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| By: Steve Dawson |
Text: John 3:1-17
To
Him who loves us and has washed us from our sins by His blood and made us a
kingdom, priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever
and ever. Amen.
Most
of you already have much by your first birth. When I say your first birth, I
mean to say, when you were physically born into this life: fed by your mother
at her side, clothed by your parents or guardians, educated by teachers, and so
forth. By your first birth you have some
of the following, if not all: the
support of a good boss, the love of faithful employees, loving family, good
friends, and a good stable local government.
By your first birth you have the security of houses, apartments, cars,
clothing, food, health insurance, public law enforcement, and possibly a
401k. But when all this has had its day;
when you lie in your grave, your friends, father, mother, family, boss,
children, and employees cannot go with you but are powerless to help you. When the strength of your body drains from
your muscles and when the mental sharpness of you mind fades away and when you
leave behind your popularity, honor, pension, clothing, and insurance plans;
when you are cold and motionless inside an icy coffin six feet under—then something
more is required. That something is a new
birth, a second birth. To rephrase this
with colloquial language: when you have died with the most toys, when the fat
lady has sung, when you are at the end of your rope, and when you are on your
last leg, the only option for you is to get out of the frying pan and into the
fire… that is unless you have the new birth.
Considering
this, when we take a sober look at life and its end, death, you and I come to
realize that it is necessary to look to another existence. You and I are neither content nor comfortable
to let death have the final word. Thus,
this new existence calls for a new birth, new clothing, new identity, and new
nourishment that makes one fit for the kingdom of heaven.
This
is true. It is right. Listen up!
You must be born again! Yes, I am
speaking to you. No, not your
neighbor! Not the person behind
you. But you! Yes, you who are hearing this. I tell you the truth that you will not see
the kingdom of God unless you are born again—born a second time.
As
for this new rebirth though, how is it worked in us? How does one acquire such a new birth?
Maybe
to be born again is some sort of internal work of our wills or emotions. Maybe we need to look within the deep caverns
of our hearts and conjure up spiritual energy to mystically accomplish this new
task of being born again.
Or, maybe
this is some sort of physical change.
Maybe you and I need to figure out how we can bring this about through
physical actions and physical works, as if it is something within our
grasp.
Dear
friends, truth be told, being born again is not finding new beginnings from
fountains of untapped energy within our hearts and it is not attempting to
crawl back into our mother’s womb a second time to have a redo.
Physical
birth puts you in the grave. It does not
lead to the kingdom of heaven, since the kingdom of heaven is closed to all
sinners born from the womb. This means
that there is no other path, no other road, no other avenue to heaven except
through the Word of God, baptism, and faith.
We must be born again through these.
Our first birth is not sufficient.
You
have just heard that this new birth—this spiritual birth—is brought about by
the Word of God, baptism, and faith; it is not of your own doing. To be born
again is not something that you and I bring about by our thoughts, words, and
deeds. You see, your physical birth entails things
such as diapers, milk, mushy vegetables, moms, and dads, which all eventually lead
to the grave—to dust and ashes. However,
if you want salvation, life everlasting, and the resurrection of the body, “you
need different parents, who will bring you to heaven. This Christ does. By [the way] of Baptism and the Word of God,
He places you and your Christianity into the lap of our dear mother, the
Christian Church. This He accomplished
through His suffering and death that by virtue of His death and blood we might
live eternally.”[1]
You,
who have ears, hear. Your baptism into
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, puts you in Jesus’
grave. Indeed, being born again is the
end of your sinful nature and the beginning of life that partakes of the
benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection.
To be born again is the death of a life that is continually mucked in
sin. To be born again is not something
that you do but is done to you. It is
you being washed. To be born again is
you receiving the name of the Triune God upon your head and heart. To be born again is you submerged under the powerful
baptismal flood.
At
your baptism, the old sinful nature from you first birth was violently
drowned. Otherwise stated at your
baptism the old sinful nature from your physical birth—that malicious, greedy,
lethargic, proud, jealous, full of lust, narcissistic, and pathetic sinful
nature—was slayed. Yes, your baptism has
teeth, it is potent. It is the way of
your new birth. From this violent drowning
massacre, your old sinful nature was killed; death happened, yet what emerges
is life. Surely, this happens because
baptism works forgiveness of sins and
gives eternal salvation accomplished
by Jesus for you.
As a
result, each and every day you now walk this earth within this new birth. You are baptized. The new birth, or we can say the spiritual
life, cannot be perceived by the five senses.
It is invisible. It is found in the
Word of God, baptism, and faith. In
other words, your life as a Christian “is nothing else than a daily baptism,
begun once and continuing ever after.”[2] Yes, each and every day there is a purging of
whatever “pertains to the [first physical birth], so that whatever belongs to
the [new baptismal birth] may come forth.”[3] It is daily remembering not your first birth,
but being returned to your baptismal birth.
It is daily the Lord bringing you back in repentance and faith to the
reality of your baptisms.
There
are further implications of your new birth: being born again means that you don’t
belong to yourself and your life is no longer your own. You are not defined by your first birth.
Because
of your second baptismal birth, you have everything that you need in Christ,
which means that you can rest with confidence.
You are washed of your sins by His blood; you are secure for eternity as
you live day by day in this veil of tears.
Because
of your new birth you do not have to be consumed about building a name for yourself,
for you have the name of God upon you. You
do not have to worry about your spiritual temperature and your spiritual
empires, for you have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm in Christ
Jesus. You do not have to lie, cheat,
and steal to obtain material goods to somehow prop yourself up. No, you are baptized. You are freed from looking inwards and freed
from the constant burden of trying to acquire trophies and points for your own
spiritual resumes.
In your
new birth you have righteousness, the righteousness of Jesus in which you wear
like a robe.
Nothing
else is needed.
This
means that your physical clothes and shoes and houses and homes and money and
goods can be utilized by you as a simple guest who is journeying through life,
until you arrive at your final destination, which is the kingdom of
heaven. In your baptismal birth, you are
freed to be concerned for the well-being of your neighbor, for you are taken
care of. Otherwise stated, it is a waste
of time and energy when we are shaped by our first birth, rather than our
second birth.[4]
Furthermore,
“This new life, to which we have been born again in Christ, is not normal or
natural, and will not feel normal or natural to us. Normal and natural to us is our sinful flesh,
which remains the enemy of God and will be a pain in the neck until the end of
our lives.”[5] Nevertheless, we are called by God and by
the new birth in Christ, into the life of being God’s children and
servants. It is all gift.
Dear
Baptized Saints, “This new life is
lived in hope, the Christian hope, which is the confidence that what we cannot
see, but God has promised, is true –and so we are confident in ourselves that
we have forgiveness and life and salvation, and so we rejoice, and give thanks,
and we live out this new life—not according to how things feel, or how things
may appear to us, but according to the reality of God's blessings, forgiveness
and protection of which He speaks to us in His Word”[6] and gives us in our
baptisms.
You
have been born again, for you are baptized.
You
have a new birth, for the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit has been placed upon you.
You have
been born from above.
The
peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Martin Luther, Luther’s Work’s American Edition: Volume 22 ed. Jaroslav Pelikan
(St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1957), 291.
[2] Martin Luther, The Large Catechism: The Book of Concord (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress
Press, 2000), 465.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Robin Fish. “Born Again.” http://lcmssermons.com/index.php?sn=2267 (14 March 2014)
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
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