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who reject His gift of etemal life,
the final second death in the lake of
tire.
But, in the case of the human
ovum, once fertilized as a begotten
human, the egg- now called an em–
bryo- is kept within the body of the
mother, and is nourished and fed
material food through her and pro–
tec ted by her. And there it must
grow, being fed physically through
the mother, large enough to be
born. After a number of weeks, the
embryo is called a fetus, and at birth
it is a human baby.
In like manner, the Bible calls the
Church the "mother of us all." That
is, the mother of Christians- those
begotten of God. It is the function
of the Church to protect and feed,
spiritually, on the spiritual food of
God's Word, those begotten chil–
dren of God, so that we may grow
spiritually, in the divine character,
ready to be born.
Surely this is a wonderful com–
parison. Yet types and antitypes are
not always alike in every detail.
When a physical baby is born, it
is not ready for marriage. When the
spiritual child of God is bom he will
be fully mature for the spiritual
marriage. How can this be? This is
what one thinking man could not
see.
The unborn human fetus
is
only
growing physically. At birth the
human baby knows nothing. He is
helpless. He must be taught. He
must learn. He is born merely with a
mind
capable
of leaming, knowing,
thinking. He is not yet of mature
size physically or mentally. Many
do marry who are still entirely im–
mature spiritually and/ or emotion–
ally. But we do assume that one has
reasonable ma'turity physically and
mentally before marriage. In the
human, this development takes
place in the human state after the
human birth.
Therefore, the human baby is not
ready for marriage at birth.
But the spirit-bom are different!
Just as the fertilized ovum- the
embryo which becomes the fetus–
must grow physically from materia l
food, so the Spirit-begotten child of
The
PLAIN TRUTH
January
1978
God must grow spiritually before he
can be boro. But there is a differ–
ence!
The fetus does not attain to com–
plete physical maturity before bi rth,
and has no mental maturity. But, in
the spiritual rebirth, one must attain
reasonable spiritual maturity before
he is spirit-born.
Now what is spiritual growth?
Just as the physical embryo-fetus
must grow physically large enough
to be bom , so the Spirit-begotten
Christian must grow spiritually or
he will never be born of God. But
spiritual growth is
CHARACTER DE–
VELOPMENT.
The Spirit-begotten s tarts out
with a
MIND
from the beginning.
God
is
perfect character- divine,
spiritual character. God is also !ove.
And perfect spiritual character is
the way of love! Such character is
the attainment of the ability, in a
separate independent entity of free
moral agency, to be able to discern
right from wrong- the true values
from the false- truth from error-the
right way from the wrong, and then
to make the right choice or decision,
even against self-desire, impulse or
temptation; plus the will and self–
discipline to resist the wrong and to
do the right.
No human, with human nature,
has the power- alone by himself- to
do this. But God has made available
the spiritual power and help man
lacks. Man must desire to know–
must hunger and thirst for truth;
man must make his own decision,
exercise his own will, even against
the pulls of his nature. But without
the help of God- without spiritual
power from God- man is utterly un–
able.
That is why truly conve rted
Christians sometirnes actually do
sin. They are like the apostle Paul,
as he describes himself in Romans
7. With bis mind he wanted to go
the way of God's law, yet he found
himself unable. Another law warred
within him against the good resolu–
tions of his mind. But the seque! to
Romans 7 is Romans 8- the Holy
Spirit chapter. Who, Paul cried out ,
could save him from this body of
death he struggled against in vain?
The answer is, God, through His
Holy Spirit.
A true Christian doesn' t want to
sin- should not. But sometimes he
tinds himself caught in the vise of
habit, or overwhelmed by tempta–
tion or by circumstances from which
he is unable to free himself. Surely,
had such a one been continually
praying, keeping himself close to
God, and detached from the world
or its lures or the temptations of the
flesh , he probably would have had
sufficient divine help to have pre–
vented the sinning. But only Jesus
Christ ever did keep that close to
God!
God looks on the heart. In such a
case, the Christian does not sin
malicious ly, with matice afore–
thought. He is merely caught in the
vortex of a temptation which sucks
him helplessly down into the sin.
Then he is terribly sorry. He is dis–
gusted with himself. He repents. He
goes to work to overcome. He may
not succeed, due to human weak–
ness, at once. But he remains deter–
mined and finally does, with God's
help, overcome completely. Many a
true Christian has had such a
struggle over a particular human
weakness and temptation, and after
even severa! setbacks, finally,
through God's power, won the vic–
tory and fought his way free.
God looks on the heart. God for–
gives in such cases. The living
Christ, our High Priest, has com–
passion, is filled with merey-as long
as the attitude is right, the
desire
of
the inner man is to conquer the
flesh and overcome the temptation
and be free from it entirely. In the
end, it is God who gives the victory.
But, in such a struggle, the Christian
develops character.
Now character, 1 have said many
times, is something God does not
create automa tically. lt is developed
through experience. The deve l–
opment of that character is the very
purpose of our being alive. Also the
development of that character, un–
like the purely physical growth of
the unborn baby, actually is grow–
ing toward spiritual maturity, right
now in the begettal stage prior to
spirit birth- in this present morta l
human life.
Notice how the "mother of us
all," the Church, is to protect and
feed those in
it,
until they reach
spiritual maturity. In 1 Corinthians
12 you' ll read how God gives spiri-
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