What Does John 3:5-7 Mean?

"Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’" John 3:5-7

Christian commentators like to jump forward and look for a means of interpreting this instead of being wise and looking backward. What do you not grasp and understand about "The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed"? How many times did Jesus and His apostles refer to the "Scriptures"? What is/are "the Scriptures"? The Old Testament!

Without the Old Testament, there is no New Testament. How can I say such a thing? Again, how many times did Jesus and His apostles refer to the "Scriptures"? Again, "The New Testament is in the Old Testament concealed, and the Old Testament is in the New Testament revealed."

Jesus would have been drawing on something from the Old Testament, the "Scriptures." Nicodemus would have understood Him based on his knowledge of the Scriptures. So let us look at two key passages from the Old Testament where the words water and Spirit are brought together in a way that makes sense of this passage.

"For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants." Isaiah 44:3

"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules." Ezekiel 36:25-27

When Jesus says, "unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God," and, "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God," He is saying the exact same thing. To a Jewish leader steeped in Old Testament language, the idea of being "born of water and the Spirit" would evoke the idea of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was pointing Nicodemus to the truth of the New Covenant.

Now, according to Baptists, water is associated with "the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus." [The burial has no actual relevance because Jesus could have hung on the cross for three days and everything would have been accomplished exactly the same. But that is difficult for the religious to grasp.] They derive this conclusion from their wrongly dividing of Romans 6:3-4 in order to support their method of baptism. Romans 6:3-4 has nothing to do with actual water or mode of baptism; it has to do with identification. Pay attention to the context. You can begin with Romans 5:20 and continue from there.

According to Scripture, however, both the Old Testament and the New Testament associate water with the Holy Spirit. Water is not only a symbol of the Holy Spirit, but it is also a symbol for His work. As water cleanses your flesh from dirt, so the Holy Spirit cleanses your inward self of sin. In Acts 10-11, as soon as "the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the gentiles" (Acts 10:44–45), Peter was immediately reminded of baptism (11:15-16).

Please notice the words used in both Old Testament passages: "pour" and "sprinkle." Right there you have affusion (pouring) and aspersion (sprinkling). As the Spirit was poured out (affusion) on the gentiles, Peter was immediately reminded of baptism. They did not have an abundance of water at hand. In fact, the circumstantial evidence surrounding every single instance of water baptism in the New Testament prevents and prohibits immersion (dunking).

The same is true of John. He would not have invented a new method of baptizing. His baptismal practice would have been derived from the Old Testament Scriptures. In other words, he would have used a hyssop branch to sprinkle (aspersion) water over the people, which he could have done quickly and effortlessly. No doubt, Ezekiel 36:25-27 would have been on John's mind, too, which is why he switched locations from an abundance of water where immersion could take place to "many springs" (John 3:23) where such abundance of water did not exist, but it was cleaner and purer.

The insistence that Christian baptism is valid only if performed by immersion has weak lexical support (see the Theological Dictionary of the New Testament and the five-volume works of James W. Dale on baptizo). What remains is the application of water in the name of Jesus as the sign and seal of union with Him, cleansing, and incorporation into the Ekklesia (visible and invisible). Affusion (pouring), aspersion (sprinkling), and immersion (dunking) are all historically attested modes preferred for theological, practical, or symbolic reasons, but the New Testament never elevates the quantity of water or the precise posture of the recipient to the level of an essential. The emphasis falls on the water's application in connection with the Word and the Triune name, not on the mechanics of how the water contacts the body. The decisive thing is the application of water, not the particular mode. The linguistic data itself supplies the primary warrant for this conclusion.

I digress. Nevertheless, Jesus' words are not a contrast or comparison between our physical birth and our spiritual birth, and they are not picturing the outward expression of the Christian baptism. He is impressing upon Nicodemus the regeneration of the soul by the Holy Spirit, which was a key promise of the New Covenant. The "born of water and the Spirit" are best understood as a reference to "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5).

Jesus is the True Vine

Here are the primary Old Testament passages where the vine (or vineyard) clearly represents Israel (or specifically Judah), presented with surrounding context:

1. Psalm 80:8–16 (Israel as the vine transplanted from Egypt)

“You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
It sent out its branches to the sea
and its shoots to the River.
Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.
Turn again, O God of hosts!
Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
the stock that your right hand planted...”

