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"You Must Be Born Again!"
By Jeff Reed
These are the words that Jesus told Nicodemus in His nighttime discussion recorded in John 3. These are the words I remember hearing as an 8 year old from the pulpit in the Pentecostal church that I attended. Because of these words, I made the slow walk to the front of the church building along with many other children that Sunday morning. There, at the altar, we talked with counselors who encouraged us to say a form of the “sinner’s prayer.” We confessed that we were sinners and asked Jesus to come into our hearts just as the youth minister, Brother Rick, had instructed. Afterwards, we were declared to be “born again.”
I didn’t feel much different. I didn’t look any different. I suppose I was happy to have my sins forgiven and avoid the penalties of the hell that Brother Rick described in his message that day. I am sure many people have had similar experiences. Evangelical Christians generally describe their conversion experience as being “born again.” The same idea is conveyed in religious tracts I often find in public bathrooms. Searching for a definition in Wikipedia will give the same impression.
Do the words that Jesus told Nicodemus and the words Brother Rick used mean the same thing? Or is there a completely different, more important message that Jesus gave?
It was early in His ministry when Nicodemus came at night to visit. The first recorded thing that Jesus said to him was “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again” (John 3:3). Being in the Kingdom of God has a direct connection with being “born again.” The overwhelming impression we get from reading the Bible is that the Kingdom of God is a still future event. It will be established when Jesus returns to the earth.
In connection with this future event, Paul explains the dynamics of what will occur to Christians.
“But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body” (Philippians 3:20-21). We will be transformed from physical flesh and blood into spirit. Our new body will have the same nature as Jesus. This is a very exciting concept to truly understand. Our new body will no longer have the physical limitations of being human. We will never be tired, hunger, be injured, or die. We will have the same spiritual attributes of God.
This transformation is known as the Resurrection and will occur to dead as well as living Christians when He returns. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, makes this clear. “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:50-52). It is key to understand that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” when we examine Jesus’ discussion with Nicodemus.
Reacting to Jesus’ initial statement, Nicodemus responds, “How can a man be born when he is old? ... Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” (John 3:4). He was astonished at the idea of an actual second birth. This is a physical impossibility. Jesus meant something entirely different.
“Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again’” (John 3:6-7). A clear distinction is made between physical birth and the second (spiritual) birth. It is easy to conclude, knowing the information that Paul wrote on the subject, that Jesus is discussing the Resurrection. He states that you cannot be in the Kingdom of God unless you are “born again,” clearly indicating that we must have a new type of body. He gives an analogy of the spirit body being like wind in that it is invisible to the physical observer. It can act on the material world but is not a part of it.
His discussion then shifts to how this “born again” state will be accomplished. The famous but misunderstood passage, John 3:16, states, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Human beings are perishable. We will all die. This is provable scientific fact. This goes against the common belief that we have some sort of immortal soul that survives death. There is no evidence of that being true. Our only hope for eternal life beyond death is faith in Jesus. Those who have repented and been baptized and live a life faithful to Jesus will be in the Resurrection.
Baptism actually pictures being resurrected from the grave. I was baptized over 15 years ago and the instrument in which I was baptized made this point clear to me. The structure was shaped like a coffin filled with water. Had I stayed underwater long enough I would have died. Going under the water depicts being in the grave and coming up pictures the Resurrection. “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4). Jesus was “born again” at His Resurrection and we will be at ours. Understanding what Jesus actually taught is the most important thing we will ever understand.
Just because our conversion is not truly being “born again,” it does not in any way cheapen that experience. When we receive God’s Spirit we are a new creation. We have a life filled with love and hope that springs from our Creator. We are simply waiting the time when we will be literally transformed to enter the Kingdom of God.
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