John 3:5-6
“Jesus answered, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.’”
With this verse Jesus lays down a gauntlet. (In olden days, to ‘throw down the gauntlet’ was to challenge someone to a duel … often to the death.) Here he literally spells out a challenge that means the difference between life and death.
Q: How do you understand the meaning of, “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit?”
There is a difference between the birth of a child ( flesh) and the birth of a man of God , born of the spirit (spirit).
My question is, “ Is this ‘spirit’ the same as or different from the Holy Spirit”?
We are eternal spiritual beings, confined within these temporary physical bodies, being given an opportunity to make a free will choice. The choice is how will we respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit of God.
John 16:8, And He, when He comes, will convict the world about sin, and about righteousness and about judgement.
Those who choose righteousness through Jesus Christ shall immediately receive eternal life, those who reject this free gift, choose and will receive eternal separation from God.
The Holy Spirit is God, who gives life to our individual spirits. I am an eternal being doing my best to serve God, not become God. Thinking he could become God was the mistake made our enemy, who will be cast into the lake of fire.
Forgot to identify myself to above.
There’s two lives: this physical life of toil and a spiritual life. One is a practice run at eternity.
But we don’t have to wait til we die to come alive. We can live for Jesus now!
Yes sir.
Don’t know if this fits here or not but,..if I haven’t been born of the Spirit then I wouldn’t be in a position to receive the gift my granddaughter gave me by asking me to baptize her,..well maybe that doesn’t fit here but it sure was a blessing to receive today,..now I get to find out how to proceed with this,..I have put out an e-mail to my Pastor so I will wait for a response,..my flesh probably wouldn’t have received this as a gift, God’s Spirit within me has allowed the eyes of my heart to be opened to be in a position to give birth to His Spirit within my granddaughter,..maybe I am just blabbing here and making no sense,..but let me tell they were tears of joy I felt today,..wow!
John,
Congratulations! What a joy and a privilege to be asked to baptize your granddaughter! I think that fits very well. It is a beautiful illustration of God’s gift of new life in Him (aka spiritual birth or being born again). Thank you for sharing Grandpa. (By the way, nice GrandFather’s Day gift, too!! 🙂
Praise God John, If you had not been born of the Spirit, you wouldn’t care!
Gods Blessings on you and your family.