Born again: The second spark of life

On the upper right side of the heart, is a small, banana-shaped cluster of heart tissue called the Sinoatrial Node (SN). It’s considered the pacemaker for the heart. This small node produces an electrical charge through “cell ionization” that causes the heart to pump blood. Should the Sinoatrial Node cease to generate an electrical charge, the heart will decouple from the brain, the lungs will not inhale and exhale air, blood will not circulate through the body and death will follow quickly. Don’t take your heartbeat for granted. It is a gift of God.

The process of “cell ionization” cannot be duplicated inside a laboratory. There is a battery-operated pacemaker that electrophysiologists implant inside the chest of patients with a slow heart rate. This man-made pacemaker is incapable of generating the “spark of life.” Inside the Sistine Chapel is a painting by Michelangelo that depicts God touching the finger of Adam to impart the spark of life.

When God created the first human, “He formed Adam from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” God’s “breath of life” caused Adam’s inert, motionless heart to start beating. Thereafter, all humans inherit this “spark of life” and come into the world with a beating heart. In fact, the human embryo develops a heartbeat three weeks after conception.

Even though Nicodemus had received the spark of life at birth, Jesus told him that he must be “born again” to enter God’s eternal kingdom. Nicodemus misunderstood this. He thought Jesus was saying he must return to his mother’s womb and be reborn. What Jesus actually intended was that Nicodemus must undergo such a radical change in his life that it would be like being born all over again. The first thing that prompts sinners to be born again is the fear of God who can take the life of a recalcitrant sinner. The rebirth begins with abandonment of the particular sins that drag a person down to hell. To become a new creature in Christ, one must repent of sin. Repentance means more than feeling sorry. It means exercising the will and determination to desist from deadly sins. The next step is inferred by Revelation 3:20, which states that Jesus is always standing at the door of our heart and knocking to get in.

Some consider themselves saved because they joined a church and were baptized. But come Monday morning, they revert to their old selves. They recommit the same egregious sins that brought them to church in the first place. Church membership and baptism will not save a person. Instead, “You must be born again,” just as Jesus told Nicodemus. Once a sinner truly repents of sin, draws close to God, and genuinely seeks salvation, he can evolve into a “new creation” in Christ.

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