What happens when we become born again?
As Bible-believing Christians, we are all sure of going to heaven, of course not because of anything we had done but because of His promise. And most of us will stop at that when we talk about how we got saved. But you know what? More than just rerouting our destination from hell to heaven, a lot of things happened in that nano-second when we said yes to Jesus.
We obtained forgiveness of our sins. You might say, “Yes, I have not forgotten about that. After all, it was part of my prayer when I accepted Jesus.” But what does it mean to be forgiven when one becomes born again?
It means we have been justified or just as if we had not sinned at all. At all. Did you catch that? If you have ever stolen, it’s like you never did. If you had committed sexual sins, you are as pure as the day you were born. If you are rightly in jail for the rest of your life, God sees you as somebody innocent although you still have to pay your debt to society.
Of course, this does not mean God is pretending that we have never sinned but since we are a new creation, all things have passed away. All things are new. God is moving on.
God appends our justified status by setting us apart. He has sanctified us. We are no longer of this world, we have been set apart which is why we should be different from the world and the world should see that.
We are set apart for a purpose. Everything that we do and say must bring about the advancement of His kingdom. That is the only way we can be different from the world. And please remember that we are not going to be sanctified, but we are already sanctified. So we can do it!
Some of us might go, “Ngeh…” and I would be the first to bow my head in shame but thank God, it is not about what I can do but what God can do with me.
Being used by God for His kingdom will continue until the culmination in the glorification of our bodies. This is where God finally removes our sin nature once and for all. Until then, it is to be expected that we will still struggle but it is also to be expected that we can overcome it because we already have the victory over sin.
Isn’t it wonderful to know that we have all these when we become born again? We get to go to heaven, we are forgiven, justified, sanctified, and glorified. So many blessings in just one nano-second but wait! There’s more!
God also made us His children by adopting us when we said yes to Him. Btw, it is wrong to say that we are all children of God. We are all creation of God but only those who accepted the Lord Jesus become His children. But so what if we are adopted?
Before Susan Roces passed, she was able to witness the passing of the foundling law which is probably very appropriate given that, in my opinion, that Senator Grace Poe is the most famous foundling in our history.
The law entitles the adopted the same rights and obligations as that of the legitimate children. Did you know that Jesus is not only our Lord but He is also our brother? Remember how He asked his mother who his brothers and sisters were? It is everyone who does the will of God and that includes us (Mt. 12:46-50).
And just like sanctification, we are adopted for a purpose. We carry His Name and so we must be careful with it. I will just assume that everyone here is an ordinary person with ordinary names that do not mean much in society. But what if we were adopted by Leni Robredo, Jaime Ayala, or by Gary Valenciano? We will be acting differently, according to the expectation the names carry.
And because we have been adopted by God, our surname should be, no, not Christ. Don’t call me Elizabeth Christ. Our surname should be holy and blameless. We should be known for our love, mercy, and kindness because that is what the world expects from God even if they don’t believe in His existence. They have expectations of what is to be a Christian and we sully God’s Name when we don’t live up to it. We break God’s heart when we break His commandments.
Let’s go through the list of blessings again. Can you remember them? Salvation, forgiveness, justification, sanctification, glorification, and adoption. And guess what? There’s more!
We’re probably all familiar with this great chasm that separates us from God. This is why Jesus came to die for our sins. It is to reconcile us to God, which is made possible only if we become born again. Have you ever been estranged from a family member or a dear friend? If you have, I hope you have been reconciled. Reconciliation is such a wonderful feeling which brings about a new beginning in that relationship where the past is past. There is no awkwardness in the new relationship. But this can only happen when we admit our sins and ask for forgiveness from God. No unity with God can ever happen without them. Asking for forgiveness shows our humility in agreeing with God that we have sinned against Him. This is what we call repentance and this is where propitiation comes in.
Propitiation simply means there must be a satisfactory appeasement of the person offended, in this case, God. We have offended Him with our sin and before we can be reconciled to Him, His justice must be satisfied and it was on the cross when Jesus paid the penalty of our sins. There can never be true reconciliation without justice. Chanting “unity” with God will not do without admitting our sins. God will not move on.
So now we have salvation, forgiveness, justification, sanctification, glorification, adoption, reconciliation, and propitiation. And I guess you can guess by now---there’s more!
By the way, the list is not necessarily chronological like step 1: forgiveness, step 2: salvation. This is not a recipe. I may not have a verse to back this up but I think it’s safe to say that all these blessings happened in one swoop, in that nanosecond we prayed to receive the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before we were saved, we were under the curse of the Law which has strict requirements we can never live up to. No amount of good works can meet the curse of the Law so the only outcome will be our death or the eternal separation from God. But Jesus was able to meet the demands of the Law and buy our freedom from the curse. He has redeemed us. He paid the penalty of our sin on the cross and now we can live as if we had never sinned. Justification, remember?
I don’t know about you but my heart is praising God in all humility right now with all these undeserved blessings. God is indeed good. So the next time we feel God has let us down, remember our blessings---blessings that we have never deserved, we don’t deserve, and will never deserve. God has never let us down. We have let Him down, even as children of God. And because we still walk on this earth, we will struggle with listening to the Holy Spirit or to the world. But He will never let us down. The next time we feel down, keep calm and look up. Praise be the Name of our Lord!
