Tag: forgiveness

Clarifying your identity

Many young people these days are confused about their identity. Some believe that by stating their chosen preferred identity, the problem is resolved – at last they know who they are. This is not the best way to go about this deeply personal and potentially complex issue.
The fact of deciding to follow Jesus brings the question of identity into a whole new perspective. The only one who ultimately knows us totally and can define who we are is our Maker and Saviour. By creation he has made us in his image, either male or female; but due to the entry of sin into human existence, an essential element of our identity is that we are fallen: “if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1.8).

So there is something glorious in our human constitution – “in the likeness of God!” Yet there is something humbling too: we are sinners in need of redemption. As I shall explain further on, once you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are redeemed: your status is radically altered. You have a new identity as “a sinner saved by grace”. But much more is involved in your new identity.

Your becoming a child of God is an important element in your new identity as a Christian believer. As a result you have become a brother or a sister of all the others who by trusting Jesus have become children of the same heavenly Father as you. You are a member of God’s family, which is also called the church. (The church, in its biblical meaning, is the company of born-again believers in Jesus). So as you meet up to worship with others who know the same saviour as you do, you find the family atmosphere of brothers and sisters in Christ.

A surprising word used in the New Testament to describe the believers is “saints”. This is not to be confused with the Middle Ages’ idea of super-good Christians with halos round their heads. Rather, when the apostles wrote their letters to quite ordinary believers, they greeted them as saints. It was a perfectly normal way of speaking about the believers in the local churches: Paul writes his letter to “the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 1.1; see also 2 Corinthians 1.1, 1 Corinthians 1.1.) In Romans 1.7 they are “called [to be] saints”, that is, committed to a life of goodness, truthfulness, and obedience to God. Saintliness is in fact living a good down-to-earth Christian life, doing what Jesus wants his followers to do; and we receive help from the Holy Spirit to live as saints in the modern world.

So we are brothers and sisters, saints, beloved children of God, forgiven sinners, members of the family of God… the list goes on. All this because we have become believers: believers in Jesus who gave his life that we might be saved; and believers in God our Father who has “adopted” us (that concept is in the Bible too) as his dear children. This new identity that you received upon believing in Jesus, in many ways boosts your self-image; but it should do so in a way that keeps you humble, for all these blessings were granted out of God’s loving heart by grace. It was he who he drew you to himself. We do not deserve such kindness from Him, but he acts towards us not according to what we deserve, but out of his grace, which means his undeserved favour. 

Clive Every-Clayton

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Are you a child of God?

Some people like to think that everyone is a child of God, but John 1.12, as we saw last time, makes clear that believers become children of God by receiving Christ by faith as Lord and Saviour. This assumes they were not children of God before. 

Writing to believers therefore, the apostle John says: “Now we are the sons [and daughters] of God” (1 John 3.1-2). Christian conversion changes our standing before God; henceforth we are his children and he is our Father. A new relationship is established which will not be annulled. And a radical change has come over us. 

Formerly we were among the “sons of disobedience… by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Ephesians 2.2-3). But now, you “are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3.26). The apostle calls believers, “the sons of light” and exhorts us to “walk as children of light – in all that is good and right and true” (Ephesians 5.8-9). In the context (which is worth checking out – verses 3 to 11) this means giving up all sin and impurity, and walking in the light, in holiness and truth. So being a child of God has moral implications: we are to resemble our heavenly Father in his goodness, purity, and holiness – bearing the family likeness.

But we also have entered a new relationship with God, as a child beloved of its father. Either you had a good father, in which case you have a good idea of how God is now your Father; if you had a not so good father – even an absentee father – you may learn from God’s self-revelation in the Bible what it means for you to have God as your good Father now. First, it means he loves you unconditionally. You may mess up at times, drift away, grow cold spiritually; God remains constant in his love for you. His love means he always wants the very best for you. You can trust him absolutely; he is incapable of ill will towards his children. 

And you can talk to him at all times. It’s good to set time aside to pray to him, share with him your situation, your worries, projects and desires, seeking his guidance and help. He is always there to listen with attention, eager to lead you in the right way. So as you read his Word, look out for those passages which tell you how best to live and to please him.

Whatever you may have to face, you can count on his presence to support you. Though at times he may lovingly reproach you for your waywardness and failures, the Bible is categorical: “God is for us” (Romans 8.31). He is never far away. He has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you”, so we may boldly say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13.5-6).

