I’ve heard the term “born again” since I was old enough to remember. It’s become such a common phrase that even unbelievers would recognize that it is a phrase referring to a new Christian. I had been so desensitized to the simple but profound meaning waiting behind this phrase by how often I heard it and how synonymous it is with a conversion experience to Christianity.
The simple truth is: we are like newborn babies to God.
There are so many comparisons to be made and realized between the role of a newborn child and us, and the role of a father and God. It is not a mistake that Jesus referred to God as the Father many times. God truly is the perfect father figure, and we truly are the fussy newborn. I recently just had my first child, and wow, what a ride it has been. The amount of effort that is required to raise a newborn is astonishing. There is no give and take in our relationship; it is all give. And I’m happy to give everything I got for that boy. Every single minute detail in his life is depending on me, and he has no idea how to even ask properly for what he needs.
I can’t help but wonder, now that I’ve experienced this, how many times has God changed our diapers, and in the process of wiping us clean and placing a new diaper on us, did we immediately have another “blowout”? Feeding our baby needs to happen every two to three hours, and our baby will cry and be super upset until he gets his milk. The Bible draws this parallel for us actually:
“Like newborn babies [you should] long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may be nurtured and grow in respect to salvation [its ultimate fulfillment]” -1 Peter 2:2 AMP
How many times have we cried and cried until God had to tell us the truth in the Bible, and we could have skipped the whole fussy process and just enjoyed the milk by going to the Word. The Bible is chalked full of this relationship we share as sons and daughters of God the Father. Every time the Bible calls God “Father,” there is a comparison being made. Every time you see us being referred to as “children,” there is a comparison being made. I’ve lived for over thirty years, and this little one is only a little over a week old. How much longer has the Father lived than us? How much of a difference there has been.
There are many more comparisons I could make and many more Scriptures I could draw upon to bring light to this truth, but to list them all would distract from the one central truth that I believe the Lord wants to get to you today:
The Love of a Father.
Instantly, when my child was born, I felt a love that was different than any other kind of love that I had experienced thus far. All love that I had experienced up until this point was a gradual love. It was a love that was built on trust and consistent action, proving a reciprocal relationship. When my now wife and I were dating, we didn’t start out in love with each other; we built on our relationship until we loved each other. Even as a son with my parents, I loved them, but only because they loved me first. Sound familiar?:
“We love Him because He first loved us.” -1 John 4:19 NKJV
The love I felt for my son was instant and overwhelming. It was as if God took the slightest sliver of His love and placed it in me for my son. I couldn’t see straight as my heart was overflowing with love for my son. There is nothing he could give me; I would give him everything. There is nothing my son could do for me; I’d do everything for him. There is no title, position, or possession he could obtain to increase my love for him; I love him regardless of it all. I understood: This is how God feels towards us. There is only one thing that I want from my son, and that is to be near him. If he’s in pain, I want him to tell me so I can fix it for him. If he’s crying, I want to soothe him. If he’s dirty, because he made himself dirty, when it's nobody’s fault but his own, I want to wash away all the filth and make him clean. I love my boy, and so does God.
When you are born again, you become a newborn, a new spiritual creation; you become brother to Christ and son to God. Your old self is no more:
Therefore if any person is ingrafted in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old previous moral and spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! -2 Corinthians 5:17 AMPC
Blessings,
Jake
P.S. Here is the story in the Bible where we get the phrase “born again.”
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” -John 3:1-8 NKJV
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