FROM YOUR PASTOR’S DESK:
August 30
CHRIST UPLIFTED: ‘BEHOLD THE SON OF MAN’- NOT THE ‘MAN OF SIN’! (Part 13)
“Art thou a master of Israel, and knoweth not these things?” John 3: 10, KJV.
Indeed! Not because one was “born in the faith,” a “third generation of Christian believers,” considers himself as part of the “chosen,” or even of the “very elect,” or even master’s degree, a doctorate, or even be a highly-esteemed, professor emeritus of theology, is absolute proof that he is spiritual, a “new man in Christ Jesus.” He can very well be a religious scholar par excellence who has not yet experienced being truly born again, baptized of water and the Holy Spirit.
“Such was Nicodemus until that momentous one-soul audience he had with Jesus one late evening two thousand years ago at Olivet. The twin baptisms of water and the Holy Spirit, divinely designed to be spiritually joined-at-the hips and kept that way, is a vital aspect of the divine plan of redemption, and thus:
“It is impossible for finite minds to comprehend the work of redemption. It’s MYSTERY exceeds human knowledge; YET he who passes from death to life realizes that it is a divine REALITY.
“The beginning of redemption we may KNOW HERE through personal experience. It’s RESULTS reach through the ETERNAL AGES.
“While Jesus was speaking [to Nicodemus] some gleams of truth penetrated the ruler’s mind. The softening, subduing influence [divine grace] of the Holy Spirit impressed his heart. Yet he did not [yet] fully understand the Savior’s words. He was not so much impressed by the NECESSITY of the new birth as by the MANNER of its accomplishment. He said wonderingly, ‘How can these things be?’ [John 3: 9].- The Desire of Ages, E. G. White, p. 173, New Edition, 13th printing, Apr., 1950.
(To be continued). Bless all, NMF.