It's the Same Prayer

I was at a men's Bible study tonight at our church, a study hosted by our Sunday School teacher. We were at the end and about to close with prayer and each one of us was mentioning specific things that we wanted the group to pray about. I mentioned someone I know who is a troubled individual and who needs prayer to be turned and brought back to God. "Are they a Christian?" was asked. "Well, this person made a profession of faith way back when, in childhood, but if you were to ask him now, he would say he doesn't believe in God." Then someone said, "Well, if they really were saved and had the Holy Spirit they wouldn't say that." To which I responded, "I think it is possible that he doesn't really believe what he said, but that he was simply being rebellious when he said it. But either way, it's the same prayer."

Is it not? Think about it.

When an individual apostatizes (leaves the faith) one of two things has happened. Either this is temporary and God by his grace will bring him back. Or this is genuine and his previous profession was a sham. Consider:

1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.  

Philippians 1:6 (NKJV) being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;

Just because we are born of him does not guarantee that we will never wander, fail, or fall. But it does guarantee that we will not fall finally if we genuinely belong to him.

So how are we to pray for those who have once made a profession and have now fallen away from it? How are we to know whether or not their profession was genuine? Well, we can't know, not until the end. However, when an individual disavows his profession he should be taken at his word and treated as an unbeliever. How, then, are we to treat unbelievers? We treat them with love, compassion, and truthfulness. How do we pray for them? We pray that God will bring them to repentance and faith, for that is the greatest need that they have.

That is also our need.

We tend to think of salvation in terms of conversion. "I was saved on such and such a day and it happened like this . . ." we would say. If someone were to ask us what one must do to be saved we would tell them one must repent and believe. But repentance and faith are not tools used in conversion and then laid aside. Repentance and faith are daily attributes of the Christian's life. As Christians we are always repenting and believing. Repentance is the state in which we live and belief is the state in which we live. So when we see an individual away from God, away from a state of repentance and faith, we pray that God will bring them to this state whether they have ever made a profession or not.

So the prayer for the wayward Christian is the same as the prayer for the unbeliever, because in practice at least, they are both unbelievers in need of repentance.

It's the same prayer: "Father, take this individual and bring him to the place in his life where he repents of his sin and turns to Christ in faith determined to follow Christ every day till the end of his days."

That prayer is pleasing to God and will work for anyone, regardless of what we think we may know about his spiritual condition. In fact, you could feel free to pray that prayer for me anytime you wanted. As the hymn-writer once penned:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love.
Take my heart, Lord, take and seal it
Seal it for thy courts above.

Philippians 1:19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance,

Who knows who shall be delivered through your prayers? Or mine?

Grace in Regeneration

I filled in for our Sunday School teacher a couple of weeks ago and since I put the time in to prepare the lesson and then teach it orally I thought it would not take a lot more effort to put it down here in the blog also just in case anyone is interested.

The question had come up in Sunday School the week before. You know the one. It was (it seems) the eternal question. Did we choose God? Or did God choose us? Election, conditional or unconditional? Our Sunday School teacher came down on the side of unconditional election. God chose us, we did not choose God--at least not until God's grace found us. As a defense for his position he argued that God does not violate human will, that those whom God looks over and does not choose in election are people who reject Christ anyway. They are opposed to God and to Christ. They get what they want. If anyone has a gripe that their will was violated, said he, it would be those who come to Christ, because they were as opposed to Christ as the rest and then came God's grace. They were saved in spite of their initial opposition to God.

Class ended and I called him over and challenged him (just a little) with an assertion. Yes, election is unconditional and based on God's grace alone. No, God does not violate the will of those who are eternally lost. They do get what they want. They are sinners and Christ-rejectors and in the end what they get is the result of their own choices. But God does not violate the will of those whom he saves either.

I let that last statement just sit for a minute. Then I said that what God does, instead, is change their nature.

Keep in mind that I have been here and done this. I have had this debate over and over and over again. In fact, I have argued both sides of it. At one time the argument would get my blood flowing. Now, honestly, I almost want to yawn. But (I thought to myself) this could be an opportunity to offer some clarity to a subject that can sometimes seem very muddy.

So my Sunday School lesson was topical and the topic was regeneration. My initial Scripture reference was John 3:

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

A new birth, Jesus proclaims, is a prerequisite to entering Christ's kingdom. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. But what does this mean? This is Nicodemus's question and we are glad he asks it because we are wondering also. Jesus explains that this new birth is a spiritual birth, that one is born into God's kingdom. Just like the wind, this new birth is something that is only seen through its results, through the effects it has on individuals.

It is interesting that Jesus uses a birth analogy to explain what happens to a person when he is "saved." There are two other analogies used in the New Testament which are similar. They are creation and resurrection.

We have seen an example of the birth analogy in the passage above. Here is an example of the resurrection analogy. Ephesians 2:

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

And here is an example of the creation analogy. 2 Corinthians 5:

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, . . .

Notice something about these three comparisons? In all three God is active and we are passive.

A creature cannot create itself. It may pro-create, but it cannot create . . . itself. It did not dictate the terms of its creation, the time, the place, nothing. It simply wakes up one day and is.

A dead man cannot resurrect himself. Lazarus, in the tomb, will stay there until judgment day. There is nothing he can do about his condition. He has no power over death. He has no power even to wish for new life. He is dead. If he is brought back to life it will be on Jesus's terms, when and where Jesus chooses. Lazarus is passive. Did Lazarus awake and then hear Jesus's voice calling him from the tomb or was it Jesus's voice that awakened him? In the end, it doesn't even matter, for without Jesus's voice there is no resurrection for Lazarus. But, and don't miss this, there was only one man raised from the tomb that day and it was the one Jesus chose to raise. Resurrection is something in which we are passive, not active.

It is the same with birth. When were you born? Where were you born? Now, here's a silly question. Why? Why did you choose to be born in the year you were born in? Why not wait? Why not choose an earlier date? Why be born where you were born? I imagine that there are multitudes of people born into horrid places in this world who could wish they had been born elsewhere. But we had no choice, did we? We were only passive in our birth, not active.

And that is the point of using these analogies. Until God regenerates us, until God creates us anew in Christ, until God raises us to walk in new life, we will never desire him, we will never desire righteousness, we will never desire holiness. But when God regenerates us, when he creates us anew, when he gives us new life in Christ, then we are new creatures with new natures and new desires. Then we awaken and choose him.

A dead man cannot breathe, but a living man breathes. Likewise a man who is dead in trespasses and sins cannot believe, but a man alive in Christ believes. Before God's grace, and apart from God's grace, we want nothing to do with God, not the true and living God. We may take an idol to ourselves if we find that convenient, but we are self-centered and self-serving and want nothing to do with the spiritual truth and true holiness that confronts us when we come face to face with the living God. We are at enmity with God, according to Paul in Romans 8. We are hostile toward him. This is true of everyone apart from grace. This is our fallen nature.

This is why God must change our nature, and when he does so, we turn to him.

James 1:18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

1 Peter 1:3 According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

John 1:13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 

The implications of this, and there are many, I will leave for another time. For now, suffice it to say that it takes a miracle of grace to save a sinner and what we are asking God for, and what we are expecting from God when we proclaim his gospel, is that miracles will take place. But take heart. God has promised these miracles and it is for this reason that Christ came.