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This question is perhaps the most important question to anyone who is new to the gospel of Jesus Christ and is seeking t know him more and have a personal relationship with him. The more you get to know the Lord Jesus, the more you will want to be like him. When a man gets close to God, one of the earliest realizations will be that: You are a sinner and needs His grace and mercies to make it into the kingdom of heaven.
This is what a man called Nicodemus realized when He first got close to Jesus. He then engaged him in a conversation and the answer he received is the same answer that we need today whenever the question is asked:” How can I be save”
John 3:3-6
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
According to the Scriptures, “ALL have sinned and come short of theglory of God”. And because we are ALL sinners by virtue of our natural birth -we are all under the curse of death.
We needed a Saviour, one born by a Virgin birth and not by sexual conception, tobypass the curse. Jesus is that Kinsman Redeemer, a Perfect One, not born of sexual union but God’s own pure blood (hemoglobin and egg) transplanted in the womb of a virgin.Jesus is the Just One who laid down His life as a Perfect Sacrifice (in our place) to satisfyGod’s righteous Law, to justify us, and to redeem us back to God again.
Jesus Christ ourLord and Saviour did that for us. “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in[your] mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled. In the body of His flesh throughdeath, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight” (Col. 1:21-22).THREE STAGES OF THE NEW BIRTHJust like the natural birth, the New Birth undergoes three stages –water, blood and spirit.When a woman gives birth to a child, the first thing that comes forth is water, then blood, then life (spirit).Being born again is a similar process with three stages: (1)Justification by Water, (2) Sanctification by the Blood, and (3) Baptism of the HolySpirit. These three consists the New Birth in a person.The same process goes even for the earth’s redemption.The earth was baptized in water in the days of Noah. It was then sanctified when the blood of JesusChrist was shed on Calvary’s hill. It will be baptized with Fire during the Battle of Armageddon,before Christ can finally dwell on it during the Millennium. The Millennium is still a time element. But when the Battle of Gog and Magog finally comes after the Millennium, God willtotally cleanse this earth with Holy Fire from heaven so that the new heaven and earth, theNew Jerusalem, can come down finally on earth. The new earth is a type of the rapture ofthe church, the believers putting on a new glorified body, after they had been baptized withthe Holy Ghost. The Baptism of the Holy Ghost, according to Brother Branham, is a type ofthe Promised Land for the believer. Even though a man has been baptized with the HolyGhost and is in the Promised Land, he still has to fight every inch of ground he is standingon until he is bodily-changed from mortality to immortality during the rapture. Since there willstill be time and heathens in the Millennium, Millennium is not yet the perfect earth. The NewJerusalem is the perfect place wherein Christians dwell in an eternal condition.Just the same way, before God can ever dwell upon a person through thebaptism of the Holy Ghost (man- being a temple of the Holy Ghost) that man needs toundergo these three stages. Justification, sanctification, and Holy Ghost Baptism. God willnot dwell upon a filthy, unconverted sinner. Man needs to repent of his sins, be forgiven, becleansed, be justified, be sanctified, before the Holy Ghost, can ever dwell upon him.“The new birth is like any other birth. It’s a mess. I don’t care what kind of a birthit is, it’s a mess. If it’s in a pigpen, or if it’s in a barnyard, or in a pink decorated hospital room,it’s a mess. So is the new birth a mess. It’ll make you do things you didn’t think you’d ever do,but out of that mess comes life. Hallelujah. That’s it. Out of a mess comes life. Life comes outof a mess. Life comes out of death. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, itabides alone. But as long as it dies and rots, then out of that rotten mess comes forth life.Until a man or a woman is ready to die to theirselves, die out to their creeds, die out to theirown ideas, and out of that rotten mess bring forth a new birth of glories and shouts and
