What Is The New Birth?
I am now convinced that although the new birth and conversion can take place simultaneously, this is not always the case. In fact, years may separate the two.
I happen to be one of those persons who is reasonably sure of the time of my conversion to Christ. On October 2, 1949, I consciously placed the controls of my life in His hands by faith in my scant but sure knowledge of who He was.
Concerning the actual time of my new birth, I am not so certain. I was brought up in a Christian church and as a child my mother taught me to pray. But in my teens I rebelled against all I had seen of religion and declared my independence from anyone's concept of God.
My new birth could have taken place about six weeks before my conversion, which occurred in a hotel room in New York City, in the presence of Christ and the dear friend who had made Him real to me. She and I had our first conversation about Christ and His claims on our lives six weeks earlier. While I was far from willing then to rest my case in His hands, I know that during those next six weeks another dimension seemed added to my life. I faced things in myself which I had never dared face be-
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fore. Many of the things I had loved seemed suddenly empty. I was both restless and hopeful, disturbed and interested.
In retrospect, I can see that, whether I realized it or not then, I seemed not to be alone during those weeks immediately before my conversion. I was disagreeing with my friends. At times I experienced real fear, but all around me was a Kindness which I could not explain. And in me there was an energy and an interest in life which I had long ago traded for what I hoped was a sophisticated, if unavoidable, boredom.
Did my new birth take place at the beginning of our talks six weeks before my conversion? Did it take place, as some would believe, when I was a child, exposed to the Christian faith by my mother and my Sunday school teachers? Certainly there was no outward evidence of it until my conversion at thirty-three. But to me, the actual time of my new birth is not only unknowable to me, it is irrelevant.
Jesus told the intellectual and highly educated Nicodemus, "You need to be born (again) from above." He also said, "Unless a person is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God." That we must all undergo the new birth is a fact, if we believe that Jesus Christ spoke with the authority of God. But many are confused right here, because if they cannot remember or point to an exact time of their new birth, they doubt that it ever took place.
As always, Jesus tried to make this clear, too. If we are confused on it, it is due to careless teaching or careless reading of what He said. While He made it plain that we must be born again, He also made it equally plain that it is not something that we do. To this same Nicodemus who asked, "How can a man be born when he is old?" Jesus explained, "What is born of the flesh is flesh; and what is born of the Spirit is spirit... The wind blows
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where it pleases and though you hear the sound of it, you neither know whence it comes or whither it goes. It is the same with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Could He have said it more clearly? When we are born the first time, from our mother's womb, we are born into the wide but limited wonder of the physical universe. But when we are born the second time from above, we are by God's Spirit born into the even wider and eternal wonder of the Kingdom of God. When and how it happens is God's doing.
In his book, Christian Life and the Unconscious, Dr. Ernest White has helped greatly to clear away my confusion about the nature of the new birth and conversion. Here is some of Dr. White's excellent explanation showing that the two need not be confused.
"I wish to distinguish between new birth and conversion.... The word conversion means a turning, a change of direction, an alteration in mental attitude and belief. It does not necessarily imply new birth. For instance, a Protestant may be converted to Roman Catholicism, or vice versa, either subsequently to or before his new birth. A Buddhist might become a Mohammedan, but this would not entail new birth in the Christian sense of the word. Conversion is usually an act of the will, and is often accompanied by some degree of emotional disturbance.... St. James writes in his epistle, 'If any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death.'
"In this example we see the possibility of one man converting another. Only the Spirit of God can create new life. Conversion, then, is a conscious act of the will by which a man turns to God, or turns from one opinion or course of conduct to another. It is a conscious and deliberate movement of the mind in a new direction, but it is not the same thing as the new birth."1
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I was converted (made to see and to agree to change the course of my life) by my friend, Ellen Riley Urquhart, and I made that decision to begin the new direction of my life on October 2, 1949. She converted me, but she could not create in me a new life. Only the Spirit of God could do this. Just when He did this is not important.
