Reborn Not Reformed

John 3:3

Verily, verily I say unto thee, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

There is a grievous false teaching that has for centuries deluded would be believers. This scheme, which is so deceitful and condemning to those who are fooled by it, comes straight out of the mind of the evil one himself. Satan takes advantage of the work of the Holy Spirit, who is drawing people to God, and uses that desire to be right with God to deceive and ultimately destroy that individual.

Let me show you how this works. When the devil finds someone who is kind and genuinely desiring to know God, he doesn’t try to change them; he just takes advantage of their desires and offers them a substitute. He tells them that by keeping their lives clean and by doing more good works than bad ones that they can get to heaven. He says that if you will reform and live a good moral life, you will go to heaven.

The sad thing about this is that it sounds so good. It makes perfectly good sense to anyone who does not know exactly what the scripture teaches. After all, the Bible does say that we are to live a certain way and to be imitators of Christ. The Bible also says that Satan will try to deceive by transforming himself into an angel of light.

Do you see the terrible danger to this teaching? It substitutes reform for reborn. This teaches individuals that they can live a good life and go by the Golden Rule and everything will be alright, which is a lie and a damnable heresy. Jesus said that you must be reborn to see the kingdom of God; He did not say that you must reform. In fact, the Bible teaches that reformation is impossible without regeneration.

The fact is that natural man is totally incapable of seeing or entering into the kingdom of God. Regardless of how gifted, moral, or refined he may be, the natural man is absolutely blind to spiritual truth and impotent to enter the kingdom. You must be reborn not reformed.