We need to treasure the fact that God has put himself and his grace on full display. And as a result, we as Christians are fully responsible to know what God has made known. It’s not helpful to you or anyone to simply know “just enough” to give us what many have called “fire insurance.” We have not had much help in truly understanding what it meant to be born again.
Sadly, many in influential places pass on a far more diluted understanding of the gospel. George Barna is a Christian research company who polls segments of our country to find out particular trends taking place. Each of these companies has definitions in place to help them sift through the data. Here’s their definition of “born again.”
“Born again Christians” were defined in these surveys as people who said they have made a “personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today” and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior. Respondents were not asked to describe themselves as “born again.” Being classified as “born again” is not dependent upon church of denominational affiliation or involvement.[i]
The problem with this definition is that he (1) takes them at their word—fair enough, I suppose; but (2) as Piper notes, “slanders that precious biblical reality by saying that regenerate hearts have no more victory over sin than regenerate hearts.”[ii] For you see, based on this definition, Barna’s research seems to say that Christians have just as many problems with worldliness as non-Christians do. It’s based on outward habits (church attendance) and even feelings (Jesus is still important), but there’s no change, no transformation. Barna’s research intends to motivate Christians to greater faithfulness, but the actual result is that the world sees those who are “born again” (according to Barna’s definition) are not that different from the world, and therefore there is nothing special about being a Christian.
God has given us the depth of the gospel—and we would be remiss in not taking the pleasure and privilege and honor of investigating what God has revealed. Consider this nugget from Titus 3:3-5a:
3For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. 4But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us.
If you wish to inform people about what the gospel is all about, I can give it to you in one word: change. Does not this passage show a great change, a great transformation? David Powlison insightfully notes:
You become profoundly different as you come to the growing realization, “It’s not all about me.” It’s all about the One who is remaking us—each one and all together—into His image, and thus into a community that practices loving-kindness, justice, righteousness in the earth.[iii]
With the saving gospel, everything changes. Your understanding of the world, of history, of your purpose in life, and your actions which result from that Spirit transformation. Consider where you were beforehand.
Paul begins by saying you were “foolish and disobedient,” meaning that you had a lack of understanding and as a result disobeyed. But then he goes deeper into the fact that you were “led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures.” This goes deeper to show that this was not simply a flaw in our thinking, but an infliction of a Deceiver who enslaved you. Instead of a passion which sought its pleasure in Christ, the curse brought about a seeking and satisfaction in personal pleasures.
Does this go deeper? Without question. The “passing our days in malice and envy” does not indicate a quick burst of sinfulness, followed by general obedience to the things of God. This phrase indicates a daily routine—a way of life of malicious and discontented behavior! The result was a mutual hatred festival by all participants! The more selfish one desired to be, the more cut off they would be from all relationships. That inner desire for a solitary control of your life will leave to a solitary existence—cut off from God, and your neighbor!
You may say, “How awful an existence that is for such a person!” That’s true, it is. Yet, we must understand that this describes each of us! We may define these words in ways that make us look better, but all of us have a lack of understanding, disobey, and in our flesh are deceived. Outside of Christ, we operate based upon our own standards and passions and pleasures—even if those standards look good to a watching world!
Then we say, “Wait, I’m not passing my days in malice in envy. No, I haven’t surrendered to Christ, but I’m not malicious.” Rejecting Christ is the most malicious thing you can do to yourself and to those in your circle of influence. You are going against the very reason why you were created.
So when we look at Titus 3:4-5
4But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. 8The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.
This is the essence of what it means to be “born again” or “born from above” (John 3:3-5). The key phrase is found in verse 5: “he saved us.” John Stott notes:
Whenever the phraseology of salvation is dropped into a conversation today, people’s reactions are predictable. They will either blush, frown, snigger, or even laugh, as if it were a huge joke. Thus the devil, whose ambition is to destroy, not to save, succeeds in trivializing the most serious question we could ever ask ourselves or put to anybody else. For Christianity is essentially a religion of salvation.”[iv]
This salvation was not something we could drum up in ourselves, but this salvation had to appear. In verse 6, we see this salvation had to be “poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.” Also, notice that this did not come about through the accrual of good works, but by His mercy. We also see that we are justified by grace, being recipients of the hope of eternal life.
Do you see the pattern? God had to bring this salvation to us. He showed it to us, poured it out His Holy Spirit on us, and the motive was his glorious mercy. The means? “The washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” A.W. Tozer once said:
We may as well face it. The whole level of spirituality is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the desire to seek higher plateaus and the things of the Spirit is all but gone. We have imitated the world, sought popular favor, and manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord, and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost.[v]
That’s how we were saved—God appeared to us by His mercy, taking the initiative to make us right by His righteousness. Michael Horton puts it this way: “God does not simply create the gift and offer it to us, if we will only climb the stairway to heaven to get it; he brings it down to us, uncurls our ungrateful fingers and places it in our hands.”[vi] Peter drove this home:
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
We must understand why people have an issue with this. There is something in our flesh that wants to do something.
[i]George Barna. Accessed 30 January 2010; available at http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=170, quoted in John Piper, Finally Alive (Minneapolis, MN: Desiring God, 2009) ,14.
[ii]Piper, Finally Alive, 14.
[iii] David Powlison, in the Foreword to Timothy S. Lane, Paul David Tripp, How People Change (Winston-Salem, NC: Punch Press, 2006), vi-vii.
[iv]John R.W. Stott, The Message of 1 Timothy & Titus, The Bible Speaks Today (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 201.
[v]A. W. Tozer, God and Men, quoted in Francis Chan, The Forgotten God (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2009), 27.
[vi]Michael Horton, The Gospel-Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2009), 108.
Gather to Go 