Many are working to be saved. Kind of like a baby working to be born. The baby could not work if he or she were not already born. But many people work at salvation, hoping they will make it.
A friend had a bulletin board in his religious goods store. It had a statement by the then Pope saying he was not certain of his own salvation. A humble baby not certain he had been born.
Isn't it wonderful that God has given us the figure of birth to help us understand our lives in Christ? I know the objections to these statements; if people believe they're already born again, they will not try to be better. This is like a child saying I don't need to go to school, I'm already born. Being born is the very reason we need to learn. Unborn need not apply.
If I try to enumerate the stages of life, please tell me when our will takes effect. First there is impregnation. Then there is gestation. Then there is birth. Do any of these involve our will?
Later as we mature, we learn to love and trust our parents and try to please them, or at least obey them. Is this not the course of Christian life?
If this is true, then human will is not part of the story of our early life. How fortunate someone made the early steps for us. Now that we are born we may strive to learn and improve. But first we were born.
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:13
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