Dr. White holds the belief that, unlike conversion, the new birth is an unconscious process, apart from the will of man, worked out in the spiritual depths of the human personality by the Spirit of God. Sometimes the effects of this entrance into the depths of the human personality, or the unconscious, by the Spirit shows up immediately in our conscious behavior. In others the realization of the new birth is a slow and gradual process. In some it bursts upon the conscious mind like a sunrise. Then again, in a personality of a different temperament, it comes slowly like spring over the frozen ground.
As I understand it, my new birth occurred when Christ Himself invaded my personality. Mine is a fairly sudden temperament, and when I made my decision to change my course and follow Him as my Saviour and Master, the signs that I had been born again showed up rather quickly. I think, mainly, because in that sense I had "become as a little child." I was looking for signs of my new life! I was excited and expectant. I am not timid by nature. If I see something or believe something, I am ready immediately to dive into it all the way. It would be an even more perplexing world than it is if we were all like me. And so the error in doubting your own new birth, just because the effects of it don't show up at once emblazoned upon the night sky of your personality, is a great error indeed.
In my book Woman to Woman, I shared one or two letters from persons who doubted their new birth because they didn't feel "born again." My mail continues to be spattered with these sad pleas and complaints about God.
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Two things and two things only are important where the new birth is concerned. First, Jesus says we must be born again. Second, if we have come to see Him at all clearly, we know that He is eager to bring this birth about. When He said, "The wind blows where it pleases," I don't think He meant that He was willing to come more quickly to some. I think He was merely trying to clarify the facts about the new birth for us. We cannot always know the exact time the Spirit comes to make His home in the depths of our beings. But we can know that He is always willing and eager to come.
"If any man will open the door, I will come in." Again Jesus made it as plain as possible. But even if He hadn't put it in so many words, is there anything in the attitude of Christ on His Cross which would cause you to believe that He was not eager for you to experience the benefits of His agony there? Weren't His arms stretched out toward the whole world? Is there anything in the Personality of Jesus Christ which would cause you to think He is not dependable? If He said so definitely that we must be born again, do you think He would fail to keep His part of the transaction? If He bothered to remind us that it was a spiritual birth, made possible only by the Spirit of God, do you think He would fail in doing for you what He knows only He could do for you?
It is all important that we remember that the three Persons of the Trinity are One. They do not in any way contradict or disagree with one another. One does not act conversely to the deep longing of the other. If the Father sent His Only-begotten Son to reach us and bring us back to Himself, would the Son or the Spirit oppose Him in it? They are One. They think as One, they long as One, they act as One.
If your ears are open to hear the Son of God tell you that you are in need of the new birth, immediately you
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will find the Spirit pressing against your heart for entrance!
The new birth is supernatural. It is the entrance into you of the Spirit of God Himself. It occurs in one moment of time. But since it apparently occurs in your unconscious depths, you are not always immediately aware of a cataclysmic invasion.
More than this, it is realized by faith. And if this sounds nebulous to you, think of it this way. Remember that your faith is in direct proportion to your knowledge of the true character of God. You won't have to whip it up and think positive thoughts in order to convince yourself that the Spirit of God has invaded your mortal life. You will only need to remember that God is discoverable to anyone. We can all know Him and His intentions toward us when we know Jesus Christ. We have no quixotic unknown quantity to reckon with here. We have an open fact. God has exposed His heart on the Cross in His Son. Jesus on the Cross is what God thinks of you. Jesus on the Cross is the extent of His love. Jesus on the Cross is the extent of His eagerness to be one with you.
In speaking of the supernatural character of the new birth, Dr. White writes: "When I say that it is supernatural I mean that it occurs outside the natural laws which govern the material universe, and it cannot be brought about by any effort of man. The new birth is the implantation of divine life, or eternal life, in the spirit of man. It cannot be achieved or attained, for it is the gift of God."2
Dr. Henry Drummond once wrote that a man can no more make himself a member of the Kingdom of God than a member of the vegetable kingdom can lift itself into the animal kingdom.
