Hello, Audiences! My name is Dr. Danson Ubebe – Teacher and Author.
Welcome to Return to God Forum. We are glad to present the step-by-step transformation to born-again. Our goal is for you to know the truth. Only the truth you know, shall make you free (John 8:32).
So, we teach word-for-word witness of scripture. This is Episode 12, and the second of the series, titled; “Called to the kingdom of God.” The Episode focuses on finding the identity and functions of spirit, soul, and body and the step-by-step transformation to born-again.
Till now, many believers in Jesus worldwide appeared cowed to believe and please men and not God. For example, they believe the guesswork by man that “grace is unmerited favor.” Rather grace is “intercession by Christ for the Saints” (Rom. 8:34). This is revealed by scripture interpreting scripture. Knowledge of truth according to scripture is paramount to live the life in the flesh as a man who lives by faith in Christ (Gal. 2:20). Lastly, each one will give account to God of his life in the flesh (Rom. 14:12), even the dead who lived according to God in the spirit (1Pet. 4:5-6).
Our topic: Step-by-step regeneration to born-again–Ministry of Jesus, Part 2.
The objective is to open up what God has revealed about a man.
In our last episode, we learned how and why Jesus’ focus in His ministry was on the kingdom of God. Now to today’s teaching.
Finding identity and function of spirit, soul, and body and the step-by-step transformation to born-again. A man is a masterpiece made up of spirit, soul, and body (1Thes. 5:23). God created man (Gen. 1:27). But He formed the spirit within him (Zech. 12:1) and the body to cover him (Gen. 2:7). So, considering the mode of existence, it is clear the man created in the image of God is the soul. The spirit and body complete the likeness. In other words, the man was made to have the capacity to speak and to have a functional and liaison personality like God.
Emphasis. Regarding the three persons in man, what are the differences in identities or the mode of existence? We know it by examining the mode of making. To create is to bring something which never existed to existence. But to form is to mold existing things into the desired shape. It explains why the soul is the man created in the image and likeness of God. Now like begets like. So, the man or soul is a spirit because his origin which is God is a Spirit (Num. 16:22). It means the soul is who you are as a spirit – it gives a clear understanding of human structure. However, the exclusive spirit is the life, and pilot of the soul (Is. 57:16). So, he could lead the soul to truth, or to untruth. The body is the cartoon for the liveliness of man (Gen. 2:7)– (End). With regards to functionality.
The spirit of man, like the Spirit of God, searches the deep things of man (1Cor. 2:10-11). The spirit also functions as the link between the soul and other spiritual authorities. First, the spirit was loyal to God, who was the first husband of man (the soul) and He gave instruction to him as His wife (Gen. 2:17). Later man divorced Him (Is. 50:1) through his iniquities (Gen. 3:6-8). How? The spirit led man to disobey God (Gen. 3:6-8) by fornicating with the Serpent; the ruler of darkness, which the world under the sun is part of (John 14:30). Under the law, he leads men who know the law to marry the law (Rom. 7:1-6). Under grace, the new spirit leads disciples who live life in the flesh to marry Jesus by faith in Him (Gal. 2:20). This portrays the spirit as a matchmaker, so to speak. The old spirit is the evil who dwells in members of the disciple to do wrong, against the desire to do the will of God (Rom. 7:19-24). This is despite the new spirit of the Spirit of God given to a disciple (1John 4:13), not a bookish believer. The life-giving spirit of the second Adam is the law of the Spirit of life in Jesus which makes man free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).
Emphasis. The spirit formed within man had the liberty to roam freely. But the life-giving spirit given to the new man is of the Spirit of God, created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness (Eph. 4:24). He is owned by Christ and will not mislead the soul. Rather he is our hope as an anchor of the soul in the Lord to stand before God (Heb. 6:18-20). It explains the pitot role of the spirit. Also, he is not equivalent to, nor a replacement for, the soul. So, to have a born-again spirit does not mean your soul is born-again in real terms. Not to know this, makes most people who believe in Christ claim that man is a spirit, he has a soul and lives in a body – such claim is wrong. With people’s mouths, the opinion of man which is a lie is presented and promoted as truth – It is the bane of Christianity; it testifies to how they worship God with their lips, but not with their hearts (Mt. 15: 8-9). End.
