Today, as part of The Heart of Christianity series, we look at the phrase “born again” and it’s place in our faith. Borg notes (The Heart of Christianity, 107), “In the Gospels and in the rest of the New Testament, death and resurrection, dying and rising, are again and again a metaphor for personal transformation, for the psychological-spiritual process at the center of the Christian life.” Here are just a few examples:
Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! – 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (The Message)
I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that. – Galatians 2:19-20 (The Message)
I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. – Romans 8:38-39 (The Message)
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate... If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. – 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (The Message)
Jesus, after telling the curious Nicodemus that we must be born again – or born from above – to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, continued his metaphor to help his “get” what his logic was keeping him from understanding.
Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation—the 'wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it's not possible to enter God's kingdom. When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch—the Spirit—and becomes a living spirit.
"So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above'—out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God." – John 3:5-8 (The Message)
Paul was transformed. I think Jesus was, too. And I think it surprised them both when it happened. They were both smart people, thinking people, and very capable people. I am sure they offered a helping hand and were ethical, hard-working people. But I don’t think it was logic or learning or serving that transformed them. I think, in the end, it was love. Expressed in myriad ways, I think love is the only thing that truly transforms us – our hearts, our minds, our calendars, our budgets, our eyes, our ears, our mouths. When we are touched deeply by love, everything changes. The transformation that love brings is a cooperative effort that we can help or hinder, but love is in constant flow. Supportive, guiding, sustaining, nourishing, strengthening us now and forever – as much as we can handle and as much as we will welcome.
How has love already transformed you over the course of your life? Who was involved? How did you cooperate with love? When have you hindered the transformation love was offering?