The following is an open letter I sent to an author featured on the "Townhall" website. Her credits comprise a lengthy list including: "being a media producer and conservative political/religious writer. She is a
regular op-ed contributor to Townhall, The Hill, RealClearPolitics, National Review, Washington Examiner,
RealClearReligion, PJ Media, RedState, Breitbart, Daily Caller, The
Daily Beast, and more."
The title of her article is "Jesus Explains the New Birth." My letter is in response:
I read with interest your recent column in Townhall about
being born again and Jesus' explanation of it. You hit on a vital topic
as recorded in John 3. There are several things you mentioned
concerning Jesus' explanation of the subject that bear examination that I
would like to point out.
In
discussing the new birth, you wrote, "With this rebirth, one can be redeemed after turning away from sin in
the mind and body while trusting Jesus as their personal Lord and
Savior." As I've read John 3 many times, there is
something that troubles me and that is the requirement, "one must turn
away from sin in mind and body" as being necessary for the new birth. I find it
problematic for the following reasons:
1) I'm not able to turn from sin;
2)
the authors or speakers I've read or heard who make turning from sin in mind and body a
requirement for salvation have not been able to turn from their own sins just ask their wives or husbands; they and I and you (if we're honest)
still sin;
3)
in the next chapter, Jesus converses with a promiscuous/adulterous
woman and yet, He never tells her that she must turn from those sins in mind and body to
receive the living water, i.e. the new birth,. He's offering her.
4)
in Jesus' illustration to Nicodemus, he cites the serpent on the pole
incident in which each one must only "look" to be saved. They did and
were delivered and then later rebelled against the Lord. They could not
turn from sin in mind and body;
5) in the
Gospel of John, the book on which you based your article, faith alone as
a requirement for being born again is stated 100 times. John states no requirement of turning from sin.
6)
John says he wrote the book for an evangelistic purpose, that his
that readers "might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that
by believing, you might have eternal life." He doesn't make the
impossible demand that one turn from his sins.
7) placing a demand to "turn from one's sins" is to say, "Clean up your
life and then believe, and then you can be born again" which is
injecting works into salvation and Paul writes that we are saved by
faith apart from works; (Romans 3:28 & 4:6)
8)
when Paul reminds the Corinthians of what the gospel is, he says
nothing about turning from sins but conditions being born again on faith
alone that Jesus is God; that Christ died for our sins; and that He
rose from the dead (I Cor. 15:3-4) He says nothing about turning from
one's sins.
9) then,
there is everyone's favorite verse, John 3:16, so familiar there's no
need to quote it except to point out that turning from sin is absent
from verse 16, saying only "whosoever believes in Him shall not perish
but have eternal life."
10) leaving the Gospel of John, Genesis 15:6 is consistent with the New
Testament in that "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for
righteousness." Abraham didn't turn from sin as evidenced by the fact
that he later lied about his wife, a lie which put her in danger in a
pagan king's harem. Then there was his infamous plan to have a child by Hagar.
11) Jesus didn't tell Nicodemus to turn from his sin. The word "sin" does not occur in John 3.
You
wrote on the subject of the new birth because you rightly believed it
to be of vital importance. I find that to be the case with Paul because
he called the gospel of "first importance." In Galatians 1, Paul says
that a "gospel" of faith + works is no gospel at all.
Therefore, a
gospel of works has never resulted in a single new birth and never will.
There is no good news in a "gospel" of faith plus works. It is my hope that you will search the Scriptures to see
"f these things be true. A search of the Scriptures will result in
the fact that salvation is conditioned on faith alone in Christ alone
apart from works. .
Yours truly,
Dr. Michael D. Halsey
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