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Study Questions

Jesus said about Salvation: "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matt 19:21). The reason why man cannot save himself is because man’s attempt at salvation begins from self, his soul, and through his intellect. This is what caused the problem in the first place: self initiative, not God’s initiative. The Second reason is because man does not deal with the problem, his dead spirit and his bondage to a corrupted soul and flesh, he deals with his behavior: what he does or does not do. What he does or does not do will not bring his spirit back to life and back into relationship with God.

Let us show the arrogance of self attempts of salvation: first, man separated himself from God by rejecting His will and order for man: receive from the Holy Spirit through man’s spirit, then decide with the soul to respond to God’s will and then carry out that will through his physical body. Man chose instead to allow himself to be ruled by himself through his soul: his intellect and feelings, and by his flesh: his appetites and desires. Now man even rejects God’s initiated means of salvation for him through His Only Son Jesus and tells God that he will save himself again through his intellect and feelings, his soul. This is why God tells us through Isaiah 64:6 that all our righteous deeds are as filthy garments in His sight because they are motivated and controlled through man’s soul, not by the Holy Spirit through man’s human spirit.

Man’s need in salvation is to be delivered and saved from self, our soul, because self rule and initiative are the problem in the first place. Man’s problem is not his behavior, his sin either but what sin did to man. Sin corrupted man and brought man into bondage to himself, his soul and flesh. No amount of religious activity will deliver man from the bondage to himself because man himself is the problem. Anything man tries to do for salvation initiates from his soul, from himself and is not the solution because nothing man can do can bring his spirit back to life and back into relationship with God. The soul has no power to create life or make anything alive. Jesus said in John 6:63, "The Spirit creates-life, the flesh profits nothing."

Man trying to save himself is like trying to combat cancer with cancer or fire with gasoline. Man only ends up with more cancer and a bigger fire. Man got himself in trouble in the first place because he acted without God’s initiative first.

Another reason why man cannot save himself is because man’s salvation is selective. He saves only what he wants to save and leaves the rest of the garbage. This is why religion cannot save man. There is nothing man can do to save himself because his behavior is not the problem, he is. The cancer is man himself, not some tumor in man that can be taken out through some religious activity. Man himself is the problem. Man himself is the tumor. He does not just need deliverance from his sins, he needs deliverance from himself. For this reason, If man is to have any hope of salvation from the problem, himself, God himself will have to initiate the solution.

In the beginning sin was the problem because Adam and Eve’s sin was turning from God’s rule to self-rule. Therefore, dealing now just with sin does not solve the problem. We are responsible for our sin, but sin now is not man’s problem, but the symptom of his problem which is man himself. We do not just need deliverance from sin but from self. We need to be born fresh from above, recreated in God’s image and moral righteousness. This is what Jesus told Nicodemus the Jewish Rabbi, "Truly, truly, I say to You, unless one receives birth¹³⁷ from-above¹³⁸, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Jesus did not say, "Unless you get all your sin out of your life, change your behavior and live a perfectly holy life, you cannot enter the kingdom of God." No, Jesus did not say this. We must repent of our sin to receive Jesus’ salvation for our sins, but Jesus knew that man’s problem was not his sin, his behavior. He knew that man’s problem was himself and that no amount of right behavior would change what man is. Therefore, Jesus said to Nicodemus that in order for him to enter the kingdom of God that he had to receive birth from above and be recreated new and fresh into the image and likeness of God.

Nicodemus then asked Jesus how it was possible to enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born? This would not solve the problem. Jesus explains why in John 3:6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Jesus explains to Nicodemus that the reason why he cannot enter the kingdom of God as he is, is because he was born of the flesh in the first place which means he was devoid of spirit, dead spiritually and without ability to have relationship with God. Therefore being born of the flesh a second time would not solve the problem either (which is the meaning of Jesus statement in John 3:5 "unless one is born of water. . ." Often times this is used to say that we are saved by water baptism, but that is not the meaning of this phrase in context. Jesus explains its meaning in 3:6: physical birth) because it would produce the same results: physically and soulishly alive but spiritually dead. Jesus then explained to Nicodemus that he had to receive birth from above through the Holy Spirit of God because only then would he have a living spirit and be one again with God’s Spirit (1 Cor 6:17) and thus have communion and a relationship with God again.

How then is one born again by the Holy Spirit of God? It first started with God, that is God the Son, becoming a man Himself. How did Jesus Christ become man? Through Holy Spirit conception of the Virgin Mary. Why did Jesus need to be conceived of by the Holy Spirit rather than through man’s seed? Man lost his salvation because he broke away from God’s order for him which was to only act out of God’s initiative through his spirit by the Holy Spirit and instead acted out of the initiative of his reasoning and thoughts, his soul. Therefore, man’s seed by man’s initiative will not solve the problem. Man’s seed only produces men devoid of spirit. To solve man’s need of salvation it requires reversing the order by getting back to God’s order: spirit, soul, then body. Therefore the first step had to be Holy Spirit conception of Jesus if He was to have a living human spirit and thus a relationship with God the Father to start with. Jesus said about His life as a man on earth:

"It is the Spirit who creates-life,¹¹³ the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and are life." (John 6:63)

"Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.’" (John 5:19)

Also required was the life of God, eternal life, if we were to be truly saved and have eternal life ourselves. Therefore Jesus had to be fully God as well as fully normal man as God intended for man to be. I will explain this in greater detail later.

All men conceived of by men are descendants of Adam and devoid of spirit at birth. Because Jesus was conceived of by the Holy Spirit, His humanity was not devoid of human-spirit at birth and thus had communion and relationship with God at birth. It had to be through Holy Spirit conception because man born of man is born corrupted and devoid of spirit.

