The Three Births

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     Those responsible beings who would be heirs of eternal life must enter three domains to share in the salvation which will be revealed at "the end of time" (I Peter 1:5). These may be designated the natural, spiritual and eternal kingdoms. Each one is entered by birth, and since birth requires a coming forth, the process by which we enter each in turn is called delivery. We are delivered from the body of the mother, from the body of sin, and from the body of earth. We come forth in turn from the womb, the baptistery and the tomb.

     Birth does not produce life. One is begotten before he is born. The purpose of delivery is not to secure life but freedom for one who is living. It releases him from confinement and translates him into another state where he can enjoy the blessings and privileges and fulfill the responsibilities for which life was designed. The living organism in the womb must be set free at the proper time to develop its full potential. It cannot remain in the state in which it was conceived and fulfill the purpose of the life with which it has been endowed.

     In the spiritual realm baptism does not produce life. Life begins at the point of trusting faith. Baptism is the end of the period of spiritual gestation and not the beginning. There is a difference between life through Christ and life with Christ. Life through Christ, as the source or means begins when we trust in him completely. This is the point of conception. Life with Christ is the state into which we enter at baptism. This is the point of birth. The first occurs when we acknowledge Jesus as our only Savior. This is the act of a sinner filled with a sense of guilt and remorse. The second occurs when we acknowledge Jesus as Lord of our lives. This is the act of a hopeful and penitent believer.

     One passage in the new covenant scriptures makes this clear and points up for us the relation of our baptism to recog-

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nition of His Lordship. "Every power and authority in the universe is subject to him as Head. In him also you were circumcised, not in a physical sense, but by being divested of the lower nature; this is Christ's way of circumcision. For in baptism you were buried with him, in baptism also you were raised to life with him through your faith in the active power of God who raised him from the dead" (Col. 2:10-12).

     It is while one is in the natural realm that he is begotten by faith. But one cannot remain in the state where he was begotten. He must be born into a new state and this involves delivery from the former. When one is baptized into Christ he puts on Christ. He is freed from the domain, or dominion, of sin. It no longer reigns over him. He is under the dominion of another and better sovereign. "But now, freed from the commands of sin, and bound to the service of God, your gains are such as make for holiness, and the end is eternal life" (Romans 6:22).

     In conjunction with the preceding it may be said that eternal life does not begin with resurrection from the dead. This simply frees us from the confining elements of flesh and blood and makes possible the fullest enjoyment and expansion of the redeemed personality. Just as one is begotten in the natural realm for delivery into the spiritual, so one is begotten unto eternal life while in the spiritual. We are in possession of eternal life now. "God has given us eternal life, and this life is found in His Son. He who possesses the Son has life indeed; he who does not possess the Son of God has not that life. This letter is to assure you that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:11-13).

     Ours is now eternal life in an embryonic state. It must continue thus so long as we are in our physical bodies, subjected to pain and sorrow, and limited by time and space. It is the design of the resurrection to free us from these confining elements because "flesh and blood can never possess the kingdom of God, and the perishable cannot possess immortality" (1 Cor. 15:50). Our spirits have been redeemed but our bodies have just been purchased for a possession of the Spirit. Their redemption will come at the resurrection when we are born into a new and eternal state. This will culminate our glorious adoption as sons of the Eternal One. At that time "the whole created universe is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and enter upon the liberty and splendor of the children of God." These shackles force the created universe to writhe in pain and agony as if in the throes of travail at childbirth. It is not by mere chance that the apostle refers to travail in this connection, for travail leads to birth. He continues, "And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body" (Romans 8:23).

     "What is sown in the earth as a perishable thing is raised imperishable. Sown in humiliation, it is raised in glory; sown in weakness, it is raised in power; sown as an animal body, it is raised as a spiritual body." "This perishable being must be clothed with the imperishable, and what is mortal must be clothed with immortality. And when our mortality has been clothed with immortality, then the saying of the Scripture will come true, 'Death is swallowed up; victory is won!'" (1 Cor. 15:53,54).

     The Father of us all has indicated His desire to have us share eternal life with Him. For that reason he sent eternal life in the person of His Son to share with us. The Son of God became the Son of man that the sons of men might become sons of God. That Son was delivered of an earthly mother that he might be partaker of our flesh and blood. We must be born again that we may be permitted to partake of his flesh and blood, that is, to share his life. "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." This had no reference to partaking of the Lord's Supper, but to participating in the Lord's life, that is, eternal life. To share in that life, the Lord said, "Marvel not that I said unto you, 'You must be born again.'"