The Daily Word of Righteousness

The Resurrection and Eternal Judgment, #24

And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. (Revelation 20:11)

The death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary signaled the end of the adamic creation. At the conclusion of the thousand-year period the earth and the heaven that we know will flee away and no place will be found for them. This marks the termination of the first creation.

The Kingdom of God is the making of all things new in Christ.

We who have been called of the Lord to serve the Lord Jesus are the firstfruits of the new creation. We have the Holy Spirit in us as a pledge that one day our outward man will be renewed in Christ.

But in the meantime our inner man must be made new, for the adamic nature cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

To enter the Kingdom of God we must be born again (John 3:3,5).

Unfortunately the expression "born again" is being used incorrectly by Christians as part of the "four steps of salvation."

The Apostles did not preach being "born again" (examine the Book of Acts) as the Gospel message. The message of salvation from Divine wrath is not that we must be born again. In order to be saved from wrath we must believe in the Lord Jesus, repent of our sins, and be baptized in water.

Paul never used the term "born again," although he did teach the concept when speaking of the "new creature." Being born again does not mean that our sins have been forgiven and we have been saved. It is not a term one should use for evangelistic purposes. We are using the expression incorrectly.

Being born again refers to the conversion of the inner man from the adamic soul to the life-giving spirit. It is a slow, painful process. The death of Adam in us is excruciating at times. While the conversion of the inner man may commence in an embryonic sense when we make a profession of faith in Christ, it is evident that the majority of believers have not come to the full term of birth in the Kingdom sense.

To be born again is not a doctrinal position, it is an experience of total change of personality. Being born again has nothing to do with "going to Heaven" when we die. Being born again has to do with the Kingdom of God. It refers to the death of the first creation and the birth of the new.

Our inner man must be born again, passing from phase A, the adamic life, to phase B, the eternal life of the life-giving spirit.

The first phase of the inner man is of the earth— earthy. The second phase of the inner man is the Life, Substance, and Nature of the Lord from Heaven.

The first phase of our inner man came from our human parents. The second phase of the inner man comes from God Himself, being born of Him.

Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13)

To be continued.