Posted by A B Locke
A rapidly growing number of men and women, including our precious young boys and girls, are claiming that the reason they act the way they do is because “they were born that way,” or “God made them the way they are” as if that totally legitimizes and excuses their unbiblical/immoral behavior. I assure you, It does not (Romans 1:18-20). In fact, it is all the more reason they must be born again, or else…
Most people overlook this, but there is a vast difference between birth and creation — “the way we were born” versus “the way God created Adam (mankind)”. The sinful condition in which we were born was not the way God created humanity (in Adam) in the beginning. Unfortunately, due to the great fall in the garden, we were each born with a terminal infectious disease the Bible calls “sin.” King David, a very powerful man, but a man after God’s heart, explained it this way:
Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Psa. 51:5
King David understood the depravity of humanity, beginning with his own. It would be great if our modern-day government leaders and politicians were as in-touch with their human weaknesses. I just believe that you are better qualified to lead people when you acknowledge and begin to deal with your own deficiencies, first.
Pay particular attention to these next two Bible passages. They explain the systemic problem in our world today. Understand, there were hundreds of years and one significant event that occurred between these two distinct historical accounts. This isolated event drastically corrupted God’s creation. The first passage reveals God’s pleasure with all that He created. Notice, God rested on the seventh day because His creative work had been completed.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning — the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Gen. 1:31- Gen. 2:2
The second passage reveals God’s noticeable displeasure in what His creation became after He had rested:
The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. Gen. 6:5-6
Not long after God’s six days of creation, earth got an unexpected knock at the door (so to speak) from God’s arch enemy, Satan AKA the devil. Adam chose to let him in, and all hell broke loose! It’s been chaos, death, war, disease, and destruction among us ever since. Read Rev. 12:7-9, Rev. 12:12, and Rev. 12:17 when you get a chance.
One bad Adam spoiled the whole bunch—all of humanity
Sin, with its various perverted sexual passions, did not exist in humanity’s DNA when God created Adam. According to the evidence of scripture, Adam permitted sin (disease and death) to enter into our world and all generations and ethnicities when “he chose” to rebel against God’s authority — doing the exact thing that His Father/Creator specifically told him not to do.
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned — Rom. 5:12
Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men…For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners… 5:18-19
For as in Adam all die… 1Cor. 15:22
Talk about a cataclysmic disaster of epic porportion. Adam’s lone and selfish decision thousands and thousands of years ago came crashing down on all of us, generation after generation, even to this day. If you think cancer is a deadly horrific disease, you don’t understand the magnitude of sin. Sin is the #1 cause of disease, death, and destruction.
For the wages of sin is death… Rom. 6:23
…. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 1Cor. 11:29-30
Sin spiritually separates us from God, resulting in spiritual death. That is the reason we each must be born again if we want to be reunited with our Creator.
… Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” John 3:3
God’s open invitation to reunite with Him
Since it was not our fault that Adam committed the sin that led to our condemnation, God allows each of us a gracious opportunity to have a “do-over” – a second chance – to be born again. But the choice is totally up to us.
… born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 1 Pet. 1:23
All those who are born again become the spiritual children of God.
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — John 1:12
….And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. Rom. 8:9
This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. 1 John 3:10
All those who are born again become a new creation.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 2 Cor. 5:17
All those who are born again will not be disappointed.
Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.” Is. 49:23
All those who are born again will receive the gift of eternal life.
… the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 6:23
All those who are born again will not be destroyed by the second death.
Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. Rev. 20:6
We are all aware and acknowledge physical death. That is the death that most of us fear. But God has assured, “His children” – those that are born again – that there is absolutely no need to fear physical death. That was the main purpose of God raising Jesus from the dead to demonstrate that He had the ultimate power over death and the grave.
“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Luke 12:4-5
Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, Heb. 9:27
What the unbeliever/the unsaved/the non-Christian needs to fear is the second death – that is the spiritual death — the complete separation from God forever.
But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars — their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” Rev. 21:8
Those who are born again – those who believe in the resurrection of Jesus are safe/saved. They do not have to fear the second death. All those who are born once (physically) will by their own choosing die twice – physically and spiritually. All those who are born twice (physically and spiritually) will only die once; then they will be forever changed.
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1 Cor. 15:51-52
Ignoring all the religious rhetoric and confusion surrounding us today, if you sincerely confess in your heart that Jesus is all authority (Lord) and believe in your heart that God did, in fact, raise him from the grave, you will be saved – safe from any judgment or condemnation resulting from Adam’s initial sin.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus… Rom. 8:1
Loving you more.