“But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.” 1 Corinthians 2:14
When I was not walking with God in my life, many things in church and the lives of Christians seemed silly to me. Living a life of righteousness sounded boring, God seemed non-existent and inaccessible, Christian living seemed corny, Scripture seemed dull and irrelevant. I was what the Bible calls an “unspiritual person”.
Yet, when I came to Jesus open-heartedly and started believing, it was like someone turned the lights on for the first time. I began to see life with new eyes and perceive truths that I could not see before. Before trusting in Jesus Christ, I was spiritually blind, living in darkness.
The Bible speaks of a need to be “born again/born from above”. When we trust in Jesus Christ, we go from being spiritually dead to being spiritually alive. We are “regenerated” and experience an intimate life and relationship with God that we did not know was possible beforehand.
Throughout the Bible there are a series of miraculous births. Abraham and Sarah were married for a long time before she gave birth to Isaac in her old age (90 years old). A woman named Rebecca was barren for 20 years before she gave birth to Jacob upon God’s intervention. Another woman named Rachel was barren for many years before she gave birth to Joseph. Another woman named Hannah was barren for years before she gave birth to Samuel upon God’s intervention. Zechariah and Elizabeth were “well advanced in years” before Elizabeth gave birth to John, the forerunner to the one who would take away the sin of the world (Jesus). And of course, the birth of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, was a miraculous virgin birth. To extend this thought further, even the “birth” of Adam and Eve, the first humans, was also a miracle as God created them out of the dust.
In the New Testament, Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3 that a person must be “born again” spiritually in order to enter the Kingdom of God. This too is a miraculous birth as God brings us to life in Him. Until this miraculous new birth takes place in a person’s life, life with God will seem distant, dull and non-existent.
Like a deaf critic of Mozart or a blind critic of Michelangelo is the unregenerate critic of spiritual truths. Perceiving spiritual truths without being born-again is like trying to read in the dark. We need God’s miraculous intervention to “turn on the lights”. Colossians 1:13-14 tells us, “For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.” Trust in Jesus Christ and God will take you out of the darkness and bring you into a life of freedom with Him. Life will have a perspective and purpose you never thought possible.