All men were in the loins of Adam when Adam sinned and so all men suffered the same fate as Adam who had not sinned in the likeness of Adam. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 5:12-14,

"Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam."

The Bible defines death as being separated from God which is what is meant by man having a dead spirit. The purpose of man’s spirit is for communicating with and having a relationship with God. Man still has a spirit, but his spirit is dead meaning that its intended function is no longer in operation: he is no longer able through his spirit to communicate with or have a relationship with God. The sin of Adam and Eve severed this function.

To correct this, First, Jesus had to be born of the conception of the Holy Spirit so that he did not carry the consequence of original sin that is on all descendants of Adam: a dead human spirit. This meant that Jesus, when born, was like Adam at his creation. This means Jesus had complete communion and union with God in His human spirit in the moral righteousness and likeness of God.

The second step to our receiving birth from above was God dealing with the penalty of our sin, that which killed our spirits and severed us from God in the first place. The Bible teaches us about the wages of sin: "The wages of sin is death." (Romans 6:23). Paul explains what the Bible means by death in 2 Thessalonians 1:9, "And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." Death means to be devoid of spirit, separated from God and without the ability to have relationship with God.

Even though our problem is primarily self, God still has to judge our sins if we are to be able to receive birth from above and be recreated in His image, and come back into relationship with God. Our sin is what separated us from God in the first place. It is what destroyed His image in us. Therefore the penalty of our sins has to be paid for first before we can be recreated back into God’s image and thus be able to have relationship with Him again. Therefore, the second step to receiving birth from above is God in the person of Jesus Christ paying sin’s penalty of death for us on the cross. The Apostle Paul tells us about Jesus’ death for our sins:

"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor 5:21)

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him." (Rom 5:8-9)

Therefore, the second step of our receiving birth from above is to repent of our sins (Luke 24:46-47) and then abandoning all efforts and works of the flesh to save us from the penalty of sin, death, and putting our trust in God paying sin’s penalty for us through Jesus Christ’s death and shed blood on the Cross. The Apostle Paul wrote, "By the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin." (Rom 3:20). Nothing of the flesh can appease God or please God because it is of the flesh, not of His Spirit. Only what is initiated by the Holy Spirit will please God. Works for salvation are works of the flesh. Paul writes about the works of the flesh in Romans 8:6-8,

"For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

To be in the flesh simply means to look to self-effort to bring about salvation and solution to our problems and needs. God’s order for us is by His Spirit. "‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says Yehovah of hosts." (Malachi 4:6). Paul tells us plainly that anything which originates from the flesh cannot please or appease God. It doesn’t appease God for a second reason: The soul and flesh have no ability to create life. No matter what we try to endure to pay for our sins it will not bring our human spirit back to life or create our soul and flesh anew from a sinful propensity to complete submission to God’s Holy Spirit through the human spirit.

God by His initiative sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins and the only thing that will turn His wrath away from our sins is our accepting only His remedy and work of salvation for our sins: His Son’s death and shed blood on the cross. It means we must come naked, meaning no reliance on any works of ours, before the cross and rely only on the work of the cross alone: God’s work. We must say to God:

We then by faith, not feelings (an organ of the soul), must accept God’s forgiveness and that He does forgive us because He gave us His proof that He does when He brought Jesus back from the dead. This is what Paul means when he says in Romans 10:9-10

"That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."

Paul explains in Romans 4:25 what it means to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead: "He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification." How do we know that God accepts Jesus’ death for our sins in our place? Because He gave us absolute proof that He does by bringing Jesus back from the dead. That is the significance of the resurrection: God proving to us He accepts Jesus’ death in our place. This is what it means when you say "God I believe You raised Jesus from the dead." You are telling God that by His bringing Jesus back from the dead you know He accepts Jesus’ death for Your sins in your place.

The third step to receiving birth from above is to then enter back into relationship with God by receiving His Son Jesus Christ into our hearts as Savior from our sins and as Lord of our lives by faith. Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me."

By Faith, I do not mean blind faith, meaning faith without proof or verification, I mean knowing that once we ask Jesus to come into our heart as Savior from our sins and as Lord of our life, that He does come in and save us, not as a feeling, but because He gave us absolute proof that He will do what He promised when He came back physically from the dead. And what did Jesus’ promise? That He will come into your heart when you ask Him to. The Apostle John and Luke the Physician record about the significance of Jesus’ Physical Resurrection,

"When therefore He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He said this; and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had spoken." (John 2:22)

"To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God." (Acts 1:3)

The Apostle Paul writes about our faith and salvation in 2 Corinthians 13:5 and Colossians 1:27,

"Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?"

"to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

The Apostle John tells us that God the Father testifies about what determines whether or not we have eternal life, Zoe⁷¹ life, spiritual life and will go to heaven in 1 John 5:11-12

"And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life [Zoe, spiritual life]; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."

God the Father tells us plainly that the only thing which determines whether we have eternal life and will go to heaven is by whether we have His Son Jesus Christ living in us. The significance of this is that to have Jesus Christ living in us is to have the very life of God living in us. Jesus said He IS Life (John 14:6). Jesus’, God’s, life is eternal, indestructible. To have Jesus living in You is to have eternal life, indestructible life, living in You, the very life of God; therefore, to have eternal life yourself.

The writer of Hebrews tells us about the life of Jesus:

"Who has become [our Final & Only High Priest] such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of a life indestructible¹³⁹. . . . But He, on the other hand, because He abides forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Heb 7:16, 24-25)

The writer of Hebrews tells us that once we receive Jesus Christ we have eternal life forever because Jesus will never die and lives forever in us and as our High Priest before the Father to make intercession to Him that He has saved us forever.