The Second Birth

In the book of Genesis, Moses records the Words of God describing how the earth came into existence. He writes, “In the beginning God (Elohim) created [by forming from nothing] the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void or a waste and emptiness, and darkness was upon the face of the deep [primeval ocean that covered the unformed earth]. The Spirit of God was moving (hovering, brooding) over the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light.” (GENESIS 1:1-3 AMP)

What a picture! Imagine the very Spirit of God hovering over the chaos, disorder, and untamed dark waters of the oceans. But then, in one powerful word from God, a new day dawns ... light! The light separates the darkness and brings forth life. The earth was born.

Believe it or not, there is another moment in history that rivals the dawn of creation! Just over two thousand years ago, The Spirit of God ascended on the Son of God, who was suspended on a cross at Calvary, hovering over an ocean of primeval sin. He was brooding over the chaos of humanity, caught between the heavens and the earth—man's sin leaving us all empty, spiritually formless, and void. Yet Jesus was the Word made flesh (John 1:1-3), and with three words, "It is finished," the Messiah released the dawn of a new spiritual era. He released the light of salvation and separated us from the darkness of eternal death. The earth shook as if the world was having its last contraction before the Temple vail ripped open as if to give birth to new spiritual children. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, sacrificed His life in exchange for all of humanity's spiritual birth. And what was empty can now be full. What was chaos can now have peace. What was waste can now have value. We are now given the grace to become the sons and daughters of light and become a new creation in Christ.

“Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].” (2 CORINTHIANS 5:17 AMP)

By Joseph E. O. Mead