How Do You Obey The Command To Be Born? ~ Reflections on Waking Up from the Dead

"How do you obey the command to be born? Ask another question first: When Yah'shua commanded Lazarus to rise from the dead, how did he obey that command? John 11:43 says, "[Yah'shua] cried with a loud voice, 'Lazarus, come forth.'" That was a command to a dead man. The next verse says, "The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings."

How did Lazarus do that? How does a dead man obey a command to live again? The answer seems to be: The command carries the power to create new life. Obedience to the command means doing what living people do. This is extremely important. The command of Elohim, "Rise from the dead!" carries in it the power we need to obey it. We do not obey it by creating that life. We obey it by doing what living people do ~ Lazarus came forth. He rose. He walked out to Yah'shua. The call of Elohim creates life. We respond in the power of what the call created.

In Ephesians 5:14, Paul says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Messiah will shine on you" (RSV). How do you obey a command to wake up from sleep? If your house has carbon monoxide in it, and someone cries out, "Wake up! Save yourself! Get out!" you don't obey by waking yourself up. The loud, powerful command itself wakes you up. You obey by doing what wakeful people do in the face of danger. You get up and leave the house. The call creates the waking. You respond in the power of what the call created.

I believe this explains why the Bible says paradoxical things about new birth: namely, that we must get ourselves new heartr, but that it is Elohim who creates the new heart. For example:

- Deuteronomy 10:16 : "Circumcise your heart!"
Deuteronomy 30:6 : "Yahweh your Elohim will circumcise your heart."

- Ezekiel 18:31 : "Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!"
Ezekiel 36:26 : "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you."

- John 3:7 : "You must be born again."
1 Peter 1:3 : "[Elohim] caused us to be born again. "

"Circumcise your heart" means do what people do with circumcised hearts. Be tender toward Elohim and forsake all that is evil. Set your life apart for Elohim and be different from the world. All this is possible only because of the promise, "Yahweh your Elohim will circumcise your heart." As Philippians 2:12-13 says, " Work out your salvation... for it is Elohim who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. " "Work out your salvation" corresponds to "Circumsize your heart." "Elohim who is at work in you" corresponds to "Yahweh your Elohim will circumcise your heart." The connection is that our doing depends on Elohim's doing it first. He initiates and enables.

Similarly, "Make yourselves a new heart" means we should act in the newness of a new heart and take steps into that newness. The promise "I will give you a new heart" means that Elohim is the decisive creator of the new heart. He gives it and we act in the power of it.

In the same way, the way to obey the command to be born is first to experience the divine gift of spiritual life and breath and then to do what living, breathing people do - cry out to Elohim in faith, gratitude and love. When the command of Elohim comes with the creating, converting power of the Ruach haQuodesh, it gives life. The evidence that it has come in this life-creating way is that we respond in life, faith, hope, and joy. If that response is in us, we are born of Elohim, and we have obeyed the command.

Have you been born again? Do you have a new heart? Are you raised spiritually from the dead? This is Elohim's work in and under your response of faith. So respond in humble trust and know in that very act the sovereign touch of Elohim. "

John Piper ~ A Godward Life

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