A Holy Generation

Does the Holy Spirit or Jesus Christ cleanse us from sin little by little once we are born again?
The answer is simply no. And I'll tell you why.

To be born again is to change generations. One of the definitions of the word, Generation, is: “set of people who descend from someone.
When we are born on this earth, we are all of the generation of the first man, Adam.
This generation is considered by God as, wicked, corrupt, adulterous, deprived of the glory of God and Jesus called this generation adulterous and sinful, in Mark 8; verse 38.

To change generations, therefore, one must be born again.
In the beginning of Chapter 3 of the Gospel of John, Jesus tells us about the new birth. While the Pharisees, in general, rejected Jesus, Nicodemus, a Pharisee, leader of the Jews, came by night to visit Jesus and to say to him:
"We know that you are a teacher come from God".
Imagine what you would answer to a notable who comes to visit you to congratulate you. Jesus, He, does not shower Nicodemus with thanks, nor does he even pay homage to him. Jesus seems to have no regard for the notoriety of Nicodemus, Jesus knows the hearts of men, and goes directly to important things, even vital, for Nicodemus and for all men of the generation of the first Adam. Even if it is important to recognize Jesus as an envoy of God, or to love Jesus, What is vital or primordial, for a man of the generation of the first Adam, is to be born again. And that's what Jesus answers in verse 3 of John 3:
“Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God..”
When it is a question of a man, it is, obviously, a whole man, in question, spirit, soul and body . And this is what Nicodemus had understood when he asked Jesus the question:
"How can a man be born when he is old? Can he return to his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus did not answer him that only the Spirit was born again. But, “Jesus answered him,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John chapter 3, verses 5 to 8).
To be born again does not depend on men, but on God, only God has authority over the new birth as he also has authority over the wind. We see this, in Matthew 8, 28, sorry, 26, Where Jesus commands the storm to stop.

How can a man be born of water and the Spirit?

We understand what it means to be born of the Spirit or of the Spirit of God, but what does it mean to be born of water?
To understand a little better, it is necessary to refer to another biblical passage, in the old testament, known to Nicodemus and the disciples which also speaks to us of the new birth, it is in Ezekiel, 36.25 to 27, it it is written:
“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
We see very well through this passage of Ezekiel that God purifies us with clean water, and after he gives us a new heart and a new spirit, it is: “to be born of water and of the Spirit” announced by Jesus Christ.
The apostle Paul confirms it to us in 1Corinthians 6; 11 when he writes: “but you have been washed, justified, sanctified” or again in Hebrews, 10;22, where it is written: “our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
In reality, it is not water that purifies, but it is by grace and by faith.
When the prophet Elisha asked the commander of the army of the king of Syria, Naaman, who was a leper, to wash himself seven times in the Jordan so that he would be purified, it was not the water of the Jordan that cleansed Naaman of his leprosy, but it was by the faith that Naaman had in the words of Elisha that he was cleansed, washing himself seven times in the Jordan.
We can read this story in 2Kings chapter 5.
Likewise, it is by faith and obedience to what God tells us that we are cleansed with pure water.

Everything we live, we live by grace and by faith.

At the new birth we keep our physical body, but by faith it is washed clean with pure water and we receive a new mind and heart or a new soul into our body, which once washed away from sin, becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit.
"Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,..." wrote the apostle Paul in 1Corinthians 6; 19. The Holy Spirit does not dwell in a body or temple corrupted by sin. Just remember the sanctity of the temple in the Old Testament. God's temple is holy,
and you are, the apostle Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3; verse 16 & 17: which I will read: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, and that is what you are. “
The apostle Paul confirms to us that everything is new in man, born of water and  spirit; He writes: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come”. 2Corinthians 5; 17
So all things have become new, our body has been washed, our soul and our spirit are changed, we receive the Spirit of God, we have been regenerated, and this is what the apostle Peter says:
“Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has regenerated us up to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, “1 Peter 1:3 Hallelujah!

In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter tells us what path to take to change generations.

