When Old You Becomes New You's

"You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God...and this word is the good news that was preached to you"  
1 Peter 1:23,25

Peter knew something about revival and rebirth--he certainly didn't know the mechanics of how God makes a person new by the hearing of Jesus' Gospel (it is sovereign and mysterious).  But he had witnessed the fruit of it countless times by the time he wrote this letter which would eventually be accepted as divinely-inspired revelation from God.

It was him preaching the first Christian sermon where 3000 people made decisions for Jesus.  Of course, we don't know if all 3000 of those who received his sermon and were baptized really did continue on in the faith, but we know that Jesus began a revival from that point forward.  Jesus' Name became famous, and Peter was the main speaker for it.  It was he who repeatedly defended his miraculous healing of the lame beggar saying it was Jesus' Name and Jesus' power that did it.  It was he who spoke truth to the liars Ananias and Sapphira, after which they dropped dead for lying to the life-giving and life-sustaining God the Holy Spirit.  It was he who took the Gospel message to non-Jews, telling them that Jesus will judge them all, but that He died for them so that faith in Him would assure their forgiveness--and many more people came to faith.  And it was he who stood over the council of Jerusalem and said that God cleanses mens' hearts by faith, and that that faith is faith in being saved "through the grace of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 15:9,11).  Surely Peter knows a little something about the power of God's Word to make a person into a new person.  But what does it look like practically?

Searching Leads to Finding

If you've ever been bored with your usual music playlist, you know how refreshing it is to come upon a new artist or band that meets the need and fills the void.  Any fan of music knows what I mean.  You've been missing something, you've felt the miss, and some new sound has met you where you are to give you a jolt of energy. 
While this is a poor illustration, it certainly has parallels to what happens when one is born again.  They've been either empty, broken, or at the very least missing.  Perhaps they've been questioning God, or man, or both.  They've struggled with the important questions (ie, why are we here?, where does right and wrong come from?, did the cosmos just happen or was it created?, why is the Gospel so good but the people who believe it such hypocrites?), and they've not found sufficient answers.

At this very point, which seems dark and fearful, Jesus' words from 2000 years ago--"Come all you are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28)--comes to them in a personal and powerful way.  To their joy, they realize that while they were slipping out of darkness's grip, it was because Jesus was pulling them into His.  The Father was teaching them and drawing them to Him so that they could have new life in His Name (John 6:44-45, 63), and just like all along He had been serving them rain, sunshine, and food from behind the veil of His creation (Matthew 5:45; Acts 14:17, 17:25), He has now served them through the life-giving truth of His Word.

The Map

Sometimes it happens through solid preaching from a pastor, sometimes through reading authors such as CS Lewis or John Piper, and sometimes through simple Bible reading.  But it always coincides with Jesus' Words being on a collision course with the hard questions, and it always leads to a radical change in perspective whereby one who was skeptical of "God said" is now saying, "yes he did, and I can't help but believe it".

This is what Peter means when he says you were born "not of imperishable seed..." (ie, human cunning, wisdom, decision, etc.), but of "imperishable" (the grace and kindness of a loving God, who has a Father's heart and wills that all would be saved through His powerful Word).  God can't die and God can't lie, and so He continues on eternally, giving a never-ending salvation to those who draw near to Him through His Son (Hebrews 5:9, 7:24-25). 

Home

In a culture marked by opinions flying through the air like bullets in a militia battle (most missing their intended targets), everyone is looking for truth.  And truth exists.  And truth doesn't change.  But most would rather run from the God who created them, even after He pursued them. 
This is why the Word has to be powerful enough to overcome their rebellion.  And while there is certainly never a "forcing", there is certainly a transformation that can't be explained in human terms.  One awakes and sees that the One they ran from in hopes of finding truth had the truth all along, and they ran because they were unsatisfied by it.  Now they are satisfied.  And it's sweet, and it's joyful, and it answers the big questions while leaving the little ones "to be continued...".  But it's also line-drawing, and so "freedom" has new boundaries.  But these boundaries are even good, because the "freedom" the person had before wasn't really freedom after all--it was rebellion.  And one can rebel and rebel and rebel, but eventually one must land and call it "home".  And having landed in Jesus' truth, out of darkness and into light, one finds that they have turned from "one" into "two"--their self, and the life of Jesus in them.

And this is why Paul writes, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20).  Paul believed that Jesus really did die for him, and really did put His life inside of him.  Paul certainly isn't Jesus (nor is anyone but Jesus), but Paul is "in Jesus" (3:28), and this unity has made him new, as it has for anyone who has "put on the imperishable" (1 Corinthians 15:54).

This new home is temporary, but it contains in it the reminder that an eternal one is coming.  One where truth will be fully unveiled to every eye, where justice will be fully carried out by He who alone can carry it out, and where there will be no more longing because all that can be had will be.  This is why Peter said earlier in His letter that the Father has "caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1:3).  This is a hope that becomes the center of one's gravity.  Whereby one assumed before that hope exists to orbit around them, they now find themselves orbiting around it.  And this is the way it should have been all along.