Common wisdom allows for us to become desensitized. Once we’ve felt the weight of an experience twice previously, it is understandable if the event bears less impact the third time through and few would blame us if we remained unmoved.

But the commonplace is no home of miracles. Miracles demand your attention, they are out of the ordinary, that’s what makes them miracles, they are beyond explanation and require that we be content without explanation, without the ability to bring it down to the commonplace. Three times now I’ve been given the golden ticket to witness a miracle and it is no less powerful each time.

Rhett has teased in the past that I am”extremely Reformed,” which I am. Experiencing the miracle of birth only solidifies for me a Reformed soteriology (a Calvinistic understanding of salvation).

We do not choose our birth. We cannot conciously hinder or aid it, we are helpless throughout the process, completely dependent upon others, even to the point that we must be prompted to take our first breath. Birth is truly a miracle and I’m convinced that salvation is no less a miracle.

It is common to hear people gloss over the imagery of Scripture in favor of a particular doctrinal argument. John 3 is most often referenced only in terms of John 3:16 and that verse is typically used to argue against Reformed soteriology. The common argument goes something like: “See, Jesus says that God loved the world so much that anyone is able to come to Him if only they were convinced of it.” While this is an attractive interpretation, that’s simply not what the text says, particularly understood within the larger context of the whole chapter.

Many readers don’t allow Scripture the same allowances in language that they allow themselves. They gloss right over certain imagery because they don’t like the implications. In John 3, Jesus uses very specific and very powerful imagery to describe the process of salvation, but of course He didn’t mean what His imagery implies, we know better, don’t we?

Speaking with Nicodemus, Jesus says that “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). We must not be so proud that we refuse the implications of Jesus’ words. Jesus repeatedly proves to be a master of words and always chose His words wisely and for very particular reasons. We must allow Him the benefit of the doubt as to the straight-ahead meaning. Here, He compares salvation to birth.

We readily admit that birth is a miracle. But, we are somehow uncomfortable with the idea that the New Birth is purely supernatural. In our pride, we want a part in it, we want credit. Yes, we must repent, but the faith that allows us to repent is itself a gift from God “lest no man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). If you still maintain that you repented in salvation, Scripture reminds us that repentance itself must be granted by God (Acts 11:18, 2 Timothy 2:25, etc.).

Jesus forces Nicodemus to recognize the miraculous nature of salvation and chooses His imagery appropriately, pointing to the birth process. Witnessing birth leaves one completely in awe, no words of explanation may be offered, no credit to the baby may be given. Praise is the appropriate response. Why then do we lessen the miraculous nature of salvation and feel that we must take credit from God and give it to man? Salvation is no less a miracle. The new birth, like the first is truly a miracle and our appropriate response ought to be that of Job 37:14: “Stop and consider God’s wonders.”

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