October 19, 2010
Re-Birth
In the drama of the Chilean miners trapped for 69 days I see some wonderful Biblical similarities. As the miners were rescued I thought of Adam coming forth from the dust of the earth. Their going from death to life has shades of coming out of the waters of baptism. As each man was released from the grip of the earth there were claps, cheers and rejoicing in the world…not unlike heaven when a sinner repents. “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety–nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” (Luke 15:7 NIV)
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Gail;
-----My first inclination was to disagree with your analogy, until I gave it a second thought. My mind went first to our passing from being sequestered in this physical existence into being released amongst His heavenly hosts in His perfect and unlimited existence. And of course there will be the cheering then over our escape from these confining walls of imperfection. But your analogy of it to the new birth is even more insightful.
-----Those of us wandering about in these physical bodies will have three states of existence to have experienced by the time we are greeted in His throne room on that great day. The first is that of those miners in their first seventeen days of horror. All they had amongst themselves was guessing about their circumstances and possibilities. They knew how far below ground they were, and they knew how impenetrable were the walls of that mineshaft. But they had no actual knowledge of what was happening on the surface or how the folks there were responding. All they could do was guess and reason for unknown hope.
-----Our denial and rejection of the righteousness in Christ before being reborn through obedience to God’s message constructed for us the same impenetrable walls. Our minds were cut off from what could be known by our experiences being limited to the confines of a hole. For in a very real sense, even the nature of our physical existence differed from what it could be in Christ. But the contact they received from above was to trust in the mode of rescue being made available. We were contacted with a similar message while trapped by our own sins: leave your sins and be baptized. Of course the miners desired to leave the hole and each followed the instructions from above, individually entering the rescue tube. Those who desire to leave their sins must also follow the instructions from above and individually enter the waters of baptism.
------Upon exiting the rescue tube, the miners stepped into a very different existence of intermingling with those who rescued them, being able to freely move amongst them and share thoughts and feelings and experiences with them. Their prospects were no longer of the impending and certain death the hole presented, but were now of life and love and joy. Upon emerging from the baptismal waters we have entered a very different existence. We are no longer alone in our bodies facing an impending and certain death in sin. But God now has joined us within our bodies, and we are able to move about and mingle with Him, finding thoughts and feelings and experiences unreachable by those trapped in sin. It is indeed a new birth and a unique state of being.
-----Yet there remains a ride to be taken in another rescue tube. It is where my mind first went. Although we have passed from the death of the first state of existence into the hope, life, and indwelling of His Spirit in the second state of existence, we must pass through physical death into the perfection and eternity of the third state of existence. The instruction we have in this second state of existence is to abide in Him until we take that ride to where we will be not only spiritually freed from sin’s hole, but also physically freed.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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