ReCreation: Spirit and Union. Series: The Holy Who?
Jn 3:1-8 May 18, 2003
Intro:
Yesterday I had the opportunity to officiate in the marriage ceremony of Lisa Thompson and David Nadon – to celebrate their love and witness the exchange of their vows. Genesis 2:21-24 tells us,
“the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ’woman,’ for she was taken out of man." For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”
The passage tells us of a spiritual union that happens within the covenant of marriage – the two become one. This is something of a mysterious statement – we know that two people don’t suddenly morph into one person, and we know that they don’t cease to be unique, separate individuals. So what does it mean? It means that on a spiritual level, two people become intricately connected. They are united. They become one – they can no longer live life on their own without thinking about others, they no longer exercise sole control of their time or their money or their plans and goals for life. Now that two people have become one through marriage, they are choosing to, as Paul says in Ephesians 5:21, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
Quick sidebar: most often, difficulties in marriage come from a root of selfishness – one or more often both people putting their needs ahead of their partners, focusing on themselves as an individual rather than on being united and communicating intimately. Instead of being “one”, trouble enters a relationship when two people are more “two” than they are “one.”
Spirit re-creates:
You might be wondering why I’m talking about marriage instead of the Holy Spirit. It is not because I’m just cheating and re-using yesterday’s wedding sermon… Here is why: it is the Holy Spirit that makes two people one when they enter into a marriage covenant relationship with one another. Likewise, it is the Holy Spirit that makes us one with Christ when we enter into a salvation covenant relationship. I’ll repeat that (repeat). Today I want to talk about the Holy Spirit’s work of uniting us with God in salvation.
More than “not guilty…”
Scripture uses several different analogies to try to illustrate what happens when we become a Christian. The most common, since Luther and the reformation, is the legal image: God the Father is the judge who pronounces us, even though we are guilty, as “not guilty” by virtue of the fact that Jesus took the penalty for our sin. We even have a special theological term for this: “justification” – we are “justified” when we put our faith in Jesus and accept His sacrifice on our behalf. And that is a Biblical, correct, graphic way to communicate what happens to us spiritually speaking when we become Christians.
But if that is the only image we have of salvation, we are in trouble. Because it is more than that – far more. In fact, the legal image of salvation is not even the primary Biblical image of salvation – it isn’t the most common Biblical picture of what happens in salvation. Acquittal is where it starts, but it is only the beginning.
A more common (Biblically) and more complete term to apply to what happens in salvation, is “Life”. “Life” is one that transforms our understanding from salvation as a one-time thing to a more Biblical view of salvation as a process. Here the Scriptural imagery is of us moving from spiritual death into spiritual life, which needs to be grown and nurtured and developed just like biological life. And in this understanding, we recognize more the work of the Holy Spirit. There are many places that speak in these terms, the clearest being in Jn 3:1-8. Let’s turn there now.
Are you a “born-again”?
Unfortunately, “born-again” has come to have negative connotations in our world. It has become associated with radicalism and exclusivity and confrontation rather than with the love of Christ, and so it is probably not a good term to use in sharing Christ with others unless you have opportunity to help someone understand this whole passage.
It is the latter part of what Jesus is saying that I want to key on, vs. 5-8.
Born of water and the Spirit (vs 5):
Jesus speaks of the requirements for “entering the kingdom of God.” He uses “life” imagery, insisting that entrance to the kingdom requires being “born of water and the Spirit.” (vs 5). It is an interesting phrase; I think the best understanding is of “water” referring to baptism and “Spirit” obviously being the Holy Spirit. Reading this I see both our part and God’s part – God the Holy Spirit re-creates us, brings us new life, works salvation out in us – and we have a responsibility to accept this and obey, as the reference to baptism indicates. And by the way, if you haven’t been baptized, why not? What are you waiting for?? Talk to me about it and we’ll gladly start the process!
