After I spoke at a service at Maranatha Church in Plains, Georgia some years ago, a familiar figure made his way toward me. He extended his hand saying, “I’m Jimmy Carter.” Of course I knew that, but it shows what an unassuming and gracious man he was.
During his presidency, Jimmy Carter caused quite a stir by using the term “born again” to describe his faith. People thought he was making a distinction between different kinds of Christians. Followers of Jesus know what the term means and embrace it.
The Christian faith is misunderstood, sometimes even by those who wear the label. It is not simply an organization to join, some meetings to attend, or a religion to practice. Turning over a new leaf, trying to act better, or helping the less fortunate does not a Christian make. Even acknowledging there is a higher power falls short.
No human performance measures up to God’s standard of perfection. We need a life that is beyond anything we might perform or achieve. Jesus told Nicodemus, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). He was talking about new life breathed into a person by the Holy Spirit of God in response to that person’s faith in Jesus as Savior. Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17). In short, to be in Christ is to be born again with a new life that is blameless before God.
The Hebrew prophet Ezekiel wrote of this, 600 years before Christ. He records God’s promise saying, “I will cleanse you… I will give you a new heart… I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes” (Eze. 36). Jesus came to fulfill this prophetic utterance. He came to make it personal to you.
This matters. By faith, you are born again into the life of God through His Spirit because of what Jesus did for you on the cross. What a gift, one that Jimmy Carter proclaimed on the world stage. He was 100.