Being "born again" (John 3:3) of the Spirit of God is entrance into LIFE (John 3:16)—"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." It is real Life, Life on the highest plane, eternal Life, the very Life of God. The moment I believed on Christ in my heart, my name was registered among the happy company of those who are "alive from the dead" (Romans 6:13). Before that time I lived in the "flesh" (Romans 7:25)—a realm of spiritual death. I was born that way (Psalm 51:5). I may have been honorable, respectable, upright, virtuous, accomplished, moral and exemplary in many ways (Philippians 3:4-7)—or maybe I was not. God says, "There is no difference: for ALL have sinned" (Romans 3:22,23). Though physically alive and enjoying the use of my God-given faculties, I had no spiritual life (Ephesians 2:1). The "inner man" was alienated from God. The moment I was born again I became quickened in my spirit. Life was communicated to me (Colossians 3:3).

Prior to that I was possibly a zealous member of an earthly church, but now I can gratefully claim membership of the one and only TRUE CHURCH. All true believers are vitally incorporated into a LIVING ORGANISM. It is a "spiritual house," composed of "living stones" (1 Peter 2:5). I may have been previously associated with this organized body, or that man-made institution, but now I am a member of HIS body (1 Corinthians 12:20,27), and form a part of the "Church of the First-Born." As a saved sinner, my name is now written in the Lamb's book of LIFE (Luke 10:20).

There is no true Life apart from Him who is the Life—He that hath the Son hath the life. Alas, many people are trying to live the Christian life before they have received the Christian life to live. Salvation is not education, or imitation, or confirmation or human elevation; it is nothing short of incorporation into the living Christ by regeneration. I passed from death unto life the moment I trusted in the Lord Jesus as my personal Saviour and acknowledged Him as my Lord. To know God is Life. And I know that "this is the true God, and eternal life" (1 John 5:20).

—Reginald Wallis