BIRTH
Our fleshly birth is known to be painful for our mothers. But once we begin to breathe, the pain is soon forgotten. It is still a wonder to see a newborn baby. A mother and father can be quite proud of their new infant. Nursing and bodily functions begin very naturally, and it is a delight to watch this baby grow year by year. We celebrate birthdays to honor the life of our child, our teenager, or our adult. Yet even with all the wonder of physical birth, there is a deeper birth — a birth of the spirit — that every human soul needs to truly live.
If you follow the story of our first parents in the book of Genesis, you will see how their children, Cain and Abel, were affected by their parents' sin. Neither Adam nor Eve seemed to fully understand how believing the serpent’s lie would shatter their relationship with God and pass a sinful nature down to their children. Before this temptation, they served God freely and fellowshipped with Him in the garden, enjoying life in the Spirit. But after their sin, their inner peace was replaced with a struggle — a battle between self-will and submission to God — a battle their sons would inherit.
Before sin entered the world, Adam and Eve lived in perfect harmony with God, with creation, and with each other. They didn’t need to take the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil — they already had all they needed in their Creator. Their inner spirits were alive to God, filled with pure knowledge, peace, and purpose. In that purity, they experienced a life led by the Spirit, not torn by the battle between good and evil. Through Jesus, the new birth restores us to that life in the Spirit — a life where we walk with God again, led by His wisdom rather than our own.
SPIRITUAL DEATH
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they forfeited the holiness and righteousness in which their spirits were created, and they died spiritually. They were no longer children of God by nature, but became subject to the influence of the serpent, the fallen angel Satan. Just as Satan had chosen to leave heaven and build his own kingdom in this world, he now sought to separate all humanity from God. The first evidence of this spiritual death was the shame Adam and Eve felt over their nakedness and their desire to hide from God. They struggled to confess what they had done, yet God, in His mercy, made coverings for them. Still, they had to leave the garden, bearing the weight of their broken relationship with their Creator.
In this fallen world, they had two sons — Cain and Abel. Both were born into a world under sin’s curse. Cain represents humanity’s natural tendency to approach God through self-effort, offering the produce of the ground God had already cursed. But Abel, by faith, offered a firstborn lamb — a blood sacrifice that prefigured Christ, the Lamb of God, who would one day bear the curse for us (Genesis 3:15). Abel’s offering was accepted because it flowed from faith — a recognition of his need to be made right with God through atonement. This same faith is the doorway to the new birth, where God restores us to Himself through the sacrifice of His Son.
SECOND BIRTH
Just as every human being experiences physical birth, every soul needs the miracle of spiritual birth — a birth that only God can give. Through Jesus Christ, God offers to restore what was lost in the garden — to awaken our spirits, cleanse our sin, and bring us back into fellowship with Him. This new birth is not earned through effort or religious works, but received by faith, trusting in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Through Him, we are invited to live once again in the Spirit, to walk with God in peace, and to discover the purpose and joy for which we were created. No matter what your story, no matter your past, the invitation stands — to be born again into the family of God.