I’m sure you’ve heard of the saying that unless one is born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God. So It’s true that you have to be born again to enter the Kingdom of God.
So Jesus said in John 3:3, “Truly Truly I say to you unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”.
So unless one is born again, he cannot go to the Kingdom of God to see the Kingdom.
But, then does it mean that if you’re born again, you will automatically go to the kingdom of God? Is it possible that even if somebody is born again he cannot go to the Kingdom of God?
Yes it’s possible. Because even if somebody is born again, if he keeps on sinning even one sin over and over then he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
So it says here, Book of James 2:10, “for whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.”
So what he’s saying is, if you keep all the law but even if you just break one law then it’s like you broke all of the laws. Because, as an example, it’s saying, if somebody does not commit adultery so he kept that law but the law also said “do not murder” so if he doesn’t commit adultery, but commits murder then he becomes a transgressor all the same.
So even if somebody is born again, unless his works are perfect before God, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Because even if he keep sinning even one sin, then he’s a sinner.
So God is looking for the works to be complete in his sight.
Book of Revelation 3:2, “Wake up strengthen what remains and is about to die. For I have not found your works complete in the sight of my God.”
So God want our works to be complete to be saved. Because the main message to these 7 churches in the Book of Revelation is that many of the churches, they do a lot of things good but Jesus finds one or two things that they are not good.
So Jesus is saying, unless they repent that one sin then they won’t be saved. Because Jesus is saying about the consequences of not repenting of that one sin and some of the consequences are like killing them with the sword coming out of his mouth. That’s talking about the Armageddon War. Because after Jesus’ return all the saints will be raptured up and on this earth, all the people who were not saved will remain and God’s judgments will pour out on this earth and at the sixth trumpet judgment, the Armageddon War will happen and Jesus will descend on Jerusalem to kill one of third of mankind with a sword coming out of his mouth in Armageddon War.
So what it means is, if Jesus is killing somebody with his sword, then he’s not saved. Because he is one of many who will remain on this earth after Jesus’ return who were not saved and receive God’s anger and judgment. So that means he’s not saved.
And also in another place, Jesus talks about, if you’re victorious, then he will not remove your name from the Book of Life. That means if he’s not victorious, then his name will be removed from the Book of Life. So that means he will not be saved.
So what it means unless somebody’s works are complete or perfect in the sight of Jesus, then he will not be saved. That’s the main message to the seven churches.
So unless your works are complete or perfect then you won’t be saved.
Testimony about a Christian woman
So I heard this testimony on the internet somewhere and I don’t remember if it was a testimony about a near death experience or a vision, but somebody met Jesus and Jesus was saying to her that Jesus knew a servant who was born again. And she was a true servant but at the end, she was not saved.
What happened was, she had a friend at a hospital and then through that friend, she kept receiving the medicine for free. So it was like she was stealing that medicine without paying. So Jesus kept sending her warnings about it but she kept ignoring it and in the end, Jesus said she was not saved.
So even if somebody is born again, he or she has to look after her conduct and works and see if he’s doing anything wrong before God.
Misconceptions about faith producing works
And if I say this, a lot of people might say, if somebody keeps committing sin then his faith is not genuine and it means that he was not born again in the first place.
So there are a lot of misunderstanding and confusion about salvation and these days a lot of beliefs that eh Christians have are very theoretical in nature. People just believe it and they are in confusion about all these things.
Because they believe that there are genuine faiths that produce works and if somebody has that genuine faith they will automatically produce all the good fruits and works. And if he produces bad fruits, then his faith was not genuine and he was not born again in the first place.
But in reality that’s not what happens. A lot of have a misunderstanding about being born again and they believe that if somebody’s born again, everything will just happen automatically and he will be filled with love and his action will change and everything will be fine.
But what really happens is that when you’re born again what it really means is that you just become a person who is capable of being holy. Because when somebody’s born again as a God’s child, then he protects him from the spiritual attacks, so before maybe he was not able to keep holy but because God protects him to the level that he can endure the spiritual attack. So when he’s born again he becomes a person capable of being holy.
But that doesn’t mean that he will be able to do everything automatically. And actually a lot of thing, it depends on that person’s resolution and will.
For example, before I was born again, I kept falling back to the same sin of sexual immorality. No matter how hard I tried, I kept falling back to that same sin and kept watching immoral images on the internet and magazines, things like that. But when I was born again I was able to keep myself from that sin.
But other than that, there are a lot of things that you have to use your own will to keep holy, like paying tax, or helping others, or not stealing; like there are so many things that you have to use your own will to keep holy.
So one thing I’d like to tell you is that when Christians sin, it’s not because they don’t have the genuine faith in Jesus. They all know that when they sin, they all know that it’s a bad thing. It’s not like they don’t know if it’s good and they all know that Jesus is the Lord and they have to follow and obey him and they believe Jesus but they keep sinning not because they don’t believe Jesus or they don’t believe Jesus is the Lord. They still believe that Jesus is the Lord; they know that they have to obey him but they choose not to obey him and sin because they like the sinful pleasure more than they love Jesus.
So it’s not like they don’t have the genuine faith.
So what I find is that even if you’re born again, you still have to keep yourself holy in a lot of areas in your life. So you have to keep watching over works.
When you’re born again, God tries to steer you clear from sin
But when you’re born again, one thing is that God watches over you and he cares about somebody who is born again. Because he or she is God’s children.
When somebody’s born again, God will try to rebuke him and train him and tell him when he’s doing something bad, God tries to correct him.
That’s what happened to me. Before I was born again, I didn’t experience God’ guidance in my life but after I was born again, I started experiencing God’ guidance in my life. And a lot of times, he would make me have dreams to tell me about something that I was doing wrong,
and one thing I wanted to share is that I used to work for Canada Post and I started to have doubts about that job because they handle a lot of dirty magazines, not out right adult magazines but magazines with sexually immoral images. And even many of the flyers have very sexual images on it. So I was have a doubt whether I was doing something wrong before God. But I kept saying to myself, this essential service for the society so maybe it’s O.K to do it.
But God kept sending me dreams and one of the dreams I remember is, I was strangling somebody and he fell down to die and when his head fell down, it felled down on the stack of magazines. And after that I was thinking about that dream, and whenever I have dreams, God gives me understanding in my heart, so what I understood was that that stack of magazine reminded me when I was working in Canada Post I used to stack up magazines to sort them on the desk and I realized that actually I was killing the souls of people by what I do. Because I deliver immoral magazines and because of that their souls will be in danger. My actions were killing their souls. So I ended up quitting Canada Post and got another job.
So when somebody’s born again, God tries to correct him and guide him. So when you’re born again, you’re not alone. God will try to help you and guide you. So you have to listen to him and obey him.
What it means to be perfect
So I know it sounds very hard keep your works perfect but one thing is that when the Bible says the works being complete or perfect, it doesn’t mean when somebody’s born again, he will not even commit one sin until death. There is nobody who will not even sin even once after he’s born again. Because we’re not God. There are no perfect human beings like Jesus.
But what God requires from us is even for one sin, we shouldn’t have any continual or habitual sin. So he’s talking about our lifestyle. So even if it’s just one sin, if we keep coming back to it and keep committing and it’s like our lifestyle, then unless we repent and turn away from that course, then we won’t be saved. So God is talking about that when he talks about being perfect in works.
So these days there are a lot of misconceptions and confusion about salvation and faith, but I bless you so that you can experience being born again and experience God’s guidance in your life and keep yourself holy and works complete in his sight so that you can enter the Kingdom of God.
I wish you blessing from the Lord.