As Bible-believing Christians, we are all sure of going to heaven, of course not because of anything we had done but because of His promise. And most of us will stop at that when we talk about how we got saved. But you know what? More than just rerouting our destination from hell to heaven, a lot of things happened in that nano-second when we said yes to Jesus.
We obtained forgiveness of our sins. You might say, “Yes, I have not forgotten about that. After all, it was part of my prayer when I accepted Jesus.” But what does it mean to be forgiven when one becomes born again?
It means we have been justified or just as if we had not sinned at all. At all. Did you catch that? If you have ever stolen, it’s like you never did. If you had committed sexual sins, you are as pure as the day you were born. If you are rightly in jail for the rest of your life, God sees you as somebody innocent although you still have to pay your debt to society.
Of course, this does not mean God is pretending that we have never sinned but since we are a new creation, all things have passed away. All things are new. God is moving on.
God appends our justified status by setting us apart. He has sanctified us. We are no longer of this world, we have been set apart which is why we should be different from the world and the world should see that.
We are set apart for a purpose. Everything that we do and say must bring about the advancement of His kingdom. That is the only way we can be different from the world. And please remember that we are not going to be sanctified, but we are already sanctified. So we can do it!
Some of us might go, “Ngeh…” and I would be the first to bow my head in shame but thank God, it is not about what I can do but what God can do with me.
Being used by God for His kingdom will continue until the culmination in the glorification of our bodies. This is where God finally removes our sin nature once and for all. Until then, it is to be expected that we will still struggle but it is also to be expected that we can overcome it because we already have the victory over sin.
Isn’t it wonderful to know that we have all these when we become born again? We get to go to heaven, we are forgiven, justified, sanctified, and glorified. So many blessings in just one nano-second but wait! There’s more!
God also made us His children by adopting us when we said yes to Him. Btw, it is wrong to say that we are all children of God. We are all creation of God but only those who accepted the Lord Jesus become His children. But so what if we are adopted?
Before Susan Roces passed, she was able to witness the passing of the foundling law which is probably very appropriate given that, in my opinion, that Senator Grace Poe is the most famous foundling in our history.
The law entitles the adopted the same rights and obligations as that of the legitimate children. Did you know that Jesus is not only our Lord but He is also our brother? Remember how He asked his mother who his brothers and sisters were? It is everyone who does the will of God and that includes us (Mt. 12:46-50).
And just like sanctification, we are adopted for a purpose. We carry His Name and so we must be careful with it. I will just assume that everyone here is an ordinary person with ordinary names that do not mean much in society. But what if we were adopted by Leni Robredo, Jaime Ayala, or by Gary Valenciano? We will be acting differently, according to the expectation the names carry.
And because we have been adopted by God, our surname should be, no, not Christ. Don’t call me Elizabeth Christ. Our surname should be holy and blameless. We should be known for our love, mercy, and kindness because that is what the world expects from God even if they don’t believe in His existence. They have expectations of what is to be a Christian and we sully God’s Name when we don’t live up to it. We break God’s heart when we break His commandments.
Let’s go through the list of blessings again. Can you remember them? Salvation, forgiveness, justification, sanctification, glorification, and adoption. And guess what? There’s more!
We’re probably all familiar with this great chasm that separates us from God. This is why Jesus came to die for our sins. It is to reconcile us to God, which is made possible only if we become born again. Have you ever been estranged from a family member or a dear friend? If you have, I hope you have been reconciled. Reconciliation is such a wonderful feeling which brings about a new beginning in that relationship where the past is past. There is no awkwardness in the new relationship. But this can only happen when we admit our sins and ask for forgiveness from God. No unity with God can ever happen without them. Asking for forgiveness shows our humility in agreeing with God that we have sinned against Him. This is what we call repentance and this is where propitiation comes in.
Propitiation simply means there must be a satisfactory appeasement of the person offended, in this case, God. We have offended Him with our sin and before we can be reconciled to Him, His justice must be satisfied and it was on the cross when Jesus paid the penalty of our sins. There can never be true reconciliation without justice. Chanting “unity” with God will not do without admitting our sins. God will not move on.
So now we have salvation, forgiveness, justification, sanctification, glorification, adoption, reconciliation, and propitiation. And I guess you can guess by now---there’s more!
By the way, the list is not necessarily chronological like step 1: forgiveness, step 2: salvation. This is not a recipe. I may not have a verse to back this up but I think it’s safe to say that all these blessings happened in one swoop, in that nanosecond we prayed to receive the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before we were saved, we were under the curse of the Law which has strict requirements we can never live up to. No amount of good works can meet the curse of the Law so the only outcome will be our death or the eternal separation from God. But Jesus was able to meet the demands of the Law and buy our freedom from the curse. He has redeemed us. He paid the penalty of our sin on the cross and now we can live as if we had never sinned. Justification, remember?
I don’t know about you but my heart is praising God in all humility right now with all these undeserved blessings. God is indeed good. So the next time we feel God has let us down, remember our blessings---blessings that we have never deserved, we don’t deserve, and will never deserve. God has never let us down. We have let Him down, even as children of God. And because we still walk on this earth, we will struggle with listening to the Holy Spirit or to the world. But He will never let us down. The next time we feel down, keep calm and look up. Praise be the Name of our Lord!