Have you been born again?

(John 3-7) "Ye must be born again."

“Regeneration is a subject which lies at the very basis of salvation, and we should be very diligent to take heed that we really are "born again," for there are many who fancy they are, who are not. Be assured that the name of a Christian is not the nature of a Christian; and that being born in a Christian land, and being recognized as professing the Christian religion is of no avail whatever, unless there be something more added to it-the being "born again," is a matter so mysterious, that human words cannot describe it. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Nevertheless, it is a change which is known and felt: known by works of holiness, and felt by a gracious experience. This great work is supernatural. It is not an operation which a man performs for himself: a new principle is infused, which works in the heart, renews the soul, and affects the entire man. It is not a change of my name, but a renewal of my nature, so that I am not the man I used to be, but a new man in Christ Jesus. To wash and dress a corpse is a far different thing from making it alive: man can do the one, God alone can do the other. If you have then, been "born again," your acknowledgment will be, "O Lord Jesus, the everlasting Father, thou art my spiritual Parent; unless thy Spirit had breathed into me the breath of a new, holy, and spiritual life, I had been to this day 'dead in trespasses and sins.' My heavenly life is wholly derived from thee, to thee I ascribe it. 'My life is hid with Christ in God.' It is no longer I who live, but Christ who liveth in me." May the Lord enable us to be well assured on this vital point, for to be unregenerate is to be unsaved, unpardoned, without God, and without hope.” (Charles Spurgeon)

How does the gospel gain momentum? Well, obviously due to the fact that God decides to drive it as He is the One in control, He decided to save; and yet He has chosen to use individuals as instruments for that exact purpose. Gods could appear and declare that HE is unequivocally the One who created the Universe, without any questions being asked but has chosen through the "foolishness of preaching" to save the sinner; to give sight to those who realise their need for HIM. It is not the self-righteous who find favour with God but the repenting sinner will be justified by the blood of the Lamb. The thrust of the Gospel message is this that Christ bled and died so that sinners might find repentance and call upon Him, relying on His finished work to fuel their existence. This is the ultimate strategy we all need to partake in and for those who have been called we have our part to play and this is what I would like to consider today.

How should we contribute with such responsibility place upon us, what are the rules, how can we get the best mileage out of our life here on earth and finally how is this achieved? We will all have to come to our own conclusions on these points, but they are questions that need to be asked.      

The call of God on a person’s life is often underplayed and once God flips the swift in our mind to understand that He is alive and the creator of the universe, that we are His subjects and that we must take care not to squander this very high calling as there can be no higher calling; the creator of the universe singling out an individual and introducing Himself to them. When this is realised it tosses a person on their head and the unsaved onlookers cry, “Jesus freak” or something derogatory; praise God for these types of transformations it is exactly Spurgeons point. Look at John Newton a slave trader that live in the 1700’s, he sold Africans off into slavery, snuffing out a person’s freedom, why? Because they had the power to do it. Could there be any crime worse than that? Well at the very least it is certainly up there with the worst of them. But it is with these types of radical transformations that God’s voice reverberates the loudest; he was unmistakably “born again”, God singled him out, and Newton became a new man in Christ. Picture him before and after; a man filled with very little compassion to a man that penned the words to one of the greatest recorded hymns of our times “Amazing Grace”, WOW! God is truly wonderful! But even within this hymn it is clear to see the difference between Spurgeons point and that is how many sing it because they are of Christian decent, traditionally that is. Especially at funerals, when it is obvious at times that a “dead man has been dressed”.  

I suppose this is why there is so little within this world of ours that motivates me, so much of it opposes the will of God. It’s rather scary how easily parents point their children in a direction that when stripped to its core is a road that promises hope when in fact it is no more than another decoy which keeps them from God. How many of you have concluded with Solomon that all is but vanity and that the sole purpose of mankind is to fear God and to keep His commandments? How many has made this their priority to instil as a truth into their children’s awareness?

There is much more to be said on this topic, but I have gone on long enough, to those who have been born of the Spirit be sure to stand out from the crowd, we have a hope that the dead dressed man could never truly understand.

Thank you Father God for saving so many of us, for your abundant mercy, grace, love and please continue to transform our minds to work out what it is we should be doing to bring you glory. For this can be extremely confusing at times. We all will have to give an account to God with what we have done with the measure of faith He has given us.

Signing off

Tyrone