# 44 What To Do With A Stained Soul

Joh 3:5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' 8 "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." 9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?" 10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 "Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

There are two births necessary to enter the kingdom of God. First of all, (obviously) you must exist as a created soul. Your soul has a container, it is called your body or your flesh.  Both body and soul have been with you from the moment you were conceived.

I would propose to you that your soul, my soul, was part and parcel of the soul of Adam, when He was first created and given life by God. Ge 2:7 says, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

You and I were on the mind of God even back in the Garden, and He has wanted fellowship with us from the very beginning. The soul of man, deposited initially in Adam, is passed along to all human beings.  through the God-blessed act of pro-creation! It’s mind-boggling to consider this, but this fact is why God could say to Jeremiah in  Jer 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations."

It’s why we are reminded of God’s purpose for Esther in  Es 4:14 "Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

How wonderful to consider that God has kingdom plans for you and I as well! And they were there from the beginning as Adam and his children passed on the soul of man! When Jesus comes again, this soul passing will be completed, and that’s why men and women will no longer be given in marriage!  Mt 22:30 "For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage,”

But Adam sinned! His soul became tarnished by sin, and that tarnished soul has been handed down to you and I. It’s why David said in  Ps 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.”

Well, Houston, now we have a problem, because the Bible says this about the soul, "The soul who sins shall die. (Ezek 18:20)

Something has to be done in that soul to remove the stain of original sin. All of the Old Testament Scriptures point to the saving work of Jesus Christ to redeem the souls of men, and much of the Old Testament foreshadows baptism coupled with faith as a means to “restore our souls.” 

The flood is the classic example and even referred to in 1Pe 3:21, “There is also an antitype which now saves us--baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,”

Another example is the crossing through the parted waters of the Red Sea mentioned by Paul in his letter to the Corinthians: “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, 2 all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, (1 Cor 10:1,2)

Baptism and faith for the salvation of souls is where God has been heading all along, and Jesus reminds Nicodemus gently of this truth when He says to him,  “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?”

Now, the church is armed with this knowledge and we have been given the great commission to carry out the salvation of souls, for the restoration of fellowship with God! Mt 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”