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The Hidden Gospel

THE NEW LIFE

Chapter Two

The Hidden Gospel, book by David W. Dyer

A "Grain Of Wheat" Ministries publication

Written by David W. Dyer

INDEX

Chapter 1: The Hidden Gospel

Chapter 2: The New Life (Current Chapter)

Chapter 3: More Translation Problems

Chapter 4: True Faith

Chapter 5: Transformation



Chapter 2: THE NEW LIFE


But if complete deliverance from sin is the message of the gospel, how is it to happen? Why is it that so few seem to be benefitting from this heavenly power? If freedom from sin is the main reason Jesus died for us, how is it that it seems so difficult and so rare?
This discussion is going to be a little complex because many have deeply ingrained concepts of long standing. Many, even though they have become Christians, have never really understood the truth of the gospel. Once again, some important aspects of God’s message have been obscured and kept hidden from us.

Consequently, it will take a little time to expose some of the subtle dilutions which the devil has succeeded in implanting to obscure God’s message. So please, be patient as you follow along with me in the following discussion. Here again, the best understanding of the good news has been hidden from us by unclear translation.

The truth is that the deliverance from sin which God has provided for us is accomplished by the introduction of His own life inside of us. However, this wonderful fact is not very clear in our modern translations. Therefore, let us now take some time and explore this important truth together.

In John 3:3 we find still another verse which could have been rendered in a much clearer way where we read: “Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly I say to you, unless someone is born from above, he is not able to perceive the kingdom of God.” Also in John 3:7 Jesus says: “Don’t be surprised that I said to you, you must be born from above.”

Now, many translations use the words “born again” instead of “born from above.” This is despite the fact that the Greek word ANOTHEN clearly indicates “from on high” or “from above.”

Only by implication can it mean “anew” or “again.” Such translations make these verses much less clear. Perhaps this is another way in which God’s enemy has succeeded in obscuring the truth from us.

The fact is that no one can experience birth a second time. As Jesus explained to Nicodemus, He was not referring to entering back into his mother’s womb and being “born again.” His words “born from above” meant something entirely different. He was saying that a life “from above” could be born inside of us.

What then is this life “from above?” It is the life of God the Father. It is God’s own life which can be born into us through the Holy Spirit. This then is not “us” being born a second time but about something entirely new being born inside of us.

Although we have our participation in this birth, it is not our own life having a new beginning, but the life of Another – the very life of God – being born into us.

This birth is somewhat parallel to a natural birth in the following way: Just as the human egg and sperm unite to form a new life, so the Holy Spirit joins with our human spirit to form this new spiritual life inside of us.

Jesus explains, “That which is born naturally is the physical body, and that which is born of the Spirit is our human spirit” (Jn 3:6). Also we read: “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with the Lord” (1 Cor 6:17).

This is what Jesus meant when He used the phrase “born from above.” God is the One “above.” When, through His Spirit which comes down from Him, He generates His own life in us, we have been “regenerated” which is what some call being “born again.”

Peter makes this very clear when he says, “You have been regenerated not by perishable parentage but by immortal parentage: by God’s living word that exists eternally” (1 Pet 1:23).

Further clarifying this we read: “These are not those who were born through bloodlines, or through the choice of the flesh, or by the decision of men, but who were actually born of God” (Jn 1:13). When we are “born from above” by having God’s own life generated inside of us, we become the sons and daughters of God Himself.

(Again, this author is not claiming that those who have translated these words as “born again” were grammatically incorrect. Furthermore, he is not accusing any translators of wrong motives or of deliberately doing anything to confuse the readers. No doubt, they have rendered these verses as well as they were able. However, the fact remains that the words “from above” give a much clearer picture of the origin of this holy life than the word “again” does.)

GOD’S OWN LIFE

This fact that we can receive God’s own life should be quite clear from the scriptures. Yet, once again our translations of the New Testament have not served us well here. Instead, they have obscured this truth, leaving us in spiritual poverty. You see, in the Greek language, there are actually three different words which are translated “life.” They are “BIOS,” “PSUCHÊ,” and, “ZOÊ.”

Although they have distinctly different meanings in Greek, they are almost always translated for us as one word in English: “life.” Even though this may be a “correct” translation, it fails miserably to transmit the thoughts of God given to us in the Greek language.

