by Kevin Burton
We’ve been through more than a dozen sessions together now at this school for the spiritually blind. It’s high time we had – the talk.
If you are a parent you may have already faced this question, or maybe you are currently dreading it: Where do babies come from?
This is a fifth-period sex education class, but we avoid the awkward question about new life in the physical. In our school we’re asking where spiritual babies come from.
Let’s not get the physical and the spiritual confused as Nicodemus famously did in John chapter 3.
Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jewish nation. He knew the truth but not the whole truth about Jesus. In verse two he says he knows Jesus is from God but within nine verses he doubts our Savior.
“The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, ‘Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.’ Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”
“Nicodemus saith unto him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?’”
“Jesus answered, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. 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.’”
“Nicodemus answered and said unto him, ‘How can these things be?’” (John 3: 2-9 KVJ).
Contemporary Christian music artist Christine Wyrtzen has a blog on WordPress. In a recent post she explained it this way:
“I was born one way, but years later, I was re-born as a brand-new person. I didn’t look that different on the outside, but I was completely transformed on the inside,” Wyrtzen wrote.
“The enemy couldn’t see any traces of my sins. All signs of former bondage and proof of his ownership ceased to exist. The chains fell away along with my sin-stained soul.”
“In that beautiful moment of my legal spiritual adoption, the Holy Spirit was poured out, seeping into every spiritual pore. My thirsty soul absorbed Him like a sponge, so thirsty was I for everything that He was,” Wyrtzen wrote.
“‘I have called you and you are mine,’ He said. I came to life as each word was spoken deliberately. His Spirit became my new source of energy. No longer would I have to generate a reservoir of gritty resolve to do right and live right. The power of HisSpirit had moved inside, flowing like a river,” Wyrtzen wrote.
This has eternal consequences as Jesus explained to Nicodemus.
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved,” (John 3: 14-17 KJV).
We read about the rebirth of a Christian in Titus, “He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,” (Titus 3:5-6 KJV).
We also see the transformation in 2 Cor. 5: 17 (KJV) “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’
That latter is a verse Wyrtzen has put to music in her song “New Creation.”
Class Notes, fifth period, sex education: The transformation into life in Christ is not visible to the human eye, but it is discernable in the spirit and it is the great promise from Jesus to all who believe.
One for the spiritual road; the prayer that ends Wyrtzen’s blog post:
““Touch the blinded spiritual eyes in every member of our families. Let them see Your glory and find You to be more desirable than gold. Touch their inner landscape so that it is transformed from impenetrable to porous, open to every part of the kingdom and the life You offer. Defeat the enemy who pulls out all the stops to keep them stuck, blind, and unreceptive. Display Your power and glory. In Jesus name, Amen.”
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