Josh Benner

Category: Bible

  • The cross of Christ shows us the cost of sin

    The cross of Christ shows us the cost of sin

    We have a sinfully low view of sin. We cannot overestimate the weight of sin when we see the cost of sin on the cross. 

    None of us lives up even to our own moral standards. Do you ever get mad and you regret it? Ever yell at someone and wish you hadn’t? Ever look at something and feel shame for it? Ever tell a lie or bend the truth and wish you could have it back? Ever manipulate people to get your own way? Ever do something where you know deep down it’s not what you should have done? Of course you have. We don’t live up to our own standards. And if we can’t do that, how on earth do we live up to the standards of a holy God? We don’t and we can’t. 

    We have nothing to go to God with on our own and say “you have to accept me. You have to love me. You have to let me into heaven.” On what grounds? 

    We sin. And it’s not just “well nobody is perfect.” But that we sin. We rebel against God. In our thoughts, in our hearts, in our actions, in our inactions. Our view of sin is so low that we think we can master it on our own. Our view of sin is so low that we think we can do enough good to outweigh our sin. 

    Then why the cross at all? Why did Jesus die? The world likes to judge God. Likes to say what he should do if he really were loving. That he’d just wipe the slate clean. That that would be love. We like to tell God what love is. Because we have a sinfully low view of sin. Because the reality is that God SHOWS US what love is. On the cross. That’s what love is. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friend (John 15:13). 

    Jesus shows us what love is when he lays down his life for you. When he endures the penalty of your sin for you. When he bears the wrath of God for you. And again that’s a message that many find offensive. That many hate. But that again shows our sinfulness when we try to judge God. We try to tell the God who made us what really would be just or holy or good. We can’t earn God but he freely gives himself. On the cross. 

    We might debate sin. Just how big of a deal it really is. Just how much it really matters. But Jesus shows us how big of a deal sin is on the cross. He shows us how imperfect we are on the cross, how sinful we are on the cross. Because he bears the weight of our sins. 

    We have a sinfully low view of sin. We cannot overestimate the weight of sin when we look at the price Jesus paid for sin. Jesus didn’t die for you because your sins weren’t that bad. He did it because of the holiness of God and our inability to live up to that. But rather than to just have us languish with no hope, he gave us hope. On the cross. 

    Jesus is God. And because he’s God, he was a worthy sacrifice for our sins. For all of eternity, Jesus is God. God came into the world. The word became flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14). Born of a virgin at his incarnation, Jesus is fully man. And because he’s fully man, he is like us in our human nature. He lived the holy life we could not. The sinless life we could not. And he died for you. 

    Jesus goes to the cross and in going to the cross, he doesn’t simply die for us. He’s tortured for us. It’s not like our day and age where methods of execution are designed to be relatively painless. Crucifixion was designed to humiliate and maximize the torture and pain. It was designed to prolong suffering. After being flogged to within an inch of your life, a person would have to carry the top part of the cross beam, which weighed upwards of 125 pounds to the place of his or her death. Nails would have been driven through the wrists and feet. Just imagine the agony of that. And the cross beam would be hoisted up with the condemned person attached. Struggling to breathe, their body sagging down on the weight of their legs. Then pushing up somewhat to get more oxygen. And repeating this horrid cycle until a person died from asphyxiation or exposure to the elements. 

    But there we have God on earth. Dying in the most agonizing way. The most humiliating way. In a public way. But it was for the sins of the world. It was so we could be forgiven. Because as he was nailed to the cross, so was our sin.  We have a sinfully low view of sin. That that was the price to be paid for it. God on earth dying for it. But he did it willingly. Not because he had to. But because of his love for you. That’s what love is. 

    Jesus never leaves us, he never forsakes us. His disciples let him down. Three times they fell asleep in the garden. Three times Peter denies Jesus. Judas leads the party who arrests Jesus. Judas walked with the Lord for three years. And betrayed him. Jesus is brought before the Jewish ruling council. They’re not out for the truth, they’re trying to find any charges that will stick. They take his words out of context and bring him before Pilate, saying he should be crucified.  Pilate is an earthly authority, the governor. Pilate knows he can find no fault in Jesus. He sees the innocence of Jesus. Pilate symbolically tries to cleanse himself: he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” 

    In the face of intense pressure, Pilate can’t bring himself to do the right thing. He offers up an option. Pilate has a custom of annually releasing one prisoner. There is Barabbas who is a killer and an instigator of insurrection. Or they can have Jesus who is totally innocent. And they select Barabbas. The Roman guards later mock Jesus. They make a crown of thorns, they hand him a reed as a makeshift scepter, they put a robe on him. They bow down and say “Hail, king of the Jews.” But again they play into the irony. Because Jesus IS the king. He’s the king of kings. While he’s on the cross, the mocking continues. Jesus is crucified with two men who are guilty. And they too join in the mocking. The guilty mocking an innocent man. Dying people mocking the Lord. Crucified men who can’t even show humility for another man who is dying the same gruesome death. 

