You know, I thought that I had a three-part series all laid out in my head, but I had such great difficulty writing this 2nd post that I had to go back and ask if what I was saying was the best way to convey these ideas. Turns out it wasn’t. So, I’m going to take a not-so-slight detour from what I had planned. Bear with me. This will take a little setup. Let’s talk about where babies come from. ;)
During her childbearing years, a woman’s ovaries will release an egg, on average, once every 28 days. Her fluctuating hormones, which control the timing of that release, also prepare her uterus for a potential pregnancy by thickening the walls of the uterus.
Once released, the egg has a certain window of time in which it can be fertilized. This happens when a man’s sperm penetrates the outer layer of the egg. A chemical interaction between the sperm and the egg causes the separate genetic information to combine, instructing the pattern of cellular division and growth that eventually produces a baby’s body.
Without fertilization, an egg will never grow into anything more than what it already is. In fact, without fertilization, the egg is destined to decompose and to be flushed out of the woman’s body along with the uterine lining that would have been used to sustain the pregnancy. In the following 28 days, the woman’s body will again prepare the uterus, and release another egg, and another attempt can be made at fertilization and the perpetuation of life.
I’ll pause here and say that this has parallels to what was discussed in the first post of this series. The “natural man”— our fallen selves—are just like unfertilized eggs. Our condition is such that we cannot produce “life” on our own. Something else is required. Like sperm, God gives life. If he enters into us, he is able to affect a change in us that results in development and growth. If he does not enter into us and affect a change in us, then we eventually experience the death that we are already subject to. Likewise is the environment that was prepared to sustain life wasted and flushed out.
For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless... (Mosiah 3:19)
In our fallen state, we are enemies to God because we do not yet have what is needed to have life. We have been and will be enemies to God—forever and ever—and we will be subject to the individual and societal consequences of our being enemies to God—forever and ever—unless...
That word “unless” is such a great word. Doesn’t it just make you want to find out what comes after it?
...unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord,... (Mosiah 3:19)
It would be ridiculous to think that a fertilized egg’s potential is realized at the moment of conception. At that moment, it is obviously more than it was before, but it isn’t what it could be. Conception is just the point at which growth is actuated. The full potential of that growth is nowhere close to being realized.
And this is where the subject of this second post begins.
I have had four miscarriages. An egg that has been fertilized isn’t ensured birth. A stronger, more direct (placental) connection needs to be made, and maintained, in order for the developing baby to make it to birth. Those who are satisfied with who they are immediately after the Lord affects that change of heart are like an egg that has just been fertilized. You aren’t yet in the state that you are meant to be in and you certainly don’t have the ability to affect outcomes on your environment like you are meant to. And if you fail to make and maintain that connection, death is still the result.
You have to change. You have to grow and develop into what you are meant to become. Mosiah 3:19 is such a fantastic scripture because it describes that process so well. You don’t revel in your “born again” condition. You “yield” to the Holy Spirit. Just once? No. There’s no limit there. You continually yield, and by yielding, the atonement of Jesus Christ causes you to put off the natural man and become a saint.
Growth, development, improvement—life. These are what God brings about in everything that submits to him. When does it happen? It happens immediately. A fertilized egg doesn’t remain static for nine months and then suddenly emerge as a fully developed baby. The growth begins at the moment of conception and continues unceasingly.
With so many Christians believing that they are saved without any tangible evidence—without any improvement—should we be surprised by what we see around us? Who will bring about God’s will, especially the events foretold in scripture?
It should come as no surprise to people that the world is in the state that it is in when the majority of Christianity believes that we are neither capable of nor obligated to strive for improvement far beyond a “born again” experience.