which he will ultimately be judged. 

Genesis 2:16  And IAUE Elohim commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat:
17  But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.

We know from the story that both Adam and Eve ate of that tree, and according to the word of Elohim, they “died” that day.  However, the Scripture also tells us that they both continued to live physically.  In fact, Adam lived on to be 930 years old before he died physically.  How did they die in that day?  They died spiritually.  The spirit within them, the breath of life from IAUE, did not leave their bodies; otherwise, as James tells us, they would have died physically.  So what happened to them?   (Unfortunately, at this point, to properly answer this question, we must delve into a very doctrinal issue.  I know not everyone has a mind for doctrine; but I pray that IAUE will help you to understand what I am about to express; for this is possibly the most important doctrinal issue you will ever need to understand.)

In the day that IAUE formed man’s body and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul, man was pure, perfect.  He was “righteous.”  Everything about the way Adam and Eve lived their lives was perfectly consistent with the life and light and moral purity of IAUE; and they were obedient to His will as though their wills were one and the same.  On the day they disobeyed the revealed will of IAUE, they sinned.  (Sin, by its very definition, is doing something that is not the will of IAUE.)  When they sinned, they chose to live their lives according to their own will. They chose self-determination over obedience. They forfeited that quality of purity they had known.  They forfeited their righteousness.  They were no longer as IAUE is.  The light of IAUE was removed from them, and darkness came over their spirit…and though the breath of life had come from IAUE, it was now severed from Him. 

Adam and Eve’s fellowship with Elohim was dependent upon the fact that they shared his nature.  They had been created in His image and after His likeness; but when they chose a different path from the one Elohim desired for them, they ceased to be like Elohim.  They ceased to be pure as He is pure, holy as He is holy.  They ceased to be righteous.

Genesis 5:1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that Elohim created man, in the likeness of Elohim made he him;

2  Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

3  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:

From the day they had sinned, Adam and Eve were spiritually separated from Elohim, as darkness enshrouded their connection with Him.  Having lost the quality of righteousness, they were unable to pass righteousness on to their offspring.  I like to imagine this as the life of Adam and Eve being like a glass of pure water.  Once they sinned, drops of black ink, poison, were dropped into their glass.  There is now absolutely nothing they can do to restore their water to purity.  No manner of good works, obedience, ascetic practice…nothing, can change the fact their water is now impure.  When they have children, all they can pour into them is contaminated water; and their children after them, the same.  It is a permanent condition, because once innocence is lost, it can never be restored.  No longer do they have the potential to give birth to offspring that are in the likeness of Elohim.  They give birth to children in their own likeness.

This did not destroy, however, their memories of their experience with Elohim.  They remained as faithful to Him as they knew to be, and passed their knowledge of and experience with Elohim on to their offspring for generations.  It was hundreds of years before there were generations of mankind who were so removed from the testimony of Adam and Eve that they began living their lives exclusively to their own selfish desires. 

Imagine yourself being imprisoned by some governmental authority.  For the rest of your life, you are separated from all social contact except your spouse who is imprisoned with you.  You have children in the prison, and you tell them all about the world from which you came.  Eventually, you and your spouse die, the only ones who have ever actually experienced life in “the outside world.”  When your children have children, they pass on your stories to them; but they are not the stories of experience.  They are simply the tales they have been told by their children’s grandparents.  Without the benefit of first-hand experience, the tales become fairy tales, and eventually they become irrelevant to their lives.  It was in this same manner that the testimony of IAUE became so diluted in human society that we find in Genesis 6 that mankind had become so corrupted that an act of judgment (the flood) was necessitated to deal with its wickedness.  The absence of righteousness had produced in man the only thing it is capable of producing---darkness.

Messiah was sent to resolve the problem of man’s unrighteousness. He was sent to make righteousness possible once again; for without it, man would forever live in darkness, separated from IAUE.  In order to bring this remedy to man, Messiah was born of a virgin; because had he been born of the seed of man, the “black ink” of the man’s water would have been passed on to him, and he would have, like the rest of us, been born without righteousness, without connection to Elohim. 

Yahushua lived his life in complete willing obedience to the will of Elohim, never doubting, never mistrusting, and never seeking his own interests or preferences.  At his execution, the righteous took upon himself the punishment of the unrighteous.  He exchanged his life for man.  He died for us that we who live might live for him.  His own righteousness became accessible to us. 

One night, Nicodemus privately approached Messiah to try to understand who he was and how he could do what he did.

John 3:1  There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

2  The same came to Yahushua by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from Elohim: for no man can do these miracles that you do, except Elohim be with him.

Nicodemus’ confusion was the result of his eyes seeing what his spirit could not confirm.  Academically, he could put two and two together and deduce that the miracles Messiah performed gave evidence that Elohim was with him and working through him; but how that was even possible was beyond his intellectual capacity to understand.  How did Yahushua respond?

John 3:3  Yahushua answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of Elohim.

He went right to the root of the problem.  Nicodemus was still in darkness.  Understanding spiritual realities was beyond his capability.  Man must be born again to have his spiritual sight restored.  Of course, Nicodemus could not understand this comment.

John 3:4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

5  Yahushua answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of Elohim.

6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

When a man enters into the great exchange made possible by Yahushua Messiah, by faith he lays down his own life, his own will, to take upon himself the life of another.  In repentance, his life is rendered forfeit to him; and he bows his knee to the Master.  At that moment, the Spirit of Messiah is breathed into him by the Holy Spirit, replacing the breath that had heretofore animated his flesh. The darkness that had been man’s life-long experience is replaced with light, and with access to the Father.  Since the spirit that was in Yahushua was breathed into him in righteousness; and since Messiah never forfeited that righteous quality by an act of selfish pursuit in disobedience to the will of His Father, his spirit is still righteous.  By placing his spirit within us, we now partake of the benefit of Messiah’s righteousness.

This event opens the prison door and lets us walk out into the world…to see what had been seen by our ancestor, the things that had become to us mere fairy tales and legends.  Now they are our experiences; and now we are called to be witnesses of the Truth, so that others may hear from first-hand experience the reality of Elohim; and to observe in us a life that is lived in obedience to His will.

Acts 1:8  But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

I know this does not answer every question about the new-birth, or about righteousness.  I will visit both of these matters in weeks to come.  I am trying to lay down a basic foundation of the working parts of our discipleship to Messiah.  Next week we will explore the Holy Spirit’s role in our beginning the journey of discipleship.