You must be born again —John 3:7
“But as many as received Him. . .” (John 1:12). Is my knowledge of Jesus the result of my own internal spiritual perception, or is it only what I have learned through listening to others? Is there something in my life that unites me with the Lord Jesus as my personal Savior? My spiritual history must have as its underlying foundation a personal knowledge of Jesus Christ. To be born again means that I see Jesus.
“. . . unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God ” (John 3:3). Am I seeking only for the evidence of God’s kingdom, or am I actually recognizing His absolute sovereign control? The new birth gives me a new power of vision by which I begin to discern God’s control. His sovereignty was there all the time, but with God being true to His nature, I could not see it until I received His very nature myself.
“Whoever has been born of God does not sin. . .” (1 John 3:9). Am I seeking to stop sinning or have I actually stopped? To be born of God means that I have His supernatural power to stop sinning. The Bible never asks, “Should a Christian sin?” The Bible emphatically states that a Christian must not sin. The work of the new birth is being effective in us when we do not commit sin. It is not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have actually stopped sinning. Yet 1 John 3:9 does not mean that we cannot sin— it simply means that if we will obey the life of God in us, that we do not have to sin.
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August 15, 2012
Journal Entry for Today-JDV
Lord, when I read that I can actually live like You, and live without sin in my life, I feel like such a failure, because that is not what actually happens in my life. I still find the ways and means to get angry, frightened, selfish, defensive and judgmental. Not to mention letting my eyes and mind wander off to where they should not go. If Chambers is right, and I am able to live outside of these behaviors, then I must be a failure, because just when I think I have overcome a particular weakness,..opps. There it is again.
And God says…”You cannot live your life being concerned or even conscious of “sin management”. You need to surrender this part of your life, along with everything else, to Jesus. It is not your role or responsibility to manage the wrong doing in your life. The sacrifice of Jesus dealt and deals with the sin and sin management for all that believe. How does this happen? What does it require of you and of God? What part of the actual work belongs to you and what part belongs to Me? It all belongs to Me. You simply surrender to Me. You surrender your life and the sin management to Me; the sacrifice of Jesus has dealt with it. …Listen to the Apostle Paul,
Romans 7:17-25 (MSG)
17-20 But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
21-23 It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
24 I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? 25The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.
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