Context: A communal lament (likely after the fall of the northern kingdom). God is portrayed as the careful planter who brought Israel out of Egypt, established it in the land, and allowed it to flourish—yet now the protective “walls” are broken and the vine is being ravaged by enemies.

2. Isaiah 5:1–7 (The Song of the Vineyard)

“Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
...
For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness, but behold, an outcry!”

Context: Isaiah’s parable of judgment. God is the owner who did everything possible for His vineyard (Israel/Judah), yet it produced only worthless fruit (injustice and oppression). Judgment (removal of protection) follows.

3. Jeremiah 2:21

“Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed.
How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?”

Context: Early in Jeremiah’s indictment of Judah’s apostasy. God recalls planting Israel as a pure, high-quality vine, but the nation has become corrupt and foreign in character through idolatry.

4. Hosea 10:1

“Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit.
The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built;
as his country improved, he improved his pillars.”

Context: Hosea’s critique of the northern kingdom. Prosperity (fruitfulness) only led to greater idolatry rather than greater faithfulness to Yahweh.

5. Ezekiel 15:1–8 (The useless vine wood)

“Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any wood, the vine branch that is among the trees of the forest?
Is wood taken from it to make anything? Do people take a peg from it to hang any vessel on it?
Behold, it is given to the fire for fuel...
Therefore thus says the Lord God: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem.”

Context: A short parable of judgment on Jerusalem. Unlike other trees whose wood has useful purposes, vine wood is good only for burning—symbolizing Judah’s worthlessness when it fails to bear fruit for God.

6. Ezekiel 19:10–14

“Your mother was like a vine in a vineyard planted by the water,
fruitful and full of branches by reason of abundant water.
Its strong stems became rulers’ scepters;
it towered aloft among the thick boughs...
But it was plucked up in fury, cast down to the ground;
the east wind dried up its fruit;
they were stripped off and withered.
As for its strong stem, fire consumed it.”

Context: A lament over the royal house of Judah (and by extension the nation), portrayed as a once-flourishing vine that has been uprooted and burned in judgment.

Additional related references
- Jeremiah 12:10 – “Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard; they have trampled down my portion…”
- Isaiah 27:2–6 – A future (post-exilic) restoration song in which the Lord again tends His vineyard (Israel) so that it fills the world with fruit. If this is not post-exilic, then it speaks of Jesus and His Ekklesia.

These passages consistently use the vine/vineyard as a metaphor for God’s chosen people: carefully planted and nurtured by Him, expected to produce righteousness and faithfulness, yet frequently depicted as failing and therefore facing judgment—while also holding out hope of future restoration.

What Jesus is Claiming
Now we come to John 15:1: "I am the true vine!"

So what is Jesus saying? He is saying, "I am the true Israel!" Jesus is asserting that He is the genuine, faithful fulfillment of what Israel was supposed to be. Where national Israel produced wild/sour grapes, Jesus is the authentic vine that perfectly bears the fruit the Father seeks. He is the true Israel, the obedient Son who succeeds where the nation did not. His life paralleled their existence.

Now read Romans 11:17-24. Notice how Paul divides national, ethnic, physical Israel into two groups: believing and unbelieving. Now go read Romans 2:28-29 and 9:6-8, applying them to the unbelieving group. Then notice how the believing gentiles are grafted in with believing Jews. This is inclusion theology. This is expansion theology. All through the Old Testament Yahweh God promised to include the gentiles in His plan of salvation. After laying this out clear as day, Paul then says, "In THIS way all Israel will be saved." In other words, with the believing gentiles included with the believing Jews, "all Israel will be saved." Paul also explains this in Ephesians 2:11-3:13. The true, spiritual Israel is the Lord's Ekklesia, and the Lord's Ekklesia is the true, spiritual Israel.

Those blind to Scripture (Dispensationalists and Zionists) ignore everything the New Testament reveals, and attempt to make Scripture and prophecy Israel-centric rather than Christ-centric. These things are explained clearly in the New Testament, and yet they willfully ignore, deny, or, worse, reject them.

