Born Again, Part 3

09 Aug

Born Again, Part 3

To be born again entails faith that Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection was the final and only sacrifice required for the remission of sins and the cleansing of all unrighteousness for those who believe. Setting aside the legalism of the “thou shalt nots” involved in how we should then live as born-again believers, we are called to take positive steps towards the obedience that God both calls us to and enables us to do by His in-dwelling Holy Spirit.

Romans 12 tells us:

“I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that you might prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:1-2).

I’ve heard more than one preacher say that the hard part about being a living sacrifice is that we keep crawling off the altar. It is our choice to remain there, choose righteousness, and do God’s bidding through the Holy Spirit within us.

What we spend our time and resources on is a good clue to how we’re doing on this aspect of our Christianity. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds in spending time in God’s Word, the Bible, thus feeding the spiritual rightness and ascendency of the holiness of God planted in us. We confirm and promote this growth in the faith by not only reading the Word, but also by meditating on it, talking to God in prayer about it, and by memorizing it. Out of this comes the spiritually-ready receptacle, the humbly submissive servant to God’s will and purposes. To place our time, energy, and money into worldly pursuits too often deafens us to and supersedes the direction of the Holy Spirit within us.

But the intentional positive attitudes and actions to which we are called continue in the contrasts of Romans 12. In the Church we are to not think more highly of ourselves than we ought, but we are to act within the body of Christ according to the gifts God has given us (vss. 3-8). We are to act without hypocrisy, shunning evil and clinging to what is good (vs. 9). We are to be kind to one another in brotherly love, setting others before ourselves (vs. 10). In our daily lives we are not to be lazy (“slothful”) but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord in our business (vs. 11).

The God-directed intentionality of our personal lives continues with:

“Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of saints, and given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you…and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lies in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. Therefore if your enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink for in so doing you shall heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God…Owe no man anything, but to love one another, for he that loves another has fulfilled the law…love your neighbor as yourself” (Rom. 12:12-13:1, 8, 9b).

In Romans 13:14 Paul sums up the outcome of our relationship with Jesus Christ in terms of “putting on Christ”: “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.”

Following the declaration of our status as God’s children in Galatians 3:26, verse 27 also uses this phrase: “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” According the King James Study Bible notes, baptism into Christ (speaking of spiritual baptism of which water baptism is a symbol) means “brought into an intimate relation with Christ”. By this they have “put on Christ” which is “an ancient idiom for assuming the standing or position of another person. To ‘put on Christ,’ therefore, means to assume (adopt) His standing before God…This verse may be paraphrased, ‘For all of you who have been brought into an intimate relationship with Christ have assumed His own standing before God, namely, His Sonship” (Thomas Nelson, Liberty University, 1988, page 1817).

God’s holiness lived out in our lives is the hallmark of our salvation and of the Holy Spirit’s presence within us. It is the entire fulfillment of what God created us for. There are no more lofty aspirations that a human can entertain than that!