Born From Above
What does it mean to be born from
above?
John 3:3-7
[3] Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again (born from
above), he cannot see the kingdom of God.
[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] Jesus 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 God.
[6] That which is born of the flesh
is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
[7] Marvel not that I said unto
thee, Ye must be born again.
The ‘born from above’ experience is
the spiritual regeneration of every chosen son of God in Christ. That is, those
whom are born from above are born into a new family – the family of God. The word
“son” or ‘man” used in any passage that has to do with the spiritual birth or
the kingdom of God as seen here in the above passage, has nothing to do with
gender. It is a general term used for all humans. Therefore, we could say that,
anyone who will be part of the family of God i.e. part of God’s kingdom will
have to be born from above.
Now, to be born from above is simply
the born again experience. There is a physical birth and there is a spiritual
birth. Of course, man is both physical and spiritual. All humans have both the
spirit part of them as well as the physical part of them. The birth of a child
in the hospital or anywhere by some medical personnel is the physical birth of
that child. Jesus is now telling us that, everyone who is born like that will
never have anything to do with God’s kingdom!
Since God is a spirit, his Kingdom
is also spiritual, hence the need for anyone who will have anything to do with
him and his kingdom to be spiritual as well. This is why he said they must be
born from above. The word ‘above’ here signifies being born from heaven or being
born of God. To be born of God is to be born of the Spirit of God since, it is
the spirit to spirit reproduction that we are actually interested in according
to the passage, to be part of the Kingdom of God. Then, everyone who will be
born again will be born spiritually. It has nothing to do with the physical birth
of such person. This was where Nicodemus missed it. The ‘born from above’ experience
has nothing to do with the physical body. The physical body will never be
changed or tampered with during this spiritual experience.
When a person becomes born again,
they don’t suddenly change in size or appearance. The born again experience is
strictly a matter of the spirit. It has everything to do with the spirit entity
of the person. It is a hundred percent spiritual activity that will not be seen
with the naked eyes.
How does it happen?
A new creature is born from above by
the interactive action of the water and the spirit. That’s why Jesus said:
“Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God”. This has nothing to do with baptism. The KJV has the word ‘of’ before the
phrase ‘the Spirit’, which is not so in the original manuscript. It is ‘of
water and the Spirit” not ‘of water and OF the Spirit’. It is not about having
both water baptism and the Holy Ghost baptism! The “water” here is a symbol of
the word of God while the “spirit” is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. “Born of
water and the spirit” is a figure of speech referring to God’s authentic way of
creation. Before a man can be born again, there must be a spirit-word
interaction. It is the brooding of the spirit upon the word that quickens something
back to life.
See how the Message Version of the
Bible puts it: “Unless a person submits to this original creation – the
‘wind-hovering-over-the-water’ creation, the invisible moving the visible, a
baptism into a new life – it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom.”
From the onset, the only authorized
creation methodology of God is the Spirit-water reaction method. The technology
of the spirit-water interaction produces a transformed new creation. The world
was created in this manner, according to Genesis 1:2. “…And the Spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters.” Genesis 1:2b. The Amplified version of the
Bible reads “…God’s Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss”. This is
the spirit-water reaction that produced the created world! At this time, the
world was void and formless; the spirit-water reaction turned a formless earth
into an ordered earth. This is just how the Lord creates new things out of old
unreasonable things. When the Lord saves a believer, he gets them born by the
Spirit-Water reaction in other to transform them just like the formless and
void earth into a new and ordered one. So if any man be in Christ, they become
a newly transformed personality.
The “word” that the Virgin Mary
heard from the Angel became flesh (John 1:14) only when the Holy Spirit came
upon her and brooded upon the word.
In God’s agenda of creation, this is
the only authorized mode. No one will be transformed into a new creation if
they did not first hear the word of Christ, and when the Spirit brood upon such
word. This brooding act is actually what Christ says he has seen and witnessed
many times: He said “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know,
and testify that we have seen…” John 3:11a
So if any man is born from above, then
he is born in his or her spirit by the spirit-water reaction, that is, the Word
and the Holy Spirit joint-productive mechanism. That is to say, the salvation
of mankind is a joint work of the Word and the Holy Spirit.
No one will be saved if they don’t
hear the word, Paul said “So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
word of Christ” (Not word of God) the Greek word in the original manuscript used
here is ‘Christos’, so the KJV’s translation of this phrase as ‘word of God’ is
an error. It is the message of Christ’s death and resurrection that saves the
unbeliever not just any message about God. And no one will be saved except the
Spirit broods upon the word they have heard. Jesus said, “No man can come to
me, except the father which hath sent me draw him…” John 6:44a. The Father
draws every human who is to be saved by the spirit. Jesus said concerning the
work of the Holy Spirit in the world, “And when he is come, he will reprove the
world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment.” John 16:8
So when Jesus told Nicodemus that,
“Except a man be born of WATER AND THE SPIRIT (not of water and ‘of’ the
spirit, the word ‘of’ is not in the original manuscript, KJV translators
inserted it), he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God” he meant that the ‘born from above’ experience is a result
of the joint working power of the Word and the Spirit of God!
To
be continued…
©BASILEIA
INTERNATIONAL
www.thebasileia.blogspot.com|www.facebook.com/basileiafb|+2348137579913
Monthly Teaching Series | September
2020
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