You're only born twice

Yesterday, I learned that my Aunt Olive had died. Today I’ve heard that a friend of mine has become a grandfather again. My Aunt Olive’s death will be the cause of mourning; the birth of Nathaniel is the cause of rejoicing. This is the world as we experience it: a world in which death has the last word.

The arrival of Jesus, however, ushers in a whole new dimension in which the sting of death is drawn. I guess that you have heard the term "born again Christian". It tends to make some people wary or suspicious. It may come as a surprise to those who don't read the New Testament, but the only Christian is a "born again" one! Jesus tells us clearly that, in order to perceive and enter into a real relationship with God, we must be born again - or born from above.

What does he mean? In the first chapter of his gospel, John states that to be a child of God we must be born of God. Just as we were naturally born of human parents and have natural life as their children, so in order to have spiritual life we must be born of God's Spirit in order to become His children.

These days, there is a general assumption that if there is a God ‘up there’, then we are all his children with, perhaps, a few exceptions like Stalin or Hitler. Yet Jesus taught differently: "…to all who received him [Jesus], to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God - children not born of natural decent... but born of God".

Receiving and believing involves us hearing the claims of Jesus, as to who He is and His right to our allegiance, then relinquishing our grip on the steering wheel of our lives and entrusting it to him. In this way, we receive a new life; we are born again.

My aunt had 80 birthdays and, by the grace of God, Nathaniel will have many too. We all know when our natural birthday is, have we had a spiritual birthday too?