Spirit “births” new life (vs 6):
Here is the link I have been talking about – salvation is about life, new life which the Holy Spirit births in us. That is what vs 6 says – “the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
This next part is critical to us understanding what this new life is about: it is a family life. It is not an individualistic thing – it is not that I have been given a new individualistic kind of life that I can do whatever I like with. That is not the nature of the new life. The new life is life in Christ. It is us being “born” into an entirely new, communal, shared life of God through Christ. We are born into a new family
Think of it like this: our life is a glass of water. Prior to responding by faith to God’s love in Christ, that glass is full of dirty, disgusting, revolting, vile, stomach-turning filth. When we respond by faith, however, the dirty is removed and is replaced with purity. Now stay with me… But this new purity is not just placed in a new clean cup and given back to us in isolation. Rather it is more like we are re-born into a much bigger life – more like we are transformed and then incorporated into a much larger life – like this new clean water is united with a huge lake. The analogy breaks down here, because in a huge lake this clean water would lose its sense of uniqueness and separateness – and that isn’t what Christianity teaches: we do retain our personhood and distinctiveness, but not in an individualistic manner. Our new life is “in Christ”. By the Spirit we are given birth as new spirits. We are enabled to “participate in the divine nature” according to 2 Pet. 1:4; we are to “be one as [God the Father and God the Son] are one: I [Jesus] in them and you [Father] in me.” as Jesus prayed for us in Jn 17:22-23; Paul puts it this way in Gal 2:20, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
This re-birth, this incorporation into the life of God, is what the Holy Spirit does when we give Him permission. It is the Holy Spirit’s work. And this is the process of salvation.
Time for a quick comic…
A New Life In A New Family:
So salvation is about the Holy Spirit “giving birth to spirit” and incorporating us into the life of God. The union is like marriage – the two becoming one – as I mentioned earlier. But there is one significant difference: we are not united as equals, as it is meant to be in a marriage relationship. On this point, the image of adoption is more appropriate: we are incorporated into a new family, in the role of child. God is the parent, with all of the responsibilities to care and provide and love and nurture and, yes, even discipline; and we are the child, responsible to obey, learn, be free and innocent, and bring joy in relationship.
Spirit Invites Us To Love:
I recognize this is a lot to wrap your mind around, so let me change gears here a little bit. All of this makes a lot more sense when you have experienced it. When you have met God, and chosen to respond to Him by faith; when you have known the Holy Spirit giving birth to a new spirit in you; when you have recognized God as loving parent and gladly allowed yourself to be adopted into His family; when you know what it is like to participate in the vast life of God and experienced that in true Biblical community with other Christians – when all of that has been part of your personal experience, these theoretical concepts make a lot more sense.
Let me bottom-line you: salvation is not just about God the judge simply ruling “Not Guilty by virtue of the penalty being already paid by Jesus”. Salvation is about loving God and being loved by Him in return.
Let me quote from Clark Pinnock (Flame of Love, chapter 5):
“salvation is union, conversion is awakening to love… Love woos – it does not compel. Conversion is not coerced. God convicts and moves us towards intimacy. His Word is powerful, but there must be a response to it. God does not overpower but saves those who yield to his persuasion. God lays hold, but sinners must consent to be laid hold of. They must let God renew them…
We are not in a position to give God much that he needs. But there is one thing he wants from us that nobody else can give. And if we do not give it, he will not receive it. I refer to our personal love. God can have our love only if we decide to give it. God made us to love him, and the key issue is what we decide to do with that freedom. God empowers, but does not overpower. Grace works mightily but does not override. God is a loving parent, not a tyrant.”
How do you need to respond?
Do you love God? Does your life show that you love Him – do others around you know it and witness it through how you live?
I know that in this group there is a wide range of experiences. We are at different points along our spiritual journey. And all of us are challenged by the Holy Spirit to take another step: Gal 5:25 says, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” What is the next step for you?
If you have never allowed God to lay hold of you, the Spirit invites you to know the depth of the love of God for you. Allow yourself to experience that, and then choose. How you wonder? Pray this simple prayer: “God, if you are real, show me what you are like.”
If you have believed that Jesus paid the penalty for your sin and accepted salvation, but stopped there, you are in a dangerous place. This is the person who claims to be a Christian but lives for themselves rather than God. The words might be right but the actions are wrong. For you the next step begins with seeking God’s forgiveness for the sin of taking salvation lightly and for granted. It is to repent of selfishness and self-reliance, and to turn from that sin. How? Again, pray: ask God to convict you of sin so that you can know forgiveness, and then choose to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and join the journey. Anything less is dangerous.
Or maybe you are desiring to be united into the life of God, but feeling like something is missing. Like you got stuck somewhere along the way, and you are not in the place you want to be right now. This is often where I feel like I am, personally and as a pastor. Feeling like God’s Kingdom is so much more than I know and experience, feeling like there is greater power available to see real change in myself and in people around me. For us, I believe the next step is in this verse that has been foremost in my thoughts and prayers this week: “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matt 6:33). It is to seek, earnestly and ferverently, God’s Kingdom. How? Through prayer, alone and together. Through God’s Word, reading it and meditating on it and above all obeying it. Making that seeking of God the cry of our hearts, and pursuing it with all the passion we are able.
As Pinnock writes, God woos. He does not compel. How will you respond?
