Three young, athletic men line up on the starting blocks of an Olympic sized swimming pool. They are hoping to qualify for a special-ops team the Navy is developing. At the sound of the whistle, they are to dive into the pool and see how many laps they can swim beneath the surface before coming up to breathe. 

 The whistle shrieks, followed by the simultaneous splashes of all three swimmers hitting the water at the same time. 

 At the halfway mark of that first lap to the other end, the swimmer in lane 1 comes up gasping for air looking exhausted and a bit frustrated with himself. He pulls himself out of the pool with his head hung low as he meanders back to the starting blocks. 

 The swimmer in lane 2 makes it all the way to the end of the pool, and on the turn to come back...stops and rises to the surface with an audible gasp as his lungs are demanding to be filled with air. He too, lifts himself from the pool and walks back to the same starting blocks breathing heavily, yet watching the swimmer in lane 3 who is still underwater and nearing the starting spot that all three dove off from. 

But that is all swimmer # 3 has left in his tank and he too comes up taking in deep gulps of air; yet smiling and feeling pleased with his effort given he surpassed easily the other two who came nowhere close to his accomplishment. 

Now all three swimmers are sitting on the edge of the pool with their feet dangling in the water as their breathing slowly resumes to a normal pace. 

 The officer who is conducting this experiment looks over his clipboard and stopwatch and then looks up at the three candidates. His face shows little if any indication of what he thinks of their efforts. The water in the pool is now motionless and no sound can be heard but the light breathing of the swimmers whose faces are locked in on the officer standing there with his clipboard and watch. He then clears his voice and simply says: “Gentleman, in order for anyone to qualify for this top-secret special-ops team, it will be necessary to swim underwater for an indefinite period of time and length without the use of any artificial means or support. 

He is met with incredulous looks from all three swimmers. Then, swimmer #1 who had the least impressive performance laughs aloud and hops up...muttering how ridiculous that is even to suggest. He turns, and on his way out, chides those watching him and says he only tried out thinking there would be some good looking women in the mix. 

Swimmer #3, who made a full two lengths of the pool without surfacing stands up and says to the officer: “With all due respect sir, you know that is not possible. And I doubt you will have anyone more qualified than myself given what I demonstrated here today. Good luck with your unrealistic search.” He then grabs his towel and leaves while drying his hair. 

The officer looks down at the remaining swimmer #2 who was in the middle lane and only made it to one end of the pool. 

 “What about you, young man. Any thoughts on what I just told you?” 

The swimmer with a confused look on his face, yet not seemingly ready to go anywhere yet, looks up and respectfully asks the officer: 

 “Sir, it was obvious I don’t have the ability to stay under water for indefinite periods of time, given I could not even make it one full lap underwater before I had to come up to breathe. And yet you say in order to qualify for this team you are putting together, I would have to be able to swim without breathing; so it seems...indefinitely? Sir...if you don’t mind me asking...How can this be?” 

The officer looks at him, sets the clipboard and stopwatch on the starting block and makes his way over to the lone, remaining swimmer. He then joins him on the side of the pool dipping his own feet into the water as well. He seems to have a twinkle in his eye and a soft smile grows across his face. He puts his hand on the back of the shoulder of that swimmer and reveals this piece of news to him: 

 “Young man, a team of doctors and research scientist have developed a highly classified medical procedure that can literally transform a human set of lungs to be similar to that of any underwater creature that breaths beneath the surface. You would in effect, have ‘gills’ just like a fish that can extract O2 from the water and function for an unlimited length of time without coming up for air. You would, in a sense...become a new creation.” 

 [Dramatic Pause] 

 In order to do what is seemingly impossible, to the natural mind that is, one would need to become a ‘new creation’. 

That almost sounds as if something ‘super-natural’ would have to occur. 

Do you recall how both Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Nicodemus, a highly respected Jewish rabbi were both told of a seemingly impossible task that God was planning on doing.? Both were incredulous and confused. Both asked the same question: “How can these things be?” (Luke 1:34; John 3:9) 

The angel who was with Mary responded: “With God, nothing will be impossible.” 

How could any of us fallen, sinful and imperfect humans ever come close to ‘doing the will of God’? (Matt. 7:21). I mean...let’s be real...can any of us actually ‘go and sin no more’ (John 5:14 and ‘be perfect like our Father in heaven is perfect’ (Matt. 5:48) or walk ‘just like Jesus walked’? (1 John 2:6) 

We could...if we were a ‘new creation’. What do you think Jesus came to do...kick start some religious club where we meet regularly and see how great we can sing and carry on with all kinds of religious activities? 

 He came to miraculously transform us so that we might be conformed to His image and likeness which was what God’s intentional design and plan was for all of His creation at the very beginning. (Gen. 1:26-27; Rom. 8:29). 

But in order for this to happen, before anything could be made new, there would be a cross involved for whoever ‘made the team’. A cross, just like He bore and we have to ‘die’ to ourselves and become made new. But let’s not be confused here...there can be no resurrection before there is a death.  And that is what every and any disciple must face in order to find this new life and be made a new creation. There simply is...no other way. (John 12:24) He must lay down his life and ‘die’ (to self).  And it goes without saying we are not talking about a physical death here either.

Until Jesus has your entire heart, you cannot even begin the process...regardless of what others may have told you. 

Paul opened up his letters to both the Romans and the Corinthians declaring that this message of the gospel and cross of Christ was foolishness to them who are perishing. But to those who believe...it is the power of God unto salvation. (Rom. 1:16; 1 Cor.1:18). Anyone else, those on the ‘outside’, this book is nothing more than historical information, poetic language, and word pictures. But to those who come to Jesus with all their hearts, to them...He begins to ‘reveal’ the mysteries of God’s kingdom. (Matt. 13:10-17). His words, not mine. His plan, not ours. 

We are not talking about magical physical transformations or mental and emotional re-wiring. We are talking about a supernatural, divine touch and encounter with the creator of the heavens and the earth, the Lord God Almighty... As in, Your Maker. 

No matter how hard you try to appease God with your own efforts, you will fall miserably short every single time. And Christianity has nothing to do with just sitting back, applauding Jesus for what He did and wearing the T-shirt claiming to be on His team. You too must undergo the most radical and supernatural plan anyone could have ever imagine. You come humbly before Him ...recognizing that there is no way you could ever meet the holy expectations of a Holy God who laid down His Holy Law for all to obey... unless there was some divine intervention that could even remotely make it possible for you to love others as He first loved us. 

That is what the power of this gospel does for them who believe. To everyone else, it is foolishness and absurd. 

God is not asking you to swim underwater across oceans. He did not create you to do that. But You were created in His image and likeness and He wants you to be ‘perfected in love’ like Him and ‘love others as He loved you’. Now you can scoff at that, reject it, rebuff it, and walk away laughing. 

Or, you can come to Him and allow Him to reconcile you back to Himself so that He can replicate His nature in you. Nice thing about this...it’s not some ‘fictional top secret’ procedure. It’s the power of His Gospel to make you a new creation and by this will all know you are one of His. (John 13:35)