BORN AGAIN "AGAIN"

      Dear readers I know most of you consider yourselves " born again" and I hope and pray you are firm in your understanding of what this term means ,because none other than Jesus Christ said " Marvel not that I said you must be born again". So it must be true! I know when over 35 years ago I in deep need of rescue from the pit of my sin, prayed for relief to Jesus, I now know, He honored that cry even though the words I used we not exactly Evangelical church script. I said" Jesus if you are real I need you now". Yes those were my exact words. Needless to say He honored that plea and it was some two weeks later after experiencing what seemed an impossible  change in my attitude and desires, which I had no way to explain; For I had not the benefit of any church or any real Biblical understanding. When ,Low and behold ,Ill never forget, while driving down PCH in my 68 Cougar , just near hole in the fence I realized what had happened and shouted out with great joy " I'm born again praise God".

      Well enough about me, what does the Bible have to say. By the way most all of my information here is taken from a little booklet Then new Birth explained , by Miles Stanford The writer of the COMPLETE GREEN LETTERS.. Of course we must start at the beginning.........None other than our old friend the first Adam."and God said let us make man in our image and our likeness"[Gen.1:26]. So the first man was made a living soul 1st Cor. 15:45. Mans likeness to God was not Physical but of person hood, with intellect ,volition , emotion attributes of God our fathers person hood! Of course we are created beings and our Father is uncreated , Heavenly. We are finite.

      The key here is the word image, as Adam was made to be the prototype, the representative man for all the human family. From this federal representative we inherited a oneness of nature common to all  Adamic men. He Adam is quit simply the model for all who would ever be born on earth. The nature , how Adam would choose to exercise his volitional will reflects in a very permanent sense exactly how we would choose in the same circumstance. Adam is us we are Adam!

      God purpose for Adam our representative man, was for him to grow in his Fathers moral image thereby becoming more and more like God. And by that growth could continue in direct fellow ship with The Father. God of course is sovereign .But Adam a created man had the complete liberty to develop in Gods eternal purpose for his own eternal benefit . He only had to remain in the circle of God will to continue to develop in the manner his Father intended for all mankind.

      Well as we can all understand to maintain our good moral progress there must be parameters. Otherwise we could not know right from wrong. It only makes sense for a created creature. So God established one condition God said " do not partake of the knowledge of good and evil. In other words do not turn away from the only source of good to the things of the world which are evil,compared to God perfection!. And God said if you turn away you will loose you spiritual connection with me[death] , as He is perfect , Holy etc. Only makes sense see Gen.2:17-17.

      You see in order for Adam [all of us] to develop as intended, a free agent, not a robot, who would nor could not, in a  volitional way, return love to god , He gave Man the ability to choose. The way of eternal life or turn away making his wordily choice to eternal death[loss of spiritual intimate direct fellowship]. This became known as sin. The wages of which are death Rom. 6:23, God is so holy and pure the result of our sin nature is eternal banishment from His presence! This might seem harsh ,we all know the story, but there was no choice on Gods part He cannot even behold evil sin!

      Well we've gone on long enough for now, stick with me as we continue on man kinds bumpy road and the story of how we got into the mess we are in, our Adam nature, which we still live in. However the end of this story brings the great salvation found in Jesus statement "you must be born again. In the next instalment we still must wade around in our Adamic nature some more. Please stay with me. Even though you might know much of this teaching it is paramount for us to understand the First Adam so that we can intimately know the Second One Christ Himself.