Your heavenly Father is your supreme ally in living a good life in a difficult world. You can talk to him about anything and everything. He talks to you as you read the Bible, speaking words of truth, guidance, and encouragement that you need to hear.

He also gives good gifts to his children, so feel free to ask him for what you need in order to live a life that pleases him. You nourish this relationship by time consciously spent in communion with him. He will help you in various ways as he watches over you every moment to do you good.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Being “born again”?

“Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of heaven”, is Jesus’ categorical teaching. He insisted, “You must be born again” (John 3.3, 7). God operates this new spiritual birth, granting new life to people who turn in faith and repentance to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the indispensable doorway into the kingdom of God; and it happened to you if you believed.

Another verse in John’s Gospel (1.12-13) makes this clear: “To all who did receive [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born … of God”. To be born of God (not by human descent) makes you a child of God.

How is a person born again, born of God? What does this verse say? By “receiving the Lord Jesus and believing in his name”. Have you trusted in Jesus for your salvation? By that faith you were born again.

The apostle Peter picks up this idea in his first letter as he writes to encourage believers: “Blessed be God! … According to his great mercy he has caused us to be born again” (1 Peter 1.3). He encourages his readers further on in verse 23: “you have been born again… through the living and abiding word of God”. This verse fleshes out the image of being spiritually like a new-born baby, born however not by a human process, but “born of the Spirit” (John 3.8) through the “seed” of the word of God.

The concept of being “born again” means that as the Gospel is received by faith, so the Holy Spirit of God communicates new life to the believer.

When this happens to you, what are the consequences? There are at least two: a new life has begun for you; you have become a child of God.

Let’s consider the first of these. When a baby is born he or she receives physical, human life. When you as a believer are born again, you receive life of a different kind: it is spiritual life, called “eternal life” and also “abundant life” (John 10.10). It adds an extra dimension to the life that you lived up till now. As physical life starts out very small, so new life in Christ has humble beginnings. Some babies are born screaming, while others are calm. Even so, some new believers are so overwhelmed by their experience of God’s saving power that they are instantly transformed by God’s saving love. Others, also born again by faith in Christ, experience God’s presence more quietly, almost imperceptibly.

But as the new-born baby slowly grows, so the new-born-again believer is called upon to grow. Peter continues this theme: “Like new-born infants, [you should] long for the pure spiritual milk [the milk of God’s word], that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Peter 2.2). We will look again at the whole aspect of spiritual growth, but here, the key element that Peter underlines is God’s Word, the Bible. It was the seed of God’s Gospel that fell into the prepared ground of your heart and began to bring forth fruit in a new life; that life is nourished by reading, studying, and meditating on further truths revealed in God’s Word.

So the Holy Spirit communicates a fresh upsurge of holy life in newly born-again Christians, promoting spiritual growth as they read the Bible and apply it in their particular circumstances. 

The Christian life is not therefore just acquiring new religious practices: it is the uprising of new life that needs to be nourished and encouraged.

Clive Every-Clayton

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What is repentance?

In upcoming posts I shall show how God responds to the believer – all the blessings he showered upon you when you believed; but before that, there’s one more aspect to what’s involved in opening your heart to Christ in faith: you also make a decision to repent. This decision may or may not have been accentuated in your thinking, but it is part of the Christian commitment of faith and conversion as announced by the first apostles: “Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out” (Acts 3.19).

Coming to Christ involves and leads to a profound change of life. We come to him for forgiveness because we are sinners. We will consider later what that forgiveness is, as it is important to understand it. But it is obviously illogical to expect to receive forgiveness of our sins while we continue to sin as much as we want! We must play fair! “Sin no more” was Jesus’ way of putting it (John 5.14, 8.11). 

So as believers ask Christ to save and forgive them, they also commit to repenting, which means turning away from sin, to follow Jesus and obey his teaching.

It is good, wise, and proper that you should tell the Lord in prayer that this is indeed your decision; you will need (and obtain) his help to overcome the pull of sin that we all feel.

