In the world of construction there are many different types of buildings. New construction means to build something where previoulsy nothing exsisted and re-construction means to take something that exists but has been damaged or broken and put it back together again. The irony of being born again is that both of these types of construction takes place.
Let us consider new construction. When the builder finds an appropriate piece of land there are literally hundreds of steps to take before the structure ever takes form. The land itself must be surveyed. When an appropriate plot has been found, access to that site has to be determined. Are there existing roads and highways nearby? Is there utilities and sewer lines that can be hooked into? Sometimes there are, many times there is not. If there are, then this makes life simpler, if there are not, then the task is still possible, just more difficult and expensive, more of an investment will be required.
Perhaps someone is completly unchurched, this will require much more of an investment by the one who is helping to build. If someone has a church background then perhaps it will be easier to hook them in to existing " utilities."
The next step is to clear vegetation, roots, weeds and so on. It is necessary to clear the land of these weeds and vegetations because, if left, they can damage the foundations and the structure of even the strongest of houses/ Once this is accomplished, then the dimensions, or footprint is marked out and excavations begin. Deep trenches are dug that will take the foundation, then the foundation is laid. All of this work just described is the process of a man or a woman coming to Christ for the first time. Whatever age you came to Christ you can rest assured that the builder has been working for a long time before the foundations were laid in your life. Of course, once the structure is complete, only that which is above ground can be seen.
Re-construction happens when something goes wrong with a building that already exists. Perhaps a fire or a flood? An earthquake or a tornado? Major damage has been done but has left something of the structure that can be re-constructed.
The Scripture tell us that unless the Lord builds the house then we labor in vain. What often happens in the lives of Christians is that they are presented with beautiful foundations, sure foundations that will never fail but they proceed to build rickety structures using poor materials on top of there fine foundation. They build the house themselves. They build religious structures. They take previous blue-prints, popular designs and use them to build their houses. In the Kingdom of God, every single house is unique. The architect never produces the same house twice. Just like your fingerprints, there are no two structures alike in the Kingdom of heaven. Therefore, most of the houses that we construct on top of the excellent foundations of Christ have to be torn down and re-constructed.
Re-construction is always harder and more expensive than new construction. Better to build correctly in the first place than to have to undergo major renovations. Yet, this is a common experience of most Christians. If you decide to yield to the Builder then He will come along and He will rebuild you in the image of the Lord. This will be a painful expereience and many things will have to be cut off and broken. It will take courage and faith to yiled to the blows of the Master builder as he corrects and re-creates. Consider what Phillip Brookes wrote ..........
" Slowly, all through the universe, the Temple of God is being built. Wherever, in any world, a soul, by free-willed obedience, catches the fire of God's likeness, it is set into the growing walls, a living stone. When, in your hard fight, in your tiresome drugery, or ion your terrible temptation, you catch the purpose of your being and give yourself to God, and so give Him the chance to give Himself to you, your life-a living stone- is taken up and set into that growing wall. Wherever souls are being tried and ripened, in whatever commonplace and homely ways, there God is hewing out the pillars for His Temple. Oh, if the stone can only have some vision of the temple of which it is to be a part forever, what patience must fill it as it feels the blows of the hammer, and knows that success for it is simply to let itself be wrought into whatever shape the Master wills. (Phillip Brooks 1835-1893, The Law of Growth)
So, the necessary steps and elements in a persons life for ne construction and re-construction are. 1. Yielding to God. 2. Having an awareness that God is in control. 3. Having the courage to look in the mirror. 4. Trusting God in all things, especially in times of trials. 5. Being able to see trials and tribulations as the building process of the Christian life, seeing them as opportunities rather than attacks. 6. Choosing to be blessed in every situation and give thanks rather than choosing to be cursed. 7. Being obedient.
2 Cor 5:17 So that if anyone is in Christ, that one is a new creature, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.
Gal 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcisionhas any strength, nor uncircimcision, but a new creation.
So, we are certainly new constructions in Christ, but of course many of us try and build our houses according to our own desires. Our personal desires come from the old man, the flesh, the sin nature and whatever we yield to, must be torn down and remodeled. This, in many ways is tougher than coming to Christ. For in coming to Christ we came as babes. We are treated by the Lord as such and He feeds us milk and He tends to our every need. But babies have to grow up. And it is in the growing that we make misatkes.
Often times we will meet a younger person whi is wise beyond their years. Then we find out that he or she had to " grow up quickly." They faced adversity early in life and instead of going off the rails, they grew up quickly and are not often fooled by the things of life. They are steady in the face of adversity, you can rely on them when everyone around them is losing their heads. They stand firm because they have been there before and know that they can come through it. Christians are exaclty like that if they yield to the circumstaces and trials they face and allow themselves to be molded by the blows from the hammer and the chisel of the Builder. They will grow to be Christlike and they wi;; be leaders and not followers. People will follow them because they are confident in the things of the Lord, a confidence born in the fires of trail and circumstances yielded too. These kinds of people do not yield easily to fear.
In conclusion, it is undoubtedly harder to " reconstruct," our lives than it was to become a " new construction." It is harder because we make it harder. We know that in becoming a new construction that the Lord had already done all the hard work on Calvary, it was only for us to reach out and accept what He had already done. Yet, the key to re-construction is the same as new construction, we must know and understand that He has already done that too. He has the expertise, He has the desire and the ability to reshape us into what He wants us to be, a unique servat of Christ. If we ultimately say that one is harder than the other, it may be because we are trying to finish in the flesh what was started in the Spirit.