Dear Catholics,

Why do you believe that the “Eucharist” means to receive the actual body and blood of Christ Jesus?

The word "eucharist" comes from the Greek ϵυχαριστια (eucharistia), which breaks down into ϵυ (eu-, meaning "good") and χαρισ (charis, meaning "grace" or "favour"), meaning "thanksgiving" or "gratitude." The Latin merely adopted the Greek term directly. 

You have been told that during the “Eucharistic” prayer, the bread and wine miraculously turn into the body and blood of Christ Jesus and that by consuming the “Eucharistic” elements, Jesus enters your earthen vessel.

Is it not ironic that Satan entered Judas at the Last Supper? This happened immediately after Jesus had given him the bread and wine. So this means that immediately after Judas partook of the very first so-called “Eucharist,” “Then entered Satan into Judas” (Luke 22:3).

Did Judas receive Jesus and Satan at the same time?!?

Satan did not enter Judas by him consuming the body and blood of Satan, because Satan is a spirit.

The “Eucharist,” properly called the Lord's Supper or the Breaking of Bread or Koinonia (Fellowship; translated into Latin as Communion) or Agape Feast, symbolically represents the body and blood of Christ Jesus, as a remembrance of His sacrifice. It is not a re-sacrificing of Jesus (Heb. 7:27; 9:24-28; 10:10-14; 1 Pet. 3:18; Rom. 6:10). Jesus is not up in Heaven being repeatedly offered for sins, and you are not down here being repeatedly forgiven. There is no second act; there will be no encore. You were forgiven once for all your sins—past, present, and future!

The "Eucharist" is not a "reunion with the body of Christ" because you are "one spirit with [the Lord]" (1 Cor. 6:17) through your union with Him, which occurred at salvation, if indeed you have been saved and transformed by Him.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper are not "sacraments"! Learn what a sacrament is and where it originates: https://bereansdesk.blogspot.com/2025/10/lords-supper-and-baptism-not-sacraments.html

John MacArthur's Grace To You

As much as I respected John MacArthur, his ministry Grace To You was not just a misnomer, a Galatianism, or a syncretism, it was a complete theological irony since he did not understand biblical grace accurately and instead tried mixing parts of the Old Covenant in with the New Covenant, like trying to mix oil with water. Jesus explicitly warned against this using the analogy of New Wine and Old Wineskins (Luke 5:37–39). He said if you put the new wine (the New Covenant of grace) into old wineskins (the Old Covenant of law), the skins will burst, and the wine will be ruined. By trying to fit the radical freedom of the New Covenant into the rigid, performance-based frame of the Old Covenant, the pure message of grace is lost.

MacArthur would have benefited from paying attention to Martyn Lloyd-Jones or Charles Swindoll in their treatment of grace. MacArthur was worried about believers turning grace into a license for sin, and ended up watering down grace (true "cheap grace"). Here is just one thing MacArthur failed to understand about grace: if people are not misunderstanding you, misinterpreting you, and misrepresenting you, then you are not preaching biblical grace correctly. Read Romans 3. The religious individuals of Paul's day were worried about the same thing and accused him of teaching that we should just go wild with sin. After stating that "where sin abounded, grace hyper-superabounded all the more" (Rom. 5:20), Paul anticipated their pushback: "Should we continue in sin so that grace may abound? God forbid! May it never be! Should we continue in sin because we are not under Law but under grace? God forbid! May it never be!" (Rom. 6:1-2, 14-16). Do we have any evidence in the New Testament of those who misunderstood him, misinterpreted him, and misrepresented him? Of course we do: the Corinthians!

For 2,000 years, the religious legalists have been pressing that same argument as if Paul did not already deal with it. You do not need the Ten Commandments. Why? They already did their job. They directed you to Christ Jesus. Now you have the indwelling Holy Spirit to guide you. "Love is the fulfillment of the Law" (Rom. 13:8-10; Gal. 5:14). If you love the brethren, your neighbour, and your enemy, you are not going to lie to him, steal from him, sleep with his wife, or murder him. What did Paul tell Titus? It is "GRACE that teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness!" (Titus 2:11-12). The religious are going about it all backwards, like trying to swim upstream against the current.

