WHEN WERE THE DISCIPLES BORN AGAIN?

Would I shock you if I said that the disciples were born again on the Day of Pentecost? That's not what some of us have been taught!

As a teenager I asked my mother (an ordained Holiness minister) this question, but she was unable to give me a definite answer. She said she didn't rightly know, but it had to have been sometime when Jesus was on earth. Our church taught that on the Day of Pentecost, the disciples were "sanctified," and, of course, one had to be born again before he/she could be sanctified.

But let me ask you another question. How could the disciples or anyone else, for that matter, have been born again before Christ died and rose again?

Maybe you're wondering about Martha, for example. Didn't she believe in Jesus? And how about Peter? Surely he believed in Christ. But what was it they believed? In John 11:27 Martha said that she believed that Christ was the Son of God. Read it for yourself. Ditto for Peter in Matthew 16:16.

Salvation depends not upon our believing that Jesus is the Son of God but that He is the Substitute for our sins -- and at that time He had not yet become that Substitute. So Martha's and Peter's confessions were not confessions that Christ had died for their sins and risen for their salvation. They were simply confessions that Christ was the Messiah and the Son of God.

Did you ever notice John 20:9? In speaking about the resurrection John admitted, "For as yet they" (referring to the disciples) "knew not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead." When Christ was crucified, His followers had no idea He was dying on their behalf, as their Substitute. They didn't know He rose again as their Savior.

If this little blog gives you something to "chew on," my goal for today has been accomplished!

Preacher's Kid