Being born again is definitely of the utmost importance to everyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ. This should also be of major significance to all of the world as well, but sadly it doesn’t seem to be. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3) If you have followed through the previous covenant lessons, it is likely you’ve  come to see that becoming born again is actually the result of engaging in an activity of extreme importance. Specifically, that you become born again by entering the eternal blood covenant with Jesus Christ. It is critical that you get this fact solidly situated in you mind ahead of all the other recipes fro being saved available today. So let me repeat:

You become born again by entering the eternal blood covenant with Jesus Christ.

And repentance is the only way into that covenant.

Let me assure you that there is a lot more to repenting than sayin a ‘sinner’s prayer’ or or making a ‘confession of faith’ or any other system for becoming a Christian. Such practices might make you a member of a church or denomination, but they are not the Bible way to becoming born again. Repentance involves a total turning away from your old nature. So complete is this turning that it is actually a death of your spiritual being. It is a crucifixion, if you will, of all that makes up who you are, all of your past experiences and all of your likes and dislikes, desires and expectations. In short, repenting involves crucifying everything that is you with the exception of your physical body. It is as if you place your entire spiritual being on the cross with Jusus Christ and drive nails into your hands and feet until it is dead. This is how you give your whole heart to Jesus.

It is this concept of dying to self that drove Paul to write:

“I have been crucified with Christ [a required element for entering the eternal covenant with Jesus Christ]; and it is no longer I who live, but  Christ lives in me [because two who are in a blood covenant actually become one new person and each is in the other]; and  the life which I now live in the flesh [the new life is housed in a body of flesh] I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me [Jesus died the covenant-making death so everyone who does likewise can enter the covenant with Him]. (Galatians 2:20)

 You give all you have, all you are and all you ever hope to be in order to to enter the eternal covenant and thereby receive in you all that is Jesus Christ. Giving up your complete self is a giving up of your life. In other words it is a death. This is the way of repentance and it is the Biblical way of becoming born again.

The covenant-making act and its critical nature to salvation is not readily seen in the Bible because it is hidden from plain view. God has chosen to put some of the truth out in the open. It is printed on the pages of the book we call the Bible. All remaining truth (there is an unending amount of it because God is never ending) is hidden from the view of those whose eyes do not see and ears do not hear, spiritually that is.

All truth is seen and heard by means of revelations from the Holy Spirit. “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” (John 16:13) All of the Bible is the truth, but the Bible is not all of the truth. Like God, truth is without beginning and without end. There is, therefore, a never-ending supply of truth. No book could ever contain it. However all truth is available to you, the believer who is in covenant with Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit. He speaks the truth to you as He reveals the meanings of parables and the extensive number of metaphors and use of figurative language found in the Bible. These are the things spoken of by Paul when he said: “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4) The instruction you receive from the Scriptures is received from your resident teacher, the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17) We have already seen that ‘the Law’ and ‘the Covenant’ are used interchangeably in the Old Covenant. (See 2 Kings 22:8, 11 and 2 Kings 23:2, 3 as well as Lesson 8.2, Jesus, The Covenant King. Jesus said it this way, “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law [the covenant] until all is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:18)

Clearly, Jesus, the messenger of the covenant (see Malachi 3:1), came to fulfill a covenant that was not to go away. It is an eternal covenant. The writer of Hebrews said: “Now the God of peace, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, even Jesus our Lord.” (Hebrews 13:20) Having fulfilled the covenant by His blood, Jesus became the mediator of the eternal covenant.

But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He [Jesus] is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:6)

For this reason He [Jesus] is the mediator of a new covenant. (Hebrews 9:15a)

And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. (Hebrews 12:24a)

That is what He is today, the mediator of the New Covenant. And He is seeking after those who are willing to give their entire spiritual live to Jesus and be born again by entering the new covenant.

The way of entering the New Covenant is Repentance, and this is the topic of the next five articles to be posted on The More Sure Word. Hopefully, when you read and study the content of these articles, you will become convinced, as I am, of two things:

1. That it is necessary to enter into covenant with Jesus to become born again.

2. That the only way into this covenant is to repent.

The role of repentance and making a covenant to become born again may be a new revelation for you. If it is, please do not reject it just because it is new. If you carefully and prayerfully review the material in the next five articles, you will hopefully come to see the truth of this principle. If you do, your relationship with Jesus Christ will be elevated into a fullness you have not before realized.

May God richly bless you as you continue with this study,

Peter Giardina