The Way to Happiness:

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The Way to Happiness

Jesus answered, “I assure you, everyone must be born again. Anyone who is not born again cannot be in God’s kingdom.” (John 3:3, ERV)

Have you been one way or the other seeking for happiness, yet your experience seems to be always missing the mark? Have you found yourself blaming circumstances, business or social acquaintances? Maybe you are blaming everything and everyone but yourself for not being able to capture that ever elusive something, that we like to call “happiness?”

Could it be that the reason we fail at this so often is simply that the answer for this lies much deeper than merely people or places? The reason our happiness is so elusive might just be deep down in our own heart!

I have noticed that the word “sinner” as found very early in the Bible, (Gen 13:13) comes from the Hebrew word “chata” meaning “to miss the mark” or “to step wrong.”  In the Greek, the meaning is the same. A sinner is most commonly anyone seeking happiness, always aiming at happiness, but constantly missing the mark. Always falling short of true, lasting happiness that does not get disturbed by demons under every doily.

Solomon, one of the wisest men that ever lived had learned to his very bitter disappointment that happiness was not to be found in the multitude of riches that he possessed. Solomon even tried wisdom. (Ecclesiastes 1:13) And he tried riches. (1 Kings 10: 21-27). He even tried the riotous party life, living like a drunk and a womanizer. (Eccl 2:3,8) But in all this, Solomon missed the mark. He was not happy, and this Solomon had lamented at length in some parts of the Bible. “In much wisdom is grief” Solomon lamented. His massive riches failed to purchase for himself the peace and happiness that he so desired. (Prov 11:28) Even his benevolence mocked him. (Eccl 2:11) And all of his good times just brought him remorse and regret. (Prov 20:1, Prov 23:29,30).

Solomon had realized in the end that he had “stepped wrong,” and that as a sinner, he had “missed the mark.” Eventually, the Bible tells us that Solomon realized how happiness, the way to true happiness, is always going to be God’s ways.

Have you sought for happiness apart from Christ? Do you long for something better? Are you starting to realize how your happiness seems always to be lost sight of because of the way you are living your life now? This predicament is much more common amongst Christians than most would suspect.

If you long for something better, then you have already taken the first step in the right direction. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Dissatisfaction with your present way of life is the first step towards Heaven. We must feel our need. If we do not feel this need, then please, allow me to point you towards Christ. The One Altogether Lovely, the Sinless One, the One whose life was filled with unselfish love for all others. The Bible calls that “unfeigned love.” (2 Cor 6:6, 1 Pet 1:22) PTL our Jesus had none of the faults or mistakes that we have to mar our lives today. See Jesus in His tireless ministry for all those around Him. See Jesus heal the sick. See Jesus raise the dead. See Jesus restore the fallen. See Jesus speak a word in season.

Follow Jesus through those closing days of agony as He is heartlessly dragged from one mock trial to another. See Jesus being reviled but not reviling. See Jesus beaten and mocked, yet without retaliating. See Jesus See Jesus cruelly nailed to the cross and saying how “it was for me that Jesus had borne it all.

As we honestly compare our selfish life with the selfless ministry of Jesus, and measure our life of sin with His life of spotless character, do not all the so called “good traits” we have pale in comparison to that spotless character of Christ? Does a great surge of unworthiness flood our hearts as we think on these things? What should we do next then?

At this stage then, there is really nothing we can do in and of ourselves. Jesus must do it all for us. THAT is the blessed part of it all. The huge debt that we all owe is far too staggering in size for any of us to ever hope to be able to pay it all. “The wage of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). Jesus says “my son, my daughter. I paid that price on the cross of Calvary. If you will accept this way of escape, by way of faith in the shed blood of Christ, then you may look forward to eternal life.

