I was talking to a friend last night who is teaching up at Hope Farm on the outskirts of Duncan. She is leading a group of recovering addicts through John's Gospel. This week they're looking at chapter three, the rooftop meeting with Jesus, and Nicodemus in the dark of night.
Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it."
Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom."
Unless, a person is born again...it's not possible to see, or enter into God's Kingdom. Sadly, I think we've made this born from above, or born again into an event thing. The altar call, the revival meeting, the roman road...a choreographed dance; saying the right words, a confession, the laying of hands, a dispensing of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly your a new person, born again.
Yes, there are instantaneous realities of being born again, such as being justified, of being declared righteous before God because of Jesus sacrifice. So called, justification by faith. The reality, " born from above ", is a process. And of course the Holy Spirit being breathed into your life.
It's not as simple as trading up, taking your old beater self and trading for a newer model. Having the deal finalized when you can mumble like an auctioneer at an auto mart, and then drive away into a new life. For me, so far it has been a forty year process.
Born again is not a guaranteed loading pass on Revelation Express to heaven when the last call is announced. Being born again is about the Kingdom of God, the now, and the future of the Kingdom. Being born again is developing eyes to see what Jesus is pointing to, today.
For me it has been a series of epiphanies. Almost like looking through a frosty window on a winters day. Rubbing the window pane I see glimpses of things that weren't readily visible before. I begin to " get it." I get revelations of God's Kingdom. I develop a redemptive imagination, to see the Kingdom in places of hopelessness. I get the idea that the more we can build the Kingdom on earth as in heaven, that it becomes a profound revelation of the redemptive imagination of Jesus...pointing to the absolute glory of the future Kingdom.
Born again is not just a personal individualized spirituality trip. It's about a profound sense of wholeness in everything and everyone.
We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.( Colossians 1; Eugene Peterson's The Message )
Being born again is part of the wholeness, of being partners with Jesus, co-creators in the new creation. Being born again is developing the eyes to see the Kingdom in all of that, its fixing all the broken dislocated pieces of the universe. That's me and everything around me. Jesus came to heal relationships, and in God's Kingdom I'm related to everything, and everyone.
Jesus said, "You're absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it's not possible to see what I'm pointing to—to God's kingdom."
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