The New Birth Is for Now

The coffee seems bitter and the toast cold when the morning newspaper is finished. Another riot in Egypt. Africa torn apart by rival factions. The Middle East seemed quiet until another border incident set off new hostilities. Three coeds murdered on the campus of a prominent state university.

What can the average person do? He feels inadequate, powerless. All of the committees, the resolutions, the changes in governments don’t seem to change society.

We see that if mankind is to be saved, something radical needs to be done quickly. The forces building up in our world are so overwhelming that men and women everywhere are beginning to cry out in desperation. They feel like the man John Bunyan describes in the beginning of Pilgrim’s Progress: “. . . He was greatly distressed in his mind, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, ‘What shall I do to be saved?’”

So much in our world seems to improve, but man doesn’t. We can send a spaceship to the moon and take closeup pictures of Mars, but we can’t walk safely on the streets at night. The subtle sins of selfishness and indifference are everywhere. Seemingly upright men and women admit to desires of the grossest sort. (And who is shocked anymore?) Human viciousness breaks out as people steal, cheat, lie, murder, and rape.

Someone in the movie industry said that all we would have to do is contrast the titles of some of the old movie classics with current movie offerings to see the change in morality during the past generation. It’s a long way from Indian Love Call to Deep Throat.

Man has made many attempts to change himself. We have tried without success to achieve moral goals by improvement in our environment and many are disillusioned with the results.

How can we change human nature?

From the Outside In

Studies in anthropology, psychology, and sociology to discover the laws of human behavior are an important part of educational research. Too often, however, the researchers themselves ignore the fact of human sin and see a human being as proceeding from a combination of genes and chromosomes, and then shaped by his environment. At a meeting of the American Anthropological Association a new discipline was introduced to the academic community by a Harvard zoologist. He calls it “sociobiology,” and it is described as “the study of the biological basis for social behavior in every species; its practitioners believe that some—and perhaps much—of human behavior is genetically determined.”¹

The sociobiologists imply that “a good deal more of mankind’s morality may be genetically based.”² They fail to give a proper place to the inborn twist toward selfishness, viciousness, and indifference to God, so many of their conclusions are only pseudoscientific.

If we are shaped by our genes, and molded by our environment, then all we need to do is develop a way to alter genetic bases in humans or cure man’s environment in terms of bad housing, slums, poverty, unemployment, and racial discrimination.

A best-selling author said this: “Many ministers today ‘keep their cool’ about questions of the sin and repentance of individuals and have turned their attack on the sin of society, in an attempt to make society squirm. This ‘attack’ varies from a mild sociology lecture to an angry assault against social injustice. However, slums and ghettos and put-downs are not going to disappear in society unless slums and games disappear from the hearts of people.”³

But as Christians we need to do something about social injustice, slums, and ghettos. We cannot sit back with the attitude that the problems are too overwhelming or insolvable. We need to get involved in helping to make this world a better place to live for the unfortunate whose standard of living is so low as to defy imagination, and for those who live under terrible political oppression. Ultimately, however, society is not going to be changed with coercion and force because when it is changed that way, man usually loses his freedom. It can be changed by a complete transformation of the human heart.

Man also attempts to change himself by chemistry. Scientists have developed methods to control behavior by drugs, which in some cases have been helpful. A great deal of research is being done that may benefit the mentally ill. The danger is that these same drugs in the hands of a world dictator could control an entire population of normal people. Stories from prisoners in oppressed countries verify how present-day mind manipulators misuse drugs to influence human actions.

One of them wrote: “I personally witnessed the treatment undergone by political prisoners in psychiatric hospitals when they tried to protest by refusing the food and the ‘treatments’ inflicted upon them. They were tied up, injected with paralyzing sulphur and force fed . . . [They] have invented a powerful means to get rid of those who do not think as they do. Not only do they not hesitate to confine them in hospital-prisons, but they also compound their crime by injecting prisoners with chemical substances in order to destroy their personality and intellect.”⁴

Changes in our body chemistry may benefit us or damage us permanently. The determining question is, “Who administers the drugs and for what purpose?”

Experiments are being made to try to give one person the intellectual capacities of another by what the mind-manipulators call “artificial reincarnation.” In a study that came out of Russia, it was reported that one of the country’s top physicists had experimented with “tuning one mind to another telepathically.” The scientist explained, “When this happens, the teacher can teach a student beyond the normal capacity of his mind by broadcasting over the defense mechanism into the normally empty 90 percent of the brain.” He continues to explain that he “reincarnated a European mathematical genius in a college math student.”

Another human attempt to solve man’s problems concerns microbiology. The increasing success with organ transplants may in time lead to a vast movement to change people by replacing certain organs connected with thinking, conscience, and emotions. However, the gospel of microbiology, administered by scientists who themselves are sinners, and who have access only to the substance of a fallen world, must likewise fail.