We can no more know the exact time of the implanting of the seed of eternal life in the human heart than we can know the exact moment when the male cell uniting with
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the female cell brings a new life into being. In fact, it is only by a discovery of modern science that we even know of this uniting of the male and female human cells.
Some new Christians are peaceful and joyous at once. Others find assurance coming more slowly. Neither case is necessarily normal. The basis of the Christian life is Jesus Christ Himself. If we could only see this quickly, we would go on depending upon Him because of what we know of Him, and refuse to be upset by what we feel concerning our own spiritual state.
I cannot resist mentioning here, once more, the danger in trying to pour new Christians into a mold of artificial piety. Jesus Christ invades the human heart because the impetus is from His side. And He always works with what He finds there according to what He knows both of Himself and of the person whose life He has invaded. God never works from the outside. If you are a new Christian, don't try to imitate the Christians you admire. Don't try to speak as they speak. Be yourself in Christ. You cannot trust yourself, but you can trust the One who has come to live in your personality. And you can depend upon it, at all times and under all circumstances, that He is working by His Spirit in the depths of your personality. He never sleeps, but He works while you sleep. Sometimes He can do more if you are asleep! Then your conscious mind is not trying to be something or someone you are not. He is interested always in the essential you — as He alone knows you to be.
If we cannot know the time of the new birth, then how are we to be sure it has occurred?
First of all, we can take Christ's word for it. "If any man will open the door, I will come in...."
But aside from this, there are a few new signs which show up in us, too. First of all, there is a natural, almost unexplainable, desire to be with other Christians. This too may come gradually. It may seem to be absent at first.
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But wait. Don't jump at conclusions about the absence of God's life in your life merely because you happen to be shy or antisocial. Be realistic about your own personality as well as His. The second indication which usually appears is a desire to pray. Most likely not in the unfortunate, unnatural "praying voice" of some other Christians you know, but it will become just as natural for you to cry out to God, even wordlessly, as it is for a newborn baby to cry for attention from its mother. And one other indication of the new birth within you (and this one may come first of all) is that you will want to bring others into the same new life with Christ.
Many sincere Christians believe that the proof of the new birth always shows itself in a desire to read the Bible. I know this is frequently true. However, I have found it not always the case. Many times the new Christian is slow about becoming interested in the Bible simply because he happens to have only a King James Version. I have nothing against the King James Version, but it is difficult to understand for those who have not yet been exposed to Bible teaching. If you are a new Christian, try one of the new versions. In this book, I am using the King James, along with the Berkeley Version of the Bible. I particularly recommend the Berkeley translation because the music of the King James Version is rather well preserved in it, but also because I feel the footnotes are unique. They will help you understand how to live your Christian life. They will not be over your head theologically and scholastically, as are many of the other Bibles with marginal notes. Along with the Berkeley Version, I also use The Amplified New Testament which gives all the possible meanings of the Greek. And no new Christian should be without the Phillips translation of the New Testament, which is certainly worded for the contemporary reader with little or no Bible training.
We are also told in the Bible that when the Spirit lives
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within us, He will witness to His own Presence there. This is true. However, too often the new convert who has met Christ as an adult is still so keenly aware of his own nature that this alone is not enough to give assurance to some overly sensitive souls. Particularly to those who have not yet come to the place of believing something to be true because the Bible says it is. Do not misunderstand me here. The Bible declares that the Spirit will witness to His own Presence simply because it is true. He does. But some highly neurotic, oversensitive persons cannot at first quiet themselves enough to grasp this inner witness.
Most important to remember, where the new birth is concerned, is that if you have come to believe that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be — one with the Father — and if you have placed your faith in Him, He has come to indwell your life. We lay hold of this fact by faith. Not faith in the fact, but faith in the Person who said He would come.
