September 2008 - English

New birth is a phrase dear to many Christians and rightly so. But as we read our bibles we find it is almost exclusively used by John in his writings. Peter refers to it once (1 Pet 1:23) and Paul alludes to it indirectly a few times eg (Tit 3:5). This doesn’t mean that the idea is unknown to the other writers, but rather that they use different terms to portray the same wonderful truth. For instance Peter refers to those who are partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4). But the fundamental idea is that, because of the cross, God is able to makes a dramatic change in our lives.

But just as in the natural life birth is just the start, so new birth is just the start of what God wants to do in our lives. We must grow and develop the life that God has planted in us, with the final objective that we should show forth all of the characters of His Son. What a wonderful aim!

Paul, when writing to the Corinthians, asks this question at the end of one of his letters: Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. (2 Cor 13:5a) We, too, must be sure that God has really worked a change in us that cannot be denied. It is not enough to know that we have followed some formula, or process, but rather that in our spirit’s we know that God accomplished something, or as Paul puts it again: The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom 8:16). Why is this important? Well just as in the natural life no-one would expect a child that was not born to grow, so in the spiritual life growth is only possible to those that are born again!