A Journey of Faith: Begun at Rebirth
Last week our focus was the nature of our Father or those who would make themselves our Father or we would believe to be our Father. Who should the Christians believe their Father to be, and why? More times than I can easily count, I have heard someone say, "I've been a Christian all my life." I have always thought, brought up in a moral home but not a Christian home, what does that even mean? I was fourteen when I came to Christ, and there was no doubt that I was a sinner and that without Jesus Christ, I would burn in hell for eternity and deserve every second of it.
Identity Without a Conscience
For this and other reasons, I have never thought myself always to be a Christian. I understand that some people make decisions very young in life, and to them, it may feel as though they always knew Jesus. However, every believer must feel the squeeze on their conscience when they sin, or God makes them aware of sin, which the Holy Spirit never wastes time to do so.
"For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives." It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom [his] father does not discipline? All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." Hebrews 12:6, 7, 11.
At some point, when growing from childhood through adolescence and adulthood, the weight of sin weighs us all down, and we must learn the sanctifying grace that God gives to all sinners. Therefore, the idea that "I've been a Christian all my life," should begin to take on the reality of "I'm sinner saved by grace." There is, however, yet another twist to this possible problem.
Furthermore, it is sometimes voiced, howbeit not necessary in these exact words, that a Christian may feel or even say, "I need to try harder, do the disciplines, pray better, witness more, etc. My dear readers, please understand what I am about to say. Striving to please Christ is a good thing and should not be curtailed in any way. However, how we try harder, witness more, and overcome sin is never the result of human effort or self-achievement.
An Identity of Death and Life
Self-achievement in the Christian life must be replaced with identification with Christ if there is to be any lasting and meaningful change in our hearts, minds, and way of life. Paul said the same in many texts and many ways, "Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Romans 6:8-12)
It is Christ's life, death, and sufferings in our place that matter, not anything we do in the flesh. Our faith alone in Christ takes us from trying harder to resting in Him. When you pray, keep identification in your sights, it means everything to bring faith to where it belongs.
Lastly, the thing uppermost in the believer's mind should always be their rebirth. As we considered our Father in our last post, to be born again is the necessary circumstance that makes God our Father, not by way of creation and His image but by way of salvation and bringing to life a dead spirit because of The Fall into sin, of which we are all a part. Rebirth is not always taught from pulpits with the regularity and power that there needs to be. In times of authentic revival, as at Pentecost and The Great Awakening in England and America, you can be assured that to be born again was constantly preached.
If you have been born again, I identify with Christ, reckon yourself dead to sin, place your faith in His person, death, and resurrection, and experience the wealth of victory according to the Spirit that works within you.
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