Regarding the body,
The body functions as the exterior cover, and the members as implement to do either righteousness or unrighteousness for the soul (Rom. 6:13). As Jesus is the tabernacle of God, so is the body the temple of the soul (1Cor. 6:19-20). (This was proven in a previous video). The body prospers as the soul prospers when it satisfies certain conditions. First is loyalty to God as his Maker. So, if God whose Spirit raised Jesus from the dead, dwells in him, He will also give life to his mortal body through the Spirit who dwells in him (Rom. 8:11). The authority of this Spirit is supreme to all sources of evil. So, neither illness nor problems can survive in your body, if really Christ dwells in you. It is what makes your body to be in good health, and less physical exercise (1Tim. 4:8). Regardless of the health of the body formed with the dust of the ground, he will eventually be changed to the body created by the word of God and made without hands (2Cor. 5:1). This is reserved as the last transformation to make each man wholly born-again in concrete terms, like the resurrected Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:21).
Emphasis. A man applies his five senses accordingly with the members of the body. So, he uses them as he wishes: lie, see, hear, and speak, eat, smell, feel, and deceive, and etc. So, the body is a tell-tale of the deceitfulness of the heart. For the body to prosper, the soul must first prosper (3John 2). And for the body to be in good health he must daily hear, obey and live as per the words of God (Prov. 4:20-22). It is then the man can practice pure and undefiled religion of love of God and others equally as he loves himself. And also render necessary help to the deprived for Jesus’ sake (James 1:27), and promote the course of the good news (3John 3-8). So, the rich and the poor labor alike. It is by this posture a man first seeks the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Mt. 6:33). Then God in His wisdom will give power to man to make wealth (Deut. 8:18). So, for a believer, the body prospers in divine things, and not in material things, which are free gifts from God. Any person can destroy the body of flesh (Mt. 10:28). End.
Now let us examine the soul:
The hopeless state man was in. All descendants of Adam inherited the sinful nature of his image and likeness (Gen. 5:3). So, man was in that state when Jesus came as the sins he committed previously. These were the sin of Adam as the image and likeness of God in Eden, and of the image and likeness of sinful Adam. Then, Jesus paid with His shed blood to save the soul God created upright in the beginning and not the soul of the image of Adam (Rom. 3:25). There is a mystery here. The soul was bought at a price with the soul of Jesus who God prepared in Him as the offer for sacrifice (Is. 53:10). Then God sealed those who have trusted and believed in Jesus Christ (those who have faith) with the Holy Spirit of promise. He is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of the Lord (Eph. 1:13-14). Every such soul who hears the voice of Jesus is a church and a member of the body of Christ Jesus (1Cor. 12:12-27). So, the soul or church is the purchased possession (Acts 20:28).
Emphasis. In the crucifixion of Jesus, the mystery who came as the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6), to save the sinners; the lost souls, and to lead them to the kingdom of God (Mt. 9:13), the image and likeness of sinful Adam, together with the soul of Jesus prepared for sacrifice was destroyed as the body of sin (Rom. 6:6). But only God can kill the body and the soul in hell (Mt. 10:28). It means the destroyed body of sin (though disarmed) still hangs as the evil spirit in members of the saved to oppose his desire to do the will of God (Rom. 7:19-24). The crucifixion of Jesus for our offenses was the justification for God to save the human race together as one body (Rom. 4:25). The resurrection of Jesus for our justification was the reason to give grace to mankind for his once sanctification (Roman 1:4), which is a divine blessing to grow spiritually by the word of God (1Tim. 4:5). Mankind which includes everybody is the man God sees in Christ, as you and I. So, it is required of every person who lives a life in the flesh to first trust and believes in Jesus to be saved. Then he will through Christ receive grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His namesake, and for His word to spread universal (Rom. 1:5). For this purpose, man requires daily sanctification to be able to imitate Jesus in the manner of His life trial (1Pet. 2:20-21). Before the advent of Jesus, some worshipped idols; the member of death on earth. Some were under the law. But Jesus became poor that through it we might become rich (2Cor. 8:9). This is to be rich in knowledge of Christ in us; the hope of glory (Col. 1:27, Rom. 9:23). (End). Now,
What is inheritance? It is the stature of the heir of God and of the joint-heir with Christ. Only those who suffer with Him and endure to the end will receive it (Rom. 8:16-17). The soul being the principal man, bears the sins the three persons in man commit (Ezek. 18: 21). So, it is the soul who glorifies God in his body and his spirit (1Cor. 6:20). Also, it is the soul who returns to a dead body to revive it (1King 17:21-22). This reinforces the soul as the man created in the image and likeness of God.
