There is nothing natural about being born again. There is nothing natural about being a child of God. It's supernatural. Everything about it goes against the nature we are born into. Everything about it wages war against the natural man. You can't be a child of God and be normal, by the world's standards. You can try, but, if you are born again, you won't succeed. The Christian life is a supernatural life by nature. It's abnormal to the world. Normal to God obviously. But definitely not normal to the world. It's offensive to the world. If you are born again, if you are a child of God, you will offend people. It's a given. Because the Gospel is by nature offensive to the world, offensive to the natural man. It requires us to die to ourselves, to our efforts, to our abilities. And that's offensive. I'm not saying that you should go out and try to offend people. I'm just saying that it will happen, because it's a part of the Christian life.
And what is the Christian life? It's not a changed life, or a rearranged life; it's an exchanged life: our life for His. It's not us living for Christ; it's Christ living through us. It's not about religion, conversion, principles, doctrines, whatever. It's a lifestyle. We are literally born again. Our lives start at birth, right? Well, so it is with rebirth. Our lives begin again. And that's supernatural. When something is supernatural it is "attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature," as the dictionary on my Mac states it. Being born again definitely goes beyond the laws of nature, don't you think? It's like a dog becoming a cat, or vice versa, depending on whether you're a dog or a cat person. We go from the first Adam to the last. We literally take on a new nature when we are born again. The old nature, the Adam nature, the nature that compels us to sin, is done away with and the nature of Christ takes its place. Actually, that transference took place a long time ago, over two thousand years ago, when Christ died and rose again. Talk about supernatural! And when we are born again we receive what has already been done, what has already been paid for.
In May, when we first arrived in Ohio, Micah and I were worshipping together at a friend's house, spontaneously singing whatever plopped into our spirits, as we like to do. Micah started singing "highly unusual, highly unusual" over and over again. Later, he sang on a different chord progression, "highly unusual, supernatural God." Yes, God is highly unusual and supernatural. He's not, as we would like to think, normal, comfortable or natural. He supersedes the natural. And He forces us outside of our comfort zones. Being born again forces us outside of our comfort zones. It makes what was once comfortable uncomfortable. But where do we go from there? Too often we fall into traps of comfort, or at least I do. We move from one place with God to the next and stop there until it becomes comfortable, instead of moving on and up to higher places of relationship with the Lord.
Comfort produces stagnation, lukewarmness. And that's not something I want. I want to grow. I want to be pulled and prodded and yanked into all sorts of new places and experiences. I want a kick to my spirit every time I start to drag. And that takes people. It takes the Bride, the Body of Christ. That's why we need each other. We are Jesus to each other, different aspects of Him, different lines in the same poem. We need each other to grow, to move, to enter the uncomfortable, the unusual, the supernatural. And the supernatural is where we belong.
- Jesse