In Acts chapter 2 and verse 40, it is written,
“And with many other words he conjured them and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this perverted generation.”
When the apostle Peter said this, it was the day of Pentecost, the 120 disciples had received the Holy Spirit, they spoke in tongues and made a lot of noise, because of the noise a large crowd had come running to see what it was happening, the apostle Peter then explained to the people who were there, who Jesus is and obviously the people who were there, were, of the generation of the first Adam, because he told them, that they were to be saved from this crooked generation, and to be saved from this perverse generation he said to them; in Acts 2; 38:
“Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “

This is the way that was recommended by the apostle Peter in order to receive the Holy Spirit or the new birth, because God gives the Holy Spirit when we are born again.
To repent is to recognize that we are sinners, separated from God, a corrupt generation. In view of the reaction of those who listened to Peter, I quote their reaction:
“After hearing this speech, their hearts were greatly touched, and they said to Peter and to the other apostles: Men brothers, what shall we do?”
(Acts 2 verse 37) It is very likely that they were convinced of their condition as sinners. But today, many people have their own justice and are not aware that they are part of a corrupt generation, and that they are sinners, separated from God, it was my case.
Everything is done in this world to seduce us, so that we are convinced that we are good people, the apostle John tells us:
"if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not within us.” In 1 John, 1 verse 8) But when we trust in God, and we want to please him, the love of God works us through the Holy Spirit and quickly convinces us of our sin, In Romans 2, verse 4,
it is written:
“It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance”.
He convinces us that we are sinners, separated from God. We must then ask forgiveness for our sins and believe God, when he says in 1 John 1:9:
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.”
To be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is to be immersed entirely in water, before witnesses. Baptism symbolizes our commitment to God (1Peter 3:20), and it is also a picture of our passage by faith, on the cross, in death, in, and with Jesus Christ. By faith, our old man, Adam, dies entirely in the death of Jesus Christ, and through the resurrection of Jesus Christ we are resurrected as a new spiritual man, and God will give us his Holy Spirit. But, today, many people do not really live this passage through the cross, or they only live it intellectually.

Confiding in God is good, you have to do it, but it is not always enough. We must not believe that the devil abandons his work, because we trust in God, or in Jesus Christ, on the contrary, he will continue his work even more beautiful, he can even use verses from the Bible to try to seduce us. We must not trust our feelings, thinking that they necessarily come from God, and we must not believe, either, the false prophets, some of whom explain to us that it is normal to remain sinners. It is the work of the devil. If we remain sinners, we live according to the flesh and we do not have the Spirit of God in us as it is written in Romans 8, verse 9. If the Spirit of God dwells in you, you do not live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. This is what we can interpret from Romans 8 verse 9.
If we are sinners, we have not changed generations, we are still in the sinful generation of the first Adam, under the dependence of the devil. As I wrote at the beginning of this text, loving Jesus, and recognizing him as sent from God, or even trusting in God, as Nicodemus was able to do, is good, but that does not make us a child born of God. Likewise, the joys that we experience and the feelings that we experience, may perhaps even come from God, but do not necessarily make us a child born of God who walks in newness of life.
As I've said many times, there's only one thing the devil can't imitate, that’s the cross. It is written in 1John 4, verse 3, forgiveness, 1 to 3,
Any spirit who confesses Jesus Christ come in the flesh is from God, otherwise he is not from God. Only the Spirit who confesses Jesus come in the flesh, in his flesh, is from God. It is only by the assurance of our passage through death on the cross that we can confess, in truth,
Jesus Christ come in our flesh, as the apostle Paul could do in Galatians 2, 20, and as we can also confess it in truth with the apostle Paul:
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” Amen!
It is our actual passage through the cross that will give us the assurance that Jesus Christ has
come in our flesh, and the rest that we are born again. As is written in Hebrews 4, 10 & 11: “For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works, as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.”

There are several passages in the Bible on the preaching of the cross, Romans 6, 3, verses 3 to 8 is one of them, and I will quote you an excerpt:
" We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6 verse 4).
Here the words; " in order that" are of all importance, they indicate the logical continuation of our burial with Christ, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life, which is the new birth.
If Jesus had not been crucified, he would never have risen. (you are going to tell me :”C’est une verité de la Palice”, perhaps, but it is the truth all the same. Likewise, it is our burial with Christ which assures us of our resurrection with Him, our new birth. Without death with Christ,
there is no walking in newness of life, that is, no new birth. And this is confirmed in verse 8 of Romans 6.  but if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him,” or in 2 Timothy 2:11 where it is written:
“The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him;”

