Everyone must be born again

John 3:3-6 “Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."  (4)  Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"  (5)  Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  (6) That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

Now we can clearly understand why it is that Jesus said in the above quoted passage of scripture that we must be born-again. In this passage our Lord Jesus was speaking about being born-again in our spirits, for He contrasted physical birth with spiritual birth when he said “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. And so the reason we must be born-again, is because we were all once born spiritually alive to God when we were first born into the earth, and we all died spiritually at the age of thirteen when God held us accountable for our sins and we became separated from God. And so we all need to be born-again so that we can once again be made spiritually alive and thus be reconciled to God. In a later section we will discuss how God made it possible for us to be born-again, but in this section we just wanted to establish the truth that unless we are born-again in spirit that we cannot enter the kingdom of God.

1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”  

As we have already established, when we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, our spirits are born-again. This is why the Holy Spirit teaches us in the above quoted passage of scripture that God once again makes our spirits alive when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, for He uses the term “has begotten us again”. The reason He uses that term is because we were once before begotten by God when we first came into the earth, and we then died spiritually when we sinned against God at the age of thirteen, and so God in His abundant mercy has begotten our spirits once again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:23 “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.”

 And so once we are born-again our spirits once again take on the nature of God as our Father, for the Holy Spirit in the above quoted passage of scripture teaches us that we are born-again of the incorruptible seed of the word of God. It is for this reason that Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers, because we have been born of God just as He has been born of God (Hebrews 2:11).

Romans 10:9-10 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  (10) For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

So what must an individual do in order to be born-again? In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul teaches us that there are two simple steps that must be taken. Firstly the person must believe in their heart that God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead. And then secondly the person must confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is their Lord. Everyone that fulfils those two simple requirements qualifies, and they are instantly born-again in their spirits and they once again become children of God.

1 John 5:1 “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.”

The apostle John confirms to us in the above quoted passage of scripture that all who believe that Jesus is the Christ is then automatically born of God, and the reason they are born of God is because they have been born-again in their spirits. Those who are born of God i.e. are spiritually alive, are once again a part of His kingdom and are destined to spend eternity with Him and the Lord Jesus in the heavenly city of the New Jerusalem. As an aside, there are some (not many) that give their hearts to the Lord Jesus before the age of thirteen, and in those instances those individuals remain born of God before He holds them accountable for their sin and thus never incur spiritual death.

Philippians 1:23 “For I am hard-pressed between the two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.”

We have seen in the previous section that all Old Testament saints are currently in heaven with the Lord Jesus. That same truth is applicable to all New Testament saints as well, for all are spiritually alive and are therefore able to ascend directly into heaven when they die physically. The apostle Paul confirmed that truth for us in the above quoted passage of scripture, when he told the church at Philippi that he was considering leaving them to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven, which was a far better option for him rather than continuing in the persecution that he was enduring at the time, for Paul was in prison again. If you read the full account you can see that Paul decided to stay a while longer on the planet to help the saints in their walk with the Lord, nevertheless the point remains that Paul was fully assured that when he died that he would depart from this life to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven. In another portion of scripture the Holy Spirit confirms that same truth to us, when He tells the New Testament saints that for them to be absent from the body in this life is to be present with the Lord Jesus in Heaven ( 2 Corinthians 5:8). In other words all saints that physically die are instantly transported from their bodies to be present in heaven with the Lord Jesus for all eternity.

Michael E.B. Maher

The Spirit of Man

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