By faith we accept the new and the living way of Jesus. Not because of any wave of emotionalism that may sweep over us, but by way of the promises of God:

Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through wrong desires. (2 Pet 1:2-4)

“We should now acquaint ourselves with God by proving His promises.” (GC 622)

We come to Jesus in all our sinfulness, just as we are, acknowledging our need of Christ. We confess our sins. Jesus forgives and accepts us as sons and daughters of God. (John 1:12) “If we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us our sins AND to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9). By the confession of every sin that we know of we may stand justified before Heaven, “cleansed from all unrighteousness,” as though we had never fallen. But this must be a real experience that we have personally lived and that comes from the heart. There can be no deception, no exaggeration, no minimizing, no patching up of your old life in self-wrought “reformation,” because Jesus accepts nothing but wholehearted surrender. You must give yourself entirely to Him, who gave of Himself, entirely to you. Jesus was born again, that we might be born again. Jesus was treated as we deserve that we might be treated as He deserves.

I read a story a while ago about some unique people. Apparently, some scientists were studying the habits and customs of some ancient cliff-dwellers somewhere in the western part of the United States of America. During their research, they discovered the unique method of ‘spring housecleaning these primitive people employed. It consisted merely of whitewashing over the blackened interiors of their hillside dwellings. The whitewash had been generously applied with no attempt to remove any of the dirt and the soot. When the scientists carried out their research, they found a layer of black grime, and then a layer of the whitewash had been applied to cover it up. That was just how they did things to accomplish their spring “housecleaning” in those days there.

This is painfully like some of our modern-day “spiritual housecleaning.”  A professing Christian chooses to try covering up a black, unregenerate heart of sinfulness with a white-washed veneer of behavior based religious beliefs. But if we scratch the whitewash a little with some kind of stressor, a few tests or temptations, and the shallowness soon becomes very apparent. This is not God’s plan for His blood-bought sons and daughters. (John 1:12, Isa 56:5, Jer 3:19, Gal 3:26) Jesus desires in us for us a deeper, a more genuine work of grace to be accomplished on the deepest level in each child of His.

Consider Jacob for an example. His very name indicates his deceitful nature. Jacob was, just as his name implied: “a supplanter.” How many times in the history of Jacobs experience that deceitful nature had reared its ugly head and asserted its true nature. Until that one night by the Brook Jabbok Jacob met God face to face. Through many long hours, Jacob wrestled with his Heavenly Adversary for a victory that even brought with it a new name – Israel, or “the one who prevails with God.”

With Jacob, it was not just a question of just patching up the old life, white washing over the blackened sins of the past. Jacob emerged from his struggle that fateful night as a new person. Jacob, the former deceiver was gone and in his place was “Israel” a person who now prevailed with God. Many people are quite stuck on the old falsehood of how “literal” Israel are going to be the only ones saved, but this is so untrue. So, against God’s kingdom, and God’s intentions for His people. Rom 9:6 tells us how that “not all who are of Israel are Israel.” In other words, all people in all ages who “prevail with God” in prayer, and in whom we can see that they had been with Jesus, (Acts 4:13).

It was about 1700 years later where Jesus emphasized the urgent need for the new birth experience as He had spoken to Nicodemus one night. Jesus unfolded to this honest hearted member of the Sanhedrin, one of the most sublime truths of “the everlasting gospel.”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.  Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ (John 3:5-7) The RSV version of the Bible says it like this: “You must be born anew.” Moffatts translation reads “you must all be born from above.” Thus it is indicated clearly how that the precious experience that Jesus is speaking about here is one that has it’s origin in Heaven and is not some form of worldly “transformation” doting on things we can accomplish in our own strength. Our own wisdom and resources.

We come to Jesus in all our sinfulness, just as we are, acknowledging our need of Christ. We confess our sins. Jesus forgives and accepts us as sons and daughters of God. (John 1:12) “If we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us our sins AND to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9) In John 1:12 we are promised POWER to become/remain the sons and daughters of God, and we sing in the old hymns of the “power of the blood.” Could it be that the blood of Jesus is “the power of God unto salvation?”