To walk like Jesus, a man is reminded by the Spirit of truth who dwells in him to fix his antenna on Christ and to imitate Him. It is only then; he could walk like Him by faith – trust and believe in the words of truth. It is like how Peter set his eyes on Jesus to walk on water. A loss of focus will attract adverse consequences as it happened to Peter (Mt. 14:22-31). A frequently asked question is this; If Jesus had saved man, why is it still necessary for everyone to believe in Him to be saved?
Emphasis. To answer the question, recall that Jesus saved the godly and ungodly. So, it is necessary for everyone to make own choice of either life or death (Deut. 19:30). This will absolve God and other persons from blame about where you finally end up in eternity. As a result, those who accepted oneness with Jesus and were baptized into His suffering, death, burial, and resurrection would be known and separated from those who denied Him (Mt. 25:31-34). It is what justified the renewal of the saved souls to the image of the Lord (2Cor. 4:16). This is the new creation; like born-again Christ (Col. 1:18). The change begins from the inside out. It is when the saved man attains the stature of living stone to fit into the inheritance that he is born-again in real terms (1John 3:2-3). It is the process to gather into one in Christ (Eph. 1:10).
It is a reversal of how each person came out of Adam.
To receive salvation of the soul is the last bus stop of faith (1Pet. 1:9). Inheritance is the substance of things hoped for; which is our faith (Heb. 11-1). If you do not know this, you are likely to be on the Broadway way to ruin. End.
Road to born-again by faith. The journey begins the moment you first believe in Jesus as your Savior (Acts 16:31). By it, the old man of image and likeness of Adam would suffer instant ruin, and the man of the image of God is bought with a price (Is. 53:10). Then God will adjudge the soul He created in His image justified. The soul will be seen as who has never committed sin. God will next give a new heart and the Spirit of truth to dwell with and in the man (John 14:17). As Jesus is the truth, the Spirit of truth is the Spirit of Christ who now lives in you, as born-again (Gal. 2:20). From that moment, the life the saved soul lives in the flesh will be the life of Christ by faith in Him. But if he draws back, God will not have desire in him (Heb. 10:38). Now the saved soul (inner man) is being transformed into the same image of the Lord from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord (2Cor. 3:18). It is by the regeneration the soul prospers (3John 2). It is after the soul is fully regenerated that he is born-again in real terms. Then he cannot sin for the seed of God, who is Christ (1Pet. 1:23), is in him (1John 3:9). Ordinarily, the soul prospers when he imitates the Spirit of truth. The soul which agrees with the Spirit walks according to the Spirit and is guaranteed of no condemnation (Rom. 8:1). Until a believer is an inheritance in real terms, he is only born-again by faith (Heb. 11:1). Can you see why nobody has received the righteousness of God in real terms? He is still a thing of hope by faith (Heb. 11:1). Don’t be deceived by self-acclaimed preachers – popular or unpopular. So, be wary about how you see yourself as born-again. It could make you complacent and to reject the knowledge of the truth.
Emphasis. Pride and impatience make earthly man to play down faith as the substance of things hoped for. As a result, faith for eternal substance (Heb. 11:1) is seen as the same for earthly substance by prayer (Mk. 11:22-24).
If you already have the substance, it is no longer of faith. If you know this, why parade in the flesh as born-again, and as the righteousness of God when you have not attained the stature of the inheritance: spirit, body, and soul (Phil. 3:12)? It shows ignorance of who the man is, besides being a spirit. The danger is complacency and lack of drive to seek and know the truth. Rather it makes you walk among the multitude on the Broadway to destruction (Mt. 7:13-14), focusing on worldly gain, contrary to scripture (Mt. 6:33). End.
(All References are from the New King James Version (NKJV) of the Holy Bible. All Rights Reserved).
Emphasis. Lastly, we teach the voice of the written words of God. It is in a public place for scrutiny. Contact us if you have questions, or desire to evangelize with us. Your partnership for the glory of God is important to us. The CD & DVD of RTGF Episodes are available on demand. God bless you for your time. Till next episode, it’s goodbye from us, by Dr. Danson Ubebe; Teacher and Author.
