Peace amid Pain - The Birth from God (2)

The new birth is not only the disentanglement to the problems of our sins and our separation from God, but it also changes our nature from inside. And this new nature is a nature that can bear pain. It’s the nature that Apostle Peter spoke about in his second epistle: “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature” (2Peter 1: 3, 4).

The New Birth is not only a solution to our sins, but the word of God tells us that via it we become partakers of the divine nature. For it changes our nature and our creature. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

If you bumped into a ceramic pot, what will happen? The pot will break. And if you tried to harden it by adding other layers of ceramic and you come and bump into it what would happen? The pot will break also. However if you change the nature of the pot by putting a layer of gold from the inside while keeping its outer ceramic shape unchanged, and knocked it down, the outer layer only will break while the inside layer will certainly not. That is the meaning of the verse “Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). If we have inside us God’s nature which we took by the new birth from God, we shall be exposed to troubles, hardships and persecutions, but we shall not corrupt for whoever is born of God shall never perish. “And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:28).

I often see people tired of pain and pressures of life, to the extent they bend beneath them, but when they come to the Lord, He might not change their circumstanses, but He changes the heart and its nature from inside. What does changing the heart mean? It doesn’t mean changing the heart in flesh, but changing the nature and the mind. Apostle Paul says “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” ( Romans 12:2).

To be born of God is to have a nature that provides you with the ability to understand and explain matters in a different way; it will change your reception of circumstances; what you thought to be evil you would see it good and you could say “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).

Through my communication with people who experienced this new birth, I can notice that they have got a new insight to their problems; for what they have encountered like evil, they see it now good; to the extent that they considered pain as a grant “For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (Philippians 1:29).

When we were born of God, He gave us a nature that can persist amid pain; this is not because of any strength in it, but because of its ability to communicate with God. For this reason Paul says “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Yes it is a precious treasure but the vessel is weak and fragile

You could be a believer having this new nature but bent beneath sufferings, without experiencing the effectiveness of this nature. I’d like tell you dear reader, that this nature can not strengthen us if we are not in contact with God. The power of appliances is not inside them but it comes from the source of power to which they are connected. The new nature gives us the ability to communicate with God, and to be sealed and dwelled by His Spirit.

The Holy Bible says: "We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8, 9). How? “We have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Corinthians 4:7). Yes, we get troubled, perplexed, persecuted and casted from the outside but from inside we are not crushed, in despair, forsaken nor destroyed.

I might suffer! Yes; have pain! Yes; bend! Yes; but I will not fall or fail for I have the nature of God inside me.

Magdy Samuel