What does it mean to 'Be Born Again'?
In the first place, why must we be born again? Who said so?
Next, how can one be born again?
Let's turn to John Chapter 3 and read...
John 3:1-15 NLT
There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee. [2] After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. "Rabbi," he said, "we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you." [3] Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God." [4] "What do you mean?" exclaimed Nicodemus. "How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?" [5] Jesus replied, "I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. [6] Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. [7] So don't be surprised when I say, 'You must be born again.' [8] The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit." [9] "How are these things possible?" Nicodemus asked. [10] Jesus replied, "You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand these things? [11] I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won't believe our testimony. [12] But if you don't believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? [13] No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. [14] And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, [15] so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.
Answer to question 1, who said that we must be born again,? Jesus Himself said so.
We cannot go back into our mother's womb to be born again as Nicodemus exclaimed.
Being born again does not mean that we will die and be born again in another form or be reincarnated as most religions believe.
Jesus explains in explicit terms. "You need to be born of water and the spirit. If not, you CANNOT ENTER THE KINGDOM OF GOD!" Fullstop! This second birth is the birth of our spirit man into God's own family.
To be born again you need to:-
1. Accept the free gift of faith which is available to all and believe in Jesus.
2. Be baptised in water professing your faith in Christ alone. Water baptism is an outward act of an inward repentance of one's sins and it is an acceptance of Christ Jesus as one's Lord and Saviour.
(At this point God in His mercy will send the Holy Spirit to reside in you and will baptise you with His Holy Spirit's anointing fire and empower you to walk in the righteousness of Christ Jesus.)
Listen to what Peter says in Acts 2:38 NLT
Peter replied, "Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
That's when and how you are born again.
You may ask, "That's it? That's all it takes?"
Yes that's all it takes to be born again.
But if we remain there at that infant stage, we will die a natural spiritual death.
Remember, just as a baby, when he is born needs his mother and father to nurture him, one who is born again of the Holy Spirit, in his spirit needs the constant nurturing of the Holy Spirit to help him grow spiritually.
Jesus explains that the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.
We often see people strutting around boasting that they are born again and we see them scorning those who do not accept Christ Jesus. They lack maturity. They are still baby believers.
Being born again is not enough. Our spirit man must grow. It must be strengthened and become mature. We need to be transformed into the likeness of Christ Jesus in our spirit man. Otherwise we will stumble those who want to believe in Jesus, but are confused and put off by the way we live.
Can we do it by ourselves? Absolutely not. We need the help of God's Spirit.
Let me explain further:-
In the letter to Titus, Titus 3:5 (ESV) tbe Holy Spirit through Paul says,
5 He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
In biology, regeneration is the process of renewal, restoration, and growth that makes genomes, cells, organisms, and ecosystems resilient to natural fluctuations or events that cause disturbance or damage. Every species is capable of regeneration, from bacteria to humans.
Spiritually speaking, the Holy Spirit renews and restores our spirit and helps our spirit man to grow more like Christ Jesus. He puts in us an alarm system when confronted by sin and temptations and constantly empowers us to flee sin and stay rooted in Jesus. This is spiritual regeneration. We are constantly reminded not to be conformed to the world but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind to become like Christ Jesus. We can only be renewed and transformed when we cooperate with the Holy Spirit.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV) the Holy Spirit through Paul says,
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
So when we say we are born again, we should not behave, should not talk, should not think, the same way we used to, when we did not know and surrender ourselves to Jesus. The Holy Spirit now resides in us to help our spirit grow. Therefore we must cooperate with Him. He is a gentleman. He will not violate our free will. We need to allow Him to shape us into the likeness of Jesus.
In case we become proud and think that we are born again by our own initiative let us read what the Holy Spirit tells us through Peter in
1 Peter 1:3 (ESV)
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
It is because of God's great mercy that we are born again. We are now born again to a living hope that one day we too will be resurrected just as Christ Jesus was and live with Him for all eternity. Faith is a gift. If God in His mercy did not give us this free gift called faith, we will still be in the dark, unable to believe in Jesus. So we have to be humble and thank God for giving us His Spirit and helping us to be born again.
How do we know if we are born again? To this the Holy Spirit through the apostle John answers in
1 John 2:29 (ESV)
29 If you know that He (Jesus) is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.
Everyone who practices righteousness is born again? Can we practice righteousness on our own? No, we can only practice righteousness with the help of the Holy Spirit. It is He Who produces the fruit of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness and Self-Control, in us when we abide in Christ Jesus the Vine.
Therefore by the fruit that we bear (not produce...it is the Holy Spirit who produces fruit in us) everyone will know whether we are born again or not.
He continues to say, in 1 John 3:9 (ESV) that...
9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.
When the Holy Spirit is in us we cannot go on sinning because He will keep on pricking our conscience. We will not have the peace and the joy of Christ when we sin. Thus we will be prompted to repent and amend our ways and walk back in the narrow path. Thus daily, renewal, regeneration and transformation takes place in our spirit and this in turn will be manifested in our behavior, thinking and speaking.
