When the Lord kneeled down and breathed into mother Eve’s nostrils the breath of life her heart beat its first beat, and her body began to warm. Slowly her eyelids fluttered and, opening her eyes, she beheld a world utterly and totally foreign to her. Her brain cells held no memories at all – none! She had no expectations, no memories, no beliefs. Had God not worked an instant miracle on her brain the moment He created it she would not have had the power of speech. He had to instantly imprint upon her mind speech patterns and the instant ability to understand and articulate speech, the language she and Adam would employ for the remainder of their human existence. But her vocabulary at that moment would have consisted of no words – none. Again a miracle was worked by God within Eve’s brain. Each word she now heard from God, Adam, or any other being would be the very beginning of her education and her understanding.
So, too, is the condition or situation of each and every human being when first making vital, life-changing fellowship with the Eternal, our Creator. Oh, we have memories alright and are quite familiar with the world we live in. We do have expectations and beliefs – most erroneous or ill-formed. God must make of us a new creature formed in His likeness and having His mind set from a tainted and severely warped mind and personality. Scripture calls all such babes in Christ. (See I Peter 2:2).
The prophet Isaiah discerned this truth quite well when he wrote, “But now, O Lord, you are our father; we are the clay, and you our potter, and we ALL are the work of your hand” (See Isaiah 64:8) Is it obvious your Creator is at work in your life and that you are being gloriously changed from day to day into an offspring of God? (See Acts 17:22-29).
The prophet Jeremiah observed something more, writing how the vessel was marred in the hand of the Potter. “Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.” (See Jeremiah 18:1-6). Prior to our genuine conversion we are all marred vessels desperately needing the Master Potter’s continuous fashioning of our lives. Salvation is not a one time experience we can point to that occurred on a given date and at an exact time. We CAN say at 9:00 a.m. on Friday morning August 6, 1976 I surrendered my life to our Lord Jesus Christ and was baptized that very hour, and on that date I was justified. We cannot say though that at that very moment we were saved as our sanctification is as much a part of our salvation as our justification. We can say at that moment we became a begotten child of God. We speak gross error if we say at that moment we were born again for we are born again by our resurrection from the dead, a yet future event.
The shunning of the Hebrew scriptures, containing God’s foundational truths, is the cause of this present state of affairs in the various churches. Hosea the prophet states quite clearly that the place of the breaking forth, or birth, of children to God IS THE GRAVE – not the baptismal waters! (See Hosea 13:13-14). Had Nicodemus understood Hosea’s writings he would not have been surprised when Jesus told him, “You must be born again!” Jesus went on to say that what is born of the flesh is flesh, but what is born of the spirit IS A SPIRIT BEING, no longer flesh and blood, no longer human. (See John 3:1-10).
Folks, Satan has done a marvelous work and wonder of deception upon Christianity, and he began that deception the moment the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees learned that Peter and his companions were teaching the people that Jesus Christ had been resurrected from the dead. (See Acts 4:1-3). And he continues that deception to this very hour. God help you to understand.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley