I think it was your MOM'S body that did ALL the work to birth you. SHE was the one in labor pains and pushed to birth you. You are the result of HER work and efforts. And we all know you didn't have anything to do with your conception as well! lol
SAME as your Spiritual Birth. You were nothing. DEAD. UNABLE to conceive yourself.
Matthew 8:22 New King James Version (NKJV)
22 But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Obviously Jesus wasn't talking about a physically dead person having the ability to bury another physically dead person.
Ephesians 2:1 King James Version (KJV)
2 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
So this is the position we are in:
1 Corinthians 2:14 New King James Version (NKJV)
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
UNTIL!!!!! The Father reaches out and rescues the person by...
John 6:44 New King James Version (NKJV)
44 NO ONE can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me DRAWS him; and I will raise him up at the last day.
THEN, it is the LORD that enables us to believe by giving us the faith to believe in Him:
Ephesians 2:8-9 New King James Version (NKJV)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, AND THAT(the faith) not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Culminating in your Spiritual Birth by believing THE Gospel unto Salvation.
Romans 10:9-10 New King James Version (NKJV)
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Being filled AND sealed by the Holy Spirit AT THE TIME OF THIS BIRTH:
Ephesians 1:13-14 New King James Version (NKJV)
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
So seeing how it was the Lord that rescued you from your dead state, conceiving you, drawing you to Him in labor pains, through patience, giving you the faith by which you were born, and putting His Holy Spirit in you at that time, I ask again, what participation did you have in your Spiritual Birth?
First let me answer concerning our fleshly birth and life. Then I'll try to answer about the spiritual life in a later post. (perhaps not for several hours, or another day). OK, here goes:
I once asked God "What IS the purpose of this life?" because I was trying to find additional challenging questions to ask him. I expected it would be months or years before I started to receive the answers. But almost immediately he said "It is for man to CHOOSE." (as in, it is for a man to make his choices)
In other words, man could not make choices until/unless he was alive.
So God gave us life. And with it, the ability to choose.
We didn't bring this to pass. We didn't even have the opportunity to give our input on whether or not we wanted it to come to pass...because something has to be ALIVE to have a preference.
So he started the process by giving us LIFE.
This is the fleshy birth (or in terms of Adam, creation). We had no say in this obtaining of life. But we were given life.
Since then we have choice(s). What will we do with life? How will we use life? How will we treat others with life? Do we even like life?
Do we want more? Etc, etc.
And in simple terms, we are provided avenues to both greater life and less life. (eternal life...and death) Deut. 30:19
Some choose greater life (seeking it out until they 'find' God and God shows them how more is obtained).
Some choose less life (trying to hide from life, cursing life, and perhaps even killing themselves).
Some choose to pretend there is no choice (
choosing only to take advantage of the piece of life that was thrust upon them until it ends)
We are given this ability to choose until the end of the choosing time....until the end of our fleshly lives. Then the test is done, the choices are tallied, and the consequences of those choices are given. (think Judgement day)
As I mentioned earlier, this only covers the idea that our first birth was without our choice, and was done in order to GIVE us choice (regarding further life). But I need to think on something else for a while.
Love in Jesus,
Kelby