Thoughts

Where is the "New Birth"?

One of the reasons why people doubt Christianity is because those who claim to be infected don't seem to have the disease. The idea is that when people be "regenerated" the very life of Jesus is to be in them and they are to become like Jesus in their thoughts, attitudes, and actions. Spending time with people who claim to have been "born again" makes one wonder if this is working. They seem to have the same struggles and issues the rest of us have but many times seem to use their baptism into Jesus as a source of denial. Some seem to be "wolves in sheep's clothing" and are clearly abusing people in the name of religion. What seems to be a reality however is no "new humanity" has been born in the Church since the temptations ranging from self centered self righteousness to lawlessness can be observed. Few seem to have a stable "Spirit filled" life or demonstrate a new reality based on their spiritual regeneration. This is what seems to really be behind the complaint that Christianity is rejected because of the hypocricy of those who claim to be followers of Christ. The reality is that most everyone wishes the "new birth" did "work" and create "little Christs" out of each person who experienced it. But reality shows us that this rarely happens.

Now the answers to this are two fold. One is that just because someone claims to be "born again" that does not mean they are. In fact Jesus said we would know those who truly had experienced this new birth by the fruits it had in their lives. No fruit then no birth. A transformation of life is the sign of the spiritual birth in the same way as the cry of a new born baby is the sign of physical birth. We would just have to conclude that many more claim to have this new birth than actually possess it.

Secondly, we can also see that birth is just the beginning in a growth cycle of life. Physically we have few expectation of new born children. But we know that for the potential of a child to be developed they must be nurtured, trained, educated, and disciplined. Maturity only comes through a process and does not evolve naturally from simply being born. Without proper nurturing, training, education, and discipline then every child would grow up to just be a savage and demonstrate very little of the more noble aspects of human nature. The same would be true of Christians who are not nurtured, trained, educated, and disciplined. They would never live up to the potential of their new birth as well.

Now this provides for Christianity a reasonable defense against this attack upon its truthfulness. But we should be concerned at a practical level that the Church has fallen into such a state that such a defense has to be given. We were suppose to be the salt and light of the earth which encouraged people to give praise to our heavenly Father because of our good deeds. Yet, now people blaspheme Him because of us. We must care about this public and real lack of reality in the church. Lord have mercy upon us and help us be truly born again.