THE MESSAGE OF JESUS

John the apostle wrote, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; and this is the spirit of the antichrist” (1 John 4:2-3). When Jesus came in the flesh He brought God into our human condition. But in even saying this, let us remember that Christ is still only in process; Jesus is still coming, and is yet to come. The very body of Jesus, incarnate in the world, was not alone His flesh, but all flesh.

Jesus was not only Man, but was all men. He came to display and exhibit that we all can become sons. Jesus was no mere offspring of flesh, no simple descendant of a man and a woman, but was the Son of God and son of humanity. In like manner the holy thing that is born in us through Jesus is no mere birth of ourselves, but it is a life conceived and born from without and from above (John 3:3-8). The life of God in man cannot manifest itself except as the new life of man in God. Regeneration is the fact and theme of the New Testament. It is the message of Jesus.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Jesus