Repentance is involved therefore in your decision to follow Jesus. It means taking a stand against all evil in your life. It may well take time for you to understand that you are habitually falling into sins of thought and desire, but the amazing and wonderful thing about receiving Christ in your heart is that his Spirit begins to pin-point those areas, habits, sinful reactions, and deeds that you are used to doing without your conscience complaining. But the new presence of Jesus within you alerts you when you do things that displease him. This means that new converts, to their surprise find all of a sudden that they are not as good as they thought they were. This can be disconcerting, but don’t worry – it’s quite normal. It is how God begins (and will continue) to clean up your life.

So initial repentance at conversion must be followed by regular self-checking and confessing to God and repenting before him of any sin you may become conscious of having committed. The more conscientious and honest you are in your heart before God, the better your life as a Christian will proceed. I can scarcely emphasise that enough!

You don’t have to confess all the sins of your past life, because conversion wipes them all away: they are “blotted out” (Acts 3.19). But it is helpful to realise that you are called now to a new life.

“Sin no more” is, of course, an absolute high standard, and no Christian reaches it perfectly in this life. The important thing is that our heart’s commitment is henceforth not to sin, but rather to live a life that Jesus would approve of. And that’s a whole life-long programme!

We do, however, benefit from God’s gracious help. He gives us the Holy Spirit when we receive Christ by faith. Jesus comes to indwell us by his Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the third member of the divine Trinity, is the Spirit of Christ and it is thanks to his ministry in us that we are changed to become more like Jesus.

So, welcome to your new life, learning to follow Jesus and “walking according to the Spirit” (Galatians 5.16).

Clive Every-Clayton

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How to believe in Christ?

Whatever may have been your previous acquaintanceship with the person of Jesus, you have come, as it were, to hear his call, “Come, follow me”. Like those in the Gospels, you arose and followed him. It was a personal decision; you may not have understood too much about what it all involved, but you decided to open your heart and you asked Jesus to be your Saviour.

When out for climbing in some great mountains, it is indispensable to procure the services of a guide: the situation may prove perilous ahead. As you journey through life you may now have the services of Jesus, the only reliable Guide to human living at its best. You may trust him to lead you in the right path. There is no better Spiritual Master.

Jesus made numerous promises to those who would believe in him. That’s not simply to believe he existed, nor even to believe he was the Son of God, though these facts about him are foundational. Rather he was referring to a personal commitment between the believer and himself.

When I came to believe in Christ, the evangelist compared what I was about to do to the way a young couple get together. He said that the guy likes the girl and wants to get to know her over time, learning to love her, and desiring to enter a long-lasting relationship. “But,” he said to me, “the two are not married until they stand before the minister who asks them “Do you want to have this woman (or man) to be your lawfully wedded spouse?” In the same way, he said, Jesus says to you, “Do you want me to be your personal Lord and Saviour?” Then he asked me, “What do you want to say to him?” I acquiesced: I wanted to believe. Then he added, “Whenever anyone asks Jesus, ‘Do you want to accept this sinner as your disciple?’ He never says no!”

Maybe like me, you prayed that the Lord would “come into your heart” and save you. After I left the evangelist, I went for a walk, thinking that I had made an important decision that day. It was Easter Sunday afternoon, and I felt that as one “dead in trespasses and sins” I had now become alive in and with the risen Christ (Ephesians 2.5). 

So to “believe” in Jesus has that kind of meaning. He promised “eternal life” to those who believe in him (see John 3.16, 5.24, 6.47, 11.26). Eternal life is the gift of God; he gives it as we believe and receive Christ as Saviour and Lord, committing ourselves to him, to follow and obey as our new friend and Master. 

If I asked you, “Have you believed in Jesus like that? Have you received him as your Lord and Saviour?” – how would you reply? It helps our faith when we tell someone else that we have decided to follow Jesus. This is sometimes called “confessing Christ” and it allows you to exteriorise before a friend the decision that you have taken in your heart.

If you’re not sure if you’ve actually taken that step, there’s no harm in turning in prayer, just by yourself, and saying, “Lord Jesus, thank you for coming into the world to seek and save the lost like me; I open the door of my heart and receive you as my Lord and Saviour. Help me from now on to grow in my faith and to live as a Christian. Amen”

Jesus will gladly welcome you as his follower. 

Clive Every-Clayton

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Everything hinges on

Everything hinges on one key decision.

As you struggle with the profound existential issues that overwhelm the sensitive soul; as you think through what could be the real purpose of your life; as you wonder if there’s a God who could possibly help you; as you resist the temptation to put an end to it all – there is one key decision that confronts you.

