You Must Be Born Again 6

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. (John 19:30—NIV)

When the Lord Jesus cried "It is finished!" He was speaking of the entire first creation.

Because we do not understand the Kingdom of God consists of new creations we are attempting to make Adam pleasing to God. Our Christian liturgies and activities are proceeding on the assumption, and leave the impression, that God by "grace" will save the Adamic creation by bringing it to Paradise in the spirit realm. This is not the case.

Christ did not come to save Adam. Jesus lived as Adam and as Adam died on the cross, bringing to an end the adamic creation. He who emerged from the cave of Joseph of Arimathea was not of the first Adam. He was the Beginning of the new creation, the Beginning of those who will serve God in holiness and righteousness forever. He was the First of the sons of the resurrection, the First of those who are to be begotten from the dead.

The true purpose of the Christian assemblings is to support the individual as he learns to enter the closet of prayer and to commune with the Lord. It is the personal communion that is lacking today. Apart from personal communion with the Lord the new Life that has been born is not nourished properly. It withers and finally dies.

Believers are active in churches, in some instances, but they do not always know the Lord. They know the church and its functions but they do not know the Lord. There is no time during the day when they enter close personal fellowship with the Lord. They may pray on the run or have a good attitude toward God. But this is not what is required if the development of Christ in us is not to be aborted.

It is not our religious practices that are important except as they minister to the new person that has been born in us.

When believers do not have a daily experience with the Lord, communing with Him, feeding on His body and blood, the Life that was conceived in them perishes. The process of being born again is aborted. Soulish attitudes and practices, including the desire to build large churches, dead religious works such as aggressive, presumptuous "faith," and the worship of music in place of the worship of God, can abort the Life of Christ in the believers.

At some point, when the believer is in the process of receiving Jesus as his Lord and Savior, the Divine Seed is planted in his heart. A new man is conceived in him.

Prior to this time his personality has been unified in that he has had a physical body, a human soul, and a human spirit. Now that he has received Jesus his body remains human but his spirit is being joined to the Holy Spirit. A new life, a new person, has been conceived and is being formed in his soul.

He no longer is a unified personality. In his animal body there are two persons striving for control and preeminence. The one person, his living soul, came to him from his mother and father. The other person, he who was conceived of Christ, came from God in Heaven.

To be continued. You Must Be Born Again 7