The irony is that MacArthur's ministry Grace To You did not actually provide any biblical grace to anyone who heard his messages. It enslaved them in bondage to legalism and religion. From a practical, believer's perspective, New Covenant teachers would call it a spiritual bait-and-switch. The title Grace to You acts as the "bait"—drawing in weary, heavy-laden people with the promise of rest, forgiveness, and unconditional love. But once inside the system, the "switch" occurs: the believer is handed a heavy backpack of rules, continuous self-examination, and the terrifying fine print that if they do not perform well enough, they might not actually be saved.

The way his church constantly and consistently treated others is evidence enough that he was not extending grace to them in the least. He and the ruling elders of his church behaved more like Pharisees than Christ Jesus. Rather than discover what the Bible actually had to say, they taught their own opinions, preconceptions, and preferences as if they were the Gospel? When caught in wrong doing, they refused to make it right, instead doubling down in their error. That is not grace, by any stretch of the imagination or theological or linguistic gymnastics.

The True Doctrine of Grace

Martyn Lloyd-Jones taught from the book of Romans a lot. Pay attention to his exposition of Romans 6:

. . . If it is true that where sin abounded grace has much more abounded, well then, 'shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound yet further?'
First of all let me make a comment, to me a very important and vital comment. The true preaching of the gospel of salvation by grace alone always leads to the possibility of this charge being brought against it. There is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret it to mean that it really amounts to this, that because you are saved by grace alone it does not matter at all what you do; you can go on sinning as much as you like because it will redound all the more to the glory of grace. That is a very good test of gospel preaching. If my preaching and presentation of the gospel of salvation does not expose it to that misunderstanding, then it is not the gospel. Let me show you what I mean.
If a man preaches justification by works, no one would ever raise this question. If a man's preaching is, 'If you want to be Christians, and if you want to go to heaven, you must stop committing sins, you must take up good works, and if you do so regularly and constantly, and do not fail to keep on at it, you will make yourselves Christians, you will reconcile yourselves to God, and you will go to heaven.' Obviously a man who preaches in that strain would never be liable to this misunderstanding. Nobody would say to such a man, 'Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?', because the man's whole emphasis is just this, that if you go on sinning you are certain to be damned, and only if you stop sinning can you save yourselves. So that misunderstanding could never arise. . . .
. . . Nobody has ever brought this charge against the Church of Rome, but it was brought frequently against Martin Luther; indeed that was precisely what the Church of Rome said about the preaching of Martin Luther. They said, 'This man who was a priest has changed the doctrine in order to justify his own marriage and his own lust', and so on. 'This man', they said, 'is an antinomian; and that is heresy.' That is the very charge they brought against him. It was also brought against George Whitfield two hundred years ago. It is the charge that formal dead Christianity--if there is such a thing--has always brought against this startling, staggering message, that God 'justifies the ungodly'. . . .
That is my comment; and it is a very important comment for preachers. I would say to all preachers: if your preaching of salvation has not been misunderstood in that way, then you had better examine your sermons again, and you has better make sure that you really are preaching the salvation that is offered in the New Testament to the ungodly, to the sinner, to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, to those who are enemies of God. There is this kind of dangerous element about the true presentation of the doctrine of salvation.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon obviously agreed because he said, "No doctrine is so calculated to preserve a man from sin as the doctrine of the grace of God. Those who have called it ‘a licentious doctrine’ did not know anything about it."

What Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Charles Spurgeon are talking about is nothing new. The religious Jews of Paul's day accused him of the very same: "But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world? But if through my lie God’s truth abounds to his glory, why am I still being condemned as a sinner? And why not do evil that good may come?—as some people slanderously charge us with saying. Their condemnation is just" (Romans 3:5-8).

Paul anticipated their objections when he said, "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Romans 5:20). What was his response to their objections? "What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized pinto Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:1-4).

But he does not stop there; he continues further. "For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness" (Romans 6:14-18).

