Finally Alive:
Chapter 2: You are still you, but new
‘we are not dealing with something marginal or
optional or cosmetic in the Christian life.’
‘The new birth is not like the make-up that morticians
use to try to make corpses look more like they are alive. The new birth is the
creation of spiritual life, not the imitation of life.’
The new life is ‘something above the natural life of
our physical hearts and brains.’
‘flesh gives rise to one kind of life. The Spirit
gives rise to another kind of life. If we don’t have this second kind, we will
not see the kingdom
of God
“The Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ
effectually unites us to himself.” John Calvin
‘What happens in the new birth is the creation of a
new human nature – a nature that is really you,
forgiven and cleansed; and a nature that is really new, being formed in you by the indwelling Spirit of God.’
‘born of water’ is not a reference to baptism:
here’s why:
-
if baptism was the means by which and through which
people were born again you’d expect the theme of baptism to play a more
predominant part of Jesus’ teaching. Especially in this chapter where Jesus is
explaining being ‘born again’ to Nicodemus. It seems that believe is emphasised
more than baptism.
-
Jesus said in reference to being born again that the
wind blows wherever it pleases. His point was that you cannot predict or
control where the Spirit moves and who he selects for the new birth. If water
baptism was a prerequisite for being born again how would this statement about
the Spirit remain true since we could control it through baptism.
-
Nicodemus is rebuked for not knowing what the
statement of Jesus’ meant. Jesus expected Nic as the teacher of Israel
‘Water’ refers to
Ezekial 36
‘I shall sprinkle you
with water and you shall be clean from all your uncleanesses, and from all your
idols I will cleanse you.’
‘the ones who will
enter the kingdom are those who have a newness that involves a cleansing of the old and a creation of the new.’
I am still the same
morally accountable human being that I was before the new birth occurred. The
old Jez has been washed clean by water. My guilt has been washed away, my shame
has been washed away. I am the same person but my sin has been washed off of
me.
However, a clean
version of the old me isn’t enough, my sin is deeply rooted and is a result of
my heart of stone. My old heart could respond with passion and desire to lots
of things but it was a stone toward the spiritual truth and beauty of Jesus
Christ and the glory of God.
Chapter 3: We are spiritually dead
John Calvin: Nearly
all wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two
parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.
‘no one knows the
extent of his sinfulness. It is deeper than anyone can fathom.’
God loved us even
when we were dead. Even when we were a corpse.
‘if we don’t know
that we were dead, we will not know the fullness of the love of God.’
What does this
deadness mean? The NT gives us ten statements:
1)
Apart from the new birth we are dead in our
trespasses:
-
not physically or morally: but spiritually
-
we are dead in the sense we cannot see or savour the
glory of Christ.
2)
Apart from the new birth we are by nature objects of
wrath:
-
our problem is not just in what we do but in what we
are. I am my problem.
-
‘Apart from my new birth, I am my main problem. You are
not my main problem. My parents are not my main problem. My enemies are not my
main problem. I am my main problem. Not my deeds, and not my circumstances, and
not the people in my life, but my nature is my deepest personal problem.’
3)
Apart from the new birth we love darkness and hate the
light.
-
‘We are not neutral when spiritual light approaches.
We resist it. And we are not neutral when spiritual darkness envelops us. We
embrace it. Love and hate are active in the unregenerate heart.’
4)
Apart from the new birth our hearts are hard like
stone.
-
‘Ignorance is not our biggest problem. Hardness and
resistance are.’
5)
Apart from the new birth we are unable to submit to
God or please God.
6)
Apart from the new birth, we are unable to accept the
gospel.
-
The unregenerate person cannot because he will not.
His preferences for sin are so strong that he cannot choose good. It is a real
and terrible bondage. But it is not an innocent bondage.
7)
Apart from the new birth we are unable to come to
Christ or embrace him as Lord.
-
‘It is morally impossible for the dead, dark, hard,
resistant heart to celebrate the Lordship of Jesus over his life without being
born again.’
Chapter 4:
Unless
we are born again we cannot say with Paul ‘I count everything as loss compared
to the surpassing joy of knowing Christ my lord.’
“We
will not sing with authentic amazement the words ‘amazing grace how sweet the
sound that saved a wretch like me,’ unless we know the wretchedness of our
heart. John Newton knew his heart, that’s why he wrote the song.”
Our
condition apart from the new birth:
8)
We are slaves to sin
9)
We are slaves to Satan: The unregenerate may scoff at the very idea of a devil.
And of course, nothing is more in line with the father of lies than the denial
that he exists.
10)
Apart from the new birth, nothing good dwells in us. In one sense we have good
things: creation, eyes, ears, the soul, government, marriage, family. However
we’re told that all these things exists for his glory, for the pleasure and
acknowledgement of the one who made them all. Thus: ‘Where people use all that
God has made without relying on his grace and without aiming to show his worth
they prostitute God’s creation.’
This
is our tenfold condition. Without the new birth we are hopeless, we cannot fix
ourselves or improve ourselves. ‘Dead men do not do better.’