For example, the word “BIOS” – from where we get our word “biology” – refers to our life in this physical world. It refers to the duration of our life, the means by which we sustain our physical life, and the moral conduct of our physical life.

The word “PSUCHÊ” refers to our psychological life: our feelings, our thinking, and our decision-making process. This word is often also translated “soul” in the Bible. Perhaps using the words “soul life” would have been a better and clearer way to translate this word. As you can see, this is something quite distinct from our physical, biological life.

Now the word “ZOÊ” has an extremely important meaning. According to W. E. Vine, in his Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words, this means: “...life as God has it, that which the Father has in Himself, and which He gave to the Incarnate Son to have in Himself.”

It is this word ZOÊ which is used throughout the New Testament to refer to the life of God Himself. It would have been much better, therefore, to translate ZOÊ as “the Father’s life,” or “God’s life” so that the readers could really understand God’s message.

Without understanding it correctly, not only do we miss important revelation, but we can be led into serious error. In fact, the church of our day is full of very grave errors, many of which are the result of failing to understand this one Greek word correctly. This is a very lamentable situation.

Satan has been successful in obscuring this marvelous truth and leading many into misconceptions and sin through inadequate translations. For example, when we read Jesus saying in John 10:10 that: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (NKJV), what sort of “life” does He mean?

If this word were “BIOS,” we could assume that Jesus came to prosper us physically and materially with all kinds of health and wealth.

If this word were “PSUCHÊ,” we would know that Jesus came to make us happy and well-adjusted emotionally and straighten out all of our problems.

But instead, this word is “ZOÊ.” Jesus came to give us the very life of God and to give us this life abundantly! Hallelujah! What a wonderful gift!

This, then, is what Jesus came to bring us: the life of God Himself. This is really good news! We can receive into our beings the very life of God! We can become His children through having His life being born inside of us. Can you see what a difference this makes? This ZOÊ is very different from either BIOS or PSUCHÊ.

This clearer translation of this Greek word is of the utmost importance! Far too many Christians who have been truly “born from above” have no idea what really happened to them or what they have inside of them. They have received God’s supernatural life but are very unclear about what this really means. Yet this an essential part of the gospel message.

As you can see, depending on the translation of this word, we could have very different “gospel” messages. And this is just what has happened! The devil has succeeded in filling today’s church with many aberrant, erroneous, and foolish “gospels” which have led many Christians away from the truth and caused them to stumble into sin in the darkness.

I consider that this failure to translate the word “life” adequately has been one of the greatest, if not the greatest, impediment to the progress of the Christian Church. It has immeasurably hindered believers from understanding the truth of God and, therefore, from obtaining all that He has for them.

It has left believers confused and without any kind of clear understanding of the gospel. It has left them chasing after many other interpretations of the good news message which are not really the truth and which have caused them immeasurable harm.

One of the most destructive of these “gospels” is the gospel of prosperity. This message insists that Jesus wants to improve our life financially. Those preaching this are failing to see that BIOS is not what Jesus came to bring.

Due to inadequate translation and the resulting wrong understanding of what Jesus came to give us, many believers are chasing after the things of this world which are part of the devil’s kingdom.

This failure of the translators to distinguish between these Greek words with distinctly different meanings seems to me to be a most serious deficiency resulting in much spiritual darkness.

It seems as if the translators did not understand the message of God’s life themselves and so did not think it was necessary to indicate to us readers that these were different Greek words with very different translations. This omission has left many generations of Christians in the dark about such a profound truth.

As an example of how important a clearer translation is, Jesus tells us that we must “lose our life” to get life. But how does this make sense if we don’t distinguish between these words translated as “life?” We read in Matthew 16:25: “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (NKJV).

But to lose life in order to get life is illogical. It would seem much better to hang onto the life we already have and just add to it by getting more. Why would we want to lose our life?

This is very confusing. But it is only confusing until we realize that we must lose our own soul life (PSUCHÊ) to gain God’s life (ZOÊ) (Jn 12:25). You see, the translation makes all the difference. This actually makes sense.

The following may seem like a bold statement, but it is entirely true. Without understanding that the life which Jesus came to bring us is God’s own life, it is impossible to clearly understand the gospel.

