Outside a shop in England some 300 years ago, an unprecedented volley of cursing and swearing
brought the shop lady running to the door where she delivered the following rebuke:
"You are the ungodliest fellow for swearing that I have ever heard in all my life! By thus doing you are able to spoil all the youth in the whole town if they but come in your company. The swearer was a youth named John Bunyan, afterward the author of "The Pilgrims Progress.”
Stunned by this withering reproof, young John hung his head, and to quote his own words, “wished with all my heart that I might be a child again, that my father might learn me to speak without this wicked way of swearing.”
Two hundred years later the poetess Elizabeth Akers Allen wrote:
“Backward, turn backward, O, Time, in your flight,
Make me a child again just for tonight!”
In more modern times a brilliant career woman attached to the league of Nations and mistress of seven languages wrote:
“I would give all I possess if I could begin life over again with the heart of a little child.”
“The heart knoweth its own bitterness." In this world every life has its disappointments. Even the most distinguished careers are checkered with secret regrets. To many, the mythical "Land of Beginning Again" is a desired haven; but alas! we have all reached the point of no return; there is no way back to childhood.
But even suppose a man of today became again the child of yesterday, although he might correct some of his past mistakes, he could not thus fit himself for heaven. He would find that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:66That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)) and that "they that are in the flesh cannot please God." (Rom. 8:88So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:8).)
It is not in the ways of God to begin again with the old nature or the old creation. He has before him a new creation.
“Ye must be born again," (John 3:77Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:7)) is the firm declaration of the Son of God. To be in Christ is the answer to every heart's deepest longings, for "if any man be in Christ he is a new creature [creation]: old things are passed away: behold, all things are become new." 2 Cor. 5:1717Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17).
To relive a life as a child of Adam would be but to compound my sins. To be born again a child of God is to be like Christ and perfect in Christ.
“As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.”
Have you received Him?