June 5: Life begins at Reception

Wiley Richards is a retired professor of theology and philosophy at The Baptist College of Florida in Graceville.

A few decades ago the discussion about the morality, or immorality, of abortion was muddied by findings of some courts. The justices seemed not to know at what point human life began. Medical science has answered that question definitively. When the male sperm fertilizes the female ovum, the new creation instantly has all the genetic characteristics of the two parents. Spiritually, the line between life and death equally is definitive. It begins at the moment a person receives Jesus Christ as Savior. We will focus on biblical descriptions of the states from which the person is saved.

• In a basic sense, one is saved from a condition of blindness (1:10-13). The clue to this condition among the Jews can be found in verse 11 which literally translates, “He came into his own [creation], and his own [people] received him not.” On the cross Jesus pled for the Father to forgive them for they did not understand what they were doing (Lk. 23:34). Peter preached in his second sermon that had the Jews understood who Jesus was, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (Acts 3:17). Romans 11:25 attests to the blindness of Israel.

Israel’s national blindness did not exclude sincere seekers from the truth. Some received Jesus, receiving authority (“power,” v. 12) to become sons of God. Transcending race (blood), natural desires (“will of the flesh”), and human will, they entered into sonship.

• We come to the second spiritual state from which we are saved, a depraved family (3:5-8). Jesus used the inquiry of Nicodemus, a Jewish ruler, to explain the necessity of a heavenly birth to enable one to enter the Kingdom of God. When Nicodemus complained he did not understand how a person could be born twice, Jesus spoke about two kinds of birth, one physical (“born of water”) and another spiritual (born “of the Spirit”). We need not understand the process the Spirit uses to birth us into God’s kingdom any more than we have to understand the laws of nature to appreciate its benefits and bounty (v. 8).

• Third, receiving Christ as our Savior cleans us of a profound spiritual poisoning (vv. 14-16). To illustrate, Jesus referred to a horrendous experience of Israel during their wilderness wandering. In a time of discouragement, the people rebelled against God and Moses, charging them with bringing them into the wilderness to die, mainly from dehydration. God sent poisonous serpents among them as punishment. After the people repented, God ordered Moses to make a serpent of bronze and place it on a pole in the camp. Anyone bitten by a snake need only to behold the brass serpent and live (Num. 21:5-9). Jesus applied the principle to Himself. He too would be lifted up on a pole. Anyone believing in Him would not perish from the poison of sin.

Those receiving Christ as Savior receive release from condemnation (vv. 17-18). Unbelievers sometimes confuse “being under conviction” with a peculiar sensation or feeling. Instead, it is a legal and moral standing under the judgment of God. They have been declared guilty in God’s sight. The problem is, they do not believe it.

• Finally, those receiving Christ as Savior will not suffer God’s wrath (v. 36). Those coming into the relation of sons of God, participants in His family, live forever under His protection and grace. Anyone refusing to believe in the Son of God can look forward to a place of eternal punishment, isolated from God’s presence.