The Question:
When Dave talked about a religious experience, I was just wondering what he meant by that?
Let's put it into context, I was talking about what being born again is not and so as part of my talk I said 'being born again is not having a religious experience'.
Many churches around the world and indeed in our own backyard can produce a gathering that only aims to produce a particular experience or feel that would make someone believe they are born again just by being part of that experience. There are some groups that operate whereby they take away your watch, keep you up late and have emotionally, intense and draining preaching just to produce in you a particular experience.
But my question is what is the substance of being born again? As I said on Sunday it is a radical transformation from the inside out (or you could say that it is change in attitude to Jesus as LORD). It is God working to produce in us a new identity, a whole new person. 2 Corinthians 5:17
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has gone, the new has
come!
How does this come about?
The experience that is worth seeking out is an experience of the Word of God. It is only through this 'experience' that someone can be transformed, not by music, not by raising hands, not by any other means but by the Word of God. Pushing further we see that this is the work of the Spirit, which is what Jesus goes onto say in John 3 anyway:
Spirit gives birth to Spirit
New birth (regeneration, being born again whatever you want to call it) is wholeheartedly connected to the work of the Spirit. But how does the Spirit work? Scripture seems to clearly tell us that the Spirit and the Word are intimately connected (in fact I would say that you cannot and should not cut them off from each other!). Take for example Ephesians 6:17
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word
of God
To divorce these two has the potential to land us in danger of misunderstanding the Spirit and the Word. Hopefully this clarifies to a certain degree what I meant by 'being born again is not a religious experience'. It is an experience but not in the sense most people would say it is
7 comments:
So is it possible to have a religous experience?
Of course it is possible! We can and do have an experience at least every Sunday and it is not just a religious thing, but we experience God himself when we hear the word of God!
As Calvin says, 'Where there is preaching, there God's voice rings in our ears'.
And again, 'Therefore, when the gospel is preached among us ... is as much as if he came down to us himself'.
So its only possible to have an experince in an Anglican Church wearing a watch?
God's voice rings thru eternity. Its God's spirit working within us that does the transformation - Sanctifying Grace. See many places in the Bible including 1Peter 1:2
"through the sanctifying work of the Spirit"
The Word of God is only part of the picture. The aim is not to study God but to truly know him... to enjoy a relationship with him.
Dear Anon
I never said anything about this being an Anglican experience!
How you can 'truly' know God, have a relationship with Him and enjoy Him without the Scriptures that reveal Him is 'truly' a bizarre thought indeed!
Glad we both agree.
You need Gods word, to know about him, but the holy spirit to put into practice..you need the practical application of Gods word.
It might be better in the future to take a swipe at the secular world rather than our brothers and sisters in Christ.
Dear Anon,
Disagreements among brothers and sisters is not a bad thing - it shows that we care about the truth and that we are fallible creatures. They are opportunities for us to grow in knowledge of God together. To ignore them altogether and to continue to act and think that we are one mind on all things is to be a tad naive (I may emphasis the Bible over experience and you may emphasis experience over the Bible - you can tell me if that is over simplification?). And so I welcome your view points that may disagree with me at points and I take them seriously as truth matters. It is because the Bible tells us to pursue unity that I am willing to engage brothers and sisters in Christ over these matters not just because I want to fight. It is important that we disagree well and do it with humility, compassion, kindness and patience.
Post a Comment