BORN AGAIN: FACTS AND FICTION

The topic ‘born again’ does not so much make the rounds in Christendom today as it did some decades back. The emphasis today is on miracles, seed-sowing and prosperity. But is the question of born again outmoded? Is it no longer relevant today? I doubt. If Jesus did not raise the issue with a man who never asked for it (John 3. 1 – 8), perhaps we wouldn’t have bothered. We probably would have assigned it to one of the optional matters of life. But we believe Jesus knew the importance of it and so initiated the discussion with a man as religiously and socially refined as Nicodemus. To be born again is the most important thing on earth. Embrace it and you embrace eternal life. Scorn it and...
you court eternal damnation.

What is it all about?

The words of Jesus: “Except a man (or woman) is born again he (or she) cannot see the kingdom of God.”                                                                                                                                                         John 3. 3

“Except a man (or woman) is born of water and the Spirit he (or she) cannot enter the     kingdom of God.”                                                                                            John 3. 5

The importance of being born again lies in it being the only passport to heaven. The words of Jesus quoted above show that one cannot see or enter the kingdom of God without being born again.

To be born again is to be re-created in our inner person by the Holy Spirit. It is the receiving of a completely new nature tuned to-God-ward through Christ. It is not a refining or a polishing of the old nature inherited from Adam through our parents. That nature, though may have good works, actually has nothing good to offer.

                                                “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is in my sinful nature”  Romans 7. 18

                                                “All our righteous acts are like filthy rags.”         Isaiah 64. 6

It is very possible for a person to behave well because they have been brought up morally. It is also possible for an ill-tempered person to change and behave well because they have received religious instruction. These changes, if merely external, usually don’t last because God’s seed of life is lacking in such people. That seed of life only comes by the new birth. To demand holy living from the unregenerate is like asking the dead to rise and walk. Until the dead is raised they cannot walk. A house built without a proper foundation will not endure the tempest of time (Matthew 7. 26 – 27). Jesus’ disagreement with the religious leaders of His day was their appearing godly to people outwardly while being ferocious wolves inwardly (Matthew 7. 15). The Lord compared them to painted sepulchers that appeared beautiful outside while being full of dead bones and all kinds of unclean things inside (Matthew 23. 27).

I’m afraid, many, including church leaders, understand the born again experience as good behavior. The interview I have had with many show that understanding. But that is putting the cart before the horse. The horse, however, must drive the cart. The new birth must precede any godly walk if the latter is to be worth its price. The born again experience is the re-making of a person from the inside by the Spirit of God. It is the raising of a person from spiritual death and giving them new life in Christ. It is a quickening, a regeneration. It is God starting a person all over again, whether the person belongs to a church or not, whether they hold office there or not. The born again experience is the initiation, the beginning, the entrance into the Christian Faith, and into an endless eternal walk with God. It is the Faith’s irreducible minimum. Short of it, a person remains spiritually dead and doomed, irrespective of the person’s height of earthly attainment. To be born again is the minimum standard God has set for every person who ever has come, or who is in, or ever would come into this world, to be at peace with Him after our life in this present earth. This is irrespective of a person’s identity here on earth. The various identities do not matter to God. God does not admit into His presence on grounds of our earthly affiliations or affinities. He does so based solely on whether one is born again or not. Little wonder Jesus introduced the matter with such solemnity and gravity in John 3. 3…

                Verily, verily, I say unto thee…                                     King James Version

                Most assuredly, I say to you…                                      New King James Version

                I tell you the truth…                                                       New International Version

                I am telling you the truth…                                            Good News Bible

                With all the earnestness I possess I tell you this…      The Book

                Very truly, I tell you…                                                     New Revised Standard Version

                Truly, truly, I say to you…                                              English transliteration of the Greek

The words of Jesus are important, more so when He puts a note of emphasis on them. Being born again is what defines the saved. Arguments may win debates, but when breath shortens, the truth of God must prevail. You must be born again.

How may one get born again?

From the discourse between Jesus and Nicodemus, we may say it is not natural birth. It is as impossible to be born again naturally as it is to return to our mothers’ wombs and be reborn. Nicodemus took it to be natural birth, but then wondered at its possibility. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?’ he asked the Lord (John 3. 4). Who knows, Nicodemus may even have been more worried if he had lost his mother. And if his theory was right, then pity all who were motherless. Jesus made it clear however that it was not natural birth. The apostle John made it clear that to be born again is ‘not of natural descent’ (John 1. 13). A person is not automatically born again because his or her parents are.

Jesus said a person gets born again by the work of the Holy Spirit (John 3. 5). ‘The wind blows wherever it pleases’ (John 3. 8). Nobody dictates to the Spirit who to make born again. We can’t make anybody born again. That is the Spirit’s work. We can urge people to believe in Christ, to repent of sins, to surrender to God, and to follow God. We can pray for them and with them. We can disciple them and encourage them in the faith. Actually we can do no more. It is only the Holy Spirit who brings about the new birth in the person.

So, what a person needs to do to be born again is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as one’s Lord and Saviour. This faith has to be to the exclusion of all others, that is, you don’t believe in Christ and at the same time believe in something else. Faith in Christ is faith in God (John 12. 44). It is God by the Holy Spirit who does the regenerating, the quickening, the re-creating, while it is ours to believe and follow. Every person who has ever truly turned to Christ has always followed Him. Though they may fall when tempted they will always rise. They strive more to keep to the path of right and peace, and so Jesus could say that one’s fruits betray their leaning. We have to express our desire to be born again, humble ourselves before God, and call out to Him to save us. We have to forsake the wrong and pursue the right. We cannot expect to receive mercy when we deliberately continue in our evil ways. The Bible says it is the person who confesses and forsakes his or her sins who receives mercy from the Lord.     

May the Lord have mercy on you as you turn to Him in penitence, and may He, by His Spirit, impart unto you His life in Christ. Peace be with you!