Twice Born: Ultimately a Mystery
By Pastor Bill
In 1976 the former hatchet man in the Nixon Whitehouse, Charles Colson, wrote a best selling book entitled ‘Born Again,’ where he chronicled his own experience of conversion to Christianity. By his own confession, prior to being born again, Colson was living in darkness; afterwards, the light of day dawned. Prior to his new birth, Colson had boasted that he would run over his own grandmother to reelect President Nixon, but after his new birth experience he claimed, and still claims to this day, that Jesus Christ is the President of his life.
Last Sunday, from John 3, I preached on the “new birth,” or more technically the doctrine of regeneration, and the interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus, the “Regis Professor of Divinity” in all of Israel.
Some of the lessons from John 3:1-10 we either underlined or implied were the following: 1) Every true Christian is born again and all who are born again are true Christians; there’s no such thing as a Christian who is not born again; 2) Super religious, biblically astute and upstanding moral people are not necessarily born again; the new birth is to be distinguished from religiosity (even “Christian” religiosity), erudition and moral uprightness; 3) If humans are to be saved they must be born again from above because they are spiritually blind, deaf and dead in their sins before God; 4) The causative agent who gets the most biblical press for the new birth is the Holy Spirit; 5) The new birth is the outcome of God’s sovereign, unilateral, and creative action, unaided by human contribution; 6) The new birth is not a mere revamping, recycling, rehabilitating or reforming of the human heart; instead, the new birth is a radical re-creation of the heart, an implantation of spiritual life that transforms through divine washing and renewal leading to new inclinations, desires and behaviours; 7) While we can see the tangible outcome of the new birth, because it occurs secretly and imperceptibly within us, it remains mysterious or incomprehensible in ultimate terms.
Following the service Sunday morning I was asked a very perceptive question about the mystery of the new birth: why is it so hard for people to understand it? True enough, when Jesus first met him Nicodemus was baffled by it, and today, politicians, talk-show hosts and the media misunderstand what it means to be born again.
Two reasons come to mind. One reason the new birth is so difficult to understand is because it seems like such a contradiction to the natural way of thinking. It’s quite natural for us to visualize ourselves as solving our own problems, reforming our own nature, and becoming good enough. But the sinful heart drafts a declaration of independence from God; self-sufficiency reigns. The notion that God must radically transform a person is foreign to the natural pattern of self-understanding. Secondly, the new birth is difficult to grasp because it is not consciously experienced. Arguably, one does not physically feel something happen the moment he or she is born again by God. It takes place in what modern psychologists call the sub-conscious mind. Thus it cannot be specifically pinpointed in past experience. The moment a person is converted, when faith and repentance are experienced, there may be feelings of great emotion in conjunction with an incisive decision, making for a graphically unforgettable experience. But if you trust Christ and turn from sin you have but responded to the preceding, invisible, undeserving and irresistible grace of God at work deep within you.
I sought the Lord, and afterward I knew
he moved my soul to seek him, seeking me;
it was not I that found, O Savior true;
no, I was found, was found of thee.
It was not I that found, O Savior true;
No, I was found, was found, of thee.
Anonymous, circa 1880