Next He exorts us through John in
1 John 4:7 (ESV) to do this...
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
OK! He says, whoever loves, has been born of God and knows God. Now, can we say that our friends who refuse to accept Jesus do not love one another? They too love. Does that mean that they are born again?
The Love which is spoken about here is not the love which we practice in our flesh and with our own strength. The people of this world practice that with their own flesh and thinking. They practice Phileo love which is brotherly love, they practice, Stergein love which is love for family and spouse, they practice Eros love which is the passionate physical love between a husband and wife. But this Love which is spoken about here, needs someone greater than us to work it out in and through us. It is the Agape Love which originates only in God and is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5
The Holy Spirit explains this Love through Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud [5] or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. [6] It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. [7] Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Can those who do not believe in Jesus, love others with the Agape Love? Absolutely not. Let me give you a few examples...
When the murderer of your dear child or sibling stands before you, it takes the love of God, Agape love to forgive him. When a spouse who is unfaithful confesses his/her guilt it takes God's Agape love to forgive and accept him/her back. When your intentions are misconstrued and you are persecuted at work, it takes God's Agape love to smile, forgive that person, pray for the persecutor and go on to continue doing what is right. Only Agape love patiently waits for someone to give their heart to Jesus and meanwhile perseveres in praying till he/she accepts Christ. The world will laugh at you saying that you are a coward and that you don't have a backbone. The world is only interested in self glorification, self gratification and self promotion. It's ambitions are selfish and not sacrificial. The world will never ever understand how Agape love operates.
Only God and you who have this love poured into your heart will. No one else teaches us to love our enemies and do good to those who hurt us. Only Jesus, Who died in our place, taking our sin upon Himself, does. To the world this is madness. But to us, it is the righteousness of Christ Jesus.
In verse 11 Paul writes,
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.
We too must be able to say, likewise... When we were not born of the Spirit we were unable to show Agape Love and were unable to produce fruit but now that we are born again and as we continue to grow and mature in the Spirit, we consciously put away our former selves and put on Christ Jesus.
Paul ends by saying in verse [13] Three things will last forever-faith, hope, and love-and the greatest of these is love.
So as I end, let us recap what it means to
be born again and put faith, hope and love in this context to get a clearer picture.
Step 1. Faith -
A.Through the free gift of Faith we accept Christ Jesus as our Lord and Saviour.
B. We profess our faith by the outward sign which is, water baptism and we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
C. Next we cooperate with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to begin His work of regeneration in us.
Step 2. Hope - Now that we believe in Christ Jesus we are promised Eternal Life by Jesus Himself. That is our Hope, to live forever with Christ Jesus, Father God and our best friend the Holy Spirit for all eternity in heaven. So we carry on our life here on earth being transformed daily in our Christian walk, with that Hope in mind. That Hope will produce joy in us and something to look forward to at the end of our life's journey. We know that just as Christ was resurrected, we too will be resurrected and live with Him for all eternity. We know we will not disintegrate into nothingness neither will we be born as an animal on this earth.
Step 3:- After being born again how to stay spiritually alive?
By allowing God's Agape Love to invade our hearts and to love through us. This Love, Agape love must be our highest goal. Let us abide in Christ Jesus and allow the Holy Spirit to produce fruit in us. The first of the fruit is Agape Love and when we are able to love with God's love, the rest of the fruit will automatically be produced in us. How? Because this love Agape love which is a sacrificial love will enable us to die to our selfish nature daily and endure all trials and persevere in every and even adverse situations.
Remember that once a person is born again it does not mean he/she is perfect already. Just as it takes a baby many years to grow, it takes a born again believer many years and even until his deathbed to be completely transformed and perfected in Christ Jesus. It depends on how willingly we cooperate with the Holy Spirit.
No one is perfect. Only God is. We are works in progress. Having said that, let's not remain in the infant stage but make every effort to grow and mature in Christ Jesus with the help of the Holy Spirit.
If you do not remember anything else, just remember these 3...Faith, Hope and Agape Love.
To be born again we must accept the free gift of Faith and believe in Christ Jesus and be born of water and the spirit.
When we are born again in our spirit we begin to look forward with Hope, to our Eternal life with God, as promised us by Jesus. But we cannot afford to sit and wait. Our spirit must grow in the likeness of Christ Jesus.
Finally, as born again believers, we must let the light of Christ shine through us. We must be mirror images of Christ Jesus to the world. For that to happen, we must allow God's Spirit to transform us. We become mature born again believers by practicing Agape Love at every possible moment in our lives.
We who are born again, may be in different stages of spiritual growth. Let us bear with one another. Instead of criticizing, quarreling or feeling high and mighty, let us humbly pray for one another and continue to be torch bearers for those who are yet to come to the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus.
God bless you in your walk with Jesus.
Mary Augustine.
25/01/2019
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