Born again

The phrase ‘born again’ is a phrase that we as Christians use all the time. I sometimes wonder whether we know what that means. I remember when the Holy Spirit sat me down one time to explain to me what ‘born again’ meant and I would like to do the same for you in this post, so please sit down and let me explain the what, why, where, and how of being born again.

What is being born again? Colossians 1:13 explains this perfectly. Remember when Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, He told him only those who are born again can see the kingdom of Heaven. Well, in Colossians it explains what being born again means. It states, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love…”. Being born again per the above verse is switching Kingdoms. Ephesians 5:8 adds that at one time we were children of darkness but now we are the children of light. We were born into sin (Psalms 51:5) or the kingdom of darkness. When we get born again we are born of God (John 1:12-13) or in the Kingdom of Heaven. What born again means is we are born into kingdom of Heaven.

Why get born again? In Genesis 2, God told Adam the day he eats of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he will die. In Genesis 3:1-7 Adam eats of the tree and they died. They committed treason and it was punishable by death. The interesting thing is that they kept on living for 900 years. This means that God must have meant a different kind of death. John 17:3 states, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” When Adam were in the garden, they had a relationship with God and the Lord would reveal Himself to them. But when they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they lost communing with God (The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) or Life (John 1:4). The death that God meant in Genesis 2:16, was a spiritual death which is separation from Himself. John 14:6 states, “…I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” God is life and if you are separated from life, you are joined to death. From the day, Adam sinned to the day a person is born again, death reigns over his/her life (Romans 5:14).  Unbelievers walk under the power of death. The ultimate fruit of the power of death is physical death. Before physical death, there are a lot of fruits of death (Deuteronomy 28:15-68). The reason why get born again is to be join back to life and begin communing with the Father.

Where does it happen? In John 3:3-8, Jesus was explaining this question to Nicodemus. Jesus said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 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.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” In His answer, Jesus pointed out great truths. The first one is one must be born of water and the Spirit. This statement puts restrictions on who can get born again and the method of being born again. The first restriction is one must be born of water. This means natural birth. It automatically excludes non-human entities like demons and fallen angels. So, what Jesus is saying only human beings can be born again. The second restriction is one must be born of the Spirit. The Spirit He is talking about is God the Holy Spirit. There is no other spirit that can do it and has been given the authority to do it. Another truth is what part of man can be born again. There are different parts of man. In 1st Thessalonians 5:23, Paul states that may the Lord keep our spirit, soul and body blameless. This indicates that man is a triune being. Ecclesiastes 12:7 states that when we die our body goes back to the ground while our spirit goes back to God who gave it. These verses confirm that are a spirit, and have a soul, and live in the body. Our spirit consists of intuition, communion, and conscience. Our soul consists of the mind, will and emotions. Our body consists of the five senses. What takes place the day I get born again is; my spirit is born again, my soul is being born again by the renewing of the mind (Romans 12:1-2; James 1:21), and the body will be born again on resurrection morning.
