The Revelation of Being Born Again    

                                            By: Art Javier

     Probably next to John 3:16, which is so popular that Manny Pacquiao even teaches his cute 3 year old daughter to memorize, (“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but will have an eternal life”), there is one other verse that we should really understand and put very clearly in our hearts. This is John 3:3, which came directly from Jesus “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

     The funny thing going on nowadays is that it used to be in the past that such phrase ‘born again” was being tagged to people who used to be ridiculed as “Jesus freaks.” The irony is that today, these same people who criticized this phrase “born again,” who come from a lot of religious denominations are now asserting that they too are now “born again.” Not too long ago in the old country, they even phrased and made fun of it as “born against.”

 I.                The Story Continues

     The story was that Jesus was having a conversation with a Pharisee named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. Nicodemus cannot understand what Jesus meant and in verse 4 he asked, “how can someone be born when they are old? Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born.” And in verses 5 and 6 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to the Spirit.”

      Nicodemus left the conversation confused without really understanding what it means to be “born again.” Let’s take a similar situation in our midst. Two friends having a conversation and one friend, asks his other friend who is now attending a bible fellowship, “Bro, born again ka na ba?” (Bro, are you already born again ?).

     This is a classic example where the person asking the question does not really understand what it is to be “born again,” and correspondingly the respondent friend who was asked the question does not know either on how to answer such an important question of what it means to be “born again.”

     Being born again does not mean going to a bible study or singing praise songs that will uplift your feelings and emotions. Being born again must have the assurance of salvation which must be very real for every Christian based on faith and fact and not by emotions or feelings.

II.             Born from Above

     So let’s dissect the issue so we can respond to the question when asked of us and in the process probably enlighten Nicodemus.

     First, the Greek word for “again” also means “from above.” So the phrase “born again” means “born from above.” Jesus made it clear the He is not referring to “flesh giving birth to flesh” This was the time when we were born from our mother’s womb, from “flesh to flesh.”  Jesus was referring to the Spirit gives birth to the spirit. This means that we have to die to the flesh and be born again as a new person in spirit. We undergo a change of heart under a complete spiritual transformation. One author writes, “being born again is an act of God whereby eternal life is imparted to the person who believes.” In 2 Corinthians 5:17, “therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old is gone and the new is here.”

     All sinners and non-believers are dead.  Ephesians 2 now joins us, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins…but because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved.”

     The Bible describes this as a rebirth. The Spirit gives birth to the spirit.

III.           The Revelations

     But our lesson doesn’t end here. As I said earlier, that to gauge ourselves as born again we must have the assurance of salvation based on faith and fact.  We find 4 defining tests which we can accept as revelations in 1 John by which we can ascertain if we are truly born again.  These are: 

(1)   I seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. (1 John 2:29 “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him).”

First and foremost, a born again must be aware and accept that he is a sinner- saved by grace or redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. The sin nature of man which we have inherited from the fall of Adam still creates an indwelling of corruption in us but we resist it. We do not consent to continually do evil but we must accept the fact that we may fall from time to time. We will never become perfect in the flesh. So do not listen to the enemy or to the accuser or even to your friends and relatives that if you commit one mistake you are not one true blooded born again.  

A true blooded born again tries his very best to fulfill one of the great purposes in his life, that is, to become like Christ. He continually looks and seeks Jesus as his example. We thank the Lord that our imperfections do not prove in any way that we are not born again. To borrow the words from one author, “I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be, but still by the grace of God, I am not what I once used to be.”

(2)    I love ..

We quote from 1 John 3:14, “we know that we passed from death to life because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.”

We all know that God is love. The first fruit of the Holy Spirit is love. Love is the greatest among all virtues. In 1 Corinthians 13:13, “ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love.”

(3)   I believe in Jesus as my personal Savior

 “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” (1 John 5:1). The word “savior” is the closest meaning to the word Christ which is the Greek word used to translate the Hebrew word Messiah.

 Jesus answered, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6).  As born again, we believe that Jesus is the one and only Savior. He has come to this world to die for our sins and through Him we have attained the forgiveness of sins because He already paid the wages of sin on the cross. There is no other path to heaven, no other way to the Father. By this we are saying that we do not need other intercessors.

(4)   I am an Overcomer

In 1 John 5:4, “for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world even our faith.”

As a born again, by faith, we have been set free from the charm of this world or worldly things. We quote from Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and mammon (money).”

 Our standards of right and wrong had completely changed from the world’s ways, customs, ideas and traditions. It is not important of what others think of us but what is important is what God thinks of us. We have overcome the world in a way that this new birth, our very own metamorphosis, from death to life, from natural to supernatural, from darkness to light, has taken us away from the sphere of this worldly chain and influence. We quote from Colossians 1:13, “For God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves.”