LISTEN TO JESUS: BORN AGAIN INTO GOD'S FOREVER FAMILY

LISTEN TO JESUS

BORN AGAIN

INTO GOD’S FOREVER FAMILY

Susie: Now for the verse you memorized in Sunday School when you were a wee lass or lad. That is, if you lived in Scotland. My heritage is coming out.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Susie: Let’s look at this extremely familiar verse (probably the one most likely to be committed to memory) in the Amplified version:

John 3:16 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

Susie: The world in this instance means all kinds of people in the world, Jews and Gentiles, from all over the world, living under the fallen “world system.” In other words, sinners of all kinds. God gave His “only begotten Son.” We as Christians are adopted into God’s family, but Jesus was actually God’s Son born of the virgin Mary, conceived in her by the Holy Spirit. Believing in Jesus is much more than intellectually acknowledging His existence. 

Susan: Trusting Jesus means  understanding that we must completely lean into and depend upon Jesus for all that we are, all that we have, and all that we ever will be. We must make a total surrender of our will to His.

Susie: It is a total surrender of our lives to His care by faith that He is the only way to the Father as Jesus Himself clarifies later in the Gospel of John:

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 15:5 (ESV) I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

Susie: Jesus is the source and sustainer of our lives both now and forever when we trust in Him.

John 3:17-18 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Reformation Study Bible:

Jesus comes into a world that is already condemned because of its rejection of God’s self-revelation (Rom. 1:18–32).

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse

Susie: Jesus did not come to condemn the world because it was already condemned due to rejecting God’s revelation in nature and perpetually giving in to the sin nature within them. The point is that He came to bring them the only offer of salvation they would receive from God. 

Susan: Jesus’s purpose was not to condemn but to redeem. To redeem is to buy back as from slavery. 

Susie: We were slaves to sin. 

Susan: The price of our redemption was His death on the cross. God was willing to give His pride and joy to redeem those unworthy of His love in order to adopt them into His forever family to enjoy His presence eternally. 

Susie: Believing and trusting in the saving power of Jesus transforms us from hopeless sinners into precious saints, something impossible for people to do on their own.

Ways we can apply this to our lives:

·     Eternal life with God is offered only by His grace in giving Jesus to redeem us – He is the only way to peace with God

·     No matter how hard we try to be perfect, we cannot reach God by perfection – we must place our trust in Jesus

·     Surrendering our lives to Jesus’s control brings about the total transformation from being dead in our sin to being alive in Him.

Ephesians 2:1 (AMP)  And you [He made alive when you] were [spiritually] dead and separated from Him because of your transgressions and sins.

John 5:24 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.