A Babe Born of Christ

Material things are all temporal; and most are mere shadows of the spiritual things, things that are eternal. As we look deeply into the material, the things that are natural, we can see into the spiritual, the things that are the eternal supernatural. Doing so gives us a better understanding of the things that the Holy Scriptures is teaching; but we most do so by the guidance of the Holy Spirit or we will fall into error.

With the Holy Spirit as our teacher we look at the natural birth of a child to better understand the new birth of a child of the spirit, a child born of the Spirit and of the imperishable seed of God (1^st Peter 1:23).

When a baby has reached five months from conception in the mother’s womb, the baby begins to hear. When the baby reaches six months, the eyes have developed to the point of opening and closing and can detect light; while the baby is being birthed the eyes are closed because of the fluids; until the nurse cleans the eyes they are still closed; even when the eyes of the baby are first opened, because of the bright light, they see poorly.

As the eyes adjust to the light, sight improves daily and is fully developed after two to five months. But upon birth, of the five senses, only the hearing, feeling (sense of touch), smelling and tasting are fully functioning. Thus the learning process begins without the benefit of fullness of sight. As the infant begins to hear the sweet voice of the parents even while still in the mother’s womb, and also, after birth begins to feel their tender touch, smell the fragrance of their loving presence and taste the warm milk from the mother’s breast the character of the child begins to form. Thus the nature of the parents is the foundation of the child’s life. The child has no part in the conception, birth or the beginning of his character; this is all the work of the parents.

“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all.” (Mark 10:15; Luke 18:17 NASU)

The analogy is this: One must be born into the kingdom of God in the same manner as the conception and birth of a little child or he does not enter at all (John 3:2&5); a babe born of the Word of God (John 1:1-2), born of Christ (John 1:14), hearing the voice of his Lord (Romans 10:17; John 10:27), feeling the tender touch of His spirit, smelling the fragrance of His loving presence and tasting the sweetness of His word---living by faith (Rom. 1:17)---spiritual eyesight improving from “faith to faith”---being created in the likeness of his Father (Ephesians 2:10); these are the children of the kingdom of God.

James C Sanford