What Is A Born Again Christian?

What does it mean when someone says they’re born again?

Born Again

When one of the lead teachers of the Pharisees came by night to visit Jesus, Nicodemus said “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him” (John 3:2) but Jesus told him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Nicodemus couldn’t understand about being born again (yet) but the phrase, “born again” in the Greek literally means “born from above,” so it’s similar to a person being born for the first time. No child is born of their own will any more than a child of God is brought into the family of God by their own effort (Eph 2:8-9). It is by His Spirit and the redemptive work of Christ on the cross that we are brought into the kingdom of God. To be born again is to be a new creation in Christ as the Apostle Paul wrote in 2nd Corinthians 5:17; “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” and this means the believer will have new desires to serve God and live a life of holiness and hate the sin that had so enslaved them previously.

Redundancy

It’s rather redundant to say that someone’s a born again Christian because it’s like saying “I’m a Christian, Christian.” When one is born again they become a Christian or a “little Christ” and so you can’t really be a Christian without having a new birth. The late Adrian Rogers once said if a man’s born only once, he’ll die twice, but if he’s born twice, he’ll die only once. Roger’s meant the physical birth and the spiritual birth, so if a person’s born again, they won’t face the second death mentioned in the Book of Revelation (Rev 20:14). A person’s either born again and Jesus has paid the price for their sins or they’re headed for the judgment of God (Rev 20:12-15). Since Christians have had a new birth, they “are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2nd Cor 5:20), which means we’re representatives of the kingdom of God and seek to bring others into the kingdom (at least we should).

Born of God by God

The Apostle John wrote about Jesus Christ and His mission to redeem sinners from the wrath of God and wrote that “to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13), so it’s not we who birth ourselves into the kingdom but God Himself begets us by His Spirit. We are now new creatures in Christ and we’ve had a heart transplant. I say this because of what Ezekiel the Prophet wrote of about the future of the children of God, writing “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules” (Ezk 36:26-27) and as a result, God says “you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezk 36:28). Jeremiah the Prophet wrote something very similar in Jeremiah 24:7, writing “I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.” Although these verses were written to Israel, they have a duality and apply to ever person who’s trusted in Christ because unless you’ve had a heart transplant, your heart will only seek to satisfy the flesh, but when the Spirit of God creates a new heart, the believer’s heart is bent toward obedience to God and desires to live a life that is pleasing to Him.

The Apostles on the New Birth

The apostles clearly understood that none of us are saved by pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We cannot save ourselves. It is God alone Who saves by grace alone (Eph 2:8-9) and it has nothing to do with our good works, although a person that’s saved will naturally do good works that God has place before them to do (Eph 2:10). Most of the world’s religions are based upon works but the question becomes, how many good works will save them? How many is enough? How few are too few? Thankfully, God doesn’t save us by our works because they’re like filthy rag to Him (Isaiah 64:6). We all needed a new birth because at one time, we were all the walking dead as Paul wrote, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (Eph 2:1-2). At one time, “we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph 2:3) but not anymore with the Spirit of God living in them.

Conclusion

You can’t even see the kingdom of God, not to mention entering it, unless you’re born again or born from above, and that new birth happens when God brings a person to repentance and then they place their faith in Christ. That seals them for the day of His return or after they die. For the unbeliever, they have a day appointed for them to die and the judgment follows (Heb 9:27). A person either trusts in Christ and He pays their sin debt or they will have to pay for them themselves and since we can’t take away our own sins, that means the payment will never be enough and that eternity will be spent paying for them. This torment will never end for those who reject Jesus Christ and they will go to a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth (Luke 13:28) without the possibility of escape.

Article by Jack Wellman

Jack Wellman is Pastor of the Mulvane Brethren Church in Mulvane Kansas. Jack is also the Senior Writer at What Christians Want To Know whose mission is to equip, encourage, and energize Christians and to address questions about the believer’s daily walk with God and the Bible. You can follow Jack on Google Plus or check out his book Teaching Children the Gospel available on Amazon.