The Nature of the New Birth (original) (raw)
Revisiting the New Birth in John's Writings
The new birth arises as one of the major doctrines of Christian faith. In fact, it acts as a foundational doctrine that marks the difference between grace and merit, which this article will explore. These two differences act as stark contrasts relative to salvation from its beginning to the conclusion of one's life. That is, the new birth raises the issue of human initiative versus God's initiative or the combination of both at the inception of spiritual life. It influences the nature of salvation itself and related biblical doctrines. This new birth produces a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) and pronounces the old gone. While sin remains and never becomes eradicated in this life, the new life increasingly expresses itself, as overcoming, through the grace of God.
SAPIENTIA GLOBAL JOURNAL OF ARTS, HUMANITIES AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIES, 2021
The New Life in Christ is the very essence of Christianity. Biblical Christianity is not merely one of many competing religions, nor a system of belief and practice that will hopefully make a better person but an intimate relationship with God through Christ with an experience of New life. There is a need for the proper understanding of new life in Christ as relates to Christian experience. This paper examines this concept in the light of 2 Corinthians 5:14-17. In this passage, Paul used the word or term "new creation" to express the experience of the concept of new life in Christ. The exegeticaldescriptive method was adopted in carrying out this study. It was discovered that new life in Christ is not a suggestion that Christians will no longer have struggles and disappointments but a new factor has come into their life that touches and modifies every experience. This paper posits that anyone who becomes a new creation comes into a new relationship with God and the responsibility to serve Him.
CHANGING HUMAN NATURE EXPLORING NEWNESS IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD
2023
The Old and New Testament scriptures use a variety of expressions to represent the change in the nature of a human brought by exposure to God. How do the scriptures understand the change of nature for humanity? This teaching document will revisit representative scriptural passages which use the multiple terms and related concepts to describe the change in nature as a person enters a transforming relationship with God. Scriptural quotations are included to bring context for the verses and concepts chosen in this study. There is a fundamental and significant change which occurs when a human humbles himself into a relationship with God. The scriptures represent the change many ways: as changing into another person, as a rebirth, a new birth, a resurrection, a renewal, being clothed with a new nature, an internal change where we remain in relationship with God, a change of allegiance, an escape from the sin and corruption and a participation in God’s nature, and an identification with Christ’s death and resurrection. Current Christian teaching has a range of very different views of our human nature. Some Christian teaching describes humanity by nature as entirely evil and in opposition to God and any healthy relationship with Him. (For a brief clarification about Calvinist teaching, see the quotation in the Addendum.) Some teachings frame the disconnected, lost or fallen human as a person convinced of a lie about the nature of God, a human becomes angrily resistant to the demands of relationship, living in ways which destroy his or her own self and destroy the lives of others. Any way one perceives human nature, humans are in need of a restored relationship with God and of an indwelling of God which establishes, maintains, and expands the connection with Him. Hatred of our nature and of ourselves are concepts which result from a simplistic and incomplete understanding of our humanity. Drawn from classic Greek and Roman concepts which influenced medieval and reformation theology, this perception of human nature is not biblical, but a misreading of the scriptural understanding of our nature. The concept of God’s creation of humanity in His own image and God’s continuous redemptive involvement with humanity belies the non-biblical concept of an essentially evil human nature. My personal understanding was once framed by explanations which have used selected verses as references to present salvation as a hatred and rejection of self and the struggle to obtain a supernatural change in nature. However, the scriptural emphases are always on God’s care for us, and on the change which results from the salvific relationship with God. The result of this transformative change is that the “new” person will reflect the change in their attitudes and actions.
"New Creation:" Grace and Experiences of a Renewed Nature
Religions, 2024
In everyday life, one encounters many experiences of affliction that, for whatever reason, nature (ours or others’) cannot resolve. Yet, when nature’s finite resources are exhausted and hope seems in vain, humans often experience extra-ordinary moments of renewal and resolution—breakthroughs, remissions, insights, and conversions. We experience these moments in our natural existence; yet, we feel they cannot originate, cannot be attributed to nature alone. Rather, these experiences, called “graces” in Christianity, are attributed to a divine power acting in us. How do we come to describe these experiences in this way? Is it possible to formulate a general theory of these experiences as “graces”? Is there an “experience” of grace in general, a “state of grace”, which serves as ground and unifying experience for the “graces” we receive? Working from the Catholic theological point of view, this paper examines such experiences of affliction and renewal, as well as the basic Catholic framework schematizing them as found in the Bible and Catholic religious writings. In doing so, this paper highlights the theme of impossibility (absolutely or in context) underlying each experience, and broadly categorizes them as happening within three regions of human life: the external, ethical sphere, the interior self-relationship, and the vertical relationship to the Divine. In dialogue with theologians and phenomenological thinkers, general formulations of the experiences are placed within their respective spheres, and certain problems in the identification or interpretation of these experiences are identified. The paper then explores how the experience of a “New Creation” can serve not only as a label for the totality of these experiences, but also as a totalizing and overarching ground-experience of “grace” and an interpretive hermeneutic for graces in general. As a result, a graced moment of total personal “rebirth” or “recreation”, prevenient with respect to any personal co-operation or experiences of grace as grace, is identified as a potential ground for all other graces considered. Finally, this paper considers some potential implications of this account of grace for both Catholic thought and Phenomenology more generally.
The Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ: Foundations for the Restoration of Humanity and Creation
The Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ: Foundations for the Restoration of Humanity and Creation, 2025
This paper examines the theological significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in relation to the restoration of both humanity and creation. Far from being narrowly soteriological, the cross and resurrection of Christ are cosmically restorative, renewing humanity's vocation as image-bearers and liberating creation from corruption. Drawing from biblical, patristic, and contemporary theological sources, the study explores how the paschal events form the foundation of new creation and kingdom theology.
The Spirit as Agent of Renewal: The New Testament Testimony
The Ecumenical Review, 1989
By "renewal" in this context I understand any act or process whereby the Holy Spirit intervenes in the lives of believers to transform, invigorate, and regenerate the human condition and the condition of creation as a whole. I take "creation" here to refer to both human beings and the sum-total of subhuman nature, animate and inanimate, though, as will become clear from the paper, most of the discussion will centre around the human creation. This paper examines the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers as evidenced in the New Testament. More specifically, an attempt is made to find out how the Spirit as presented in the New Testament influences and transforms the lives of believers and the church. The final section describes how some African Christians today see the role of the Spirit in their lives. The Holy Spirit in the Synoptic tradition a) Baptism with the Holy Spirit and withfire: In Luke 3:16 (par. Matt. 3 : l l) John the Baptist contrasts his baptism with that of Jesus: "I baptize you with water... but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."' This statement has been variously interpreted by biblical scholars. However, one interpretation which seems to face fewer objections than the others is that Jesus' baptism will have a twofold character, accomplishing for those people who would accept it both a purification and a refinement. Evidence for this can be found in a number of Old Testament passages in