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and for the Greek. (Rom 1:16)

Being born again, truly born again in all it’s bearings, as noted in Scripture, is something entirely different than the rote patching up of the old life we have led and just whitewashing over our sins of the past. The work of regeneration is much more than skin deep. Consider the words of the apostle Paul on this idea:

So that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Cor 5:17, MKJV)

The exact same phrase “of “all things have become new”  is echoed in rev 2;15 which speaks about God’s restoration of the earth to it’s original, sinless perfection. It requires the very same creative powers of God in creation to recreate the earth new as it did for Him to speak the world into existence originally. When time began. It requires the same creative Word of God to take a sinner such as I from the bewitching influence of evil and to make that person a new individual, eligible to associate with sinless beings. And throughout eternity! THAT is why it is called ‘the everlasting gospel!”

Peter tells us how this amazing new birth experience is accomplished. He says:

“Being born again by The Word of God which lives and abides forever.” (1 Pet 1:23)

When God’s Word gets into a person’s life, it just naturally changes things.

When we are “born again, (John 3;3) we naturally want to follow Paul’s admonition:

For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, pulling down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ; (2 Cor 10:4-5, MKJV)

HOW does a person “bring into captivity every thought” like this?

Heb 4:12 tells us that the word of God discerns both the thoughts and the intents of the heart. NONE of those old sins can remain held in the heart if the person is permeated with the word of God.

And in John 7:17 Jesus reminds us that IF we are willing to do whatever the Word of God reveals to us, then we shall know what the truth about a is given matter:

“If anyone desires to do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it is of God, or I speak from Myself.” (John 7:17)

Here, Jesus gave a test by which the true teacher might be distinguished from the deceiver: “He that speaks from himself seeks his own glory: but he that seeks the glory of Him that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.” John 7:18, R. V. He that seeks his own glory is speaking only from himself. The spirit of self-seeking betrays its origin. But Christ was seeking the glory of God. He spoke the words of God. This was the evidence of His authority as a teacher of the truth.  {DA 456.1}

And of course Peter seconds this by saying:

“Being born again by The Word of God which lives and abides forever.” (1 Pet 1:23)

When God’s Word gets into a person’s life, it just naturally changes things. Those old sins we all have skulking about cannot remain in a life or a heart that is permeated with The Word of God. When The Holy Spirit gets hold of a person their old life (sometimes called ‘the old man’ in scripture) changes. And always for the better. The Bible prophet Ezekiel explains why this is true:

“And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments and do them”. (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

God goes right to the very Source of life: the heart. In bringing about the new birth, he says the very first thing we need is a new heart. If our hearts are evil, we can never hope to get along by some outward correctness of behavior. Sooner or later the poisoned water at the spring’s source will contaminate the life and render the soul unfit for Heaven.

We can notice here in the passage we just read from Ezekiel, that over and over, God repeats things like “I will do this” and “I will do that” for you. And we keep saying “I will” do this or that.  God’s way is to be born again. (John 3:3) and God’s way is not something we can do ourselves, in our own strength, wisdom, or resources. God must do it for us. (John 15:5)  We cannot in and of ourselves work any true reformation in the wellsprings of an unregenerate heart.

God says that He will give us a new heart, (Ezekiel 36:26), a new name, (Isa 62:2), a new tongue, (Mark 16;17), and a new song. (Psalms 40:3)

If you would like a very practical test to apply to your own experience, just take your own Bible and turn to Eph 4:24-32 and you will soon be able to figure out if you have been truly born again as Jesus says we all must be. (John 3:3)

People who have experienced this “born again” change in their nature, have changed from the old life of constant defeat and hopelessness at the hands of the devil, to the new life of victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the long-awaited goal towards which we have been striving for. Happiness, full and complete, in Jesus Christ. Sins forgiven. Victories won. At peace with God and our fellow human beings, joy in this present world, and life eternal. Why shouldn’t we be happy? All of this and more than we have ever dreamed or thought of is what Jesus offers you today. Will you open your heart’s door just now? Let Jesus come in to flood your heart and soul with true love and happiness.