Stone 4 part 3

          Christians, through no merit of their own, are born again of a different nature. Christ is their root. Fidelity to God is their nature. The life which proceeds from them is cultivated by the Holy Spirit. But, Christians must grow in the same soil as everyone else. The curse upon the earth is not rolled back for their benefit. The rain comes upon the just and the unjust alike. Every son of Adam has a tree where his autonomy ends and God’s sovereignty begins. The new birth is not the end of temptation or of moral failures. The new birth is a widow through which the light of the Son allows Christians to see and grow in a manner that gives peace with God. “While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Values change when vision shifts to eternity. Those things that endure beyond earth grow in value.

          “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” A desire for the kingdom that is greater than life or self leads man to a new perspective. To those born again, the kingdom of God is not a far-away, someday-if-you’re-good, place Christians go. The kingdom is a real place Christians live right now; today; right here. Jesus preached, “The kingdom of God is at hand.” The message was not religious or theological fluff, it was fact. Everywhere Jesus set foot, the kingdom of God appeared and men were invited inside. The kingdom and the invitation continue to this day; carried by His disciples. Christians see the kingdom. The kingdom is in them, but it is also all around them. Allegiance to the kingdom is the first and great desire of those born of God. It is likewise the great desire of God.

          “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” It difficult to find the right words to define love. However, few people see love as a legal requirement. Obeying the speed limit is not love for the state. Love is an affair of the heart, soul, and mind. Love involves the whole man and colors all he sees. The man born of God loves God and sees God moving through the universe. God is even in this man’s trials; stretching and growing him into the righteous being God sees from the beginning. It is love that cannot be contained and spills over into the Christian’s relationship to his world.

Peace with God leads the Christian to see himself as God sees him. God does not make new men by beating them with replays of their sins and failures. The new birth creates a new man whom, by an act of faith, God has declared righteous. “For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”