What Is the WAY?
Peter gave the WAY, and the conditions. Repent, he said, and be baptized, as an act of FAITH in Christ, His shed blood in payment of the penalty of our sins, and His resurrection making possible our eternal life and being born again. Then, he said, we shall receive the Holy Spirit. Those in whom the Holy Spirit dwells ARE CHRIST'S (Rom. 8:9); all others are not. But IF God's Spirit dwells in them, God will, by a resurrection AS He raised Christ from the dead, bring forth all such in immortal spirit life — composed of spirit as Christ is.
All these scriptures MAKE CLEARLY PLAIN that we are to be BORN AGAIN by, and ONLY by, a resurrection to spirit composition.
We are now heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ — NOT YET INHERITORS, or possessors of the Kingdom.
The Human Birth
What is a birth — what is meant by being born?
The actual final birth is called parturition — a baby being delivered out of its mother's womb.
But this birth requires a father, as well as a mother! If it were not for the PART the father contributes in the process, there would be no fetus to be born. But THERE IS A TIME ELEMENT. The father's part in what shall, later, be the birth is to beget — to gender — to sire. From his body emanates the sperm cell that unites with and starts life in an ovum within the mother. This occurs nine months prior to parturition — or birth.
We never say, in the English language, that immediately when an embryo is conceived in the mother — sired or begotten by the father — that the embryo has already been BORN! Birth has not occurred! To say it would sound idiotic, ridiculous!
From conception must follow the PROCESS called gestation for nine months. The embryo takes on human form and is called a fetus. It must develop and grow physically to be born.
So with being born again, in a spiritual birth.
What comes from the divine Father is the Holy Spirit. Just as the unborn child in the mother's womb is, even in the fetal state, the child (yet unborn) of its parents, so those in whom God's Spirit dwells are, already, children of God. But they are still OF this first birth — still human — still composed of physical flesh. They are still in their spiritual Mother — the Church — which is still in this corruptible present World, though not of it. When born of the Spirit, said Jesus, they shall BE spirit.
But IF God's Holy Spirit dwells in them, God then will resurrect them (if they are dead), or change them (if still living) from physical to spirit composition at Christ's coming. They will then be brought forth — delivered from their Mother, the Church of God, into the Kingdom of God.
Of the first birth, we are, and remain, FLESH! HUMAN beings!
Of the second birth, which is spiritual, we shall BE spirit, no longer flesh — but SPIRIT beings! — Divine Beings!
Glorious World Tomorrow
What WONDERFUL, almost INCOMPREHENSIBLE, GLORIOUS GOOD NEWS!
And the BEST NEWS is, that the COMING OF CHRIST is now drawing VERY NEAR! Just a very few more years! And then — the PEACEFUL, HAPPY, GLORIOUS WORLD TOMORROW!
All who NOW are begotten sons of God shall then be BORN — elevated from mortal to IMMORTAL, from decaying FLESH to SPIRIT — from HUMAN to DIVINE!
And that true born-again experience will be incomparably more GLORIOUS than the false, vague, meaningless, so-called "born-again experience" that deceived THOUSANDS think they have had now.
Can your mind grasp what an incredible, transcendent GLORY is the true potential of those who do BELIEVE, REPENT and OBEY?
But, the scriptures that break before our eyes this GLORIOUS GOOD NEWS, also warn US to TAKE HEED, and to make our calling and election sure!