The New Birth - Part 2 — Derek Prince

Personal Relationship With Jesus Christ

That marriage is entered into by a direct, personal transaction between two persons. It's a personal relationship that's entered into and established. That would bring home to them the truth that becoming a Christian is a direct, personal relationship that's entered into and established.

When two persons are married, the preacher says to the woman, will thou have this man to be thy lawfully wedded husband? The man says, I will. The woman says, I will. The man says, I will on his part.

And the relationship is entered into and established. Now becoming a Christian is the same way. It's a personal relationship with Jesus Christ entered into by a personal decision. I will have Jesus Christ to be my Savior.

I will receive Him. In Revelation chapter 3 and verse 20, we have a picture, a very vivid picture given by Jesus Himself. The opening chapters of Revelation contain seven messages to seven Christian churches in the province of Asia.

The last of these churches was the church of Laodicea. And to this church, Jesus addressed these words. In Revelation 3 and verse 20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me.

It's rather remarkable that Jesus addressed those words to a professing Christian church. And yet, if we are to accept the words that they have clear meaning, Jesus was not inside that church. He was outside trying to get in.

Could it not be that the same is true of many professing Christian churches today? Though they profess faith in Jesus Christ, the actual truth of the matter is that He's not inside, but outside seeking to gain admission, seeking to gain recognition, seeking to be to them what He should be and what they need.

I want you to see that the response that's required from Jesus is not a collective response. It's not the response of a congregation. It's the response of an individual. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me.

Jesus demands an individual response. If any man will hear my voice. The voice of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit comes through the Word of God, the preaching of the gospel. Jesus says, when you hear my voice, if you will, you may open the door, the door of your heart and life, your personality.

And He says, if you will open the door to me, I will come in. He is a gentleman. He will not force His way in. He will not come in uninvited. He can only be invited in. But if you realize that you need Him, that you do not have Him, that He's speaking to you, you can open the door of your heart and He will come in.

He says, if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him. It's a person to person direct relationship and transaction. Then Jesus says, I will sup with him and he with me. The order there is rather significant.

Jesus says, whatever you have to offer me on your table, I'll eat with you. And if you'll offer me your supper, I'll offer you my supper. The experience demands a surrender of yourself and what you have to Jesus.

But it's a good exchange. Because if you'll invite Jesus in and you'll give Him what you've got, He'll come in and He'll give you what He's got. And that's really a good exchange. But first, you have to invite Him in and you have to surrender to Him what you have.

I will come in, sup with Him, take His supper, then I'll give Him my supper. Jesus does not come in uninvited and He will not grab what you have. He demands a voluntary response. But if you invite Him in, He will come in.

Receiving Eternal Life Through the Son

And through coming in, He brings with Him eternal life. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. This is the initial transaction by which a person becomes, by New Testament teaching and standards, a Christian.

By which he is born again, by which he receives eternal life. This is very clearly stated also in Romans chapter six and verse 23. Romans chapter six, verse 23. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now where the King James Version says through, the Greek preposition is literally in. The gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. There are two things here that are set opposite to each other.

Two things that we're familiar with in human experience. First of all, wages. What are wages? Wages, the due reward for what you've done. That's wages. Everybody knows that. You work 15 hours, $5 an hour.

You've earned $75. That's your wages. The other is the free gift. Though the King James only says gift, it's free gift or grace gift. The Greek word is that familiar word that we hear so much about in some circles today, charisma.

Though most charismatics don't know that. And that part of the word charisma, is the word for grace. Charisma is grace made specific. Now grace is that which is free unearned and received by faith. I can get that in the corner there.

So we have, every one of us, two alternatives. Wages, the due reward for what you've done. Or free gift, grace gift, the charisma, which is free, unearned, cannot be worked for, must be received by faith.

That's the choice. If you want eternal life, it's a gift. You cannot work for it. You cannot be good enough to earn it. All your church going, all your praying, all your Bible reading, all your good works, will not qualify you for this gift.

You have to receive it by faith and it's in Lord Jesus Christ. So to receive eternal life, you must receive Jesus himself. In him is life. It's the gift of God in Christ. He that hath the son, hath life.

He that hath not the son of God, hath not life. The great transaction is between you and the Lord Jesus Christ as a person. You receive him. He stands at the door and knocks. He makes his presence known.

He wants you to understand that he desires entrance, but he will not force his way in. Says, if any man will hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him. Now, once you have received Jesus Christ, thereafter, he dwells within your heart.

Christ Dwelling in the Believer

I would like to show you this, the further truth of continuing as a Christian. It is the continuing presence of Jesus Christ in your life. Ephesians chapter three and verse 17. The apostle Paul prays for the believers in Jesus Christ that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.

By faith, you receive him and by faith, he indwells you. He remains within you. He becomes your life. Your own life gives way to the life and the presence of Jesus Christ. Galatians chapter two and verse 20.

Paul speaks about the transaction, the end of the old way of life, the beginning of a new way of life. He puts it very vividly and very personally. Says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live.

Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Paul says, my old life was under the sentence of God.

