LETTER FOR NOVEMBER 1994
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Dear Friends,

Last month I wrote to you about the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in John chapter three where Jesus speaks about the absolute necessity of being born again spiritually into the spiritual realm of God - the kingdom of God and heaven.

This month I want to go on from there to think more deeply about this whole matter of New Birth - what it is and how essential it is.

We may have the feeling or idea that New Birth is like a condition we have to meet before we can belong to God's kingdom, rather like a subscription we pay to belong to a club, or like a uniform we put on, which after we have fulfilled this condition we can forget about it, because it does not relate too much to the club activities.

New Birth is not like this. New birth is the very essence of being a Christian. When Adam and Eve made that disastrous decision for themselves, and the whole of humanity right, at the beginning, to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we lost the life which God originally gave. Adam and Eve lost the life of God which is in tune with God and the life of his kingdom. They lost that purity and holiness which is the life of God. Actually, having chosen to listen to and follow Satan, they became corrupt and in tune with Satan. We inherit this condition by being human.

Being created by God, humanity still retains some knowledge of God and his ways, and that his way is good and the right way to live, but the bent and bias of our nature is corrupted so that we really dislike the purity of God, and turn away from it. This nature is revealed the moment we are born physically into this world. Babies are naturally naughty, they have to be taught to be good by real hard effort.

Indeed, in this corrupt fallen condition, not only are we unfit for God's kingdom, also we would be totally unhappy there. That is not to say happiness is in Satan's kingdom, because we know how much unhappiness there is even in this life, let alone in hell.

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 4 and verse 24, describes the wonderful nature of New Birth. He describes what actually happens to us by God's divine power and grace when we are born again. This statement comes in this section of his letter where he is urging us to be holy.

What happens when we are born again? We are created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. This means that the life of God, which is completely holy and without any sin or desire to sin, is created in us. This new life within us is where God the Holy Spirit dwells. He can dwell there because it is holy, otherwise he could not. This holy life is in tune with God and the heavenly life, and delights in that atmosphere. It is life that loves God and desires to please him.

When we die physically this life is eternal and we go to be with Jesus in heaven, and because of this life we can live in heaven and delight in the joy of heaven and the presence of God. We know at this time perfect joy and peace. This new life through being born again makes heaven our home, and draws us after God and all that is good. This new life is eternal and can never die. It is life that can never be lost.

What we need to remember is that during the remainder of this earthly life, although we have this new holy life created within us which desires God and his ways, we still retain, until physical death, this body and soul which is still corrupted by sin. This produces the conflict which St. Paul frequently speaks about. One example is in Romans 7:14-25. He says in verse 23 "For in my inner being I delight in God's law", and here he is speaking of the new life being born again has given him. Then he goes on in the next verse and says, "but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members." In these two verses he is summing up all that he has been talking about from verse 14.

When we are born again, we can never be the same as we were before. This holy new life gives us a desire to love God and please him. It gives us a desire to be good. But at the same time our old self, as Paul calls it in Ephesians 4:22, still has all the corrupt desires it had before, and cries out for attention and to be satisfied. Before we were born again we just satisfied this old self as far as we could, now the new life cries out within us against satisfying this old self. The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:20-24 that we must put off the old self and put on the new self. This action is often hard work, and goes on until this earthly life ends.

Thank God we have the Holy Spirit within us and he reveals to us the delights of fellowship with Jesus, and draws us after the new life. Thank God that we know progress towards the desires of the new life. Thank God that one day we shall be delivered totally from this conflict through Jesus Christ when he calls us from this earthly life to heaven. (Romans 7:24). But the fact is that during this life, Paul's words at the end of Romans 7:24 are true, "So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin".

We need to understand this reality about being a real Christian. It will not only help us to understand our experience, but also help us to deal with that experience. There is much more that can be said about the Christian experience because we have been born again, but that must be left for another time.

Your servant for Christ's sake,