    The priests, scribes, and elders continue mocking Jesus, beginning in 27:42, “he saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.” 

    It’s because Jesus didn’t come down from the cross that we CAN believe in him. Because Jesus died on that cross that day. The mocking continues in 27:43 “he trusts in God, let God deliver him now, if he desires him.” Again they miss the point. God did not spare his son so that he could spare you. The followers of Jesus, the betrayer of Jesus, the ruling Jewish authorities, the ruling Roman authorities. All contributing in various ways to Jesus’ death. 

    This isn’t the isolated failing of one person. It’s not a lone wolf assassin who takes out Jesus. If that had been the case, maybe we could chalk it up to one bad egg. But in the passion narrative, it’s everyone. Everyone’s failures and sins lead to the cross. But even in spite of that, God is working it for his own glory. In spite of that, God had planned throughout all eternity to actually use that evil and wickedness for our salvation. Because even though it was sin and evil that brought Jesus to the cross, it’s because Jesus went to the cross that he was able to die to sin for all who believe in him.  

    We see the sinfulness of humanity in Christ’s passion. We can’t downplay the sinfulness of humanity when Jesus came into our world and we killed him. The righteous and holy God who made the world came into the world and we crucified him. We can’t downplay the severity of our sinfulness with that one. The most atrocious way that humanity has ever conceived of to end a person’s life, crucifixion is what is used against the righteous savior of the world. But in spite of all of that, we again see the grace of the Lord on the cross. Because Jesus bore infinite wrath for sin. 

    There is infinite grace when we turn to him. There is no sin he is unable to forgive. It’s not that he died and can forgive every sin, but he can’t forgive that one, or this one, or what you did, or what you’re struggling with. Infinite wrath because of our sin. But infinite mercy on the cross because of his grace.

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    Originally published May 1, 2018

  • Jesus and the Last Supper – more than just a meal

    Jesus and the Last Supper – more than just a meal

    As part of Holy Week, Maundy Thursday is recognized this evening. It was the night in which Jesus ate the Last Supper with his disciples. The time in which Jesus died corresponded with the Jewish holiday of Passover. And the Last Supper was the first night of Passover. An annual dinner for Passover is held, called a Seder, which is the Hebrew word for “order.” In 3,500 years, rabbinical tradition and teaching helped to form the ceremony of the Seder.

    Some of these pieces were traced back to the original Passover. Others came in Jewish history from rabbinical traditions.

    Also, once the Israelites were in the land, and after the temple was built, this impacted Passover traditions. When you had the temple, the lambs were sacrificed at the temple. But what didn’t change was that people could only sacrifice lambs that were perfect.

    I think it’s worth spending so much time in talking about Passover because I think it can help give us a greater context and understanding for the events surrounding the death of Jesus.

    In the gospels, the time of the death of Christ revolves around the Passover. That’s not a coincidence! Jesus would be sacrificed at the time that was associated with sacrifice. Jesus had gone to Jerusalem for Passover. In Jerusalem, the city within the Roman Empire that was the epicenter of Jewish culture, thousands of lambs would have been slaughtered annually. Jewish people would have been coming in from all over the empire.

    We see many traditions of the Seder at the last Supper.

    Some of them are small things. In the gospel accounts, it talks about Jesus reclining at the table (Luke 22:14).

    Jesus wasn’t sitting in a la-z-boy. He was on a couch that he was lying on, that was a Seder tradition. They had been enslaved in Egypt but being able to lie down showed the freedom and security.

    Or when Jesus is alluding to his betrayer, he says in John 13:26, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

    Again, I know the mental image that most of you probably have when you read this. It’s hard to know precisely where in the Seder this is, but it seems that it’s probably referring to when you take Haroset which is made from apple, nuts, cinnamon. They weren’t eating the Last Supper at an Italian restaurant. They didn’t have a bowl of olive oil in the middle of the table. But all of the elements we see at the Last Supper are part of what you’d see in a traditional Seder.

    As part of the Seder, you’d take the unleavened bread…looks like a cracker. And you’d break the bread.

    Luke 22:19, “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

    For over a thousand years of Seder dinners, bread had been broken. Unleavened bread, just like the Israelite forefathers had eaten before fleeing from Egypt.