It was a sinful, rebellious life. But Jesus died in my place. He gave himself for me on the cross. By his death, he expiated my sin. He paid my penalty. He died for me. He died as my representative. Now I view myself as dead.

When by faith I see him on the cross, I say it is I who was crucified there. I am crucified with Christ. My old life ended. The sinful life, the shameful life, the life that brought no peace, no happiness, terminated on the cross.

Now a new life has begun. But now it's not my life. It's Christ living in me. And then he goes on to say, the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. It isn't even by my own faith, or by my own ability, or by my own willpower.

But it is by Jesus Christ indwelling me, living out his life through me. I yield myself to him and his lordship. I allow him to take control of me. I reckon on his presence. I'm reminded of a little old lady who was well known as leading a real righteous, victorious Christian life.

Somebody said to her one sister, so-and-so, what do you do when you're tempted? And she said, when the devil knocks at the door, I just let Jesus answer. See, this is the end of myself. My ability, my righteousness, my religion, that ended.

A new life has begun. The new life is not mine, but it is Christ in me, living out his life. The things that I could not do, now I can do. All God's possibilities have become my possibilities in Christ.

Strength for Christian Living Through Christ

In Philippians chapter four and the 13th verse, the Apostle Paul makes the most tremendous statement. I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. More literally, I can do all things through Christ in me, empowering me.

What I could not do before, because I was trying to do it in my own willpower and in my own strength and ability, I can do now because I'm not relying on myself, but I'm relying on the indwelling presence and person of Jesus Christ within me.

Christ has become my life. The way into life is through death. 1 Peter 2, 24, the same truth is unfolded again. There has to be an end of one life before there can be a beginning of another. Speaking of Jesus on the cross, Peter says, who his own self, bear our sins in his own body on the tree, the cross, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness, by whose stripes or wounds ye were healed.

Through the death of Jesus Christ for my sins on the cross, I am dead to sins. Sin no longer controls me and rules my life. It was terminated at that point of death on the cross. Now I'm alive unto God and alive unto righteousness through Jesus Christ indwelling me.

I have received him. He is my life. He is my righteousness. 1 Corinthians chapter one and verse 30. The apostle Paul speaks of what is made available to us in Christ. He says, but of him that is of God, are ye believers in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification or holiness and redemption.

All that I need for my life is now available to me in Christ. I have received him. I have yielded my life to him. He has become my life. He's my wisdom. He's my righteousness. He's my holiness. He's my redemption.

Every need that I have is supplied through Christ, not without some external object of worship, but through indwelling me, through taking his place in my heart and life, he controls me. He enables me to live out the life which I cannot live apart from him.

Abiding in Christ as the True Vine

Jesus said to his disciples, I am the true vine and ye are the branches, but without me, ye can do nothing. As he lives in me, his divine life flows out through me by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit becomes the source of my life, the source of my strength.

Romans chapter eight and verse 10, if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. The body here does not mean, of course, my physical body, but it means that old carnal rebellious nature.

When Christ comes in, that old body is dead. It's reckoned dead with Christ on the cross. And in its place, I have a new life, which is given to me on the basis of Christ's righteousness imputed to me.

The spirit is life because of righteousness. This is the exchange. It's through death into life, through Christ's death into a new life. I accept his death on my behalf. I say when Christ died, I died.

That ended the old life. He paid the penalty for me. He died my death. He terminated sin's dominion. When he rose from the dead, he became a living savior. When I receive him by faith in his resurrection life and fullness, he becomes my life.

It is Christ living in me. My life of struggle and effort and religion in the sense of religious duty and struggle and the keeping of rules and ordinances and human requirements terminates. And in its place, there is a life that is a gift, a life that is free, a life that is pure and righteous.

The Abundant Life Jesus Gives

Jesus said in John chapter 10 and verse 10, the thief cometh not but for to steal, to kill and to destroy. The thief is one of the titles of the devil. The devil is the life taker. But Jesus said, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.

This more abundant life is through the new birth. It's through receiving Jesus. It's through the presence of Jesus in the heart and life. He says, I am alpha and omega, the first and the last. In him we are complete.

All that we will ever need for time and eternity is made available to us in Christ, received by faith, appropriated, indwelling my heart and life. That is the offer that God has made to me. This is the exchange that God makes available.

I come to the end of my own struggles and efforts, my willpower, all that I've received by natural inheritance. Jesus, the word of God says, it's not of blood. It's not of the will of the flesh. It's not of the will of man, but it's a birth from God.

It's a life from God. It is the very life of God in Jesus Christ flowing into me. I have eternal life. I have the divine life of God. It's received within me as I receive Jesus Christ, as I yield to him, as I allow him to be my Lord, as I allow him to live out his life in me.

He dwells in my heart by faith. It's no longer church membership. It's no longer religious duties. They may have their place, but they do not bring life. Life is in Christ. Life is received by an experience.

Life comes through a birth. Natural life comes through natural birth. Spiritual life comes through a spiritual birth. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The Holy Spirit, like the wind, moves in, invisible in himself, but changing my desires, my attitudes, my reactions, my ambitions, giving me godly desires, making me delight in that which is pure, giving me a love for the word of God, making the scripture alive and real to me.