Many writers of science fiction consider their interplanetary speculations as the only source for solving man’s problems. But the fundamental difficulty is that sin is too deeply ingrained in human nature to be rooted out by such influences. When God is ignored, the problem-solvers themselves participate in the problems. The superpowers are now frantically preparing for a “space” war. As a newspaper editorial says, “Whoever wins this race could control the world.”

Many people today are trying to find a solution to man’s problems by turning to the occult world. They seek knowledge and power from sources the Bible says we should wholeheartedly resist. The apostle Paul says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). The occult world is a source only of terror and destruction.

The methods men use to change themselves from the outside in are truly varied, and sometimes amazing.

From the Inside Out

Jesus said that God can change men and women from the inside out. It was a challenge—a command. He didn’t say, “It might be nice if you were born again,” or, “If it looks good to you, you might be born again.” Jesus said, “You must be born again” (John 3:7).

It has always astounded me that He made this statement to a devout religious leader, Nicodemus, who must have been shocked by it. After all, Nicodemus was a good, moral, religious man. His neighbors probably said of him, “He’s a wonderful man. You could trust him with your life. He’s a great theologian.” Nicodemus fasted two days a week; he spent two hours a day in prayer at the temple and tithed all his income. He was a professor of theology at the local seminary. If a pastor-seeking committee were looking for the best man they could get for their local church, they would seek a man like Nicodemus. But Jesus said all his piety and goodness weren’t enough. He said, “You must be born again.”

In spite of all of his education and professional standing, Nicodemus saw something very special in Jesus Christ—something he couldn’t understand. He saw in Jesus a new quality of living. He was honestly seeking to find out what this dimension of life was.

When Jesus told him that unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God, he was explaining to Nicodemus that he didn’t have to improve his moral standards or increase his educational credits, he needed to receive a new quality of life—eternal life—that begins in this world and carries into the next world.

On returning home from a trip one day I found my desk, as usual, piled high with letters to be answered. In this particular pile there happened to be two from two separate mental hospitals in different states. A glance at the handwriting and a reading of the letters made it clear that the writers needed to be in a mental institution. Yet each spoke of the Lord Jesus and the comfort He was.

I could not help thinking how kind and understanding and compassionate God has been in choosing to reveal Himself to man through simple childlike faith rather than the intellect. There would otherwise be no change for little children or the mentally retarded or the brain damaged. And yet the brilliant scientist, the true intellectual, the genius, must all come the same way. As Jesus said in Matthew 18:3, “Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

John Hunter, an English Bible scholar, tells the story about a young man who came up to him after he had been preaching on John 3. “He, like Nicodemus, was obviously well educated, and he said: ‘What you have been saying has really challenged me; in fact, if I could fully understand what you have told us, I would become a real Christian.’ He was quite sincere in what he said, so I questioned him and talked further with him. He was a graduate of a university, trained to think and evaluate facts.

“I asked, ‘If you could really understand the full meaning of the gospel, you would become a Christian?’

“‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘I would.’

“‘Well, consider this,’ I went on, ‘I have a friend who is a missionary on the Congo. He works among the Pygmies, people with little capacity for understanding. If, in order to become a Christian, we had to understand the gospel message, how could these simple people ever be blessed?’

“His reply was quite honest: ‘You know, I never thought of that!’

“‘No,’ I replied, ‘but God did. The gospel message doesn’t have to be understood by the seeking soul, only to be received in simple faith. It isn’t fully understanding the gospel that gives me the blessing, but simply believing and receiving it.’

“Nicodemus began by ‘knowing,’ but he continued by believing and receiving.”⁶

There are many people sitting in churches today who have never heard this message of the new birth. Some churches preach good works, social change, and government legislation, and neglect the one thing that will help solve the problems of our world—changed men and women. Man’s basic problem is first spiritual, then social. He needs a complete change from the inside out.

Some time ago I attended a historic conference in Africa. Every country except one from the whole continent of Africa was represented by delegates. Never before had there been such a Christian gathering. Time after time I heard African leaders express appreciation for what Christian missions had done, especially in the fields of evangelism, medical aid, and education. One of the speakers said, “Eighty five percent of all education south of the Sahara has been done by Christian missions.”

An Anglican bishop from England told us, “Every social agency in England from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, on up, was founded as a result of a conversion to Christ and a spiritual awakening.” We must be careful not to put the cart before the horse.

The Bible refers many times to this change Jesus talked about. Through the prophet Ezekiel, God said, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you” (Ezek. 36:26). In the book of Acts, Peter called it repenting and being converted. Paul speaks of it in Romans as being “alive from the dead” (Rom. 6:13). In Colossians Paul calls it “(a putting off of) the old self with its evil practices, and (a putting on of) the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him” (Col. 3:9-10). In Titus he calls it “the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Tit. 3:5). Peter said it was being “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4). In the Church of England catechism it is called “a death unto sin and a new birth unto righteousness.”