Paul was very clear in his letter to the Galatians about our freedom. In fact, you can be certain that he preached the exact same message of grace and freedom to the Corinthians. How can we know? Because they clearly misunderstood it and misinterpreted it because they had the motto "All things are lawful for me." Twice in Paul's letter to them he brought this motto up to re-balance them from liscentiousness to liberty instructed by love (1 Cor. 6:12; 10:23).

Those who carry this objection are quick to water down grace and preach a lesser version of it, and to demonize those who preach biblical grace by derogatorily referring to their message as "hyper-grace." Yet, their profound ignorance of grace is exposed by the fact that Paul referred to Yahweh's grace as "hyper-superabounding." So, yes, biblical grace is hyper-superabounding grace. It is extreme grace. The evidence that you are teaching biblical grace is that there will be some who misunderstand it and misinterpret it in the exact same way that the Corinthians had. Anything less is cheap watered down grace.

Preach the scandalous grace of God and some will misinterpret your message as an endorsement of sin. It is inevitable. Either in grace abusers who interpret it to mean they can sin like the devil, or in grace killers who interpret it as an endorsement of continuous sin. 

It will always bring out the grace abusers and the grace killers. Grace abusers will take what I write and go crazy with it, thinking they can continue in their loose and carefree lifestyle. Grace killers will take what I write and accuse me of caring little about the holiness of Yahweh God and giving people the freedom to sin.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined the term "cheap grace," but what did he mean by it? "Cheap grace" justifies sin rather than the sinner. True grace justifies the sinner and not the sin. Today, many ignorant and ill-informed believers misrepresent true, biblical grace as "cheap grace," "greasy grace," or even "hyper-grace," demonstrating their lack of understanding and familiarity with grace. In Romans 5:20, Paul uses the Greek compound word huperperisseuó. Huper is where we get the word hyper. Perisseuó means to overabound, superabound or abound in excess. In other words, Paul says that Yahweh's grace hyper-superabounds. If you are accused of preaching "hyper-grace," embrace it! That is what the apostle Paul preached.

Eight Stubborn Statements

by Timothy Klaver

Here are eight stubborn, biblical declarations rooted in the finished work of Christ, the New Covenant, and the pure Gospel of grace. They go right to the heart of true Christianity. There is no middle ground on these realities. There is no room for compromise on any of these eight points.

1. Either the Bible is in its entirety the holy, inspired, infallible Word of Yahweh God — our final authority for faith and life — or it is unreliable and unworthy of our trust. If it is Yahweh God’s Word, as it repeatedly claims, then we must submit every thought, doctrine, and practice to it. It must be our only rule of faith and practice.
   (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)
    
2. Either Yahweh God is absolutely sovereign over all things, working out His eternal purpose — or He is not God. Yet this same sovereign God genuinely offers salvation to all and calls every sinner to repent and believe the Gospel. There is no contradiction: His sovereignty includes the real responsibility He has given to man.
   (Ephesians 1:11; John 3:16; Acts 17:30-31)
    
3. Either man is born spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, utterly unable to save themselves — or humanity needs no Saviour. All have sinned and fall short of Yahweh God’s glory. Therefore every sinner desperately needs the grace of Yahweh God and the new birth provided in the New Covenant.
   (Ephesians 2:1-3; Romans 3:23; Romans 5:12)
    
4. Either salvation is entirely by Yahweh God’s sovereign grace, chosen for us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world — or it is not of grace at all. Yet this same grace is freely offered to whosoever will believe in Jesus. Salvation is Yahweh God’s gift from start to finish; the Gospel invitation is real and universal in its call.
   (Ephesians 1:4-5; Ephesians 2:8-9; John 3:16)
    
5. Either the Lord Christ Jesus is the all-sufficient, effectual Saviour who has perfectly redeemed His people by His blood — or He is no Saviour at all. On the cross He cried “It is finished!” His one offering has forever put away the sins of all who believe. He is the Saviour of the world — mighty to save all who come to Yahweh God through Him.
   (John 19:30; Hebrews 9:12,26; 1 John 2:2; Hebrews 7:25)
    
