John Piper gave this analogy: Our role and God’s in the new birth are like light and fire. There is a cause-effect relationship between the two. Fire causes light; God’s “begetting” (Piper) causes our belief, which is our role in our spiritual birth–what we necessarily must perform for it to occur. No one would say the light caused the fire; no, the fire caused the light. Fire, ergo light. A–>B
However, the two are simultaneous (Piper). Fire does not preceed light. When there is fire, there is light. When there is not fire, there is not light. We can see the light from a flame and say, “Look, there is fire.” In the same way, we can see belief and say, “Look, there is new birth.”
The light is…
- The inseparable counterpart to the chemical reaction.
- The empirical component of the fire, that which can be experienced (and experience is essential)
- The “going forth” into our observable reality, just as the Word was the going forth of God.
- The manifestation, the certainty
- The realization which makes the fire reality
- The evidence which makes it evident
- The symbol which takes on the meaning of the signified so strongly that it well-nigh partakes of the essence, like the sacramental bread and wine
The light is mysteriously, intimately, intricately, immediately related to the fire, like two lovers intertwined. What God has joined together, let no man separate. Woe to the man who attempts to say, “There is new birth, though belief has not yet come” or “Belief is a byproduct of the new birth.” Belief is no mere byproduct any more than a child is the “byproduct” of the union between man and woman. Although God begets salvation, he begets it into the bosom of a believing heart, so let none forget the value of our human response in the work of salvation.
Ben Taylor 