Born Again?

What does it mean to be born again?

In John chapter 3, a well-known and respected Jewish leader named Nicodemus was puzzled by this term as well. The passage reads:

1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

John 3:1-7

Jesus tells him that there are two births. We have all experienced the first type of birth. This is something we do not remember of our own selves, but it was an event that took place. We left our mother’s womb to grow independent of her. This is the water birth that Jesus talks about in verse 5. It is very simple; we were in the womb surrounded by water.

The spiritual birth is not by water but by the spirit. The flesh can produce physical, but it cannot produce spiritual. This is not mystical but only an expression of what takes place at salvation. You see it is impossible for physical people to produce anything that is not physical. But God is a spirit (John 4:24) and he can and will produce like.

Back in the very first chapters of the Bible we are given the keys to understand the new birth.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Genesis1 :26-27

God said, “let us.” He was speaking to the other persons of the Godhead. God is a triune being. That is one God that shows himself in three distinct persons with different roles. These persons are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – sometimes referred to as the Holy Ghost. God wanted to give this aspect of himself to mankind, so he made man in his image, A triune being. We have three parts to us: our body, our soul, and our spirit.

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

genesis 2:7

However, God gave man the gift of free will in the very first day that he created them. He told them that he had given them all of the fruit of all of the trees to eat except for one tree – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam and Eve not to eat of the fruit of this tree, and in the day that they ate of that fruit that they should surely die.

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Genesis 2:16-17

If you are familiar with the Bible at all you should know how this will turn out, but it is extremely important to understand. Satin tempted Eve and eventually Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the fruit. Notice that God said that in the day that they ate of the fruit they should surely die. According to the Bible, Adam and Eve lived long after they ate of that fruit, and eventually did die. It is my strong conviction that Adam and Eve died the moment they ate of that fruit, only they died spiritually. This is mostly based on what the Apostle Paul tells us in romans chapter 7.

9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.

11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

Romans 7:9-11

How does this relate to the “new birth” you may be asking. You see, Paul is saying here that when the law of God becomes known to him (and to us), since he has (and we have) broken this law, he is therefore condemned to death – as are we. This is both physical and spiritual death. He has already laid the groundwork for this thought in Romans 1-6, and I will attempt to draw out a few of his points her, but please, don’t take my summation for fact. Read all of Romans 1-6 out of a KJV Bible if you like.

  • Paul is God’s servant and he is ready to preach the gospel (the Goodnews on how to escape the wrath of God on our sins) to all that are at Rom.
    • 15 So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
  • God has revealed himself to all mankind through creation and through people throughout all ages telling people what God has said.
    • 19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
    • 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
    • 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
  • God has the ability and duty to judge sin, and he is perfectly just and right to do so.
    • 11 For there is no respect of persons with God.
    • 12 For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;
    • 16 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
  • There is no one that has not sinned, there are none righteous.
    • 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
    • 11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
    • 12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
    • 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
  • God has a judgment for sin.
    • 23 For the wages of sin is death…
  • Chapters 3,4, and 5 then move into the rebirthing process known as justification by faith and not by work.

Before we move on to the justification by faith, or the rebirth the Bible talks about, it is necessary to show that Paul demonstrates the death that he talks about. As previously mentioned this is a physical and spiritual death. Paul explains in Chapter 4:

12 Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

15 But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.

16 And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.

17 For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)

18 Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

19 For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

20 Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

21 That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

Romans 4: 12-21

So Paul shows that the sin of one man made all men spiritually dead. I think of it this way, every person (besides Christ) was born dead. They were still born. Not physically, but spiritually. Because Adam lost the third part of his Triune nature when he broke God’s law, and this trait was passed on to all his seed (or children). This means that you and I were born without a living spirit. One could say that our spirit died when we became aware of God’s law and that we have broken it. I believe both statements to be accurate.

What is the answer? Christ tells Nicodemus “Ye must be born again.” It may be true of you that you have never been born again and have had your spirit quickened – that is, made alive – by the Holy Spirit of God so that you can have eternal life. If that is where you are today, I hope that you will consider the next part of this page seriously.

Paul tells us how to experience this quickening.

23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Romans 3

The propitiation in verse 25 means the act of appeasing wrath, specifically the Wrath of God that should (and will) be poured out against all unrighteousness and sinners. Christ became the appeasing sacrifice of our sins when he died in our place. Isiah 53 explains how Jesus took our sins and put them on himself, bore our sorrows, and took our grief. God poured all of his wrath on Jesus that should have been poured out on us in an eternal Hell. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans chapter 4. Through the death of one man, not any man but the man who was also God in the flesh (Jesus), all can all be made alive.

Remember though, that Christ describes this as an event. it is not something that just happens automatically. unlike our first birth, we have a choice in this matter. We must accept Christ’s free grift of eternal life (Romans 6:23) and be made new creatures (II Corinthians 5:17).

Romans chapter 10 tells us how this works:

8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;

9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.

13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Romans 10:8-13

In order to be born again, we must believe Jesus is God and the son of God, that he physically died on the cross to take our sins(reconizing that we have sinned and need a savor), and that he rose again from the grave on the third day, just like the Bible tells us. We must call upon the name of the Lord (that is to cry out for his mercy) and the Word tells us that he will save us.

We are not born again to walk after our own lust, but rather to glorify God as Romans 6 tells us. We should not continue in sin. God desires us to walk in his grace (that is his power and favor to help us overcome the sins of our old man). and Finally, the rest of Romans tells us how we should live. One such passage is Romans 12:1-2

1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

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