Top 7 Bible Verses About Being Born Again

Here are my top seven Bible verses about being born again.

John 3:3 “Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus had come to Jesus at night to speak with Him about salvation saying “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 instead of Jesus receiving this compliment, He directed Nicodemus’ attention to the fact that you must be born again to even see the kingdom of God (John 3:3). The words “born again” indicates that it is a work of God as the Greek says “born from above” so every child of God is born from above, by God’s will, so that we can take no credit for ourselves and boast or brag about it (Eph 2:8-9).

First Peter 1:22-23 “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God.”

The Apostle Peter also refers to the phrase born again and pinpoints the source; it was out of an imperishable seed which came by “the living and abiding word of God” showing again that our new birth comes only by God’s edict and this included the means of the Word of God or Scripture. This shows that the power of salvation is the very power of God that leads to salvation and it’s found in the gospel (Rom 1:16).

Colossians 2:13 “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses.”

What does Paul mean that we were dead in our trespasses? He is saying that “having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” so we needed a resurrection too. We had to be raised in Christ by God’s making us alive and this meant we had to have our sins taken away.

John 3:6-7 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.”

Jesus is still speaking to Nicodemus and trying to show him that we must be born of the Spirit; the Holy Spirit, as Jesus used the word “Spirit” as a proper noun, meaning that the Spirit is a Person and is the Third member of the Trinity. Everyone is born of the flesh but only those who are God’s are born of the Spirit. Also, this was not just spoken to Nicodemus because Jesus said “You must be born again” and the “you” is plural so Jesus is telling Nicodemus and all who read this passage that all of us must be born again before we can enter the kingdom of heaven.

First Peter 1:2-4 “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, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.”

Once again the Apostle Peter refers to the tern “born again” and shows that God has “caused us to be born again” meaning it was not our own doing. God alone saves and so He alone deserves the glory. This inheritance, reserved for all who repent and trust in Christ as part of the new birth, is being kept or held as a reservation for those in heaven.

Ephesians 2:5-6 “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Once more Paul writes about us being raised from the dead from that which our trespasses had caused. We had to be “made alive” by God’s divine will. Paul writes as if this is already a done deal as he sees us as already having been “raised up with him” and we are now “seated…with him in the heavenly places.”

John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Jesus shows the essence of the Spirit of God, although not seen by human eyes, we can see His effect on the believer’s life just like the invisible wind blows and you can see the effects and hear the sounds. Even though we don’t “know where it comes from or where it goes” we know He is there. We cannot see Spirit but we can see and hear the Spirit’s working and is evidence that we are God’s own child.

Conclusion

The late Adrian Rogers once said if you’re born once, you’ll die twice but if you’re born twice, you’ll die once.  By dying twice, he meant a physical and then a spiritual death (Rev 21:8) and born twice means you’re physically born and then spiritually born and if so, you’ll die only a physical death and at that point, you’ll receive eternal life.  If you have repented and forsaken your sin and then trusted in Christ, you have been born again, from above, by God Himself. You are now a child of God but for all who refuse to humble themselves and believe they have the wrath of God abiding on them at the present time (John 3:36b) but we must remember that they were “among whom 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 God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:4-5).

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.