    The body of Jesus, given for you, given for your sins. Given for your forgiveness. And he says “do this in remembrance of me.”

    What more fitting words could you say at a Seder? A meal revolving around remembrance, about retelling the story of God saving his people by the blood of the lamb.

    Remembering what God has done. Remembering what Jesus has done. Remembering the sins that he’s redeemed you from. Remembering his body that he gave for you. Remembering his death that he died for you. Remembering the grace that he offers to you. Remembering his gospel.

    Luke 22:20 says, “And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.”

    The Seder dinner involves four glasses of wine. This seems to have been the second or third glass of wine in the meal, although there’s scholarly debate.

    But how profound it is. Wine drank in remembrance of the Passover. Jesus takes the wine, he blesses it, he says it is the new covenant in his blood, at the Seder dinner.

    It clearly points backwards to the blood of the Passover lamb, the blood that was put on the door posts. And it also points forward to the blood of Christ, shed for the forgiveness of sins. The blood of the true lamb.

    At the beginning of the gospel of John, when John the Baptist sees Jesus he says “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” Jesus is the true lamb of God. The lamb who took the penalty for sins. The one who was scarified for the salvation of God’s people.

    And by trusting in him and having faith in him, that puts the blood on the doorpost of your heart. On the first Passover, there would not have been a pardon for a person who didn’t put blood on the doorpost. It wasn’t that the blood saved them, God saved them. But to not put the blood on the door was to show that a person didn’t have faith in the Lord, didn’t trust in the Lord.

    When we take the Lord’s Supper, it’s not arbitrary. It’s not just using the random items that were around. It’s all symbolic. It takes symbols important to the first Passover, the first time God had delivered Israel, and it reminds of the new Passover, from the perfect sacrifice for sins.

    The Passover passage in Exodus 12:5 says that the lamb that was used had to be without blemish. Jesus is the ultimate lamb without blemish, a life lived in perfection.

    1 Corinthians 5:7 says “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover Lamb.”

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    Originally published April 13, 2017

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  • The importance of constant gospel focus

    The importance of constant gospel focus

    As someone who doesn’t have kids, over the last few years, more and more of my friends have began to have children.

    When you have your first kid, you’re a member of a new club. You are a parent. Being a parent is something that becomes part of who you are. Your whole life, you haven’t had kids….but then you leave the hospital, and you have this baby. 

    I’ve always thought, “Wow. That must be so…weird!”

    Your whole life, you haven’t had kids, and then suddenly you have one, and forever. 

    And it’s a new life. It effects your habits, effects your sleep, how you spend your money. It effects how you spend your time, what you have time for. There are responsibilities: to love the child, to care for him or her, to teach, to be a role model. 

    Or at least, these are the ways things should be. 

    In the same way, when a person begins walking with Jesus, that also is a new life. It’s saying goodbye to a former life. A parent is always a parent. In Colossians 3, the apostle Paul is talking about the new life that is found in Christ. 

    To understand the gospel, to be walking with Jesus, to know his grace, you’re never the same. 

    IF THEN YOU HAVE BEEN RAISED WITH CHRIST, SEEK THE THINGS THAT ARE ABOVE, WHERE CHRIST IS, SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. SET YOUR MINDS ON THINGS THAT ARE ABOVE, NOT ON THINGS THAT ARE ON EARTH.
    -Colossians 3:1-2

    When you’re walking in faith, you have been “raised in Christ.” Jesus died and we are united with him in his death SO THAT we can be raised with Christ. 

    As Jesus was victorious over death, so too will we be. We are united with Christ in what he has accomplished. 

    And then Paul gives a command to: seek the things that are above… and the reason why we are to focus on the things above is because it is in heaven where Christ is seated. There is no higher place to focus, no pun intended, than on the things of Christ. To have a mind that is focusing on the goodness of Jesus.

    In verse 2, the language intensifies: we go from seeking the things that are above to being called to “set your minds on the things that are above.” 

    The Lord in whom we have placed our faith and trust, we are to continually have a focus on Jesus, his teachings, his ministry, his gospel, his grace for our sin. This is an essential step in continuing to have a greater understanding for the person of Christ and of our union with Christ, our union with him in the death he died for us and the life we are raised to because of him. 

    We are to set our minds on the things that are above, and “not on the things that are on the earth.” 

    What’s that mean? 

    It’s not saying that we aren’t to have any thought about anything related to daily life. The point is rather that in our areas of sin, instead of dwelling on sins. Instead of focusing and setting our mind on sinful behaviors, instead of letting anger fester, instead of letting our minds run wild in a fantasy world, instead of dwelling on those, we need to give our minds over to focusing on things that are above. 

