HOPE! - The Marks of the New Birth

Are you at peace or are you at war with those around you? What evidence do you have that you have been born again? That you have new life? Is your faith active or theoretical? Do you have a present hope or only a distant hope? Is God’s love within you transformative? Since Jesus lives in you, how do you think Jesus would live with the people you live with?

Within John Wesley’s sermon “The Marks of the New Birth” he claims that the first of the marks of the new birth which are evident in the life of the believer is that of faith. He says that faith is the foundation of all the rest. There are two other that are mentioned by Wesley in this sermon. Besides faith, there is hope and there is love. These are the marks of the new birth.

Faith. Hope. Love.

Wesley also claims that the “immediate and constant fruit of the faith whereby we are born of God” is also a power over sin. He claims that the fruit of faith is power over every sin – every outward sin, every inward sin, every “evil word and work,” every “unholy desire and temper.” And that this results in another fruit of faith that we experience – that of peace. We find that we are content and joyful in God.

Furthermore, the necessary fruit of the love of God, according to Wesley, “is the love of our neighbor.” This includes all people... even our enemies. He also claims that a resulting additional fruit of the love of God is that we become universally obedient to Him in our love for Him and that we live in “conformity to His will.” Wesley claims that all of us – the worst and the best of us the same – deserve no less than hell. But that it is by God’s transformative grace and mercy that we are saved – born again into God’s family through the Spirit of Adoption.

And so what do your relationships look like? Do you value your family the way Jesus does? How about your co-workers? Your customers? Your employers? Your neighbors?

What evidence do you have that you have been born again? Are you loving? Or are you at war with everybody?