Or, in Colossians 2, Verse 12.
“having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.”
Glory to the God
it is only by faith which is a firm assurance, (Hebrews 11, 1) given by God, of our burial with him, and of our resurrection with him that we will live with assurance our new birth and that we will change generation.
Jesus said to Nicodemus in, John 3, verse 14, I remember that the begining of John 3 is the passage, where Jesus speaks to us about the new birth. So in verse 14 he says,
"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." When Jesus says: " So must", it is important, It means that until Jesus had been lifted up on the cross as the serpent of Moses had been lifted up in the desert, no one could have eternal life. Therefore to be born again, which is the theme of this passage. After Jesus was lifted up on the cross, we can receive eternal life, because we can die with him by faith, in any case our old man can die with him by faith and we can be resurrected with him and in him by faith, as a new creature.
The day when we live in truth and in faith the message of the cross, we have the certainty that our old man has been crucified, written in the past tense, in Romans 6, 6, which means that he is definitely dead , therefore it is once for all, that the body of sin might be destroyed. (Romans 6, 6). And that in consequence of the death of our old man, we receive, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, The new man, created according to God, in the righteousness and
holiness which the truth produces”, that is to say without the sin in him. We find that in Ephesians 4:24.
We pass, therefore, by faith in the work of Jesus Christ on The Cross, from enemies of God
because of our evil thoughts and works, to, holy, blameless and above reproach.
Colossians 1 verses 21 to 23: “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast.” End of quote
So we were enemies of God when we were of the generation of the old man Adam, and now, if we are reconciled, by the death of Jesus Christ in the body of his flesh, we are also raised by his resurrection , we have changed generations, , we have passed from the generation of the old man, Adam, a sinner, to the generation of the new man, Jesus Christ, holy, blameless and above reproach in order to appear, before him, holy, blameless and above reproach, if we remain grounded and steadfast in the faith.
In faith in what? In faith in what God has done for us and from us in Jesus Christ, on the cross, new creatures washed, sanctified, justified. (1Corinthians 6, 11.)
It is the same idea that we find in 1 Thessalonians, 5; verses 23 to 24, which I read:
" Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.”
Anyone who has done a bit of cooking, or more exactly, canned foods, knows very well that to preserve holy foods, they must already be holy from the start, and that the jars in which they are going to be kept, are perfect, maybe that's why the jars of preserves wear the mark: "Le parfait". Otherwise the preserves will end up rotting.
So from our new birth, God sanctifies us, entirely, spirit, soul and body, then God will ensure that we are kept holy, and blameless. And "He will do it." This is why it is written in Hebrews 10:10: By virtue of this will we are sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all. End of quote.
It is a matter of faith.
To be borned again has passed from the animal man to the spiritual man.
In 1Corinthians 2; verses 14 and 15, the apostle Paul distinguishes between the animal man
who does not receive the things of the Spirit of God and the spiritual man. The word animal
has the same root as the word; " soul ". The man, from the generation of the first Adam,
is called a living soul in the Bible (french). In 1 Corinthians 15; 45, it is written:
“Therefore, it is written: The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a quickening spirit. It is also written in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 47 and 48
“The first man, out of the earth, is earthly; the second man is from heaven. As is the terrestrial,
such are also the terrestrials; and as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenlies. In the context of these verses, we are talking about the resurrection of the dead,
We will indeed be the heavenly man in the resurrection, but, if we are not already today, by faith, the heavenly man, we never will be. Remember it is written,
 that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. (Epésiens, 2, verse 6) The new birth is therefore, to pass from the generation of the first Adam, which comes from the dust, a generation, or race, perverse, as the apostle Peter said, or Jesus to the generation of the last Adam, who comes from heaven, Jesus Christ, (John 6, verse 38) who is a generation of saints, that is: without sin. In 1Peter 2; 9 we can read:
 " But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
We become brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, Jesus said in John, 14 verse 6:
 “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the father except through me.
which means that Jesus Christ is our model when we are born again.
Remember what is written in 1 Corinthians 15:48:
“As was the terrestrial, such are also the terrestrials; and such was the celestial, such are also the celestials”
Jesus Christ is the celestial and we, like him, are celestials. We become like Jesus Christ in all things when he first came to this earth, as he himself was made like his brothers in all things. (Hebrews 2;17). When Jesus was on earth, he lived in a body of flesh, without sin, the Holy Spirit dwelt in him, but Jesus was also corruptible, in the sense, that he could have sinned, although he never sinned. In the same way the new man is holy, he lives in a body of flesh, not in the corrupt flesh of the old terrestrial or animal man, (1Corinthians 2; 14) who is a slave of sin, (Romans 7, 5) but in flesh cleansed from sin, the flesh of the new spiritual man, (1 Corinthians 2:15) of the same nature as the flesh of the heavenly man, Jesus, when he was on earth. A flesh that is not corrupted by sin, but can be corrupted, if we let's give up our faith. See (Hebrews 6; 4 to 8; or Hebrews 10; 26; or again, 2 Peter, 2, 20 to 22).
On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that, like any man, the new man, at the beginning of his spiritual life is a baby, nourished with milk and which does not have the capacity of a spiritual adult. For a small child, it is natural to be in communion with his parents, as long as he remains a child, in all that he does, nothing separates him from his communion with his parents. It is the same for the new man in his spiritual childhood, if one remains in the faith. The kingdom of God is for those who are like the children Jesus told us (Mark 10; 14).
Then we grow little by little and, we learn every day to imitate Jesus Christ, we are tempted by the devil, as Jesus was tempted, but never beyond our strength, and as long as we remain obedient to the Holy Spirit in us we do not sin.
In the epistles we see in several places that the disciples were tempted by the devil. For example, in the epistle to the Colossians chapter 2 verses 21 to 23, we can read that the Colossians were liable to be deceived by precepts and carnal ordinances, taught by false prophets who had an appearance of humility and who surrendered to visions.
Chapter 3 is written, then, to correct the Colossians. The apostle Paul writes to them, in chapter 3 and verse 5:
"Put to death therefore those who are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passions, evil desires, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”
When we place ourselves under the law, or under carnal precepts and ordinances, we abandon the faith, there is incompatibility between the law and the faith, either we live under the law, or we live by faith.
And if we live under the law, we abandon the faith and give ourselves up to the temptations of the devil. The disciples must remain in the faith, in the holiness, taught by the apostle Paul further on in the Epistle to the Colossians, the holiness which Jesus Christ acquired for them on the cross. (Colossians 1; 21 to 23 and Colossians 2; 10 to 15)
Here in Colossians 3, 5 the apostle Paul does not speak of the sins that they would have in the Colossians, he had written to them earlier: Chapter 3 verse 3
"For you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.”
 They are dead, their old man is dead, their glorious, sinless life is hid with Christ in God,
and it will be visible, if they stay in faith, when Jesus Christ appears in His glory.
It was formerly that they lived in these sins writes the apostle Paul to them
in Colossians, 3; verse 6 & 7.
When we are children of God, the devil will tempt us mainly in order that we give up the faith in what Jesus Christ has made us and for us, a holy nation, or a holy generation, a people acquired, but it is by remaining in faith in our position of holiness
that we will grow in holiness, our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, who is our model. Each day we will grow, learning obedience, as Jesus did. (Hebrews 5; verse 8)
And if we abide in the faith, someday we'll be like Him, in glory, as He is today. And it is with this hope in us, that we purify ourselves, each day, as He Himself is pure. (1 John 3, verses 2 &3). We do not cleanse ourselves from sin, for sin died with Christ on the Cross, as I have already said and can be read in ((Romans 6, 6) it is written in Revelation 22 verse 11. “ Let him who is holy be sanctified still". He who is not holy cannot be sanctified. He who is a sinner cannot be sanctified, he must first be sanctified by Jesus Christ, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We purify ourselves simply by living in his presence and contemplating him. Let’s read 2Corinthians 3 18,
“All of us who, with our faces uncovered, contemplate as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, as by the Lord the Spirit.” End of quote.
We still have to learn with our beloved Lord Jesus Christ

