Saturday, 20 November 2021
BORN FROM ABOVE
And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world (John 8:23).
When the Lord Jesus said to the Jews in John 8:23, “I’m from above,” He was referring to His divine origin; He’s the Lord from heaven: “The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:47). The Lord Jesus made this distinction because everyone on earth received life through their earthly parents, but His life came from God — He is the Word made flesh. Every human person born into this world has the natural human life. That life, however, is corruptible life; it’s mortal.
This became man’s lot when Adam sinned against God and lost his authority to Satan in the Garden of Eden. As a result, death came into the world: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).
Sin came into the world by Adam’s disobedience, and death followed. “Death” here is separation from God: a life of darkness and spiritual blindness. That’s the life of the unregenerate man, whom the Word describes as alienated from the life of God, and a stranger from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world (Ephesians 2:12).
However, being born again, you’ve been brought into “deathlessness.” You’re not born after the image of the first man Adam, but after Christ, who is the Lord from heaven; and as He is, so are you in this world (1 John 4:17). 1 Corinthians 15:48 explains it. It says, “…as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.”
You have in you the immortal life of God. 1 Peter 1:23 declares, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” You’re the offspring of the Word, just as Jesus is the Word made flesh. Like Him, you’re from above; born from heaven, with the incorruptible and immortal life of God in you. Glory to God!
CONFESSION: Dear Father, thank you for the sure guidance I receive from your Word and the light it unveils to my spirit. Your Word is my life, and by my faith in your Word, I rule over circumstances; I live in victory, conscious of the indestructible life of Christ in me. Hallelujah!
FURTHER STUDY:
John 3:31; 1 Corinthians 15:47-49
1-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: James 3:14-4:1-12 & Ezekiel 22-23
2-YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: John 13:12-20 & 1 Chronicles 20