The New Birth
Part 2 - The Will of Steel
Do you know anyone with an iron will? They set their mind to something and never turn aside until the job is done. Nothing distracts them or gets in their way. Saul, before and after he became the apostle Paul, impresses me this way. He was a determined unbeliever and determined follower of Christ.
Notice how casually we say Saul was determined. He was a man who had his mind made up. Compare Genesis 6:5 in the New International Version. "The LORD saw how great mans wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." Sauls thoughts were always inclined against Christ. Sauls thoughts were determined, by evil: "Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest" (Acts 9:1).
The new birth changes the inclination, the mind-set, the disposition. Once inclined to evil, willing only to do evil, born again people are now inclined toward good, toward God. They have a new mind-set. Their wills are steeled to the good.
C. S. Lewis makes an interesting observation along this line. "Only those who try to resist a temptation know how strong it is." [1] It is only when you fight a temptation through that you really see its strength and your strength as well. Lewis then observes, "Christ, because He is the only man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only man who knows to the full what temptation means--the only complete realist." [2] Those who take a stand against evil with steel tempered wills are in the train of Christ. If we give into temptation immediately, we never know what it would be like even a few moments later.
On July 6, 1415, church officials bound John Huss to a stake. They gave him opportunity to recant. "I shall die with joy today in the faith of the gospel which I have preached." [3] Martin Luther was accused of heresy. He stood before the church politicos in April of 1521. They too gave him opportunity to recant. He answered: "My conscience is bound by the word of God. It is neither safe nor honest to act against ones conscience. Here I stand. God help me. I cannot do otherwise." [4] With wills of iron, John Huss and Martin Luther stood for and with Christ. They pushed through the test and the temptation.
Huss and Luther exemplify the opposite of Matthew 13:20-21. "The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away." As we saw last month, a person may receive certain blessings from the Spirit. He may actually have joy in the gospel. The Word does not take root. Where there is no firm root, there is no fruit.
When temptation comes, this person falls back into his old evil habits. The basic inclination of his will is unaltered. As a result he does not push through but wilts under the heat of temptation. This person is not born again. This person does not submit to the law of God. He cannot. He cannot because he will not. "The mind-set of the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so" (Romans 8:7, my translation).
