| Bishop's CornerA
New Birth
By Bishop Timothy W. Whitaker
 The theme of the 2002 Florida Annual
Conference is “A New Birth Into a Living Hope.” The promise of a new
birth is one of the grand themes of the Scriptures.
The prophets looked forward to a future when the
living God would make a new beginning in his relationship with the
people of Israel. Jeremiah proclaimed that the Lord would make “a
new covenant” with his people in which he would write his law on
their hearts (Jeremiah 31:1-34). Ezekial promised that the Lord would
raise his people from their grave and give them a new life by his
Spirit (Ezekial 37). The prophet called Isaiah hoped for nothing less
than a renewal of all creation when he announced the promise of the
Lord “to create new heavens and a new earth” (Isaiah 65:17).
These prophets were speaking to the Jewish
people who were devastated by the destruction of the Temple in
Jerusalem and their forced exile in Babylon. Even though the people
eventually returned to their home and rebuilt the Temple, the promises
of the prophets still remained unfulfilled. These promises anticipated
a more radical newness that offered hope not only to Israel, but also
to the whole world.
The newness the prophets had foretold broke out
in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus
emerged centuries later announcing that at last “the time is
fulfilled” when God is beginning to fulfill his reign over the world
(Mark 1:14). By his teaching and his mighty deeds Jesus declared and
demonstrated the new thing God was doing in his ministry.
Before his death on the cross Jesus told the
disciples his voluntary offering of his life would institute “a new
covenant” between God and the human race (Luke 22:20). His
astonishing resurrection from death and the grave was the vindication
of the truth of his teaching and the demonstration that the God of
Israel is indeed the Creator who has the power to fulfill his purpose
to renew all of creation. In the event of Jesus’ coming all of the
tantalizing promises of the prophets were being fulfilled in a
superabundant overflow of divine power and purpose.
The evangelists and the apostles spoke of the
new reality that erupted in Jesus in many different images, such as
the kingdom of God and the new creation. All of their images might be
summed up in the image of new birth. A new birth is now an ontological
possibility through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. That
is, there is now a genuine new birth of being that is possible because
God has entered into his own creation in Jesus Christ to renew it from
within.
Jesus’ prophecies about the end of the present
world are promises of the “birthpangs” of a new heaven and a new
earth (Mark 13:8). This new birth of being is the longing of the whole
creation now “subjected to futility” and in “bondage to decay”
(Romans 8:18-24). Yet, we do not have to wait until God fulfills the
divine purpose to experience a new birth: a new birth is possible for
persons right now through faith in Jesus Christ given by the Spirit
(John 3:1-21 and I Peter 1:3-9). The church is the community of a new
humanity that is created by the Spirit of God to witness to all the
nations that in Jesus Christ “there is a new creation: everything
old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” (2 Corinthians
5:17).
We are living in the presence of a mystery, the
mystery of a new birth of God’s creation in which we may participate
personally through faith in Jesus Christ. As we gather for our Annual
Conference, let us pray for the power of this new birth of being that
can transform us, the church on earth, and the history of the world
destined for its final transfiguration in the ultimate revealing of
Jesus Christ our Sovereign and Savior.
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