Spiritual infancy to spiritual maturity (the new birth to adoption)

John 3:1-8: There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

Ephesians 1:5: Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

The new birth is a subject that is not fully grasped by many. It is commonly thought that one is born again upon accepting Christ as their Savior, and then there is the thinking that being born again means that one is spiritually mature. But none of this is correct. In fact, none of that is even logical, for the clue is in the word “birth.” It would be silly to expect or even think that a newborn child is mature, and so is it equally silly to think that a Christian who is born again is also spiritually mature. No! A born again Christian is only a spiritual infant who will gradually grow into the spiritual maturity known as adoption.

The Old Testament opens with a false birth, when Cain entered this world from a sex act between the Serpent and Eve. But the New Testament opens with the true birth, of Jesus entering this world when a virgin conceived by the Spoken Word. It was the sex birth that made a way for the virgin birth, and it was the virgin birth that made a way for us to receive the new birth.

When Jesus taught about the new birth, He did not explain the subject to a low, degraded, sin-riddled prostitute, but spoke of it to a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a good moral man who kept the Law to the letter, and yet with such a perfect orderly life, Jesus still emphasized to him the necessity of another birth that comes by the Holy Ghost. The importance of the new birth is because the human race has a beastly nature that came from the Serpent mixing his genes into the stream of human beings when Eve was seduced.

As a natural birth consists of a woman’s waters breaking, blood being spilled, and the child coming forth, into which enters the spirit of natural life, so also the spiritual birth is a threefold process of water, blood, and the Spirit of God’s life entering in. This process is better known as justification, sanctification, and the infilling of the Holy Ghost. A man is therefore not truly reborn until the Spirit of Christ has entered him following the breaking waters of justification, and the spilled blood of sanctification.

Justification is the realization that you are a son of God, and upon this realization, are then baptized in the name of Jesus Christ according to Acts 2:38. This immersion in water is an outward expression of the inward work of grace that is taking place inside the heart (1 Peter 3:21). Following this, a person sits under the Word for the age where they can be washed and made clean from the things of the world.

Sanctification is a continuation of justification’s work, for a person being washed by the water of the Word is therefore being cleansed and set aside for the service that God has called them to. As blood is the medium by which a natural body is kept clean, so the Word for the age is not just spiritual water, but is the sanctifying (cleansing) stream of the regenerate believer. Jesus would teach us this in John 17:17: Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

Justification and sanctification are to prepare the vessel for the infilling of God’s Spirit; and when the Spirit of God enters a clean vessel that is set in order for His service, then that person not only has Christ dwelling in their heart, but the very nature of Christ is residing there, and will work its way outward through the spirit and body, becoming manifest to all who behold such a man whose body and mind are in subjection to the will of God.

This outworking of God through the spirit and body of a regenerate man is a slow and gradual process. It is for this reason that the new birth is truly spiritual infancy, for a newborn babe in Christ will make all kinds of mistakes and say and do all kinds of wrong things. But they are growing, and that is what truly matters. Unfortunately, in our carnal humanity, we tend to judge a man’s spiritual progress by his outward appearance rather than recognizing what Christ has firstly achieved on the inside, and which will eventually show more and more on the outside as time goes on and Christ gains greater pre-eminence over the vessel in which He dwells.

In a nutshell, the true evidence that a person has been reborn and is filled with the Holy Ghost, is that they can receive the Word for their age. The Word for the age is Christ, and upon our receiving It, there is a strong desire to see the Word made flesh in us, and for It to have an impactful outworking in every aspect of our lives. It is not just about believing the Bible intellectually, but is about entering into a deep relationship with its Author who now resides in the heart, and letting Him take sovereign control of our lives.

This learning to relinquish our will for the will of God is a lifetime journey, and is truly how we grow spiritually, seeing and understanding everything in life more deeply as Christ teaches us out of His own Word. It changes our thinking, our behavior, our conduct, and our mannerisms; and with each passing day, there is less of us projecting ourselves, and more of Christ’s own life that is on display. Such development and progress are what brings greater maturity, for the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of Adoption (Romans 8:15); in other words, upon being reborn with the Spirit of God, it is a guarantee that you will eventually come to a place of maturity where God can completely trust you to handle His Word correctly and wisely.

Adoption was a celebration in Israel to acknowledge and to recognize a son who had come to a proper place of training and responsibility in order to take over his father’s business. Paul speaks of this in Galatians 4:1-7, showing that a son is an heir of all that the father has, but there is firstly a season of preparation and training he must undergo, under the teaching of tutors and governors, until the time appointed of the father where the son is deemed ready to take the mantle of leadership over his father’s business.

The new birth looks forward to this prophesied promise of adoption, whereby God can say of us as He said of Jesus, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him! (Matthew 17:5). It is us moving on from the milk of fundamental truths in the scriptures, and going deeper, eating the meat of present-day revealed Truth as Christ makes known to us more and more about Himself. Paul teaches the importance of this dietary development in Hebrews 5:12-14: For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Upon coming to a place of spiritual adoption, it does not mean to say that we shall never make a mistake again, for we are still living in a body of flesh that has a law of sin inside it. Indeed, our prophet had an adoption ceremony in Sabino Canyon when he received the King’s Sword in his hand. This Sword was representative of the Word, whereby God was displaying a deep trust in His prophet to exercise the Word fully and correctly. But the prophet still made little mistakes here and there in his natural life as we all do, but in no ways did any of his mistakes detract from how God viewed and trusted His adopted son. The point of the new birth and our spiritual growth toward maturity is to bring the law of sin in our fallen bodies subject to the Word of God by the Spirit of Christ that lives inside us. This is a daily struggle and a battle that will not cease until these bodies are changed to a glorified state at the translation of the saints.