Before I received Jesus into my heart I was spiritually dead. And because I was spiritually dead I was also spiritually deaf and blind. People who are dead spiritually cannot see or hear or understand spiritual things. Because I was a natural man who had not been born again, I could not receive the things of the Spirit of God.
1 Corinthians 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But THE NATURAL MAN RECEIVETH NOT THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, 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.
Nicodemus did not understand that although he had been born physically, he needed to be born spiritually. Born again, born of water and born of the Spirit all speak of the birth Jesus causes for us when He saves us, we shall deal with all of those descriptions of the new birth in the following articles. The Bible also describes it as being born of the will of God.
John 1:13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
To be continued.
