THE NEW BIRTH (c)

"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." -- I Peter 1:23.

     The new birth is the rebirth of the soul. "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Marvel of marvels that God can take a soul which is dead in trespasses and in sins and by the infusion of His own nature so re-animate that dead soul that life will spring out of death, and the bones which were broken are made to rejoice! Thank God, there is hope. Though your soul has gone down to the sides of the awful pit, the Eternal One, who inhabiteth eternity, can, if you will now obey the call to repentance, bring you back, cancel the eternal obligation, set aside the just sentence, and restore your hopelessly dead soul, infusing life, eternal life, and that more abundantly.

     The first birth is of the physical man and is without our knowledge or consent: the second birth is of the immortal spirit, and comes about with our knowledge and by our consent.

     In answer to the question, "Can a person know the time he is born again?" a certain religious paper replied, reasoning from analogy, that since we cannot remember the time of our first birth, of course, we cannot of the second. But analogy, always uncertain, in this case completely fails, for the new birth is accomplished not only within the realm of our knowledge and by our consent, but by our personal invitation and earnest solicitation. That is, we so desire the work to be done that we become a partner with the Almighty in its accomplishment. We are personally interested in the accomplishment of the work, and, as far as our ability goes, we are just as responsible for its consummation as the other party to the agreement.

     Now since the work of the new birth is accomplished by the combined efforts of two personalities, the first, the Almighty as the active, operative agent, and the second, the man, as the passive, actively receptive agent, may we ask, How can the work of the new birth be fully accomplished outside of the full consent and knowledge of both agents?

     This brings us to the point that the first birth is without our will, but the second birth is by our will. We had nothing to do with our first birth, either in consenting or in ordering, but if ever we are born again we must put our will into the thing, and one of the last decisions the struggling soul makes before light breaks in is, "I will be Thine, O Lord; I will do Thy will; I will be saved."

     In such a case God has not only the obedient body and the submissive mind, but He also has the slavery of the unbound will. Such a soul goes to the door and demands that the Lord shall bore his ear, not as a symbol of galling bondage, but of willing, joyous, submissive servitude; the servitude of a will that cannot be bound, but that desires nothing better than to be the bondslave of the all wise, all loving Trinity. Oh, the sweetness of a servitude that carries with it, nay is impelled by the desire to do the will of its Master!