Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
The New Testament analogy of the Old Testament Fish Gate, Part 7.
Friday, April 27, 2012
And the main principle we have established is that the O.T. Shadow from the book of Nehemiah [Fish Gate] points to the N.T. Substance [which is the Ministry of God the H.S.]
1. And the first one that we are noting is Regeneration which means the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit for the imputation of eternal life, TIT 3:5.
The word not is the strongest negative in the Greek which is the negative ouk which was originally a word of disgust or embarrassment.
The word deeds is the genitive plural of ergon, meaning all kinds of works, or production, action, function of human ability, human good, human talent.
Now the word washing is the Greek noun lutron which is the same word used in EPH 5:26 that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the [lutron] washing of water with the word,
The first use of a word in scripture determines the meaning of the use of that word in scripture.
Ephesians 5:26 is written chronologically ahead of Titus and it also occurs first in the New Testament canon.
The same concept is found in the verb form in John 13:10 where we have lutron which means to wash. In that passage it is used for washing the entire body in contrast to another verb, nipto which means to wash the extremities, like the hands and the feet.
JOH 13:10 Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed [lutron] needs only to wash [nipto] his feet, but is completely clean;
The principle: Once bathed, always bathed. If you do not wash your feet (rebound) many times after salvation it means either you are perfect or that you stinketh.
And the bottom line is simply this, it is impossible for someone to do something in order to be born.
So, remember that regeneration is a theological term referring to a second birth or being born again, as Jesus said in JOH 3:3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”Our Lord is the teacher and this is the definitive text on regeneration, the definitive text on the new birth.
And the aching reality in his own heart was that he knew he was not in the Kingdom of God.
Now Nicodemus had all the tradition and all the religion and all the legalism and all the self-righteous works but he didn’t know how to be in the Kingdom.
And notice the definite article, Here is the teacher in Israel, definite article, prominent teacher, maybe the most prominent and he can’t lead anybody into the Kingdom.
Now Nicodemus had all the tradition and all the religion and all the legalism and all the self-righteous works but he didn’t know how to be in the Kingdom.