“Born Again” – John 3

This term describes the fact that to be converted, to be saved from your sin, there must be a work of God giving spiritual life to the lost sinner. He must be spiritually born again. He does not have life with God – he is spiritually dead. After being born again he will have life with God – he will be spiritually born again / made spiritually alive. His thoughts will easily go to God. He will then consider God in his daily life. Is God pleased with his actions or not? He will be troubled when he is aware that he has sinned against the Lord. He will be thankful to be able confess his sins and be cleansed from all unrighteousness (sinful actions or habits) - 1 John 1:9.

The classic passage on being born again is John 3 …

John 3:1-21
1  There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2  The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9  Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
10  Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
11  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
12  If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13  And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

“Born of the Spirit” is the key ingredient to the miracle / work of God that converts the lost sinner to a saint. That converts the lost sinner to a child of God. That makes him spiritually alive. Before receiving Christ he had a vacuum within him that nothing but God could fill. When he received Christ, and was born again, the Holy Spirit took residency in that vacuum. Causing him to be fulfilled not lacking anything. Causing him to be satisfied as never before. Then Holy Spirit begins the work of conforming him to the image of Christ. To make him like Christ in values and ambition (Philippians 1:6; Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Philippians 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

Romans 8:29  For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

2 Corinthians 3:18  But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

It is important to recognize that being ‘born again’ is a work of the Holy Spirit. Hense “Born of the Spirit”. The Holy Spirit’s work is to draw, or woo, us to receive Christ (John 1:12). And then continue working in us until we die and go to be with the Lord (Philippians 1:6 above), or Christ comes and takes us in the rapture of the Church. Opening our understanding of Who God is, and who we are and what our spiritual condition is. His work in us is partly through providence (revealing to us His existence and our sinfulness), but mainly through a Christian sharing the Word of God with us.

John 16:8 is very instructive in this point …

John 16:8  “And when he (Holy Spirit) is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment”

• The Holy Spirit “reproves (convicts) the world of sin” – It is the natural thing for the average ‘decent’ person  to deceive themselves (Jeremiah 17:9 below) that they are doing ok. That they are ‘not as bad as many.’ Meaning – to them – that by comparison they’re ok. The Holy Spirit helps us with this self deception, by showing us that, to God we are unacceptably sinful whoever we are. If we agree with Him then the Holy Spirit has succeeded with us on this vital point.
• The Holy Spirit “reproves (convicts) the world of … righteousness” – In our biased (dishonest) assessment of ourselves we believe that there are things that God will approve of. And because of these ‘good’ things that we do, that we believe out number the bad things that we do, we believe or hope that God will accept us (Isaiah 64:8 below). The Holy Spirit helps us to see that the things we call good, do not meet His standards. And even if they did, they would never remove the sin that we all have.
• The Holy Spirit “reproves (convicts) the world of … judgment” – The Holy Spirit reveals to us, through the Bible, that we will not get away with our sin. That though we seem to get away with many, many wicked thoughts; and many, many wicked actions throughout our lives. There will come a day to account to God for our lives in this world (Hebrews 9:27 below). The Holy Spirit will make this real to us if we don’t resist Him.

[Jer 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things (including the master deceiver satan), and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

Heb 9:27  “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”

Isaiah 64:6  “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses (the ‘good’ we do) are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.”]

Nicodemus in John 3 could not grasp this concept of being ‘born again’. And we don’t understand completely how the Holy Spirit woos and wins that hearts and minds of some. And is not able to woo and win the hearts and minds of others. The Lord uses the illustration of the wind. The wind is not completely understood even today. The weather services do their best to give us accurate weather forecasts ahead of time, but they have to continually update their forecasts because they are often inaccurate. And sometimes they are very inaccurate. Similarly the workings of the Holy Spirit are not completely understood. And differ to some degree in how the Holy Spirit attempts to woo one lost person from another lost person.

What is vital for us to understand is that becoming ‘born again’, or ‘receiving Christ’, or getting ‘saved’ only happens when through the ‘partnership’ of the Christian believer, or preacher, sharing the Gospel, and the Holy Spirit ‘convincing’ us, are we converted (‘born again’, or ‘receiving Christ’, or getting ‘saved’). If we only ‘believe’ because we are scared of going to hell, we are not ‘born again’. If we only ‘believe’ because of the convincing personality of the person sharing, or preaching, the Gospel to us. We will not be born again. We will not be truly converted. We must be won by the Holy Spirit to be truly born again.

How do I know if I am truly born again?

• I will have the Holy Spirit working in me. (See Romans 8:9 below)
• Do you love God? The born again grow in their love for God. (See Romans 5:5 below)
• Do you have a strong desire to change your life to meet God’s approval? (See John 2:3-6 below)
• Are you unhappy when you know that there is sin in your life that God does not approve of? Or can you easily continue day after day living with sin that you know the Lord is against? (See Romans 6:16 below)
• Do you have a love for other Christians? Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”(John 13:35; 1 John 3:10-14)
• The Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are sons / daughters of God. Meaning that there is a relationship with the Spirit of God whereby He caused us to KNOW that we are sons / daughters of God. This is very hard to explain except to say that we have no doubts about being a son / daughter of God. When exposed to the teaching of the Bible this confidence is confirmed rather than undermined, or challenged, as in the case of someone not born again. This confidence, through the Holy Spirit, will grow as we grow in the faith. And as our personal daily walk with the Lord develops.(See Galatians 4:6; John 8:14-16 below)

[Romans 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”

Romans 5:5  “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

1 John 2:3-6
3  “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4  He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5  But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6  He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”

Romans 6:16  “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?”

Galatians 4:6  “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.”

Romans 8:14-16
14  “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15  For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
16  The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:”]

To summarize: There must be a discernable working of the Holy Spirit in us. As taught by the above points and Scriptures that describe some of the workings of the Holy Spirit in the born again. As the believer grows in their walk with the Lord, the workings of the Holy Spirit will be more and more discernable.