You don’t have to go on a long pilgrimage; you don’t have to follow a three-year university course; you don’t have to master some obscure concepts, and you don’t have to pass some test of endurance. 

You have to be humble, open to be taught that the life-philosophy you hold dear may well be wrong. You have to realise that no atheistic worldview can offer you the serious answers you seek. You have to consider not “religion”, but rather God himself, because whether you realise it yet or not, God has demonstrated his existence in coming by a historic incarnation into this world: Jesus Christ is the proof that God exists, and if you do not know that yet, a thoughtful reading of the four Gospels recounting his life, his teaching, his divine claims, his miraculous ministry, his atoning death, and his triumphant resurrection will lead you to conclude that God has indeed sent his divine Son into the world to give us the answers we seek.  Jesus said he “came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19.10); human beings without Christ are lost. He is the key we need to be “saved”.

Jesus is able to save you from your ignorance, for he is “the light of the world” (John 8.12). He is able to reveal to you how much God loves you, for “God so loved the world (including you) that he gave his only Son (Jesus) that whoever (including you) believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3.16). He is able to enter your life by his life-giving Spirit, as if you were born again into a completely wonderful life in relationship with the God who loves you; he is knocking at the door of your heart, eager to come in and forgive all your failures and sins, and renew you in a life that has real meaning and purpose.

Millions the world over have experienced this new life that Jesus gives; it is what corresponds to the deepest needs of our soul. Until we experience this, we are lost, confused and guilty, wandering hopelessly to no apparent purpose. Jesus can heal your inner being; he can save your soul; he can give you new life.

It all hinges on one thing. Surprisingly, one decision, clearly and resolutely taken, can lift you out of the darkness of despair and bring you to the joy of a real, harmonious relationship with God. One decision involving willingness to be made anew. One decision that you will hold to in the days to come. It all hinges on you calling upon the name of Jesus, opening your heart and saying, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, the sinner; cleanse me from my sins; make me born again; come into my heart and be my Lord and Saviour; I will follow you with all my heart”.

This prayer of faith and commitment is the key to experiencing God’s loving presence, and proving to yourself that He is real, for he is eager to answer that prayer when it is sincerely prayed. Your wavering and doubting will be over; a relationship with God will begin.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Am I a good person?

What is a good person? How to define what goodness is for a human being? In his ground-breaking, thoroughly reasoned, brilliantly insightful book “After Virtue”, Alasdair MacIntyre clarifies the question with luminous simplicity. Taking as examples how we would assess whether a watch is a good watch or a farmer is a good farmer, he says “we define both ‘watch’ and ‘farmer’ in terms of the purpose or function which a watch or a farmer are typically expected to serve.” A knife or a pen is similarly “good” if they fit the purpose for which they were conceived.

Reflecting on this, I realised that Jesus had taught this principle when he referred to salt. “Salt is good” is one of his words, (Luke 14.34). Its purpose is clearly to provide flavour to food. In the Sermon on the Mount, however, he adds, “but if salt has lost its taste… it is no longer good”; it can’t fulfil its purpose (Matthew 5.13).

Why is our generation so confused about goodness and morality? Why do ethical debates, instead of helpfully defining goodness, end rather in a good mess? Alasdair MacIntyre puts his finger on the deep reason: what’s missing is an understanding of man’s purpose (telos is the word he uses). If a thing is considered good because it fulfils its objective or purpose, the key question is what is the purpose of human beings? If there is no clear answer to that question, it is impossible to judge whether a person is good.

Now if everything in the universe, including our human species, resulted from a powerful explosion without any guiding intelligence and wisdom to provide the purpose of it all, there can be nothing but confusion both as to our meaning and purpose. And lacking understanding of our purpose, there is no means of assessing the goodness or badness of people.

So the secular West’s evacuating the Biblical wisdom of the divine Creator who had in mind a purpose for his creation, and specifically for human beings made “in his image”, is the real cause of our profound confusion. If we do not know what a person if “for”, we cannot say whether or not he is good in accomplishing that purpose. 

So both the meaning and purpose of our human existence, and the criteria of good and bad, depend on knowing why we exist – what is our telos. Back in the 17th century, some serious biblical scholars, reflecting on the essence of Christian truth, posed in the Westminster Shorter Catechism the question, “What is the chief end (telos) of man?” They furnished Christianity with the most brilliant summary answer, unsurpassed in four centuries: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever”. Vital wisdom in 14 words!