A Personal Testimony of Spiritual Transformation

This was true in my experience. Over 30 years ago, I was a philosopher. Studying the scriptures as a work of philosophy, seeking to reason my way to the truth about God and about life. And the more I reasoned, the less I understood.

I had read and studied hundreds of books, but the Bible baffled me. It was the only book that I'd read that simply did not make sense to me. I could not analyze it. I could not dissect it. I could not find out what its real message was.

And in the end, I came to the limits of my own ability to understand and to reason. And I was brought to a place of definite face-to-face confrontation with Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. And I ceased my own efforts.

I ceased my struggles. I yielded up my ambitions and I allowed Jesus Christ to come in. I had at that time, no doctrine and knowledge of salvation. I couldn't quote verses of scripture. I didn't have evangelical terminology about being saved or being born again.

But the most tremendous total revolution took place within me. My whole way of thinking, my desires, my attitudes, my pleasures, my ambitions were changed. I stood back in a certain sense and viewed the change that had taken place within me.

I was both astonished and scared. Was the most revolutionary thing that ever happened in my life. Was not primarily an emotional experience. It went deeper than my emotions. Was the yielding of my heart and will and life to Christ made real by the Holy Spirit.

I cannot emphasize too strongly that it's not an intellectual study of Christianity. It's a vital contact with Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. I think Paul makes this very clear in 2 Corinthians chapter five, where he says this and I'll read from verse 14 and through a few verses in 2 Corinthians chapter five.

Christ’s Death and Resurrection Transform the Believer

For the love of Christ constraineth us. The motive in Paul's life was love, not law. He had lived under the law long enough. Said now the pressure that motivates me is the pressure of divine love. And he gives the reason because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead.

And that he, Christ, died for all. That they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again. Jesus died for us that he might redeem us, that he might purchase us by his death upon the cross.

And when we acknowledge him as having died and risen for us, we no longer belong to ourselves. We no longer are lords of our own lives. We live for him who died and rose from the dead. And then Paul goes on to say something directly related to this truth of Christ's death and resurrection.

Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh. Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. You see, this revelation of Jesus Christ is not of the historical Christ.

It's not of Christ as a man or even as a teacher. But it's a revelation given by the Holy Spirit through the word of God of Jesus who died and rose from the dead. It's the resurrection, it's the revelation of the resurrected Christ.

Not given by the natural senses, but given by the spirit of God through the scriptures. Henceforth, Paul says, we and the other apostles know Christ no longer after the flesh. Though we have known him after the flesh, we don't.

Our knowledge of him today, our understanding of him today, our contact with him today is by the Holy Spirit. When Jesus ascended from the mount of Olympus 10 days before Pentecost, that was the last contact that the disciples had with him through their physical senses.

10 days later, the Holy Spirit came and he brought with him the direct contact by the spirit with the risen, ascended, glorified Christ. And from that day until this, the knowledge of Jesus Christ is not after the flesh.

It's not the historical Christ. It's not just the teacher who walked the streets of Galilee and the streets of Jerusalem and who preached the sermon on the mount and taught the parables. The knowledge of Christ today is by the Holy Spirit of the risen Christ.

It's a direct personal contact through the Holy Spirit with Jesus Christ. And this is the experience that transforms and changes a person's life, that brings life in place of death and righteousness in place of sin and victory in place of defeat.

This is the revolutionary, life-transforming contact. And therefore Paul goes on to say, and I want you to listen carefully to these words. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. More literally, a new creation has taken place.

All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new and all things are of God. See, this is the difference between one creation, one order of life and another order of life. Under the old order, our inheritance was from Adam.

It was a natural inheritance. It was a fleshly life. But the new creation is of God. It's brought into being by the direct personal contact with Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. And in that new creation, all things are passed away.

All things are become new and all things are of God. If any man be in Christ, a new creation has taken place. This is the direct personal contact with Jesus Christ. This is the receiving of Jesus Christ by personal faith as risen Savior and Lord.

Opening the Heart to the Risen Christ

It's the revelation that's made by the Holy Spirit. It comes when Jesus stands at the door and by the Spirit of God makes his voice heard to a man or to a woman. Says, behold, I stand at the door and knock.

If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him. There is that moment when the Spirit of God reveals Christ. When the Word of God becomes a voice that speaks to us, not just black marks on white paper, but a living voice.

And when that moment comes and we are confronted with Christ, God asks that we make a decision, that we open the door, that we yield our will, that we say, Lord Jesus Christ, I acknowledge you now as the Son of God, the one who died on the cross for my sins and rose again.

And by faith, I receive you now as my personal Savior. I confess you as my Lord. Come into my heart and give me eternal life. And I will be yours from this day forward. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for this clear message of salvation.

We pray for everyone that hears this message, that those who have never received Jesus may be given grace to open their hearts and to receive him. In Jesus' name, amen. This concludes this message by Derek Prince.

For a complete list of tapes and books by Derek Prince, write to Derek Prince Publications, Post Office Box 306, Department 2, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 33302.