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Redemption Is Rebirth

The metaphor of being “born again” (John 3:3) is a good way to remember the overall concept of redemption. The theology of redemption is not one of rehabilitation. It is not as if God comes to us and says, “You look like a good candidate for a ‘fixer-upper.’ Let’s take you where you are and clean you up a little, and then you will be ready for my kingdom and for life.”

The theology of redemption is one of total death of the old and starting all over again at birth. We are not to be “improved”; we are to be crucified and “born again.” As Paul said, the old has been crucified, and all things have become “new” (2 Corinthians 5:17; see Galatians 2:20). But Paul said that at conversion we become new, not complete. So we need to enter an entire developmental process. John spoke of Christians, whether young or old, as “children” who are learning (1 John 2:12 – 14). Peter used the term “newborn babies” (1 Peter 2:2). The author of Hebrews referred to a spiritually immature believer as an “infant” (Hebrews 5:13). The spiritual developmental path is one of bringing the creation back to the way it was supposed to be.

We were designed to be born into the human race and to grow up to be perfect, or complete, people. But none of us has made it to adulthood complete, for we all came from a dysfunctional family: the human race. We all missed the mark, which is a Biblical term for sin. So God wiped out the old and started over. We have to go through a rebirth and a regrowing-up process, this time in a new family. This family is God’s family, the body of Christ. In that family we are to get all the things we missed out on the first time. Nurture, modeling, truth, love, accountability, development of talents and more are all to be present in this family to give the babies what they need to grow up to maturity and completeness. That is why we need to begin “like a little child” (Luke 18:17).