This one truth is the key to understanding God’s purpose and plan for us. Without this key, many, many things taught to us in the scriptures remain obscure and difficult to understand. This is an absolutely crucial truth for us to comprehend.

Yet, in my experience conversing with thousands of believers over a period of more that forty years, I have found that almost none of them know what eternal life is. This is really sad. The result has been a widespread, profound spiritual poverty among the people of God.

Due to unclear translations of the New Testament, very, very few Christians have any idea that the life which Jesus gives us is the life of God the Father. However, this is the central, fundamental truth of the gospel message. It is the most essential, valuable thing which we could possibly possess.

Yet, most imagine that eternal life is their own life going on forever. Others seem to think that the gospel has to do with a destination, i.e. where they will spend eternity. Still others imagine that they will “return to Eden” and become again like Adam and Eve. Virtually none understand that they have received the life of a Superior Being, the very life of God Himself.

The darkness under which the church labors and the resulting expenditure of vain effort trying to do God’s work without a clear understanding of eternal life are truly lamentable.

Thus, through generations of unwitting translators who themselves seem to have failed to understand or clearly translate the message, the devil has succeeded in impoverishing the church and robbing believers of this crucial insight which is truly “life changing.”

ETERNAL LIFE

Now this life of God which we receive has some very interesting characteristics which are important to understand. First, we notice that this life is eternal. It never began and will never end. It was never born and cannot die. Furthermore, until Jesus died and rose again from the dead, God was the only being in the universe to possess this kind of “eternal” life.

1 Timothy 6:15,16 teaches us that God is (or was) the only immortal being. We read that He is: “...the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality...”

Yet, God has not seen fit to keep this immortal life to Himself. He is offering it to men through the preaching of the good news. We read about: “...our Savior the Anointed One, Jesus, who rendered death ineffective and brought the eternal life of God – even immortality – to light through the gospel” (2 Tim 1:10).

By the way, the word “everlasting” which we find in some translations is not accurate. This is because someone who was born today and then never died would “last forever.” Therefore, their life could be considered to be “everlasting.”

However, God’s life is different than this. His life never began. Not only will it never end but it has always existed. This is what the Bible means when it uses the word “eternal.” We read in Psalms 90:2 “...from eternity to eternity, you are God” (HCSB).

The good news is that God is offering His own eternal life to men. We can have the very life of God born inside of us. His life can be born in our spirit through the action of the Holy Spirit. This is what it means to “be born from above” (Jn 3:3).

BEING SAVED BY HIS LIFE

Now for more good news. It is this holy life that is saving us from what we are. Please allow me to repeat this: It is God’s life inside us which is His instrument for delivering us from self and sin. This amazing truth is shown us in the following verse. “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we will be being saved by His life...” (Rm 5:10).

Here we discover the agency through which we will be being delivered and set free. The “agent” which will do this for us and in us is God’s life. It is this life which will save us from and liberate us from sin!

You see, there is an amazing characteristic of God’s life of which we should be aware: It is supremely holy. God never sins; therefore, His life is sinless.

This is not because He is trying not to sin. This is not because He is trying to resist temptation. It is because of who He is. His nature is the exact opposite of sin. Not only does God never sin, but He cannot even be tempted by sin (Js 1:13). This is a very precious truth.

But how does this help us? You see, all the purity, holiness, righteousness, kindness, patience, love, etc. which describe the nature of God is contained in His life. Furthermore, it is this holy life which can be born inside of us.

So, the plan of God is for His life to grow up in us and fill us to such an extent that we express His holy nature. This is the way we can be liberated from our sin. It is to be filled with the life of a holy God!

This wonderful truth bears repeating. God’s plan to liberate us from sin is to fill us with Himself. He is a sinless being. His life never sins. Therefore, when we are filled with and led by this life, we too do not sin. In this way, we are freed from our sin. Freedom from sin is not by having our old life changed to be better. Instead, it is by being filled to overflowing with a whole new, sinless life – the life of God Himself.

Still another New Testament verse which relates to this subject but has been poorly translated is found in 1 John 3:9 where we read: “Whoever is born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God” (NKJV).

Wow, what a verse! It seems from reading this verse literally as if no one has ever been “born of God” except Jesus, since only He never sinned. All of us Christians sin, so logically, we haven’t been “born of God.” This translation makes for a very confusing situation.