The same essential answer was expressed by Stephen Meyer, erudite scientist, biblical Christian, and author of “The Return of the God Hypothesis”. Interviewed by Piers Morgan and asked point blank: “What is the meaning of life?” he responded wonderfully: “To come into a relationship with the Creator”. If that is the purpose of our existence, and we are not in harmonious relationship with God, we are not truly “good”, for we are not fulfilling the purpose for which we were made. Today the Creator calls us out of that problematic situation: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened”, says Jesus, “and I will give you rest… learn from me” (Matthew 11.28). We will find that rest, through Jesus, as we commit to fulfilling His purpose for our lives.

Clive Every-Clayton

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Man’s search for God

Deep in the heart of every human being there is a realisation of God. Helen Keller was a small child, about two years of age, when she became totally blind and deaf. She had a meagre existence, cut off from the outside world, unable either to see or to hear, and her baby vocabulary was inadequate to make her thoughts and her wants known. She endured her existence for a few years, until finally a nurse was engaged who found the way to get through to Helen. It is an amazing true story, but Helen grew up able to talk and live a relatively normal life. At one point in her youth and education she was told about God. This is how she responded: “I always knew there must be a God, but I did not know his name”.

Human attitudes towards that deep-seated notion of God vary between two alternatives. On the one hand, people find it somewhat reassuring to feel that there is a kind-hearted power watching over their daily trials and tribulation, giving hope for a positive turn-out to things. Just to believe that God understands and cares relieves the soul of many worries. On the other hand, there are those who profoundly dislike the idea that a divine power may be watching them constantly, noting their secret sins, hidden from others but not from God.

The first of these two groups of people prefer to think of God as loving and kind; the second have the impression that he is righteous and angry. This second group therefore shun the God they don’t want to believe in, and try in various ways to shut the idea of him out of their minds. They may harden their hearts and plunge into all kinds of evil, dulling the voice of conscience, hoping that this harsh God does not exist. Others remain decent citizens, but calmly side-line God in their thinking; they profess to be atheists or agnostics, so that the perturbing idea of God does not bother them.

Those who recognise within them the hunger for some transcendent reassurance hope that the God who is fairly vague in their imagination does look down in kindness upon them. For them to seek after that God with eagerness of heart, however, is another matter. Some attend worship, without really knowing too much about their God. Others keep him in the background of their minds, in case they ever need some divine help. Some seek God, but fail to find him; he seems distant, absent so they don’t bother too much about practicing any religion.

There is a balance that needs to be found here. If God is not kind and good, he is not worth believing in; if he is not righteous in his holy requirements of us, he has no moral fibre – which means he is not good. When Jesus was teaching about his Father, he revealed BOTH the awesomeness of God’s righteous demands and his eternal just judgment, AND the extraordinary kindness and grace by which he grants mercy, forgiveness, and acceptance to those who turn sincerely to him in trust and repentance.

So both our inner intuitions about God possess some truth. How they cohere in balance is brilliantly seen in the Cross of Christ. He died “for us”: we are, as sinners, under God’s wrath and judgment; but in amazing love the Father sent his beloved Son to suffer the just penalty on our behalf. On that basis God grants mercy and forgiveness justly when we repent and trust our Saviour.

Clive Every-Clayton

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How to pray

There are times in everyone’s life when the reflex is to turn to prayer. It may be on hearing bad news, on discovering a cancerous tumour, on losing a dear one, or also on finally being chosen for a job, meeting up with a true friend, or being told that the cancer is in remission: either way, in both the bad times and the good, we let out a “Thank God” or an “Oh my God!” to one whose presence does not normally concern us very much.

At times, when facing the tough existential questions about what life is all about and whether our existence has any meaning, our thoughts may turn to God: is he there? Does he know me? Can he help me? In our more hopeful moments, we may consider praying.

But how should we pray? Some people travel far on pilgrimage to be in a place where they think their prayer will be heard. Jesus disagrees with that: “when you pray”, he taught, “go into your room and shut the door”. Pray to God in secret, he said, for he will see in secret and respond to your prayer (Matthew 6.5-6). This means that our secret prayers are heard by God, when no-one else could possibly hear them. Prayer arises from our hearts and we can formulate words to God without even having to express them out loud.

