“If I had known then what I know now…”
We’ve all heard or read variations on that literary cliché. We’ve probably had similar thoughts in real life.
You know how it goes: You think back to a point in life that was a major turning point, but that you didn’t know at the time was so significant. You made a decision to do something, or not to do something, never realizing that a seemingly trivial choice would shape your future. If only you had known, life would have been different.
Of all the good things about the Christian life, one of the best is that we really do get to start again—not changing the life that has gone before but starting afresh with a new life with a new set of opportunities. And we even get to keep the hard-earned knowledge we’ve gained along the way.
Jesus famously spoke of this in the third chapter of John when he was approached by a Pharisee named Nicodemus. He said, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
As startling as the concept of being “born again” is, the very familiarity of the phrase has taken away much of its impact. We hear it, we say it, but we seldom think about it.
No transition in life is as radical as the transition from being in the womb to being in the world. We expect that even in death itself we’ll keep an awareness of the life we’ve lived before, but in birth, it’s literally a whole new world.
That is the level of transition we should expect when we accept Jesus Christ as our savior. It’s not a course correction; it’s a completely new way of existing.
Like a newborn baby, though, we can’t expect to master this new life on Day One. There’s a new world to learn. There’s a whole new way of living to learn.
Will we learn it and embrace new life, accepting this incredible gift? Or will we be overwhelmed by a desire to move backward to a familiar life that can no longer satisfy.
The first letter of John contains words that are both promising and challenging. “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother or sister.”
God’s free gift is regeneration to a bright new life of love and righteousness. It is ours to embrace—or reject.
– Rev. Mark Fleming
This is part of a sermon/reading series in July-August, 2024, looking at some core Christian beliefs, along with distinctive emphases of the Methodist branch of Christianity.
The daily readings are my own, but they are loosely based on the topics covered in the Catechism of the Global Methodist Church. The column at the right contains the questions from the catechism and the sources it lists.
You can find the full catechism and other information about the Global Methodist Church at globalmethodist.org.
I invite you to join us for worship and other church gatherings at China Methodist Church and Forest Park Methodist Church.
Respectful conversation is welcome. Use the comment section at the end of this post.
From the Catechism of the Global Methodist Church:
62. How are we changed in regeneration?
We are made partakers of the divine nature and experience newness of life.
Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Genesis 17:5 No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations.
Genesis 35:10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel.” So he named him Israel.
John 3:3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus…
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
Galatians 5:22-24
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
Colossians 3:2-3 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
2 Peter 1:3-4 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
1 John 4:4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
Confession of Faith, Article IX* We believe we are never accounted righteous before God through our works or merit, but that penitent sinners are justified or accounted righteous before God only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe regeneration is the renewal of man in righteousness through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature and experience newness of life. By this new birth the believer becomes reconciled to God and is enabled to serve him with the will and the affections. We believe, although we have experienced regeneration, it is possible to depart from grace and fall into sin; and we may even then, by the grace of God, be renewed in righteousness.
63. How does regeneration allow us to live as children of God?
By this new birth the believer becomes reconciled to God and is enabled to serve him with the will and the affections.
Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Deuteronomy 10:12-13 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
John 1:12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…
Romans 8:16-17 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
2 Corinthians 6:18 And, “I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
Galatians 3:26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith…
Galatians 4:4-7 But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.
Ephesians 1:5-6 …he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Philippians 2:13 …for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.
1 John 3:1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
1 John 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.
Confession of Faith, Article IX* We believe we are never accounted righteous before God through our works or merit, but that penitent sinners are justified or accounted righteous before God only by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
We believe regeneration is the renewal of man in righteousness through Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, whereby we are made partakers of the divine nature and experience newness of life. By this new birth the believer becomes reconciled to God and is enabled to serve him with the will and the affections. We believe, although we have experienced regeneration, it is possible to depart from grace and fall into sin; and we may even then, by the grace of God, be renewed in righteousness.
* From the Confession of Faith of the Evangelical United Brethren Church, a predecessor denomination to the Global Methodist Church.