But there is a better translation. We read: “That which is begotten of God [i.e. the new spiritual man] does not sin because it is his {God’s supernatural} seed that has come to live in him. In fact, he [the new spiritual man] cannot sin because it is something which is begotten by God [who is perfectly righteous].”

You see, “That which is begotten of God” does not sin and, in fact, cannot sin because it has the life and nature of God Himself.

Consequently, our greatest need is to be filled with the life of God. He is our salvation and deliverance. He is the One who is saving His people from their sin. He is doing this by introducing His own sinless life inside of them, filling them with this holy life, and then living His life out through them. What a wonderful salvation!

SO WHY DO WE STILL SIN?

Since then we believers have had a sinless life born into us, why is it that we still sin? Why is it that so many Christians are still dominated by sin? Where is this glorious deliverance which has been promised to us?

It should be clear to us that every variety of life expresses its own nature. The nature of our old, Adamic life is to sin. The nature of God’s life is to express righteousness. Therefore, those who have been “born of God” have within them two “lives.” They have a human soul life (PSUCHÊ) which sins. They also have a divine life (ZOÊ) which never sins.

The trouble is that the old life is often more mature and developed than the new life. So, it is much “stronger” than the new life. Therefore, the old life and nature dominate and predominate. Even though they have been “born from above,” Christians do not always express the nature of this new life that is within them.

You see, this new life is born in us as every other life is born: an infant. It begins immature. So, just because we have been “born from above” does not mean that we automatically express the nature of our Father all the time.

Although all true believers do express their Father’s nature some of the time, it is also true that their own human nature often finds its expression also. All too frequently, it is the old life which dominates our living.

One solution is that this new divine life must grow. It must mature. It must go beyond being an infant inside of us and grow up to fill us completely. We read that: “...we should grow up in all things into him who is the head, even the Anointed One” (Eph 4:15).

When Jesus was born on this earth, He was born in a lowly, dirty, smelly place – He was placed in a manger in a stable. In the same way, when Jesus is born into us, He is again born into a lowly, dirty, smelly place.

But Jesus did not stay in the manger. He left there and grew up to be a mature man. We read: “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him” (Lk 2:40). In the same way, we too must grow up spiritually into His fulness. This new birth is just the beginning, the first step in a process called salvation. Although many people equate “being saved” with “being born again,” this is not scripturally accurate. There is much more to our salvation than this.

A careful reading of the New Testament reveals that our salvation does, indeed, begin with the birth of this new life inside of us, but it doesn’t end until our body is glorified at the coming of Jesus Christ.

So we now understand that the “agent” – the substance which saves us from who and what we are – is the very life of God maturing in us.

Just as our first, natural birth was an event, so, too, our new birth in Christ happens only once. But our deliverance from sin is an ongoing process. Our salvation does not stop with the birthing of God’s life in us. This is only logical since no life we know about ends with birth. Instead, birth is just the beginning of a long process of growth and maturity. It is the same with the new spiritual life.

As this life grows, it begins to express itself and its own nature more and more. The more it matures, the more it dominates our old life and nature. As we grow spiritually, our sinful habits and desires change. This is not because of our own efforts or determination or because we are following a new set of rules or principles but because another life with a completely new nature is being seen in us.

This is a wonderful, life-changing salvation. This is a powerful message which can change anyone and everyone. This is not a message of self-effort, but one of an exchanged life.

This is not a gospel of “works” or striving but of being filled with the life of Jesus by His grace. We can be filled with and animated by the life of Another who is 100 percent holy!

Can you see now how it seems that this gospel has been “hidden” because of inadequate translations of the New Testament? The gospel of forgiveness by itself – as precious as forgiveness is – does not convey the message of liberation. But the gospel of salvation shows us clearly how to be filled with God’s own life and, therefore, be completely set free from sin.

Jesus is able to save to the uttermost (completely) those who are coming to Him (Heb 7:25). 

End of Chapter 2

Read other chapters online:

Chapter 1: The Hidden Gospel

Chapter 2: The New Life (Current Chapter)

Chapter 3: More Translation Problems

Chapter 4: True Faith

Chapter 5: Transformation

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