Born Again?

Church family:
William Wilberforce, renowned British abolitionist, and his friend, then-Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, were invited to a sermon by the famous evangelical pastor Richard Cecil. During the sermon, Wilberforce, deeply moved by Pastor Cecil's exposition on the kingdom of God and the relationship between God and His children, found himself reveling in joy listening to the glorious truths Cecil preached. Surely bursting with newfound understanding, Wilberforce asked Pitt what he thought of the message, but Pitt could only turn to his friend and say, "I didn't understand a word of what that man was talking about. What was that?"

In Christendom, we have many doctrinally sound statements that we take for granted, one of these being the phrase, “born again.” There are those who have experienced spiritual rebirth, like Wilberforce, and those who haven't, like Pitt. When one is born again, spiritual truths that were once incomprehensible become alive with beauty and meaning. The message spoken remains the same, but the person who has new life gains new eyes and ears to embrace with inexpressible joy the Word of God and His spiritual realities.

What does “born again” mean? Has it become an overused Christian cliché that is meaningless to you? Being born again by God is the process of receiving the very seed of God and therefore being made a direct descendant of God Himself. John tells us in 1 John 3:9 that the "seed of God" is His own divine nature imparted to believers through spiritual rebirth. The seed that God gives us is imperishable, contrasted with perishable human seed that will pass away (1 Peter 1:23). It represents God's very nature or "DNA" that resides in believers. Amazingly, in the Greek, the word used for "seed" in 1 John 3:9 is "sperma," and it declares to us that in Christ Jesus we have a direct spiritual lineage to God our Father by the power of His Holy Spirit. When we are born again, the seed of God then produces His character in us, enabling us to resist habitual, unrepentant sin. The presence of this divine seed of God doesn't mean you will never sin, but rather that you cannot continue in unrepentant, habitual sin as a lifestyle (1 John 1:8-9).

When you are born again by God’s divine work, you become a new person. The seed of God will make a difference in your life. It will alter your behavior. It will change your conduct. It will change your priorities. It will change your vocabulary. The transformations of your perspective and understanding of the Bible are a transformation of nature, which leads to a transformation in conduct and character. The old is gone and the new has come. Have you, like Wilberforce, experienced this spiritual rebirth through the seed of God, so that you experience—and others see—the same nature as your Heavenly Father?

See you Sunday, born of God: Steve