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The idea of being born again originally came from the Lord Jesus. As you can see from His conversation with Nicodemus, it is clearly impossible for anyone to enter the kingdom of God, or even see its power and glory, if they are not born again. Nowadays, we hear people refer to “born again” Churches or “born again” Christians as if these were a separate category of people or Churches. The fact is a Church is not a true Church, neither is someone a true Christian, if they are not born again.
Jesus Christ emphasised to Nicodemus that we must all be born again. It is not an “add-on”, it is not an elective choice, it is either you are born again or you are not. If you are born again, you belong to Jesus. If you are not born again, you do not belong to Jesus. Nothing can be simpler or clearer.
To become born again, we must accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. We must receive water baptism and Holy Spirit baptism. These three steps will produce in us a remarkable and nearly irreversible change of life: when we are born again we are wholly committed to the Lord Jesus Christ, wholly committed to God the Father, and wholly committed to the Holy Spirit. Our whole life is marked by complete submission to the will of God. Our whole life is distinguished by a strong desire to please God in all that we do, we take the Word of God seriously, we connect to other believers, we worship, we pray, we share the good news of salvation with other people, we practice what we preach, we demonstrate obedience and faith, and we are strong, committed members of a local Church.
"He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
John 1: 10-13
Naturally, we were born into this world through our human parents. Spiritually, we are born again through the will of God, the Father because of our faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. Through His Holy Spirit, God adopts us into His family, the family of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords – a heavenly family, a majestic family!
That adoption is confirmed by the new nature that God’s Holy Spirit gives us. We are a new creation, not because we change our skin colour (which never changes), not because we change our gender (which never changes), not because we change any physical thing about us, although some people might change their name to some Biblical name – but we are a new creation because we now have God’s nature operating inside of us to the glory of His name! We have become partakers of His divine nature through the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.
In this way we experience what is called “regeneration” (1Corinthians 2:6-16; 1Corinthians 12:1-3; Galatians 5:22-25) Regeneration simply refers to our daily experience of being different from what we used to be, how we used to behave or think before we accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
If you do not notice a remarkable desire to please God and to avoid sinning in your life then you are not yet born again.
2Corinthians 5:17 states as follows: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” We are new inside, our desires and aspirations are now focused on living daily for God.
Elsewhere, the Bible states that:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors-not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
(Romans 8:1-14)
We also know we have been regenerated through the evidence of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit in our life. Gifts of the Holy Spirit are mentioned in 1Corinthians 12:4-11, 27-30; Romans 12:3-8. Fruits of the Holy Spirit are mentioned in Galatians 5:22-23 as follows: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.”
Furthermore, from verse 24-26, the Bible teaches the following: “And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”
On the contrary, those who are not born again will show the following traits: “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
(Galatians 5:19-21) |
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
John 3: 1-8
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
2Corinthians 5:17
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
Galatians 6:15
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,
1Peter 1: 22-23
For more information about being born again, read the following scriptures:
Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
2Peter 1: 1-9
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight - if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
Colossians 1: 9-23
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