THE BEAUTIFUL GIFT OF THE NEW BIRTH

This week, for many children and youth, marked the beginning of a new school year. At our house the morning starts with dropping a freshman off at the high school and a first grader at the elementary school. It may sound a cliché but it really does feel like just yesterday when they were both babies in my arms. With each season my children enter into a new birth as they grow from one stage to another. Likewise, as adults, we too can experience new births in our professions, relationships and even our spiritual walk. But how does a person experience a new birth spiritually? Or asked another way, How can a man be born when he is old?

At some point in our life we can all look back and find unpleasant seasons. Whether it be moral failures, personal disappointments, immature behaviors and attitudes these past events represent the rags of a former life and an old way of thinking and living. By contrasting a past life with a new birth I am referring to what the Apostle Paul called the “Old Man” and the “New Man.” For the follower of Jesus the old man still has the power to resurrect, very quickly, and with his life come his old virtues, his own religion and the incessant desire to satisfy self above anything else. But the “New Man”, one who is born of the Holy Spirit, manifests itself in conscious repentance and unconscious holiness.

Is your knowledge of Jesus born of internal spiritual perception, or is it only what you have learned by listening to others? Is there a moment, in your life, that connects you with Jesus as your personal redeemer? Just as every person has a natural history, that explains where they are from and the story of their life, so to every person must have a spiritual history and personal knowledge for their foundation. To be born again or to be living as the “New Man” means that you live the life of Jesus and people see Jesus living in you. “As many as received Him.” (John 1:12.)

Have you ever stopped to consider what Jesus meant when He said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3.) Do you look for signs of the Kingdom? Do you seek out opportunities to live your life with Kingdom hope, truth and principle? Do you possess a Throne Room perspective and perceive the Father’s promptings? The new birth gives, every believer, a new power of vision whereby he or she begins to discern God’s way of living. The Father’s rule is present all the time, but true to His nature; those who are born again have now received His nature and can see His rule.
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Here is an intriguing thought posed by Oslwald Chambers regarding the new man and being born of the Spirit. “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin,” (1 John 3:9.) Do I seek to stop sinning or have I stopped sinning? To be born of God means that I have the supernatural power of God to stop sinning. In the Bible it is never—Should a Christian sin? The Bible puts it emphatically—A Christian must not sin. The effective working of the new birth life in us is that we do not commit sin, not merely that we have the power not to sin, but that we have stopped sinning. 1 John 3:9 does not mean that we cannot sin; it means that if we obey the life of God in us, we need not sin.^” (Chambers)

“Ye must be born again.” (John 3:7)

Blessings – JOSHUA