1 John (Program #32) – The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Practice the Divine Love (5)

All of the apostle John’s writings in the Bible stress the divine birth through which the divine life is imparted into the believers.  In his gospel he says you must be born again.  In chapter 3 of his first epistle, John says,  3:9 “Everyone who has been begotten of God does not practice sin.” And once again the stress is on the divine birth.  But in chapter 5 he gets even more specific about not just the fact of the divine birth, but the location of the divine birth. When he says,  5:4 “For everything that has been begotten of God overcomes the world;”

Why does he change everyone in chapter 3 to everything in chapter 5?   The answer reveals very much about the key to overcoming not just sin and the world but all of the negative things surrounding us in our day to day living.

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1 John (Program #25) -The Virtues of the Divine Birth to Practice the Divine Love (1)

When the believers in Christ are born again at the time of their salvation the divine seed is sown into their being. This seed is the divine life and the divine life has the divine nature.

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1 Thessalonians (Program #17) – Our Heart to be Established Blameless in Holiness (1)

In the final chapter of 1 Thessalonians, the apostle Paul uses a few very short verses to point out fifteen different items that he was concerned about in the experience of the young believers in Thessalonica.   He gave them this list against the backdrop of his fellowship in chapter 4 concerning the Lord’s second coming, the rapture of the church and the judgment seat of Christ, which will impact every born again person at the Lord’s return.   No doubt this word sobered them and brought forth a watchful attitude as they contemplated meeting the Lord of Lords and King of kings face to face.  Then in verses 23 and 24 of chapter 5, he summarizes his burden on a marvelous and clear utterance that reveal both God’s operation and the need of man’s cooperation.  “And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it. “

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Colossians(Program #38) – In Christ and According to Christ

What does it mean to be “in Christ”? Many places in the New Testament, especially in the letters of Paul the Apostle, use this term. Well, the easiest answer is to say that according to the facts, whatever is true of Him is true of us. For example, we died in Him and we were made alive in Him. As I said, these are the facts. But, what about our experience?  If we’re regenerated, born again. Then without doubt, we have these divine facts as our spiritual history, but we may not have a corresponding experience: being in Him and living according to Him.

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