How Babies are Born and Grow to Maturity
Babies are the product of covenant love and marriage. The seed and the egg meet at conception, and a new life is formed. After a period of time, the new creature is born into the world through the travail of its mother.
Christians are born the same way, but the matters we speak of are spiritual. The seed of God’s Word is planted into spiritually good soil by the preaching of the Bible. This seed, planted in a human soul, is invisible because God is Spirit, and the invisible work of God can only be detected by its effect.
The Bible teaches that this Word of God, implanted by the Spirit, through preaching, is like the wind. We do not see the wind, but its effect is detected, especially, when there is a tornado or hurricane. Just as the wind visits who it may, the Spirit of God visits the elect of God, on a day appointed by God’s eternal decree.
God is merciful to the elect soul who is brought into the hearing of God’s Word. When the preaching is Christ Himself, calling His people, like a Shepherd calls His own sheep, then they will hear and follow Him.
The Spirit of God anoints the preacher and the preaching, making them effectual to produce the intended result — a new believer. The Spirit is present in the delivery of a sermon from the Bible, and the Spirit moves to take up a permanent, abiding presence within the heart of the person, chosen by God to receive this grace.
It is important to note that sheep do not choose their shepherd; dead branches do not choose to be grafted into a living vine; and babies do not choose their parents. Sadly, many false teachers, claiming to represent Jesus Christ preach this heresy of free will decisionalism, whereby the object of salvation is deemed the agent of salvation.
Babies, born into the world are nourished by the natural food produced by their mothers, and then God’s creation, filled with food to eat, becomes the source of nourished growth.
Christians are conceived in the womb of the church, by the Word of truth, the seed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As unformed spiritual matter begins to take shape, the reality of the new birth becomes evident. He that was merely a natural man, in the world of sin, becomes a born again, spirit-filled believer in Jesus Christ.
The church is not the manipulator of this life-giving process; rather the church is impregnated with God’s elect people, made alive in Christ, on the day of His Spirit’s visitation. Like Mary receiving Jesus in her womb, from the Holy Spirit, so the church receives the now living soul, from the same life-giving Spirit.
The church is the place of nurture and nourishment. The food given to the church to feed newly born again Christians is the Word of God. The same Word that is called, “seed” — to begin this life, is also called, “the milk of the Word.” The Word is the natural food for a new Christian to feed on, grow, and mature.
As the Christian moves from infancy to adulthood, she feasts on the “meat of the Word.” The ramifications of this are significant. The healthy church is a Word-centered church: for evangelism (new life); for growth (grace and knowledge); and for maturity (fruitful and abundant life).
The Word protects and feeds God’s people in a famished and dangerous world. God has designed all things in the physical realm, to show Christians the spiritual realities of God, and His work of giving and sustaining the life of His people. This gives the Christian assurance and comfort.
If you are not in a Word-saturated church, my friend, then find one, for now you see that your life, spiritual and eternal, depend on it.
David Norczyk
Spokane Valley, Washington
March 14, 2022
