Salvation: Out With the Old, In With the New (BFM pt. 6)
Text: John 3:1-10
By: Ken McKinley
This morning we are continuing with our study of the BFM and we are still on article four: Salvation. Sermon number six, but article four, and last time I told you all that we are going to spend a bit of time on this particular point of the BFM because it is so important that you all, and any who would name the Name of Christ, to understand. So let’s turn again to John chapter 3 and follow along with me as I read vss. 1 – 10 (read).
Now if you remember last time I said that what Nicodemus needed wasn’t a new religion, but a new life, he needed to be born again. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, he had plenty of religion, but he was spiritually dead. So Jesus told him that he needed to be born again, but Nicodemus, being that his eyes weren’t opened yet, was looking at things in the flesh. He said, “How can I be born when I’m already old?” So Jesus had to explain it to him. In vs. 6 Jesus said, “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” In other words; Jesus was telling Nicodemus that this new birth that he needed wasn’t a natural birth, but a supernatural birth. The flesh gives birth to one kind of life, and the Holy Spirit gives birth to another kind of life.
And last time we also looked at John 6:63 where Jesus said, “It is the Spirit Who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The Words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life!” We also read from Romans where Paul said that it was the Gospel of Jesus Christ that was the power of God unto salvation. And I told you all that no one can be saved, no one can be born again WITHOUT hearing the Gospel. This is important because of what Jesus says to Nicodemus in John 3 verse 5 (read).
So what did Jesus mean when He said, “...Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Well, some people believe that He was talking about baptism. They say, Jesus was telling Nicodemus that he had to be baptized in water. Many people have been taught that their baptism is what saved them and caused them to be born again. If this is true then Jesus contradicted Himself when He promised the thief on the cross that he would be with Jesus in Paradise that very day.
So I want to give ya’ll some reasons why I don’t believe that Jesus was talking about water baptism, and then I want to tell you what I believe He meant by the terms “water” and “Spirit.”
First of all: If Jesus was teaching that water baptism is essential to salvation, then why doesn’t He teach this later on in John chapter three? In vs. 15 He says, “Whoever believes…” In vs. 16 He says, “Whoever believes…” In vs. 18 He says, “Whoever believes…” So if water baptism was essential to ones salvation, why did Jesus leave it out in all of the rest of His conversation with Nicodemus?
Secondly: Jesus says to Nicodemus in vs. 10 “You are a teacher of Israel and you don’t understand these things?” It would make no sense for Jesus to reprimand Nicodemus in such a way if He were talking about Christian baptism… Christian baptism had not yet been introduced at this time, and even if it had been, how could a devout Jew know about it?
Thirdly: If baptism were a necessary requirement for salvation, then how many people throughout history that professed Christ, translated Scriptures, preached the Gospel, and served Him, did not go to heaven, but were lost because they did not get baptized?
Turn with me to 1st Corinthians 12:12 – 13 (read). Here we see, it’s not the pastor, the minister, the evangelist, or a priest who baptizes us into Christ. It’s the Holy Spirit. Water baptism is a profession of faith, an outward sign of what’s already taken place on the inside. It is a public confession that we are united to Christ. So what did Jesus mean when He said you must be born of water and of the Spirit? What is the “water” He’s talking about? Well turn with me to Ephesians 5:25 – 27 (read). We covered this when we went though the book of Ephesians – “The washing of water by the Word.” Remember Jesus said, “It’s the Spirit who gives life… the Words that I speak are spirit and life…” Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel, because it was the power of God unto salvation. Whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life… but how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? Paul said in 1st Corinthians chapter one, “I thank God that I baptized none of you except for Crispus, and Gaius, and the household of Stephanas. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but the preach the Gospel.”
The water that Jesus spoke of Nicodemus was the washing of water by the Word. He was telling Nicodemus that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation and that it was the Holy Spirit who applied this washing to the heart of the believer.
And so, when a person hears the gospel of Christ, the Holy Spirit is the one who uses those ordained means to bring about new life. Not new religion, not more religion, but a new life. That’s what we all need. We need to be transformed, we need to be regenerated. Now some might ask why? Why do we need a new life? What’s wrong with the one I have now? I feel just fine, why do I need to be born again?
Well I’m glad you asked; turn with me to Ephesians 2:1 – 10 (read).
Twice in that passage of Scripture Paul says that we are dead in our trespasses. A person without Christ is dead in trespasses and sin. They might be walking around, they might be talking, they might even be attending church, but if Jesus Christ is not their Lord and Savior, then they are spiritually dead.
In vs. two of Ephesians 2 Paul says that when a person is spiritually dead they follow the course of this world. In vs. three Paul says that when a person is spiritually dead they conduct themselves in the lusts of the flesh, and that they are by nature children of wrath. That right there tells us, it’s not just about what you do when you’re not a Christian, it’s what YOU ARE! You were by nature a child of wrath, and so was I, and so was everyone that is a Christian today, before they were saved. I AM MY PROBLEM. You are not what causes my problems, my parents are not my problem, my enemies are not my problem… I am my problem.
The Bible tells us that all of mankind is born into sin. We do not at first have a good nature and then at some point in life do bad things and then get a bad nature. “Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.” This is who I am. Man’s nature is selfish, self-centered and sinful. In John chapter 3 vss. 19 and 20 John tells us that a person who is spiritually dead loves darkness rather than the light. Paul tells us in Romans that the person who is spiritually dead suppresses the truth in unrighteousness, he says that the person who is spiritually dead is hostile towards God, and is an enemy of God. He says that we are slaves to sin when we are spiritually dead and no good thing dwells in us. Ezekiel tells us that the person who is spiritually dead is hard hearted. And Jesus said that the person who is spiritually dead is of their father the devil.
Those are just a few of the reasons why we need to be born again… let me give you one more from our text in John 3… “Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Turn with me to 2nd Corinthians 5:17 (read). Out with the old, in with the new! We become a new creation in Christ Jesus. When God causes us to be born again, saving faith is awakened and we are united to Christ. When we are united to Christ we are justified, we are counted as righteous. We become the righteousness of God in Christ, but only in Christ. When we are born again, we are adopted into the family of God and made joint heirs with Jesus. When we are born again we are forgiven of all our sins, and made acceptable in the beloved. When we are born again we are passed from death to life. When we are born again we sanctified by the Holy Spirit, we are baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. We are redeemed, we are forgiven, we are justified; we are saved from the wrath to come!
Jesus makes it clear that we must be born again. If you aren’t, then you have no hope of ever seeing the kingdom of God.
But the good news is that you can be born again. You can not only have hope, but assurance. You see; Jesus knew that you were lost, and He knew that I was lost, but He loves us so much that He couldn’t leave us in that hopeless, lost condition, and so He became a man and lived a life of perfect righteousness and holiness, and fulfilled the laws requirements. He did that because we couldn’t. And then, because He knew we had already sinned, and that we were born in sin, He went to the cross of Calvary and died for those sins. He paid the penalty for our sins on that cross 2000 years ago. He was the perfect sacrifice for imperfect people. And He very well could be calling you to Him this morning.
Let’s Pray
