What's New about the New Birth?

Colin Smith describes a few ways that the "new birth" is new:

A new disposition
God created you. He made you with your own unique gifts, personality and temperament. The new birth does not violate what God has made. Shy sinners become shy Christians. Zany sinners become zany Christians. Cautious sinners become cautious Christians.

God's Holy Spirit will give you power to overcome the effects of sin in your personality, like pride or anger or greed. But God will not override His own work. He redeems His work by giving you a new disposition. God never makes two snowflakes alike and he certainly never makes two Christians alike.

God takes the personality that you were born with and moves it in a new direction. It is you - moving, desiring, thinking and feeling - in a new direction. That's what happened to Peter. Christ took this man - with his exuberance, his flair and his passion - and moved him in a whole new direction. Peter and Thomas were completely different before and after they met Christ.

A new appetite
Nature determines appetite. When you are born again God gives you a new appetite that reflects your new nature. Birds have an appetite for worms and slugs. Cats have an appetite for meow mix. I don't care for either because it's not in my nature.

Cats have an appetite for what cats love. Dogs have an appetite for what dogs love. Sinners have an appetite for what sinners love. Those who have been born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ have an appetite for what Christ loves.

This new appetite is not something that is imposed from the outside. God has created a desire to live a new kind of life that rises from within you. Real freedom is found when what you most desire turns out to be exactly what God commands.

A new capacity
Nature determines appetite, but it also determines capacity. Dogs can't fly; it's not in their nature. Fish can't run; it's not in their nature. Sinners cannot live in the presence of God or obey the laws of God.

That used to be your position. But when you were born again God's Spirit came to live in you, giving you not only the desire to live a new life, but also the capacity. Never underestimate the miracle God has done in bringing you to faith in Christ.

I, personally, do not have vivid recollections about my own birth. I've heard about it and gather that I caused a lot of problems by refusing to get into the right position, but I don't remember it! The evidence that I was born is that I am alive. The evidence that a person was born again is that they are living the new life.