Have You Been Born Again?

1 Corinthians 12:3b
...no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

If you’ve grown up in the church or if you’ve been around the church long enough, then you’re sure to have heard Christians speak about the concept or the idea of being “born again”. Perhaps you yourself have been asked by a fellow Christian at your church something along the lines of, “Hey, are you a ‘born-again’ Christian?”, “Are you a ‘born-again believer?” or “Tell me, when was it that you were first ‘born again’?”

In 1974, a man by the name of Chuck Colson (who at the time worked as one of the advisers of the late President Richard Nixon) pleaded guilty to counts of involvement in the infamous Watergate Scandal and proceeded to serve seven months in the federal Maxwell prison in Alabama. He was the first member of the Nixon administration to be arrested for Watergate-related charges.

While incarcerated, Colson experienced a miraculous and supernatural turn of events as he was suddenly and powerfully converted to Christianity. During the course of his imprisonment, Colson began to write a book. That book, titled “Born Again,” would instantly become an international best-seller, chronicling the events and the process of Colson’s coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. From that point on, countless numbers of believers in the United States began to refer to themselves as “born-again” Christians or “born-again” believers. In fact, even subsequent president Jimmy Carter eventually came out as saying that he himself was indeed a “born-again Christian.”

But what exactly does that phrase mean? What does it mean to be “born-again”? Well, the phrase “born again” is actually one used by Jesus repeatedly in His well-known discourse with a Pharisee named Nicodemus in John chapter 3. In that passage, Jesus begins the discourse by declaring to Nicodemus, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God"” (John 3:3).

In theology, we often refer to the concept of being “born again” as the doctrine of regeneration. And in order to understand the doctrine of regeneration, there are three truths that we must comprehend. The first of which is that being “born again” or regenerated is absolutely necessary in order for a person to be saved.

You see, Jesus said that, “Unless someone is born again, he cannot see...he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:3,5). And so, what Jesus is saying here is that unless a person is born again, he or she is, in fact, living in spiritual darkness! Not only does Jesus say that it is impossible to SEE the Kingdom of God unless we are born again, but according to verse 5, Christ tells us next that we cannot ENTER the Kingdom of God unless we are in fact born again.

In other words, according to Jesus, the transformation of being born again is absolutely necessary in order for someone to be saved. In fact, according to Jesus here in John chapter 3, no one can ever hope to attain eternal life with Jesus unless they are, in fact, born again. Being born again is a universally necessary condition for access into the Kingdom of Heaven.

Not only is regeneration, or the new birth, necessary, but according to the Bible, it is also spiritual. You see, that phrase “born again” in the original Greek is the phrase “γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν” (gennao anothen), which literally means to be “born from above.” To be “born again” is a spiritual change that needs to take place in a person’s life. It’s not a physical transformation that needs to occur, but a spiritual rebirth that a person needs to go through, which cannot be initiated by human hands or by the human will or by any other form of human exertion.

You see, being “born again” according to the Bible means that a person is literally born from above, that is, spiritually reborn by the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s not an external change. It’s not a physical change. It’s not a change in how we dress, or how we speak, or how we look. Instead, it’s a fundamental transformation of who a person is at the essential or fundamental level, bringing someone from spiritual death into spiritual life (Ephesians 2:1-9).

Finally, not only is regeneration (or being “born again”) necessary and spiritual, but it is also monergistic. The word “monergistic” comes from two Latin words, the word “mono” (meaning “one”) and the word “erg” (meaning “energy”). So, when we say that being “born again” is “monergistic” we mean that it is not something that happens as an act of cooperation between us and God, but instead, it is something that God the Holy Spirit does in a person’s life on His own. So then, when someone is “born again” the Bible tells us that it is not our work...but God’s work!

And it’s at this point that many evangelical Christians get confused as to what being “born again” truly means. Because becoming born again is not something that we experience after our conversion to Jesus but something that occurs before our conversion to Jesus! The Bible says that the Holy Spirit necessarily causes us to be “born again” before we place our faith in Christ by bringing us from spiritual death into spiritual life and by giving us the gift of faith. As many theologians put it: regeneration precedes faith!

Paul writes in Romans 8:30 that “those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified.” Notice what Paul says takes place before a person is justified (saved by faith): First, Paul tells us that a person is “called” or “regenerated” or “born again” by the power of the Holy Spirit. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism #30 tells us, “The Spirit applies to us the redemption Christ bought by producing faith in us and so uniting us to Christ in our effective calling.”

The point is that your salvation didn’t begin with you. It began with the Holy Spirit. It began with God calling you from spiritual death into spiritual life. It began with the Holy Spirit causing you to be “born again” and giving you the gift of faith (Ephesians 2:8).

Take a moment to pray that the Holy Spirit would cause those in our lives who are not currently believers in Jesus to be born again today!