I have always loved the record of the life of John the Baptist whom John the Apostle described as a man sent from God; his birth was a miracle, his name given by an angel as a testimony to his parents.
John was the first to talk of Jesus as the Light, the Word and the first to acknowledge him publicly as the Chosen One and prophesy that Jesus was the Lamb of God.
John was sent by God to be the witness who would identify Jesus as the Messiah. John had said that the One who sent him told him that when he saw the Spirit come down from heaven and remain on someone, that was to be the sign to him. In fact, John said that the reason he came baptizing in water, was so that Jesus might be revealed to Israel.
Although John and Jesus were related (their mothers were cousins) and they were born six months apart, John spent most of his time in the wilderness while Jesus grew up in Nazareth. Jesus, the reason all things were made that were made, was in the world but no-one including John knew he was the Son of God, until that moment of his baptism at the river Jordan.
John the Apostle wrote that Jesus came to his own but his own did not receive him; he went on to say that those who did believe on his name and did receive him, Jesus gave the power, the right, the privilege, to become children of God. They could embrace their birthright. Rather than being born of natural descent, human decision or a husband’s will, they could be born of God. Jesus was the firstborn of many whom God foreknew and predestined to be like His Son.
This journey to be transformed into the image and likeness of Jesus, to become children of God only can begin when we make the choice to believe in Jesus, when we choose to receive Him; in that moment, we are given the right to become children of God, to be born of His Spirit. What we do after that moment is as important to the process as that choice to believe in Him and to receive Him.
Peter, the apostle wrote of those whom God foreknew as those chosen to be obedient to Jesus Christ. This journey to our birthright to being born of God cannot be achieved without us being sprinkled with the blood of Jesus, without the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus said that to enter the kingdom of God, one had to be born again of water and of the spirit.
What does this mean practically for us when we hear about Jesus and believe in Him as the Son of God? It means that just as we entered this world through the birth process and were born as human beings (made of flesh), we have to be born of the Spirit of God to enter the kingdom of God. This birthing process may not be instant nor automatic, much like the human birth process. Once there is conception and the seed is planted in the womb, there is a period of growth to maturity to be able to sustain life outside the womb – that’s when birthing occurs. For us to be born of God, we have to stay, live in the spirit. Our choices, our thoughts, our desires should be those of the spirit, not the flesh.
And when we are born, we are born with a purpose – to be obedient to Jesus Christ and through him to our Father. John the Baptist was asked many times whether he was Elijah or the Messiah. This was because of how he was living his life, calling people to repentance and baptizing them. John answered repeatedly that he was neither the Messiah nor Elijah nor Moses, the Prophet. He was just a voice crying in the wilderness.
I know than I spent many years being unclear of who I was, wondering what I was “called to be”. Was I meant to be like David, Elijah or Daniel? Then, I came to the understanding that God had us in mind when he looked at these great men of faith. He had something better for us. There was only one John the Baptist, only one Elijah for their generation. We were born to be His children, born of His family, to be transformed through our lifetime into the image of Jesus through the process of sanctification and obedience.