THE NEW BIRTH

THURSDAY 10 FEBRUARY 2022

In the concept of personal salvation, faith in Christ is an absolute prerequisite for new birth to take place. This is because Christ is the Word which lives and abides forever. So our Christian life is never meant to be limited because we are dead to sin and our new birth has in its element, an imperishable seed which every Christian life is to be conformed.

Reference: 1 Peter 1:23 New International Version (NIV) "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God."

"Being born again" is not of perishable seed because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. Here Peter is making reference to the characteristic of the seed. The seed is not perishable and common because it lasts forever. Now this is most certainly foreign to the thought of the natural man because the mode of his existence is the human life which will eventually come to an end.

Firstly, how does one get born again? By receiving Christ, the living Word and by believing in His name. John 1:12-13 reads, "Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." To be born of God means that we are recreated in Christ Jesus by the seed of the Word such that we become new in Him. Having been made free from sin, we become servants to God, and by this same seed, we produce fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life (Romans 6:22 NIV).

James 1:18 says that God chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of His creation. Beloved, this is a great honour. God honoured us by giving birth to us through the Word which is eternal in nature, and as a result, we are made the firstfruits of His redemption. In other words, we are the product of redemption by Christ, which is a mystery hidden since the world began until Christ's emergence, and now we function as the instrument of righteousness because of our new birth.

1 John 3:9 reads, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (ESV). What seed? The Word of God is the seed and the fruit it produces through us is the fruit of righteousness. Therefore, John the evangelist reminds us that this seed abides in us; hence we should submit to the reign of righteousness instead of yielding to sinful desires because we now have absolute dominion over sin.

If you are born of God, you have the new life and divine nature in you, and it means that you are in indivisible union with God. As you remain in submission to God, the resultant effect is purity as Christ is pure, righteousness as Christ is righteous, as well as bearing the right fruit because the imperishable seed always abides in you. Our new birth is a testimony that empowers us to live a life free of sin and controlled by righteousness, thereby walking in the light forever, as Christ is. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - John 15:4-5; 1 Corinthians 15:53; Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 John 2:6.

Exuberant Declaration: I am born again not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever. I'm very conscious of my inseparable union with Christ as a consequence of my new birth. Therefore, great and swift is the power of my devout acknowledgement of God's goodness and trust in His enduring Word. Hallelujah!