But what should we say? Jesus goes on to give “the Lord’s Prayer”, the “Our Father”. This is the type of prayer that Jesus encourages his followers to pray. It covers worship (“Hallowed be thy name”), entering God’s purposes (“Thy kingdom come”) and yielding our lives to obey his will, (“Thy will be done”). Then come our requests: for our “daily bread” – the necessities of life; for the forgiveness of our sins – that is, our spiritual need to renew our life in harmony with God; and for help to live a truly good life – overcoming temptation and being delivered from evil.

While many repeat this prayer without too much thought, it can be personalised and developed into a meaningful time with God, day by day.

However, the first and most important prayer that everyone should be encouraged to pray is taught by Jesus in one of his parables, where the humble worshipper approaches God almost too afraid to open his mouth, and pleads, “God be merciful to me, a sinner” (Luke 18.13). That kind of prayer God gladly answers, says Jesus. It takes humility, for our pride does not easily acknowledge we are sinners before a holy God. But this first real prayer for forgiveness brings us into relationship with our kind heavenly Father, because without this, the Bible warns, “your sins have hidden God’s face from you, so that he does not hear” (Isaiah 59.2). So our first prayer must be for forgiveness.

Another way of saying the same thing can be found in Romans 10.13: “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”. This prayer is a call on the Lord Jesus for God’s forgiveness and salvation. This is a prayer that God promises to answer – the praying person “will be saved”. One desperate man cried out in prayer: “God, if you exist, save my soul if I have one”. God, who is kind and merciful, seeing the sincerity of this man’s repentance and faith, answered by transforming his life!

Have you prayed that very first prayer? You could pray right now, where you are, and a new life with God will begin. 

Clive Every-Clayton

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My spiritual birthday

This week I celebrate my spiritual birthday. “What,” you may ask, “is a ‘spiritual birthday’”? The idea comes from one of Jesus’ vital but rather obscure teachings. The Son of God declared categorically: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3.3).

One has to admit, it’s not obvious what Jesus was meaning, and his interlocutor responded with incredulity: “How can a man be born when he is old?” Jesus went on to explain he was speaking of a spiritual birth, the beginning of a new spiritual life in a person’s heart. Elsewhere in the Gospel it is called being “born of God” – born anew as God’s child when God grants new life to a human soul. 

In John’s Gospel (1.10-13) it says that when Jesus came into the world, there were many who did not recognise him nor welcome him; but “to all who did receive Jesus, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”. That is an amazing blessing, but the passage adds that those who believe in Jesus and receive him by faith as their Lord and Saviour are “born of God”.
What does that mean? Let me back up a little first. When a baby is born, all the family rejoices: it receives a human life which will go on to develop as he or she grows. Yet when it matures, albeit marvellously endowed, it becomes evident that there is selfishness and unkindness when bad attitudes and actions become visible in its life. In biblical terms, it is born with a sinful disposition that produces behaviour that is sometimes aberrant.

Human experience testifies that however hard we try, we cannot efface this sinful tendency from within us. That’s why the Bible says we are all “sinners”: we all know what it is to have a guilty conscience; no-one is perfect.

What can change us? Well, Jesus proposes giving us a renewed Christian life by a new spiritual birth. He means that his own Holy Spirit will make us born again. As the text above states, this is for those who believe in Jesus and who receive him as Lord and Saviour. This new birth occurs as people turn away from sin, trust in Jesus, and commit to following and obey him.

The day I was born again, it was Easter Sunday; I had heard a preacher explain that when Jesus died on Good Friday, he took on himself, out of compassion for the likes of lost sinners like me, all my faults and all their punishment. He suffered in my place; he died the death that was the “wages of sin” for my disobedience. He did it because he loved me; and now, alive and risen from the dead, he called me to receive him as my personal Saviour, to forgive me, to change me, to come and give me new life, to come and live in me by his Holy Spirit. So I prayed and committed my life to Christ.

Thus was I “born again”: in the weeks that followed I developed a relationship with Jesus as my best and closest friend, my helper to enable me to overcome the temptations that were on my path, and to put away various sinful attitudes and habits.

I cannot more strongly encourage all my readers to do the same. Become a “born again Christian” – that’s the kind of Christian Jesus wants and he will give you that new life if you ask him.

Clive Every-Clayton

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