6. Either the Holy Spirit must sovereignly quicken the dead sinner and draw him to Christ Jesus — or there is no salvation. This same omnipotent grace is not coercive but powerfully persuasive, enabling the sinner to respond in faith. No one is saved by their own willpower, but by the irresistible pull of Yahweh God’s love made effective through the Gospel.
   (John 6:44; Ephesians 2:4-5; Titus 3:5)
    
7. Either Yahweh God’s people are completely free from the Law as a covenant and system of righteousness — or we remain in bondage. The New Covenant declares that we died to the Law through the body of Christ Jesus. We are not under Law but under grace. The Spirit within us fulfills the righteous requirement of the Law as we walk in newness of life.
   (Romans 7:4-6; Romans 6:14; Galatians 3:25; Hebrews 8:10)
    
8. Either every true believer shall be preserved and kept by Yahweh God’s power unto final salvation — or the Gospel offers no lasting security. Because of the unbreakable purpose of Yahweh God, the perfect atonement of Christ Jesus, and the sealing of the Holy Spirit, those who are in Christ Jesus will persevere. Yahweh God’s grace not only saves — it keeps.
   (John 10:28-29; Philippians 1:6; Jude 24; Romans 8:38-39)

How God SEES and What God SAYS About the Christian

Yahweh God sees the Christian as united with Christ Jesus—fully accepted, transformed, and secure because of Jesus' finished work on the cross. This is our new identity in Him, not based on our performance but on what Jesus has done. The New Testament repeatedly describes believers as "in Christ," a profound union that changes everything.

Here are key truths about who Yahweh says you are as a Christian, drawn directly from Scripture. These reflect practical (not "positional") realities true for every believer through faith in Jesus; they are actual realities and not "legal fictions":

Accepted and Righteous

• I am righteous (2 Cor. 5:21; Phil. 3:8-9). God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.
• I am justified [declared righteous] (Romans 5:1). We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
• I am forgiven (Eph. 1:7; Col. 1:14; 1 John 1:9).
• I am accepted (Eph. 1:6; Rom. 15:7).

New and Transformed

• I am a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). The old has gone; the new has come.
• I am alive with Christ (Eph. 2:4-5; Col. 2:13).
• I am crucified with Christ—I no longer live, but Christ lives in me (Gal. 2:20).
• I am free from condemnation (Rom. 8:1).

God's Child and Heir

• I am a child of God (John 1:12; Gal. 3:26; 1 John 3:1).
• I am adopted as a son/daughter (Eph. 1:5; Rom. 8:15).
• I am an heir of God and co-heir with Christ (Rom. 8:17; Gal. 4:7).

Chosen, Loved, and Treasured

• I am chosen (Eph. 1:4; Col. 3:12; 1 Pet. 2:9).
• I am dearly loved (Col. 3:12; 1 John 3:1; Eph. 5:1-2).
• I am God's special possession / a royal priesthood / a holy nation (1 Pet. 2:9).

United and Empowered

• I am a member of Christ's body (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30).
• I am united (one spirit) with the Lord (1 Cor. 6:17).
• I am the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
• I am a friend of Jesus (John 15:15).
• I am a branch abiding in the Vine (John 15:5)—able to bear fruit.

Secure and Victorious

• I am sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13-14; 2 Cor. 1:21-22).
• I am more than a conqueror (Rom. 8:37).
• I am a citizen of heaven (Phil. 3:20).
• I have eternal life (John 3:16; 1 John 5:11-13).

Holy and Purposeful

• I am a saint (holy one) (Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 1:1).
• I am holy and blameless in His sight (Eph. 1:4; Col. 1:22).
• I am God's workmanship / masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works (Eph. 2:10).
• I am sanctified (set apart / made holy) in Christ (1 Cor. 1:2; 6:11).

Additional Realities

• I am complete in Christ (Colossians 2:9-10).
• I am hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).
• I am blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
• I have been given the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16).
• I am a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).
• I am free from the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2).
• I am an overcomer (1 John 5:4-5; Revelation 12:11).
• I am led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8:14).
• I am kept by the power of God (1 Peter 1:5).
• I am strengthened with all power according to His glorious might (Colossians 1:11).
• I am confident that He who began a good work in me will bring it to completion (Philippians 1:6).
• I am an ambassador for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20).
• I have boldness and confident access to God (Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 4:16).
• I am rooted and built up in Him (Colossians 2:7).
• I am light in the Lord (Ephesians 5:8).
• I am victorious through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57).
• I have been redeemed from the curse of the law (Galatians 3:13).
• I am filled with the Holy Spirit (the promise belongs to every believer – Ephesians 5:18; Acts 2:38-39).

