From: allan-sv@algonet.se   
      
                          The New Birth   
      
   "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who   
   according to his great mercy became our father again to a living   
   hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to   
   an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn't fade away,   
   reserved in Heaven for you, who by the power of God are guarded   
   through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."   
   1 Peter 1:3-5. (WEB)   
      
   The new birth is something God's Spirit does with us when we   
   receive Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord. Some people think   
   that they cannot believe in Jesus and be saved because there are so   
   many things in the Bible which they do not understand. But Jesus   
   does not demand that we must have much knowledge of the Bible   
   before he gives us the eternal life. It is on the contrary. The new   
   birth is a prerequisite of that we can be able to understand the Bible.   
      
   God is not the author of confusion but of peace. 1 Cor. 14: 33.   
   Peace means "everything in its right order". Therefore, when we   
   are born again, he also wants to adjust the soul and the body, so   
   that it is ordering in God's temple, for we are that. 1 Cor. 3:16-17.   
   2 Cor. 6:16.   
      
   To be able to live a normal Christian life, it must be peace in our   
   soul. The intellect must have both the will and the feelings under   
   control. If the will has the advantage over the intellect, then it   
   leads to foolish deeds and foolish talking, and if we let the feelings   
   lead our life, then it will go up and down according to the feelings   
   change.   
      
   Yet, it is an important exception when our will must have the   
   control over both intellect and feelings. It concerns our relation to   
   God's word and the Salvation through Jesus Christ. We cannot by   
   our own intellect understand how it happens when we receive the   
   new life in Christ and be born anew. Nevertheless, we can through   
   our will leave that to Jesus, and let him carry out what we do not   
   understand.   
      
   If you let your will get the control over both your intellect and   
   feelings, and say to Jesus, I understand very little of the Bible, but   
   now I will believe in you, and I pray to you, forgive me all my sins.   
   Then Jesus is happy and says: If you really want to be mine, then I   
   will forgive all your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness.   
   1 John 1:9. Then you are also happy and say, thank dear Jesus that   
   you have saved me! The Holy Spirit has executed his work, and you   
   are born anew of the Spirit. John 3:8.   
      
   This may seem unreasonable. Many think it is idiotic, but it is not.   
   That is most sensible you can do.   
      
   Please, read 1 John 1:8-9, 5:10-15. This we can take as a word of   
   Jesus, for himself has let his apostle John write this for the purpose   
   that we may know that we have eternal life, we who believe in the   
   name of God's Son.   
      
   The new birth is no adoption. If the new birth is an adoption, then   
   God's children are not his own children, only adopted children.   
   Then God is not our Father, only our adoptive Father. Who is our   
   real Father? When we are born anew, then something other happens.   
   Then the veil disappears, which caused that we did not understand   
   the Bible. Not so that we understand everything at once, but we   
   come to understand the one bible-word after the other that we did   
   not understand earlier.   
      
   "But their minds were hardened, for until this very day at the reading   
   of the old covenant the same veil remains, because in Christ it passes   
   away. But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.   
   But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the   
   Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."   
   2 Cor. 3:14-17. "Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those   
   who perish; in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of   
   the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ,   
   who is the image of God, should not dawn on them." 2 Cor. 4:3-4.   
      
   When the Holy Spirit interprets God's word to us and reveals the truth   
   to us, it becomes so unaffected and easy. Such things that learned   
   theologians are unable to understand. The Holy Spirit interprets in an   
   easy and unaffected way. Jesus says in Matt. 11:25, "I thank you,   
   Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the   
   wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants."   
      
   When we have received Jesus as our Saviour and have been born anew,   
   it does not imply that we are 'finished'. This is only the first step on the   
   way of faith. The new birth is the beginning of our life as Christians.   
      
   The salvation is connected to baptism in water. On the places in the   
   Bible where the baptism is mentioned, we see that conversion is   
   connected with baptism. When people come to believe in Jesus, then   
   they may be baptized. Please, read about Saul's conversion and baptism,   
   in Acts 9:3-19, and how Cornelius' and his family be saved and baptized,   
   in Acts 10th chapter. The jailer in Philippi and his family were baptized   
   at once, though it was right in the middle of the night. Acts 16:25-34.   
   Here try some people find support for the infant baptism. Perhaps it was   
   a baby in the jailer's family. But we cannot build our faith on "perhaps".   
   We must hold us to God's word.   
      
   Who has the right to baptize? Those who have a living faith in Jesus and   
   themselves are baptized according to the Bible's teaching.   
   The salvation is not a matter of sentiment though it can influence the   
   feelings. If we have no 'feelings of salvation' it is safely to know that   
   the salvation is not founded on our feelings, but on Jesus and his work   
   on the cross.   
      
      
   Allan Svensson   
      
   If you have any questions after reading of this article   
   Please, visit my Web Site   
      
   http://www.algonet.se/~allan-sv/CONTENTS.HTM   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)