Marc Vandersluys(Van-der-sloos) is the Associate Pastor at Malmo Mission Covenant Church in central Alberta. He took up the call to the pastorate after completing his Master of Divinity at Providence Theological Seminary located in Otterburne, Manitoba. This is the first of a two part article written on the second Affirmation, The Necessity of New Birth. In this post, Marc identifies this second Affirmation as that which most strongly connects the Covenant Church with the evangelical community. Furthermore, Marc identifies the idea of "New Birth" being based and found in Scripture.
The Covenant Affirmations form the heart of our identity as a denomination. In some sense who we are is shaped by our beliefs about God, ourselves, and the world. The affirmations present a summary of the core beliefs or values of the Evangelical Covenant Church, as they relate to our understanding of scripture, our relationship to God, to each other, and to the world.
The second Covenant affirmation emphasizes “the necessity of new birth.” This already succinct affirmation can be summarized as follows. Belief in the necessity of new birth is what puts the “evangelical” in our denomination’s name. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, forgiveness of sin and eternal life is offered to mankind, leading to reconciliation with God, regeneration, and enlistment in Christ’s service. This begins with turning, by faith and with repentance, from sin to Jesus. Turning to Jesus is not simply acknowledging ideas about him or giving intellectual assent to creeds and doctrines. Instead, it is trust in and commitment to Jesus and his way. Salvation is found only by conversion to Jesus. The evidence of conversion or new birth is the fruit of the Spirit in our lives, in our “vitality of life.”
Conversion is only the beginning of the journey of faith, which involves a lifetime of growing towards maturity in Christ, both as individuals and communities of faith. This growth is developed in relationships with other Christians in community. Following Jesus and being formed in him requires obedience to his teachings -- always costly in some way -- and a life of discipline -- that is, cultivating and nurturing one’s spiritual life both individually and in the context of a worshiping community through prayer, public worship, service to others, and other spiritual disciplines.
This affirmation emphasizes that new birth is not simply about a conversion point...
“New birth” is one image of or requirement for salvation (or life in the Kingdom) among several used by Jesus. In Luke 10:24ff, a lawyer asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. Jesus responds with the two great commandments: love God and love neighbour. In Matthew 19:16ff and its synoptic parallels (Luke 18:18ff; Mark 10:17ff) a man asks Jesus what he must do to get eternal life (equated with the kingdom of heaven/God in vv. 23-24). Jesus replies that he should keep the commandments. When the man says he does, Jesus adds that he must sell everything he has and give the proceeds to the poor. In John 3, Nicodemus does not ask Jesus about eternal life or the kingdom of God, but Jesus, perhaps anticipating where Nicodemus is going with his comments, replies in a manner implying a question similar to the ones asked by the lawyer and rich man: “no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again” (John 3:3, NIV).
“New birth” or “being born again” is the image that evangelicals have embraced to describe conversion. Warranted or not, the term “born again” carries a lot of baggage in the modern West. However, in the context of the question of entering the kingdom of God, all these different images, including new birth, have this in common: Spirit-born change. In fact, all the language we use for becoming a follower of Jesus implies change: conversion (convert from one thing to another); repentance (a turning about from one thing to another); rebirth (new life); turning to Jesus (and away from something or someone else).
This affirmation emphasizes that new birth is not simply about a conversion point, that faith does not begin and end at “asking Jesus into your heart”, but that new birth is entry into a new life, a new way of being. It is about becoming a new person, a new creation in Christ through the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 5:17). New birth is not just about accepting certain facts about the self, the world, and/or Jesus, but also about personal transformation and the whole Christian life.
In the second part of this article, Marc develops his point that "New Birth" is not simply a one time event but rather sets a trajectory for the life of one who follows Christ.
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