5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
Our new grandson does not like getting a bath. He uses the opportunity to exercise his lungs! Our kids can’t figure out what the issue is. He lived in water for those nine months; he should be used to it! They have adjusted the temperature of the water, but that didn’t help. But guess what, they still give him a bath because he gets dirty. He was only born a month ago but he needs a second birth already. His newness is wearing off. He is not the person he was when he was born. He has changed. In fact, both the process of being made new and the ongoing work of the Spirit in remaking him will continue throughout his life. And it is not his efforts that cause him to grow. His parents are doing all the hard work. He just sits there looking cute. Now if he stayed helpless his whole long life, that would indicate something was wrong. He needs to grow and slowly take greater and greater care of himself. There will be plenty of accidents along the way, but if he keeps moving forward, he will grow up. But the real growth will have nothing to do with his efforts. In fact, his fastest growth has already taken place. And none of it had to do with his own effort. God was at work knitting him together. Following conception his growth was phenomenal. He doubled in size in a matter of minutes. He will never do that again. And he had nothing to do with it. So it is with our spiritual life. When we begin our Jesus-following journey, we do nothing. It is not our efforts that make this new life possible. Jesus’ life, death and resurrection did everything we need. We just have to let that new life flow through us and that Life will change and renew us. As our grandson struggled to learn to breast feed, there were times when he got so frustrated he would cry and wiggle with the solution bumping him in the cheek. He has learned to be dependent on Mom for his nutrition. Can we learn to be dependent on the Lord for our spiritual nutrition and growth?
The Arnold Journey 