BIRTHDAY--NOT SUCH A BLESSED DAY

Today is my sister's birthday. She is 3 years and 359 days younger than I am. When we were younger, birthdays took on some significance with us as I am sure they do with many people. It is a celebration of the day your mother gave birth to you. In America, the custom for many is to give the person whose birthday it is, a gift to commemorate the day.

But if we look at it from a Christian perspective, it is the day you were born into this sinful world and because of sin, you will die. Not a pleasant thought is it? Our birthday signifies a date of conviction for sins you haven't necessarily committed as yet, but you will inevitably do so.

Since Adam and Eve fell from grace in the Garden, we have been inheritors of their downfall. Our physical and spiritual death is certain to happen because we fall short of God's glory. The soul that sins, it shall die. But God, the righteous judge has given us a stay on our Spiritual death. One that cost him his Son to a horrible and painful death on our behalf.

Christ Jesus is God's Son and his sacrifice on the Cross was the redemption price for all mankind from its sin. It is by God's grace through faith in His Son's meritorious work on the cross and his mighty resurrection that saves us from eternal life in Hell.

Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3 that one must be born from above to receive salvation. It is not something we ourselves can do, but that we need God to do it for us. Jesus says, "Flesh gives birth to Flesh and Spirit gives birth to Spirit." So we have been celebrating a day which really gives birth to a dying flesh.

So how do we receive the Spirit birth? We receive it through the sacrament of Holy Baptism. Baptism was instituted by Jesus in the Great Commission when Jesus commanded his disciples to
19 j Go therefore and k make disciples of l all nations, jbaptizing them m in 2 n the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them o to observe all that p I have commanded you. And behold, q I am with you always, to r the end of the age.”

Baptism saves us--1 Peter 3:21. It is nothing more than the word of God attached to water, but in attaching God's word to the element of water, it becomes efficient to cleanse you from sin. Just like if you put clothes in a washing machine, you need to add soap so that the clothes become clean. The soap makes the water efficient to clean the clothing.

Through Baptism, we are born again to the Spirit of God. He gives us the power and faith to believe that all God has said and done for us is true and what the Devil says to us is a lie.

Because of this, Maybe we should count more the day of our Spiritual birth than our Fleshly birth. On your fleshly birthday give your mother a call and thank her for the labor pain and agony she went through from birth to the day you left her to live your own life. Give her a present (she deserves it) and instead Thank God for the blessings of your Spiritual Birth through your Baptism into His Kingdom.


j Mark 16:15, 16
k ch. 13:52
l Luke 24:47; [ch. 24:14; Mark 11:17; Rom. 1:5]
m See Acts 8:16
2 Or into
n [2 Cor. 13:14]
o John 14:15
p [Acts 1:2]
q [ch. 1:23; 18:20; John 12:26; 14:3; 17:24; Acts 18:10]
r See ch. 13:39
The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Mt 28:19-20). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.