Reflections
You are from beneath; I am from above: you are of this world; I am not of this world. (John 8:23)
Jesus told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit….You must be born again.” (John 3:6)
All who are born in Adam are born of the flesh. In Adam, flesh is all we can ever be – and all that is built into the flesh is all we can ever possess. In fact, all that we are in Adam was permanently ruined through the sin of Adam. But Jesus never suggests that the Adam race is going to be fixed. He never suggests that there is any destiny for the Adam race except the destiny that God originally judged: Death. The solution, therefore, for all who are born in Adam, is a NEW BIRTH – we must be born FROM ABOVE.
Being born from above is not a matter of God fixing me, or of Him drawing from out of me some potential. No. The new birth is the result of receiving — from the OUTSIDE of me INTO me FROM the outside — a new life – HIS LIFE. I am born from above when I am joined to the One who is FROM above — joined in spirit to the One who IS life. New life is Christ in us.
Many of us try to define our Christianity by what we have to give to God, or by what we do for God. But God defines our Christianity by what we have RECEIVED: Jesus Christ from above.
About The Author
