18<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThere are a number of things to observe here:<\/p>\n
1. God\u2019s desire contrasts with human desire: human desire is driven toward death and vacillates between the good and the bad. God\u2019s desire, springing as it does in a fountain of utter goodness and faithfulness, remains constant. God\u2019s desire \u2014 his purpose \u2014 is the new birth.<\/p>\n
2. New birth is the recreation of life; this implies that James understands humans \u2014 as does Paul \u2014 as captured in desires dance with death.<\/p>\n
3. New birth happens through the \u201cword of truth,\u201d and here we need to connect the word \u201cword\u201d with \u201claw\u201d (cf. 1:22-25) and the teachings of Jesus on love (cf. 2:8-10). Somehow \u2014 and James doesn\u2019t give us the details \u2014 the \u201cword of truth\u201d is the gospel for James, but that gospel is not detached from Law\/Torah.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here is one of the earliest Christian reflections on the new birth: 18\u00a0He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. There are a number of things to observe here: 1. God\u2019s desire contrasts with human desire: human desire is driven […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1777],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-james"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/span>Here is one of the earliest Christian reflections on the new birth:<\/p>\n