That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (Yohana 3:6).
We have a spirit, roho na mwili. The question you might ask yourselves is: am I carnal and do I live after the flesh? Kwa maneno mengine: does my flesh direct my steps and actions? Or do I live after the Spirit, and does my spirit direct my steps and actions?
You can live after the flesh or you can live after the Spirit. If you walk after the flesh, then the result will be bad. But if you life after the Spirit then the result will be good.
What a man sows, he will reap. Kama unapanda katika mwili, you will reap corruption and if you sow in the Spirit, you will reap life everlasting (Soma pia: Unachopanda, utavuna).
But let’s have a look at what Jesus meant by the new birth. What He meant, aliposema, that you can only Ingia katika Ufalme wa Mungu if you are born of water and Spirit. (Yn 3:3, 7)
If Jesus needed to restore the union, it means that union was there once, but was broken. Kwa hiyo, we need to go back to the Bustani ya Edeni to understand the necessity of the new birth.
Throughout human history we see, that people chose the way of the flesh; walking in obedience to the devil, instead the way of the Spirit; walking in obedience to the Father. This started already in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve chose the carnal tree of knowledge rather than the holy tree of life. Because they desired and chose the carnal tree above the holy tree of life, God was compelled to pronounce the sentence of dead upon them.
Adam was a living soul
Adam was a living soul, born out of the Spirit. Alikuwa mmoja na Mungu. But after he sinned, the death sentence came upon him. And God said to him, that as he came from dust, and was dust, he also would return to dust.
Before Adam sinned, his predominant characteristic was spirit, but after he became disobedient to God and sinned, his predominant characteristic was flesh.
That sentence of death, that carnal disposition, was passed on to the entire human race. Kila mmoja, ambaye angezaliwa kwa uzao wa mwanadamu, would carry the death. Therefore everyone, who is born on this earth is carnal, and is a prisoner of the sin nature. There’s no one excluded.
How do you enter the Kingdom of God?
Because we are carnal and carry the sin nature, we cannot enter in this status the Kingdom of God:
But the natural man receive not the things of the Spirit of God: kwa kuwa wao ni upumbavu kwake: Wala hawezi kuwajua, Kwa sababu wanatambuliwa kiroho (1 Wakorintho 2:14)
Now this I say, Ndugu, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption (1 Wakorintho 15:50)
Mungu ni Roho: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (Yohana 4:24)
What is the necessity of the new birth?
Now you see the necessity of becoming born again. Only by the new birth can we receive eternal life and enter the Kingdom of God.
This spiritual life can ONLY be achieved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is the catalyst that brings us to an encounter with the Holy Spirit, who regenerates us, so that we are born into the heavenly realm just as you were once born into the earthly realm.
Necessity of the new birth emphasised in other places
The necessity of the new birth is emphasised in other places:
- The universal results of sin demands it:
Mbona, Kama kwa mtu mmoja dhambi iliingia katika ulimwengu, na kifo kwa dhambi; na hivyo kifo kilipita juu ya watu wote, Kwa kuwa wote wametenda dhambi (Rum 5:12)
Kama ilivyoandikwa, Hakuna mwenye haki, Hapana, Hakuna hata mmoja (Rum 3:10)
- Unregenerate man is unable to understand or receive the gifts of God
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: kwa kuwa wao ni upumbavu kwake: Wala hawezi kuwajua, Kwa sababu wanatambuliwa kiroho (1 Co 2:14)
- Without the new birth everything we do, every impulse and action is defiled
Kwa kutoka ndani, Kutoka kwa moyo wa wanaume, Endelea mawazo mabaya, Watu wazima, uasherati, mauaji, Wizi, tamaa, uovu, Udanganyifu, ulegevu, Jicho Mbaya, kufuru, Kiburi, Upumbavu: Mambo haya yote mabaya hutoka ndani, na kumtia unajisi mwanaume huyo (Mar 7:21-23)
- Unless we are born again we have no escape from the judgment of God
And you hath he quickened, Ambao wamekufa katika dhambi na dhambi; Wakati uliopita mlitembea kulingana na mwendo wa ulimwengu huu, Kwa mujibu wa mkuu wa mamlaka ya anga, the spirit that now worth in the children of disobedience: ambao sisi sote tuliishi miongoni mwao zamani tukizifuata tamaa za miili yetu, kutimiza tamaa za mwili na akili; na kwa asili tulikuwa wana wa ghadhabu, hata kama wengine (Efe 2:1-3)
