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Becoming What You Were
By John R. Gavazzoni
Probably more than any other responsibility that was laid upon me as a new Christian by my fundamentalist elder-mentors was of my need and responsibility to learn how to be a "soul-winner," and that to be appropriately so engaged with a heart full of great fiery zeal. Among the scriptures I was encouraged to employ toward that end, possibly more than any others, was that combination of verses 12 and 13 in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. [I encourage my readers to acquaint themselves with those declarations by our Lord from several translations]
Without exception, I must say, my mentors interpreted Jesus' words to mean that, based upon one choosing to receive Christ, that one...to repeat...upon that basis, one would be given the power to become a son of God, and would therefore be born, "not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (KJV) It should be noted that "right" or "authority" or privilege" is what the Greek text indicates, rather than "power." Came the day after many years of studying the Gospel of John when I realized by the grace of the Spirit of Truth, that that wasn't Jesus' meaning at all.
Moving from verse 12 to verse 13, it becomes clear that those who receive Christ are given the authority/right to become the sons of God on the basis that they WERE born of God: "But as many as received Him, to them gave He the authority/right/privilege to become the sons of God, who WERE [and therefore ARE born of God within the timeless eternality of God], born thus, "not of blood, nor or the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man." Upon being irresistibly drawn to receive Christ, one's eternal/timeless begotten being begins to becomes a living, experienced Reality in the here and now.
Having been born "from out of the midst of God" (from Jonathan Mitchell's translation of verse 13), we are given birth again from above back up to a higher place (JMT), that "place" being where we WERE begotten from out the midst of God before our physical birth down here below where we suffered a disconnect from that Reality of our being. Linking Jesus' explanation of what is required to see and enter the kingdom of God in John 3: 3, and unpacking the full nuances of the Greek, what Jesus said to Nicodemus was, "unless anyone (or someone) is given birth back up again from above to a higher place, He cannot see the kingdom of God." (again, from Jonathan Mitchell's Translation of the New Testament)
From Paul we understand the true nature of our Primal being as he explained that, "for in Him we live and move and have our being." Our being is from out of the midst of God, out of the midst of, as in begotten of Him as chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Again we see how pseudo-orthodoxy, while claiming a Christ-centered theology, really preaches a man-centered message: you receive Christ, and on that basis God gives you the authority/right to become a son of God, rather than the truth that you become a son of God upon receiving Christ based upon God giving birth to you.
Inviolable principle: you can only become what you are, even as the world, the flesh, and the devil do all they can to keep you from your destiny; predestined as the many sons/brethren of THE Son, to be conformed to the image of God's Son
A note at this point on what the Greek conveys by that authority/right/privilege. The sense of the Greek conveys, "from out of Being" (JMT), or as E. Stanley Jones put it, "according to the nature of." From having been begotten of God receiving your being within, and out from within, His Being, you are returned to that eternal Reality of your being, being given birth again from above to a higher place. The Source of our being is from above, transferred by regeneration to the below of the here and now.
This is at the heart of "knowing our true identity in Christ." Nothing less.
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