Born again

And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. (Isaiah 35:8)

In the previous study we looked at the most important aspect of the Holy Spirit's ministry in the life of the believer, which is sanctification, or making us holy. The Holy Spirit performs that work in our lives by coming to live in us.

Hebrews 12:14 says:

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no-one will see the Lord.

God wants us to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the process of sanctification and to make every effort to live holy lives. Why is that? Because the result of holiness is eternal life.

Righteousness (doing what is right in the sight of God) leads to holiness (man manifesting the moral and spiritual character of God); holiness, in turn, leads to eternal life (Romans 6:19,22). There is no other way to heaven. Jesus Christ is the Way (John 14:6) and his way is the way of holiness (1 Peter 1:14–16).

The Holy Spirit comes to dwell in man at conversion (when he's born again). In this study I want us to look at what it means to be born again and the responsibility it brings.

Born from above

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, 'Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no-one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.'

In reply Jesus declared, 'I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.'

'How can a man be born when he is old?' Nicodemus asked. 'Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!' (John 3:1–4)

Nicodemus was a religious man; he was a spiritual leader in Israel and he worshipped the true and living God. He wanted to enquire about spiritual things so he came to Jesus at night. He told him that he believed he was a teacher sent from God because no one could perform the miracles he had performed unless God was with him.

That was good: Nicodemus believed that Jesus had come from God. But mere acceptance that Jesus had come from God was not enough to save him, and it's not enough to save a person today.

Many people today believe that Jesus existed and that he was a good man. Some even believe he was the Son of God who performed miracles, but such belief won't save them. There are churches filled with people like that. They have an intellectual belief in Jesus, but not a true faith in him. I know what I'm talking about, I used to be one of them!

Jesus came straight to the point. 'I tell you the truth,' he said, 'no one can see the kingdom of God (the Greek word means 'to see with the mind; to understand; to have a revelation of something') unless he is born again.' He also said that no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5). If Nicodemus wanted to experience the salvation God was offering him he must be born again (John 3:7). The same is true for everyone else on the face of the earth.

The primary meanings of the Greek word translated 'again' in those verses are 'from above' or 'from the beginning'. The word can also mean 'again' or 'anew'. Most translations translate it as 'again', but the word should be viewed in its full meaning.

At the beginning God created man in his image (Genesis 1:26a). He formed him from the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life (Genesis 2:7). What do you think God breathed into man at that point? He breathed his Spirit into him.

Man's body was made from the dust of the earth, but God doesn't have a body: he is Spirit (John 4:24). So how could he make man in his image? He made him in his image by giving him his Spirit so he could have his nature. And that's what happens when we're born again.

When we're born again God breathes his Spirit into us, as he did to Adam at the beginning (the Greek word translated 'Spirit' in the New Testament means 'breath' or 'wind'). We are born again with a new nature—the nature of God. We are born of his Spirit; we are born from above; we are born anew—the new birth (1 Peter 1:3); we are born as at the beginning.

Two natures

The apostle Paul, reflecting on his way of life before he was saved, wrote:

I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. (Romans 7:18–19)

As a devout Jew Paul had a desire to obey God's law, but he couldn't do it because he was controlled by his sinful nature. In the next chapter he wrote:

…the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. (Romans 8:7–8)

No matter how hard we try, we cannot live a godly life with our sinful nature. Man, with the nature he is born with, cannot please God nor obey God. In order to do that he must be given a new nature. That happens at conversion when God's Spirit comes to dwell in us.

We then find we have two natures: our old sinful nature which desires to sin, and the new nature of the Spirit which desires to live righteously. The two are in conflict and we have to decide which to obey (Galatians 5:16–18).

Crucified with Christ

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:8,6–7)

The Bible says that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). Death awaited each one of us because of our sins. But Jesus Christ bore our sins on the cross and died. Jesus died the death that was due to us for our sins.

But that is not all that Jesus did for us on the cross. He didn't just deal with our sins by his death, he also dealt with the cause of our sins, which is our sinful nature.

The Bible says that the whole world is a prisoner of sin (Galatians 3:22a). Every man, woman and child is enslaved by sin; it is our master and it controls us. But a slave is only a slave for as long as he lives. When he dies he is released from his slavery.

By dying on our behalf, Jesus Christ has released us from our slavery to sin. Its power over us has been broken. We no longer have to obey its desires. We are now free to live the life that God wants us to live.

Dead to sin

Because of this we are told to count (consider, regard) ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11).

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. (Romans 6:12–13)

You will note that these are things that we are told to do.

We are told not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies.
We are told not to obey its evil desires.
We are told not to offer our bodies to sin as instruments of wickedness.
We are told to offer our bodies to God as instruments of righteousness.

God doesn't do these things for us, he gives us the ability to do them and then tells us to do them. Whether we do them or not is up to us: it's a matter of obedience. God doesn't control us, we still have free will. That is why Christians are warned in the New Testament not to live sinful lives (Hebrews 10:26–27). Those who do so will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19–21; Ephesians 5:3–7).

A Christian sins because he chooses to sin: God has given him the power to resist it (1 Corinthians 10:13). An unbeliever sins because he cannot help but sin: he is powerless to resist it.

Sowing to please the Spirit

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live… (Romans 8:12–13)

That shows that we still have a sinful nature and can yield to it if we wish. It also shows that, through the power of the Holy Spirit living in us, we can put to death the misdeeds of our body. God expects us to do that—in fact our salvation depends on it.

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. (Galatians 6:7–8)

I don't think God could put it more clearly than that.

A lot of the Scripture passages quoted in this study come from Paul's letter to the church at Rome. That letter explains the gospel to us more than any other book in the Bible.

God's way of salvation is not just through faith in Jesus Christ; it's through faith in Jesus Christ followed by the life he calls us to live, which is a life of holiness (1 Peter 1:14–16). Putting our faith in Jesus gives us the ability to live that life because when we put our faith in him he gives us his Spirit—his Holy Spirit.

You will note that Galatians 6:8 says that it's from the Spirit we'll reap eternal life. We won't reap eternal life from our own efforts, even though we are told to do certain things. We'll reap eternal life from the Spirit, because without the Spirit we couldn't do those things.

So we'll have nothing to boast about on that Day. Paul said that nothing good lived in him (i.e. in his natural self). Any good that God sees in us will come from what he has produced, by his Spirit, in our lives.

To God be the glory! Amen.

Michael Graham
August 2009

home | next | guide