    The gospel is something with which we need to be thoughtful. 

    I think about the military and their training.

    Psychologically there are elements to the training that are separating a person from their former way of life. For men, they cut you hair. You don’t just wear whatever you want, you wear what they tell you to wear. In training, you are introduced to a group where when a person makes a mistake, it effects everyone. Numerous other ways how a person is molded into a soldier, sailor, airmen, or marine.

    When we begin walking with Jesus, that also changes a person.

    To recognize your sin, to recognize that you are not righteous on your own, that you are not worthy of God on your own, and to accept by faith the grace that Christ extends, that is also walking away from a former life. 

    God is making us a new creation. Jesus came to save us but he also came to transform us. And for a person who knows of their sin, how incapable we are of living to God’s standard. To place trust in Jesus, to acknowledge that we can’t do it on our own, and to have faith that he lived that perfect life that we could not live is to trust in a God who is perfect and who is ethical. And therefore the commands he gives for how we ought to live are also ethical and right. 

    When I was a kid, sometimes I’d get a savings bond for Christmas. There wasn’t much I could do with it at the time. My parents would put it away some place for me. 

    Too many people in our society want to think of the gospel like that. You have it, but you set it off to the side and think it’s not worth a whole lot today. 

    “Sure, I accepted it, but I’m going to do my own thing.”

    But the gospel necessarily impacts our lives. 

    If we believe in the Lord who saved us, it results in a transformed life. 

    We can’t simply say we believe in a god, as some sort of impersonal force. 

    To place faith, to place trust in Jesus, to know that you cannot earn salvation on your own and to accept what Jesus offers, to have no change in life is to not really believe. 

    One of the best ways how we can know God is to focus on him, is to be mindful of him. 

    Eastern, mystic religions that use meditation, it can have an inward focus. But we are to have an upward focus. To focus on God. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” 

    It’s hard to truly be walking in a steadfast focus on the things above and to be sin. People who hurt others aren’t committed to God when they do it. Have you ever been walking in Spiritual bliss, pondering at the glory of God and told off the cashier at the grocery store? Having a mindset that is focused on God, his goodness and gospel is transformative. Let us set our minds on the things that are above.

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    Originally published October 31, 2016.

  • Sermon: Witness to the truth – John 18:36-38

    How is truth defined? Biblically, we see truth by looking to Jesus. As Pilate continues to question Jesus, Jesus will teach that he has a kingdom that is not of this world. Pilate misunderstands and Jesus will give the further clarification that Jesus has a kingdom which is based In truth which is comprised by those who follow the truth.

    Sermon transcript

  • Water and Spirit. Studying John 3:1-8

    Water and Spirit. Studying John 3:1-8

    In John 3, Jesus is approached by a leading religious teacher named Nicodemus. Nicodemus had heard of Jesus and his teaching and wanted to learn more. Jesus would tell him that he had to be born again. 

    In John 3:4, Nicodemus says: 

    Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

    Water and Spirit

    In John 3:5, Jesus will elaborate further and say to Nicodemus: 

    Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

    Water and Spirit. 

    Jesus has said unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

    And Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 

    They’re both obviously important in what Jesus is saying about how one can enter the Kingdom of God. 

    But what do they have to do with each other? Because they’re both connected to seeing and entering the kingdom of God. 

    The key to answering that question is found in Ezekiel 36. In that passage, water and Spirit are both present, and it says that the Lord will give the believer a new heart. 

     25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

    God giving his Spirit and a new heart. 

    “I will sprinkle clean water on you” 

    “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you.” 

    “I will put my Spirit within you”  

    Where Jesus says we must be born again, it is by the Holy Spirit that we are born again. Jesus justifies by his perfect life and by his blood and it is the Holy Spirit who indwells the believer. It’s not up to us to save ourselves.

    The rebirth is through the Holy Spirit. 

    New theological term. This is referred to as baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

    Baptism of the Holy Spirit is different from water baptism. 

    That idea is first mentioned in John’s Gospel in John 1:33 when John the Baptist is speaking of Jesus and says: 

    He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

    All four gospels make this same point. That Jesus brings a filling of the Holy Spirit to such an abundant degree that it is a baptism. 

    It is a privilege which all Christians share, as we see in 1 Corinthians 12:13: For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body

    This indwelling of the Holy Spirit is foretold in the Ezekiel passage. 

    And Ezekiel isn’t the only passage. Joel 2:28: 

    it shall come to pass afterward,  that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh

    This initial pouring out of the Spirit happens in Acts 2 at Pentecost. 

    All Christians have the Holy Spirit because all Christians are born again, which is of the Spirit. And all Chrisitans are baptized in the Holy Spirit at the moment they come to faith. 

