Point 1.-
Rev13v8
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Although Jesus died around 2000 years ago, his death was retrospective right back to the foundation of the earth. It happened
in the Garden of Eden,
when Jesus slit the throat of that innocent lamb, ripped its bloody skin off and placed it around the shoulders of Adam and Eve. -
Gen3v21The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.
Therefore all those who died from Adam onwards have their debt also paid by Jesus's blood.
Point 2.-
Being "born again" did not start at Calvary or at Pentecost or at John3 with Nicodemus.
All OT saints like Noah, Abraham, Moses Rahab, Boaz, David, were born again.
New birth has always been the reward of anyone responding to the Spirit of God convicting his heart.
John1v12But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.
The above verse about being
born of God, does not only refer to the man Jesus we see walking in Galilee, but refers right back to the very beginning of John chapter 1,
"In the beginning was the word........."
John1v1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Everything was created by the Word, who was both God himself and also with God.
Within that Word/God was both light and life to every man on the planet. We know that Jesus is the Word of God, but Jesus was the Word of God long before the creation of the world, long before Mary and Joseph were born.
Thus when OT believers responded to their creator God/Living word, they were responding to Jesus, the Messiah/Christ, and as such, they became born again.
Point 3.-
Despite millions of evangelists and preachers banging on about it, an unregenerate man whose human spirit is dead to God, cannot possibly comprehend why this man Jesus had to die for anyone, let alone yours truly!
ie. The message of the cross is shear foolishness to a spiritually dead man, someone who is perishing, and here's the proof.
1Cor1v18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The only people who can comprehend the cross are those who already have the spirit of God in them! To rightly understand what the cross is about, we must be spiritually alive.
1Cor2v14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
So we have a real dilemma here.
The church says that man must accept the teaching of the cross in order to obtain new life. Scripture states quite clearly that unless you already have that new life, the message of the cross is a closed book or complete foolishness to him!
The answer comes when we disconnect "New birth" (being born again) from "Salvation".
Being born again comes when anyone responds to the working of the Holy Spirit on any man, woman, or child on this planet. That receptivity enables that man to be impregnated by the spirit of God, and that impregnation will bring God's son to birth.
Check it out, one of the Greek words used for "seed" is "sperma"
1John3v9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed (sperma) remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.
God's sperm, his Holy Spirit, impregnated our hearts when we responded to his whisper in our human spirit.
Comprehending the message of the cross, and its immense power, is so that God's sons can mature into what God wants them to be, instead of mere mortals subject to the ruler of this world.
The word "
Salvation", all through the OT was about deliverance from Philistine Famine and Plague, not heaven when they died. The same is true in the NT. Salvation is about our walk as sons on earth, not scraping people through to heaven.
I know I was born again well over ten years prior to anyone telling me what happened on the cross. I distinctly remember the invisible presence of God in my bedroom as a child, and me responding to Him.
Later in my mid teens I heard Him speak to me again, he told me that he lived in my heart and not in churches.
I was in my mid 20s before I heard about what Jesus did for me on the cross. I realised the evangelists were talking about the God I already knew.
I then surrendered to him, but I had been born again for at least ten years.