@Titus
- Whoever is born of God.
Being born of God is by the word of God,
Titus, you are very confused sir, and truly you need to listen to older men (maybe even women in some rare cases)
in faith that has much more experience in rightly dividing the word of God, for I can see you do not have this gift at moment, maybe it can come, but it is not there. No pun intended Titus.
Being born of God is to be born of His Spirit, so that his elect can see, hear, and understand. This birth is
without any means whatsoever, since man in the flesh is
at enmity against God ~ even more than, he is
dead spiritually speaking and needs to be made alive so that he can do spiritual acts pleasing unto God.
1 Peter 1:23,
- being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God
Titus, how much confidence to you have of truly understanding 1st Peter 1:23? Let us consider scripture this in light of the overall scriptures.
1st Peter 1:23
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”
Titus this scripture belongs in
our camp,
not yours, and I can easily prove it. Based on what God's word teaches concerning man by nature, being dead in trespasses and sin, not able to submit to God by doing godly, spiritual acts pleasing unto God,
until he has an new heart/nature that can and will submit to God, doing spiritual acts pleasing unto God, such as faith, repentance, being baptized into Jesus' faith/religion, and loving others more than himself, or, at least, striving to do so.
Please follow me carefully, without a bias spirit, if possible.
1st Corinthians 2:1
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.”
Titus, when the scriptures are preached faithfully, one is sending forth
God's testimony of what the truth is on a given subject, be whatever that topic may. John said this:
1st John 5:9
“If we receive the witness of men,
the witness of God is greater: for
this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.”
Titus, God could have chosen many different means
to communicate his truth to us, yet the has chosen
the written word of God to give his testimony/witness of the truth, be whatever that truth may be.
So, in
this sense are we born of the word of God,
that is: by its testimony/witness according to what the scriptures teach concerning how one is born of the Spirit of God. The written word of God of itself has no power, and truly man in his natural state is at enmity against God and his word, (according to God's testimony and witness of the truth as it is in Jesus Christ) so it is impossible for the written word of God being the means of the new birth, it is by the TESTIMOMY/WITNESS of God given to us from his word revealing to us how one is born of God! This is the true sense of 1st Peter 1:23, not the way you are using the scriptures, but to your credit, you are not alone, you have a great company teaching the same thing.
As long as the seed(word of God, gospel) is in him he does not sin.
Meaning as long as a born again Christian lives by the gospel he does not practise habitual sin.
When he strays away from following the gospel then he does sin.Then 1John 1:8 applies to him.
1John 3:9. The seed living in him, does not sin.
1John 1:8 The gospel no longer living by needs forgiveness of sins.
1John 3:9,
- whosoever is born of God does not commit sin.... Why John? ....for His(Jesus' gospel) seed, remaineth in him and he cannot sin(no one sins when they live by the gospel) because he is born of God
John is not teaching the impossibility to commit sin.
John is teaching one who lives by the gospel, seed of Jesus Christ will not practise habitual sin.
When the born again fall short of the gospel, then 1John 1:8 applies.
I'm coming back to make a separate post using these words.