Born To Give Us Second Birth

This Christmas season, I have been pondering a particular line in the familiar carol Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: “Born to raise the sons of earth / Born to give them second birth.” One of the glorious aspects of Christmas is that the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ from a virgin’s womb secured another miracle, namely the gift of new birth for fallen human beings. We can see why genuine Christian conversion and this second birth are nothing short of miraculous when we consider the testimony of Scripture concerning the universal human condition:

We “were dead in our trespasses” and were “by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1-4).

We “once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds” (Colossians 1:21-22).

We were haters of God and enemies of God (Romans 1:30, 5:10).

The word of the cross was folly to us (1 Corinthians 1:18).

We “were once slaves of sin” (Romans 6:17-18).

How did we who were dead in our trespasses, enslaved to sin, and in willful rebellion against God come to the point where we saw our desperate need for a Savior and that our only hope is in the crucified and risen Christ? Why do we no longer see the word of the cross as foolishness but rather as the power of God for salvation? Jesus Himself gives us the answer: “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27). God did for us what we could never have done for ourselves. He gave us the gift of new birth. He, “being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4). God fulfilled in us the promise He made long ago through His prophet Ezekiel: “I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them” (Ezekiel 11:19-20). He “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). To use an analogy from Pastor John Piper, what once tasted like rubber bands to our dead spiritual taste buds now tastes like the sweetest honey. Our spiritual eyes now perceive beauty and glory in Jesus Christ that once was veiled to us.

A stunning implication of this second birth is that our faith in the Lord Jesus is the effect, not the cause, of our being born again. Jesus told Nicodemus that one can neither see nor enter the kingdom of God unless that person is “born again”—“born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:3, 5). If you are trusting in the Son of God as your Lord, Savior, and Treasure, it is because God in His mercy has first given you eyes to see and ears to hear. He has given you the gift of new birth. Such is the mysterious and wondrous nature of the saving grace of God. May our response to this glorious truth of the second birth reflect the words of the Apostle Peter:

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, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)

Every Christian is a miracle. And the new birth we have experienced could never have come to us apart from the Christmas story and the purchasing of sinners with Christ’s own blood. May the truth of His cross and the joy-producing hope He gives be our unshakable foundation as we make our way to the Celestial City.