Conversion is a big deal. It’s not just about heaven; it has an enormous influence on how we think about life now, on this earth. We’re invited to live such an entirely new life, with a radically new outlook, that it’s easy to stop well short of the life we were actually reborn to live. See if you recognize any of the four ways people often shortchange their spiritual experience.
Are You Living the Life You Were Reborn to Live?
Imagine someone had lived their entire life underground, and they learned to thrive there, as much as possible (given the obvious limitations). They learned how to navigate in the darkness, how to find comfort in every season, and what to watch out for. Eventually, they became so familiar with the limitations of living underground that they never thought of them as limitations—it was just the way things were.
One day, a visitor tells them about life above ground, where there are birds, trees, sunshine, and wind. But there’s one catch—they must crawl out of the ground and into the sunlight to experience what’s up above.
The person below ground is surprisingly uneasy. It sounds like an amazing world up above, but they have learned to excel in life underground. She may be a queen, or he may be a king, underground. They’ve mastered how to make themselves as comfortable as possible, given their surroundings. They don’t know the rules of life above ground, so they choose to stay below ground, missing the sun, the wind, the light, the trees, the songs of the birds. The person who has lived above ground thinks, “How foolish! It’s so much better up there!” However, to a person who has lived their entire life underground, life above ground might seem intimidating.
Jesus calls us to crawl out of the spiritual and ideological tunnels we’ve grown so comfortable with and into the fresh air and radiating sunlight of His kingdom. When Jesus began preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17), He was essentially saying, I’m calling you to an entirely new life, with new values, new goals, new purpose, and a new understanding. What used to work for you isn’t relevant in the new life, and often may even work against you.
The apostle Paul described it as stepping “out of the world” and “in Christ.”[i] We must unlearn everything the world has taught us (come out) and re-learn what it means to be “in Christ.” “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
I wrote The Life You Were Reborn to Live in part because, as a pastor, I saw too many Christians who were “born again” but still lived by the values, skills, and focus of their previous life. We are “reborn” in Christ to live an entirely new life, but many believers are “reborn” in name only.
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