The Miracle of New Birth

My wife and I are expecting our third child in just a few weeks. What a miracle the creation of new life is! THe same is surely true of spiritual life. Jesus spoke about this a lot, although not always explicitly. The clearest and most well known occasion was in the dark of night with a curious Pharisee named Nicodemus.

Nicodemus came to Jesus and asked Him all sorts of questions. As so often happened Jesus then replies with a somewhat cryptic answer; “Nick, you really must be born again if you want to see and enter the Kingdom of God!” (John 3)

Nicodemus was unsurprisingly shocked at the thought of an old man like himself somehow trying to clamber back into his mother’s womb. The picture is pretty frightening so don’t even go there!

Fortunately Jesus set the man right and explained that He was talking about a spiritual experience that could best be described by comparing it to the crisis of being born. Jesus here was not just talking about a religious spruce up – this was a brand new beginning. The old had to go, and something completely new come into existence.

Elsewhere in the New Testament other grapple with trying to adequately describe something that in reality has to be experienced to really grasped. Paul says that it is like being delivered from one kingdom, a kingdom of darkness, into a beautiful Kingdom of the Son of God (Colossians 1:13).

This new identity Paul describes as a brand New Creation:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,”
(2 Corinthians 5:17–18 NKJV)

Peter, after describing how newborns need milk to grow, and similarly we need God’s Word to help us mature beyond babyhood, then describes this new reality and identity as a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people (he got that one right!) – a people who were once without God but are now his very children. Those who who had not obtained mercy but now bask in the joyful awareness of God’s love and forgiveness. (1 Peter 2:9-10)

And how is this experienced entered into? Through faith in Jesus Christ; who He is, what He said, and what He did!

“For with the heart one believes unto (or into) righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.””
(Romans 10:10–13 NKJV)

Faith always produces a definite change in those who profess it. Interestingly, when associated with the heart, the verb “to believe” becomes a verb of motion. That’s why Paul says… “Believe into righteousness” …When Jesus uses the verb “to believe” it is regularly followed by the preposition into, to express change or movement.

“you believe in [literally into] God, believe also in [literally into] Me.” (John 14:1)

Faith and belief in the Christian sense are not passive religious leanings, they are active, heartfelt realities that move the heart and affect profound change in our lives. I encourage you today – believe God with fresh expectation today as you walk with His Holy Spirit.