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NASB | John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 3:3 Jesus answered him, "I assure you and most solemnly say to you, unless a person is born again [reborn from above--spiritually transformed, renewed, sanctified], he cannot [ever] see and experience the kingdom of God." |
Subject: "Born-again Christian" redundant? |
Bible Note: Emmaus: In case you didn't know, there are many Protestant denominations that hold baptism to be a sacrament, and the practice of infant baptism was held by most of the major Reformers. Neither Luther nor Calvin, for example, rejected the notion. That isn't to say that the case for infant baptism is a closed one; but that wasn't one of the divisions between the Reformers and Rome. Most of the Protestant churches that believe baptism to be a sacrament, however, do not believe that baptism is a means of saving grace. We are still justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. The difference would be that Catholics hold that baptism and the other sacraments of the church are efficacious "ex opare operato," which is to say that simply by their performance they have the intended effect (the same can be said of the Eucharist). The Protestant churches hold that the sacraments are only efficacious as God makes them so by working faith in the hearts of those who are receiving it. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are held to be means of grace, but none are justified by the working of the sacraments alone. The supremacy of the Word over the sacraments is always at the forefront, and no infant is automatically made a child of God by baptism. --Joe! |