18 Nov 1997

Got a note from you pointing to your site... have read some and enjoyed much... the question you posed in your note and with which your site deals is very interesting... thanks for asking me!

The array of answers you're collecting confirms that to be born again into a saving relationship with God in Christ Jesus is above all personal. Salvation is both an instantaneous event and an eternal process. Spiritual rebirth consists of entering into a personal relationship with God.

In my own experience and understanding, the initiative for these events comes from the Divine; our part is to respond to God's offer of a divine friendship, which we are free to reject or to embrace. At the moment we enter into the relationship, our lives are transformed and our eternal destiny is altered heavenward.

The other part of your question, the part about keeping the commandments, deals with our appropriate response to the new lives we are receiving in Christ; this is another matter altogether. Keeping the commandments, often viewed before the time of Christ as the means of salvation, has become for us a loving response to the saving grace we have found in Christ. We keep the commandments, not to earn our way into heaven but rather, because we love Jesus.

Looking forward to continuing the discussion!

Bill Lawson
bill@livingweb.com