I Was Born Again This Way

“And having been set free from sin you became slaves of righteousness.” -Romans 6:18

Pop singer Lady Gaga made a huge splash with a dance single extolling the virtues of self-love, self-congratulations and general self-celebration in her song Born This Way. The lyrics proclaim that whatever we are must be good simply because it is, so God must have intended it. There’s plenty of room for theological debate right there, in light of scripture’s clear explanation of our fallen nature, but never mind. A primary point the Lady makes is that birth endows us with certain attributes that must be acknowledged, embraced, trumpeted. To do less is to deny your primary self.

I could strongly agree with what she said about birth if it were only qualified with a “re.” Re-birth does endow us with certain attributes to be acknowledged, embraced, even trumpeted. Birth? Well, yes, in some ways – race and gender, for example – we can say amen to the “God made me this way” line But when it comes to feelings, sexual or otherwise, it’s downright scary to consider a scenario in which we collectively decide that whatever we feel must be inherently good and should be acted on.

Just ask the guy who I nearly ran over (almost accidentally) when he arrogantly jaywalked in front of me last Thursday. He’ll tell you he’s glad Joe Dallas doesn’t celebrate his natural inclinations.

But there are other inclinations placed in you and me by our rebirth, fruit of the new nature He gave us when we became His. “If any man is in Christ he is a new creation”, Paul affirmed. (II Corinthians 5:17) and the nature bestowed on His new creation cannot be satisfied with sin (Romans 6: 1) and is, as Paul said above, a literal slave to righteousness.

An unwilling slave, sometimes, and I’ll be the first to cop to that. There are too many times in a given day when I’ll chafe at the yoke I’m under. But there is a Master to be served who, unlike an earthly one, has not only bought me but given me His nature as well, and that fact that there’s any struggle at all between my natural desires and my supernaturally bestowed hunger and thirst for righteousness is literal, inarguable proof of His ownership and my re-born status. And as I think it over, that’s awfully good news.

It’s good news because, much as I’ll hate saying no to myself today when I’m pulled towards lust, temper, sloth, or whatever, the fact I even care that I’m being pulled will point to the divine spiritual man created in this very un-divine carcass. The beast got captured and beauty was placed in him when the gospel was manifest in yet another redeemed sinner, and as a result the slave to righteousness will make decisions today that would have been inexplicable to him thirty years ago.

So today, when sin, a former master who after all these decades still wants his old servant back, says jump, the former slave who used to say “How high?” will now yawn, mutter “Oh, jump yourself” and keep moving.

Can’t be helped. This business is under new management. I was born again this way, and to proclaim or do anything else would be to deny my primary self.

Lady Gaga remains elusive to me. I don’t understand her persona nor her popularity, but I do remember sentiments somewhat like her Born This Way theme being expressed in a popular tune from my own day:

I want to live, not merely survive
And I won’t give up this dream
Of life that keeps me alive
I gotta be me, I gotta be me
The dream that I see makes me what I am

Me too. I gotta be me by being true to the nature He gave, the passions He imparted, the standards He authored and the grace He offers when I fall short.

Self-acceptance is quite the rage these days, but ironic, isn’t it, that for us, self-denial is the ultimate form of self-acceptance? Because we lost our lives, and in so doing, we found them.

Nice thought to start the week with.