These truths are not "future hopes" or rewards for good behaviour—they are present realities for everyone who is "in Christ" by faith. The cross accomplished a great exchange: Jesus took our sin and gave us His righteousness, life, and standing before the Father.

How God sees the Christian: He sees you as He sees His beloved Son—fully pleasing, accepted, and complete in Him (Col. 2:10). Your failures and struggles do not change this core identity; they are opportunities to live out who you already are by the Spirit's power.

Yahweh God's Extreme Grace

RELIGIOUS PERSON: "If you go around talking about God's radical grace and telling people they're completely forgiven and free, they're just going to go out and use it as an excuse to commit world records in sinning!"

The accusation leveled against modern grace teachers is nothing new! It is mind blowing how we have missed the fact that the apostle Paul dealt with these accusations 2,000 years ago. Read Romans 3:5-8 and 6:1 and 15! Paul's message was so radical that the religious leaders of his day were accusing him of saying that we should just go wild with sin. The religious leaders of today sling around the same bogus, nonsensical accusation.

If you want to disprove Yahweh God's extreme grace or hyper-grace (huperperisseuó), do not read the book of Romans. Paul’s letter to the Romans is absolutely dripping with the doctrine of grace, and it is unequivocal, irrefutable, and crystal clear.

• Crystal clear that grace is a free gift. (Romans 3:24; 5:15)
   
• Crystal clear that faith is about receiving from Yahweh, not doing more for Him. (Romans 4:5)
   
• Crystal clear that grace is radical. (Romans 5:20-22)
   
• Crystal clear that forgiveness is finished. (Romans 6:10)
   
• Crystal clear that grace gives us power over sin (Romans 6:14)
   
• Crystal clear that Yahweh is for me. (Romans 8:31)
   
• Crystal clear that grace needs nothing, expects nothing, and gives everything. (Romans 8:32)
   
• Crystal clear that closeness with Yahweh is not conditional. (Romans 8:38-39)
   
• Crystal clear that I am filled with goodness. (Romans 15:14)

Once you rightly understand the New Covenant, the Gospel, and grace, it changes EVERYTHING! Once you know the TRUTH about how good Yahweh God’s grace truly is, it will ruin you for anything else!

Consider this your warning shot!

For this very reason, I can no longer step foot inside organized religious institutions. Everything that comes out of the performer’s mouth sets off red flags left, right, and center as I discern the legalism and religion dripping from their lips to keep people enslaved in bondage.

Living in God's Grace, Free from Religion & Legalism, Day 30

Day 30: Relaxing with God (Capstone)

What Christians Typically Believe: Christianity is exhausting and duty-heavy. Many experience the Christian life as a constant burden of responsibilities, rules, and expectations that leave them weary.

The Biblical Truth: The gospel invites you into joyful rest with God (Matt. 11:28–30; Heb. 4:9–11). There remains a Sabbath rest for God’s people because the work has been completed by Christ.

Why It Matters: A relaxed, grace-filled life becomes attractive to others and sustainable for you—fulfilling Jesus’ promise of abundant life. This rest is not laziness but the joyful outcome of trusting completely in the finished work of Jesus.

Living in God's Grace, Free from Religion & Legalism, Day 29

Day 29: Dealing with Legalism

What Christians Typically Believe: We should submit to mixture or aggressively confront it. Believers often swing between quietly submitting to performance-based environments or harshly confronting everyone who mixes law and grace.

The Biblical Truth: Stand firm in freedom while speaking truth in love (Gal. 5:1; Eph. 4:15). Guard your heart without becoming combative or compromising the freedom Christ purchased.

Why It Matters: You protect your freedom without creating unnecessary division. This wisdom allows you to walk in grace personally while relating to others with patience and love.