Without
the new birth we won’t:
-
‘see the kingdom of heaven’ is what Jesus
says. We won’t be able to see God’s kingdom, be with him in heaven. Instead
we’ll be separated from him suffering in hell for all eternity.
-
We won’t:
o
Having saving faith
o
We’ll be condemned
o
We won’t be children of God, but children of
the Devil
o
We won’t bear the fruit of love but our
actions will result in death
o
We’ll have eternal misery and suffering at
the hands of the devil
-
Opposite to this, with the new birth we will:
o
We’ll be given saving faith: 1 John 5:1
o
We’ll be justified, and imputed with Christ’s
righteousness: Romans 5:1
o
We’ll be adopted into God’s family. Born by
the will of God. John 1:12
o
We have the Spirit of God in us, the spirit
of love, who causes us to produce good fruit with our lives. 1 John 3:14
o
We have heaven to look forward to, the
pinnacle of our joy being intimacy with our creator.
This
is why Jesus said to Nicodemus, ‘you MUST be born again!’
Chapter 5: Faith,
justification, adoption, purification, glorification
Why
was the incarnation necessary? The incarnation is directly linked to our
regeneration. With all of the great things listed in the previous chapter:
saving faith, being justified, being given the Spirit, with heaven to look
forward to… why did Jesus need to come for those things to happen? If that is
the new-birth why couldn’t God have affected it without the incarnation, death,
burial and resurrection of Christ?
In
1 John 3:5 we’re told that Jesus appeared to take away our sins and then in v8
we’re told that he came to destroy the works of the Devil. Our sin and the
devil’s work are what prevent us from being born again. For this reason Jesus
appeared.
We
have new life by being united to Christ, the incarnate one. Jesus said ‘I am
the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he
will live forever.’ Jesus’ life was such that we are super-charged, made alive
and given real life simply by being with him. We connect to him and receive his
life. Without his life, we would have no one or nothing to be united with.
1
John 3:3 ‘everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself…’
By
hoping in him, his life, his death, his resurrection we purify ourselves. A
mark of our new birth is our desire to be pure as he is pure.
‘The
perfection we do not have, Jesus provided. The judgement we do not want, Jesus
bore.’
What
keeps your life alive? Natural life is sustained by the pumping of blood around
the body, spiritual life is sustained by the life of Jesus flowing through us.
We do not have a spiritual life of our own but only one that exists because
it’s connected to him.
Part 3: How does the
new birth come about?
Chapter 6: Ransomed,
raised and called.
‘One
of the most unsettling things about the new birth, which Jesus said we all must
experience if we’re to see the kingdom
of God
We
don’t decide to make it happen any more than dead men decide to make themselves
alive or babies decide to make themselves become conceived and then make
themselves leave the womb.
Before
the new birth we treasure sin and self-exaltation so much that we cannot
treasure Christ.
Faith
and the new birth are inseparable. You cannot have fire without heat so you
cannot have the new birth without faith.
From
God’s side and our side, what is the new birth? Are we involved? In John 11
Jesus called Lazarus to life and told him to ‘come out’, Lazarus walked out.
Jesus raised him, Lazarus did the rising. God regenerates us by 3 ways:
1)
Christ’s ransom on the cross.
2)
Christ’s resurrection
3)
God’s effective call
Quoting
Piper:
‘
He ransomed us from the sin and wrath by the blood of Christ and paid the debt
for sinners to have eternal lie. 2) He raised Jesus from the dead so that union
with Jesus gives eternal life that never fades away. 3) He called us from the
darkness to light and from death to life through the gospel and gave us eyes to
see and ears to hear.
I’m
alive because he’s alive! I’m alive because he died! I’m alive because he called
me!
Chapter 7: Through
the washing of regeneration
‘Washing’
here again is used in conjunction with our new birth. We last saw this in John
3 when Jesus said to nicodemus born of water and the spirit.
As
with the John passage so with here, washing is another way of referring to the
rebirth since our rebirth is a cleansing in the same sense that the spirit
cleanses us as he gives us a new heart.
The
word ‘regeneration’ used in Titus 3:1-8 is used only one other place in the NT.
Matthew 19:28 where Jesus
talks about the new creation, the regenerated creation. Our new birth really is
the first instalment of the new creation. That is why we MUSt be born again to
see the new creation. The new creation will be a regenerated Earth and only
regenerated people can live there. Regernerated trees, and seas and plants and
people. Presently we see that God has cursed all of creation as a visible
display of the horrors of sin.
‘God’s
purpose is that the entire creation be born again.’
He
has started this process with us. He makes us aliuve by the cleansing and
washing of the word and spirit(!) and he does it by his kindness.
If
you are born again it is owing to the kindness of God.
The
loving kindness of God – in greek the ‘philanthropia’ of God. The philanthropy
It occurs only here in the NT. Paul says that God is the ultimate
philanthropist. God is inclined to bless humanity!
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