Conclusion:

To think, or teach that Jesus or the Holy Spirit would cleanse us from sin, little by little,
when we are already born again, fully sanctified,  It is the work of the devil, who does not really want us, first to know that we are entirely sanctified,
and secondly that we remain in faith in what Jesus Christ has made of us and for us on the cross.
The devil can imitate anything in Christendom, as I have said before, except The Cross, for he was defeated at The Cross, a new holy generation was born, the generation of the last Adam, a chosen race, a holy nation, a holy generation over which, the devil, no longer has any power, he only has the possibility of tempting us, and He will do everything possible so that we remain in the corrupt and perverse generation of sinners of the first Adam , over which he has power. But God will not allow the children and the holy generation of the last Adam, born of God, to be tempted beyond their strength (1Corinthians 10:13) and he will ensure that we remain in the faith that he made by his death and resurrection holy, blameless, and above reproach, as
seen in (Colossians 1:21-23) and in (1Thessalonians 5; 25, forgiveness, verse 23-24
Hebrews 10, verses 37 to 39:
"for yet, a little while: and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.”
There you go, I hope this video has been useful to you.
Don't forget, that the lamb, Jesus-Christ, will conquer the forces of evil, for he is
Lord of Lords and  King of kings, and those with him called, and chosen and faithful
will also overcome them. Revelation 17:14
So I encourage you to remain faithful to what Jesus Christ has made of us and for us on the cross.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,
Amen.