The Advantage of Being Born Again

My brothers and sisters, this world we live in is messed up. The only things this world has to offer are obstacles, limitations, drawbacks, hindrances, and problems. However, my brothers and sisters, unlike the unbelievers or the hypocrites who falls victim to the disadvantages of this world; the believer has the upper hand. The upper hand the believer has is his faith.

Faith my brothers and sisters, is a general persuasion of the mind and refers to trust or confidence in Jesus Christ and God. Faith yields in the believer a confidence or sense of assurance as he or she continues to trust God and His promises. Faith, Matthew Henry says, is the cause of victory, the means, the instrument, the spiritual armor and artillery by which we overcome this world.

-Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

-2 Corinthians 5:7 says, “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”

-Habakkuk 2:4 says, The just shall live by faith.”

-Jesus said in Matthew 17:20, “If ye have the faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove.”

Also, my brothers and sisters, what you must realize today is, even though we live in a mean, crooked, cruel and perverse world; this world cannot put limitations on the children of God.

-Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.”

-Jesus said in John 16:33, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

My brothers and sisters, you must understand, because you are a child of God, you have obtained a complete triumph over this world. Don’t get me wrong, my brothers and sisters, you may stumble and fall while on this Christian journey, but David reminds us in Psalm 37:23, 24 “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.” Your complete triumph is not just limited to this world and its pressures, but also your past and your sins.

-Romans 8:1 reminds us, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”

-2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

-Isaiah 1:18 says, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

A. T. Robertson says the words “Overcometh the world” show that we have a continuous victory over the struggles in our lives. This is all possible because of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.

-Isaiah 53:5 says, “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities…”

It was on the cross that Christ turned a tool of humiliation and punishment into the means of our salvation. On the cross He led captivity captive; on the cross He purchased humanities freedom with his precious blood. Isaac Watts put pen to parchment and wrote: “At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light. And the burdens of my heart rolled away, it was there by faith I received my sight, and now I am happy all the day.”