Frequently Asked Questions: A Transformed Life

"Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God...unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (Jesus of Nazareth circa 30 A.D.)

The second topic for a blog post from among the sermon suggestions is "a transformed life."  This is a very, very good suggestion because it does hit so close to the core of the Christian faith and life.  Straight from Jesus' own mouth is this statement; without being born again (or born from above, as it can also be translated) we cannot enter the Kingdom.  What does this actually mean, though?

To begin with, this doesn't mean that one must have one specific life-transforming event in order to inherit eternal life.  We should celebrate the person who experiences such a singular event, and the many churches that "celebrate recovery" in their programming or worship are doing exactly that.  Jesus said that there was joy in Heaven over every sinner who repents.  Shouldn't there be joy on earth as well?  This does not mean that this is prescriptive of how it works for everyone.  The saint of God who was baptized as an infant, raised in a church, and really can't recall a time he or she didn't know Christ is no higher or lower in Heaven than the adulterous drunk who comes to Christ at age 45.

We do well to remember that our salvation (at least in a Wesleyan understanding) is a beautiful harmony of divine initiative, divine power, divine grace, and human response.  Since giving us re-birth is really God's business, we can't be in the business of limiting how God goes about His business.  Here in the buckle of the "Bible belt" folks sometimes speak of salvation in such a way that it almost ceases to be a work of God, and becomes something that "I" did at Wednesday night prayer meeting. 

Perhaps, it might be in order to look at this whole matter theologically for a moment.  We toss around terms like "justified," "sanctified," "saved," "born again" like they are all the same, but in reality it's good to look at what they actually mean theologically.  Again speaking as a Wesleyan, our faith is a response to a previous working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  If we look back at the lives of our predecessors in the faith, it is common to find that individuals struggled and wrestled before they came to faith.  This was true of the early Methodists and also of the early Puritans.  We know that God's decree is that those in Christ are justified, or made right by faith.  This justification is a decree from God, and can no more be scheduled than one can schedule when the first leaf in autumn falls.  All we can do is rejoice that it has been made even if we may not know the precise moment when.  

A transformed life results from the work of the Holy Spirit subsequent to faith and justification.  It really isn't something that we can do, if it were we wouldn't have ended up so messed up to begin with!  This life is a testimony to the power of the Holy Spirit working within us.  This is the New Birth, this is the renewal of a right spirit within us.  But what about the above-mentioned individual who cannot remember not knowing Christ?  I would argue that this person has a transformed life just as much as the one who has a dramatic conversion experience.  This is so because by the grace of God this person's life is entirely different from what it would have been otherwise.  The reality that those in Christ are born anew is something that all believers must celebrate.  However it happened, they have new life abundant and eternal in him alone, thanks be to God! 












































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