Jesus Christ made it emphatically clear that anyone with an expectation of entering God’s kingdom, upon closing his eyes in death, “must be born again” (John 3:7).
But, what did Jesus mean by being “born again”?
To answer the question, all we need to do is make a few observations from the rest of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus in John’s Gospel, Chapter 3.
First
This often gets overlooked, when the subject arises, simply because too many wish to hold God hostage, thinking that being born of the Spirit is something they control, rather than it being something purely of God himself.
So, certain individuals, much like Nicodemus, attempt to butter-up God through flattery, persuasion, or quid pro quo (“this for that”).
When Nicodemus told Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs [literally, “miracles”] that You do unless God is with him,” all he was doing was attempting to flatter Jesus for ulterior reasons.
When it comes to being born again, God is not interested in our flattery, persuasion, compulsion, or lawyering skills at being able to play Let’s Make a Deal.
Being born again is based on God’s grace, God’s plan, and God’s decision-making that occurred long before anyone or anything was ever created.
The apostle Paul makes this evident, when he wrote, “…just as He chose us in Him [Jesus Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Eph. 2:4-5).
Although some may be quite vehement over the whole idea of who God has predestined (Gr. προορίσας) to adoption (i.e. born again), the concept is taught in the Bible and cannot be refuted simply because someone does not like it.
God’s choice of who would be adopted is as mysterious as knowing from where the wind commences its movement and then terminates (John 3:8).
The only thing that anyone can be sure of, in that respect, is that God’s will has been done; we merely need to acknowledge the results.
Just as we know that the wind has blown or is blowing by observing its effects on the objects it has moved or is moving, so we can know who has been born again by God’s Spirit by observing the words, beliefs, and actions of those whom He has chosen to spiritually rebirth.
Second
Every time the word “born” (Gr. γεννάω) is used by Jesus, it is in the passive tense, which means that it is an action taken by someone—in this case, the Spirit of God—toward another person.
In other words, the person being born by the Spirit is being acted upon.
It is not that the individual is out and about doing something to make his case that he is worthy to be born, because, as already pointed out, there is nothing anyone can do to compel God to act in a certain way, particularly when that individual is spiritually “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1).
The reality of the passive act to bear anyone into God’s kingdom completely debunks the notion of the active part that anyone plays in their spiritual rebirth.
Just as human babies do nothing to conceive or birth themselves into their human families, spiritual babies do nothing to conceive or birth themselves into God’s family.
They merely get to acknowledge and enjoy the decision, activity, and results of what God has done despite anything they could do for themselves.
Third
It is God’s Spirit that is credited with bearing every soul into the kingdom of God.
Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of…the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:5).
Jesus said, “That which is born of the…Spirit is spirit” (Jn. 3:6).
Jesus said, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it…so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:7).
Being born of the Spirit is a regenerative act upon the otherwise spiritually “dead.”
Spiritual deadness is a condition that naturally effects every human being.
It is a condition that has its origin with humanity’s first human father, Adam, when he went rogue and chose to disobey God that ultimately led to Adam’s death or separation from God.
“Therefore,” wrote the apostle Paul, “just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom. 5:12).
Every human being, with the exception of Jesus, enters the natural world spiritually DOA (dead on arrival), because of the sin nature that is inherited from Adam.
Spiritually dead individuals who share such a pedigree of open rebellion against God (see Rom. 1:18-3:18) cannot live with God, in His kingdom, until God acts in their behalf to regenerate (rebirth) their spirits, whereby they turn from their rebellion (repent) to God, receive His forgiveness (Acts 26:18), and become new creatures (Gal. 6:15) in Christ.
Fourth
As previously mentioned, being born of God’s Spirit is analogous to knowing the origin of the blowing wind and then knowing where it is going (Jn. 3:8).
What makes this difficult for many people to understand is that it blows away all of the pomp they have learned over the years that makes them believe that they are in complete control of their spiritual destinies.
That if they will walk the aisle at church during the invitation at the end of the preaching service and accept Jesus, then they will be saved.
Or, that if they will join X-church, because it is the “only true and living church on the face of the earth,” and perform this or that service, or perhaps offer some kind of penance, whereby they make themselves “worthy” of meriting God’s grace that they may add to their resume of good deeds, according to their “free will,” then they will not miss out on heaven’s glory when they die.
All of that is pure, unadulterated nonsense, in light of what Jesus had to say about being “born again.”
Being born again, or literally being “born from above,” is something that God does for the sinner, not what the sinner does for God.
The unregenerate, in other words, is at the mercy of God; God is not at the mercy of the unregenerate.
If Jesus’ words are not realized and acknowledged as such, then those who discount or twist by adding to or taking away from them, only provide evidence that they are not born again.
They are still rebels of a religious stripe, trying to offer God an alternative or counterfeit that ultimately negates or perverts God’s gracious act to redeem, as well as Jesus’ sacrifice to provide the means to do it.
Recap
There is nothing anyone can do to flatter, persuade, impress, or negotiate, when it comes to God bearing anyone into his family.
Those who are God’s children—physical creation does not equate to regenerative relation—become so through God’s intention, kindness, and will.
To be “born again” is a passive act of God’s Spirit upon the spiritually dead.
It is not an active decision of the spiritually dead to move God to bear them.
Failure to realize that, or to get it backwards, only leads to confusion and ignorance of what Jesus has revealed on the subject.
It is God’s Spirit that performs the act of bearing anyone into God’s kingdom.
It is completely devoid of human input, since all humans are spiritually incapable, due to an inherited sin nature that naturally rebels against God.
Finally, the only way of knowing that anyone has been born of God is by seeing the results.
It is likened to observing when the wind is blowing or has blown.
To force the issue—through various kinds of religious ingenuity designed to take the place of the Spirit’s movement to bear anyone—only presents a counterfeit unworthy of what Jesus talked about with Nicodemus in John, Chapter 3.
Now, what about the question of the certainty of spiritual rebirth?
Let’s answer that question next time.
