Jesus said, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
But that frightens some people, for they know that they have not been “born again,” and they don’t know how to be “born again.”
Jesus never says “ye must” do this or that, if it is impossible, or even difficult.
Let’s read His context, and it will become clear, and it will be wonderful Good News for us:
(a) Verse 5: the being “born again” is not what we do, but what the Holy Spirit does in us “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” (vs. 8). To be “born again” is not a do-it-yourself enterprise.
(b) Any person born in this world has a parent who brought him/her to birth; no one can “born” himself (excuse my lack of vocabulary—we don’t have a word for it!).
(c) Here is a job for a Divine Obstetrician; the Holy Spirit does the new birth work;
(d) And we let Him do it
(e) And He will do it if we don’t frustrate Him. (People who love Bad News won’t like this.)
(f) That divine “wind” is forever blowing seeds of heavenly truth into our minds and hearts, through various means; maybe a hymn you heard, a sermon you heard, or a book or an article you read.
(g) We may not know where the seeds come from, or when, or how; but they find a lodgment in our hearts, or in our consciousness somehow.
(h) Then comes the struggle!
(i) The Holy Spirit will not force His presence, or those “seeds,” against our will;
(j) The “seeds” have life in themselves, and so they sprout.
(k) Now, if you and I do not practice an “abortion,” the new life comes to birth within us.
(l) You haven’t “saved” yourself; you have let the Lord Jesus save you through the ministry of the ever-present Holy Spirit.
(m) This “new birth” is not the fruit of a terrifying fear; it is the fruit of the “much more abounding grace” of Christ. Your heart is melted as you “behold the Lamb of God,” as John the Baptist said (John 1:29).
(n) You “behold” Him on His cross; you begin to appreciate what it cost Him to save us; your heart is “enlarged” to “comprehend” the grand dimensions of that love (agape), as David says: “Thou shalt enlarge my heart” (Psalm 119:32).
Let Him do it!
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
