Converting Potential Energy to Kinetic Energy

Potential energy and kinetic energy. The difference between the two is evident in the terms used. Potential means energy that is ready to be used but is yet to be released (think a drawn bow string, taught, ready to send the arrow into the air). Kinetic describes energy that is on the move (think a released bow string that has sent the arrow flying).

This image, borrowed from physics, is helpful for understanding the work of the church in making the gospel known. Paul describes the gospel as “the power of God for salvation” (Romans 1:16). He understands the potential of the gospel to radically redefine and redirect the life of a fallen human being, and has dedicated himself to the task of converting it, through proclamation, into “kinetic energy,” as people hear and believe the good news. The results can be exciting, as when those in Thessalonica “turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,” and were persuaded to “wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers . . . from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10).

Each Christian has had potential gospel energy converted into kinetic gospel energy through having, by the grace of God, ears that heard when the message was preached. Subsequently, each Christian becomes a new repository of potential energy just waiting to be released. By prayer and study, motivated by love and undertaken with humility, we draw the bow string back, making it ready to be released by the Holy Spirit, sending along the good news to neighbors, co-workers, friends, and relatives.

Let’s rededicate ourselves to the task of converting potential gospel energy into kinetic gospel energy by praying for the Holy Spirit to awaken us to opportunities to let go the bow string. The energy is there, it just needs to be released!

The Miracle of the New Birth

As stated in a previous post, miracles serve (at the very least) two ends: they radically alter the circumstances of those involved, as well as demonstrating that there exists a reality that stands above, or outside, our everyday, natural existence.  Ultimately, it’s the super-reality that miracles point to that is more important for a human being to experience. Recovery of physical sight will not truly profit unless the one healed is able to see the kingdom of God. As we discussed, however, seeing the kingdom of God requires a miracle. Jesus describes it as being born again, or born from above.

Drawing on the apostle Paul’s teaching from Ephesians 2 let’s examine why the new birth is a miracle. First, our condition is helpless. Human beings are “dead in trespasses and sins” and “by nature children of wrath.” We are fatally deaf, dumb, and blind to heavenly realities. Our only hope is a miracle, a divine intervention that opens our understanding. And this is what God does. When we are “dead in [our] trespasses and sins,” he makes us “alive together with Christ.” This regeneration allows us to see and believe. To underscore the miraculous nature of this transformation, we learn that the ability to place faith in Jesus is a “gift of God” that comes to us by “grace.” And true to miracles, our circumstances are radically altered. No longer subjects of “the prince of the power of the air,” we learn that we have been “raised us up with [Christ]” to be “seated with him in the heavenly places.”

By all criteria, the new birth is a miracle. It is God, in love, intervening into our fallen, lost existence to awaken us to our need of his precious gift, the One he gave so that “whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  May God give all who read this eyes to see.