    There is no way to be a Christian without these events happening in your life.

    Romans 8:9-10 is a great passage which communicates this idea. 

    9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

    The Spirit sanctifies us, he sets us apart.

    Romans 8:11: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. 

    The Spirit works to transform a believer: 

    2 Corinthians 3:18: we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 

    Spiritual life can only come through the Spirit. That’s what Jesus means in our passage when he says in John 3:6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

    The flesh begets worldly sinful life. The Spirit begets Spiritual life, the new life that God promises his people. 

    There are many other things which the Spirit does in the life of a believer. All three persons of the Trinity are active in the gospel. We can’t just look at the love of God without the work of the Christ who died for a sinful world. 

    And we can’t discount the work of the Holy Spirit because without the Holy Spirit, a person does not have faith in the gospel because true faith in the gospel means a person has the Holy Spirit. 

    We must be born again. 

    Titus 3:4-6: 4 But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior

    Salvation and the Spirit go together. 

    Jesus is the one who died for sins. But we are given new life through the Spirit. A person who truly has faith has the Spirit. 

    And once you have the Spirit, you cannot lose it. In fact, it’s because we need a work of the Holy Spirit that we can have assurance of salvation. Because it is God who works in us through the Spirit. 

    Jesus has said that we must be born of water and Spirit. Returning to our passage in John 3. 

    Is John 3 talking about water baptism? 

    Some take that to refer to water baptism. It seems logical. But there are a few things to keep in mind: Water baptism is not mentioned anywhere else in this passage. The Great Commission and the command to baptize have not yet been given. 

    Just because water is mentioned does not mean that baptism must be in mind. In our next chapter, John 4, Jesus talks of the water he provides and how the one who drinks of it will never thurst. In John 7, Jesus talks of the living water which he supplies and in that Jesus is using water to refer to the Holy Spirit. 

    Jesus criticizes Nicodmeus for not understanding what he’s saying. If he’s referring to water baptism, that rebuke makes little sense. How would Nicodemus be expected to understand the ordinance of water baptism before it had been given to Chrsitians? 

    But it would make sense to expect Nicodemus to understand Ezekiel 36. 

    Baptism IS important, but baptism is an action that is symbolic of your inward faith, a faith where God has poured his Spirit upon his people. Baptism does nothing if you are not ultimately born again. And that’s true regardless of if someone believes in believer’s baptism or infant baptism. The baptism must ultimately be accompanied by faith. 

    Given his study of the Bible, given the promises of God giving his spirit, given the Ezekiel 36 promise of a new heart, for all of these reasons, for Nicodemus, it should not be a logical leap that a new birth, a new life would be necessary in truly coming to faith in God.

    We often miss this point too.

    The Bible constantly talks of the necessity of faith, the Bible constantly talks of our sin. Throughout the gospels, we see constant references to Jesus’ death for our sin.

    And yet we so often face the temptation to think our standing before God is based on ourselves.

    Verses 7 and 8, Jesus says: 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 

    Jesus gives an illustration based on the weather. 

    Jesus was telling this to people before modern meteorology. 

    But even still, to the average person, we don’t really know how the wind works, or what causes its changes. Yet we feel it, we see the impact it has, we hear it. 

    Jesus says “so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  

    The point is that there is evidence of the work of the Spirit in the life of a believer. We don’t always understand how the spirit works but his work in the life of a believer is evident. 

    And I again refer us back to Ezekiel 36:27:

    I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

    Israel was given the law and continued to sin. In the new covenant, God gives his Holy Spirit and it is by his Spirit that we are enabled to follow his laws.

    God works within his own people enabling us to do the will of God. That is a tremendous grace which God gives to the world. 

    That’s not to say that you will never sin again. That’s not to say you will never struggle again. At the moment you come to faith, you are justified before God by the justifying work of Christ. You’re forgiven in an instant, indwelled with the Holy Spirit. But the rest of life is meant to be a journey of growing in faith and holiness. 

    You must be born again

    Have you been born again? Has your life been changed by the gospel? 

    God does a heart transplant whenever someone comes to faith. He gives a new heart. Do you have joy in the Lord? Love for God? Are there areas where you’ve seen fruit in your life?

    Do you have confidence in God’s goodness and his promises? Do you have a greater appreciation for the weight of your own sin? Do you feel like your life has been oriented around God?

    Being born again results a life that is transformed because it is not about our strength to live in a Godly manner but God works in us.

    So that is the command which Jesus has given. That for a person to enter the kingdom of heaven, being born again is necessary. Again, it’s not just my opinion on the subject. 

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