The context of John 3 teaches that the new birth is something that God does for man when man is willing to yield to God. We have seen that the Bible teaches that man is dead in trespasses and sins, and his great need is life. We do not have within ourselves the seed of the new life; this must come from God Himself.

One of the great Christian writers of this century, Oswald Chambers, said, “Our part as workers for God is to open men’s eyes that they may turn themselves from darkness to light; but that is not salvation, that is conversion—the effort of a roused human being. I do not think it is too sweeping to say that the majority of nominal Christians are of this order; their eyes are opened, but they have received nothing. . . . When a man is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision.”⁷

Conversion means “turning.” The Bible is full of this concept and God pleads with man to turn to Him. He spoke through the prophet Ezekiel, “Repent. . . and turn your faces away from all your abominations” (Ezek. 14:6, emphasis mine). Another prophet, Isaiah, spoke, “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isa. 45:22, emphasis mine).

The new birth is not just being reformed, it’s being transformed. People are always making resolutions to do better, to change, and breaking those resolutions soon afterward. But the Bible teaches us that through the new birth we can enter a new world.

The contrasts used in the Bible to express the change which comes over us when we are born again are very graphic; from lust to holiness; from darkness to light; from death to resurrection; from stranger to the kingdom of God to now being its citizen. The Bible teaches that the person who is born again has a changed will, changed affections, changed objectives for living, changed disposition, new purpose. He receives a new nature and a new heart. He becomes a new creation.

Before and After

The Bible is full of people from all walks of life who have been changed by an encounter with Jesus Christ. Christ met a woman in Samaria who was a prostitute and an outcast in her own town. To avoid meeting other women she went to a well during the heat of the day when she knew she wouldn’t encounter other villagers. But there she met Christ. She was changed immediately into a new person. In fact, she became an instant missionary and rushed to her own city, where she was despised and scorned, to tell others about Jesus Christ. And we are told, “Many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, ‘He told me all the things that I have done’” (John 4:39).

Andrew was an ordinary fellow. He didn’t seem to be the big personality man, but he was very quick to respond to Christ; in fact, he was on fire from the moment he met Jesus. The first thing he did was to go and find his brother to tell him the wonderful news about the Messiah. He may not have been a flaming evangelist, but wherever he appears in the biblical account, he is fruitful.

In these days of high taxes, the yearly or quarterly tax reports are not exactly greeted with enthusiasm. It wasn’t any different in Jesus’ time. Zacchaeus, a tax collector, and not a very honest one at that, was skillful in defrauding people, but when he met Jesus all that changed. He repented and wanted to make amends for his deceitful acts. “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much” (Luke 19:8).

A young intellectual named Saul was on a journey along the road to Damascus, persecuting Christians, when he met Jesus Christ. To this day we speak about “Damascus Road experiences,” because Saul was never the same again. He became the great apostle Paul. Many times he referred to that encounter, even recalling the very day and moment when he met Christ.

On the day of Pentecost, a dramatic change occurred in three thousand people who were born again. In the morning they were lost, uncertain about the purpose of life, many of them guilty over the death of Christ. Others were afraid of either the secular or religious authorities. But at the end of the day they had been born into the kingdom of God. Each one had passed out of death into life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24).

Any person who is willing to trust Jesus Christ as his personal Savior and Lord can receive the new birth now. It’s not something to be received at death or after death; it is for now. “Now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Cor. 6:2, KJV).

The New Birth Is for Now

The “before-and-after” advertisements for diet remedies or facelifts cannot match the impact of the testimonies of those who have been born again. From corporate president to prison inmate, stories unfold of lives turned right side up.

A young woman wrote us: “Until last January I was a stranger to Jesus. I was a rebel, thief, a drunkard, a hard drug taker, an adulteress, a hippie, and a self-centered, confused young woman. Thinking I was going to stump everyone with my cynical questions, I went to a Bible study about a year ago out of curiosity.

That night I became sincerely interested in the Bible. Finally, after searching and studying the Scriptures for months, John 3:16 spoke to my heart and I gave my life to Christ. I never knew that this kind of happiness could exist. God shows you how to love and what it feels like to be loved. He was what I had been looking for since my early teens. He was ‘the bag’ I hadn’t found. It seemed to me that drugs, liquor, free love, and bumming around the country would make me free, but they were all traps. Sin was the trap that led me to confusion, unhappiness, guilt, and near-suicide. Christ has made me free. Being a Christian is exciting because there is always a new challenge, so much to learn. Now I wake up glad to see the day.

“He has made me new.”

Johnny Cash says, “A few years ago I was hooked on drugs. I dreaded to wake up in the morning. There was no joy, peace, or happiness in my life. Then one day in my helplessness I turned my life completely over to God. Now I can’t wait to get up in the morning to study my Bible. Sometimes the words out of the Scriptures leap into my heart. This does not mean that all my problems have been solved, or that I have reached any state of perfection. However, my life has been turned around. I have been born again!”