A New Birth

"Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." 

"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" 

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 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.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.  So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

John was a simple man.  Every Biblical writer has his own style; some use long, run-on sentences or complex shades of meaning as they expound the Old Testament passages to the readers of their day.  

Not John.  John had only a few points to make, and he made them succinctly.  He made his points with the clarity of an old man who knew what was important.  He never bothered to name himself in the gospel; he was just "the disciple Jesus loved."  Not Saint John, the dedicated Apostle, blah, blah, blah.  No.  Jesus loved ME!  That was the focal point of his identity.

Likewise, one of the focal points of John's message is this idea of "new birth," or being "born of God."    

Who can be "Born of God"?  

John 3:3 is the first, but not the only time the New Testament talks about being "born again."  John uses three phrases interchangeably: "born again," "born of the Spirit," and later, "born of God."  This idea of rebirth is a metaphor that John uses consistently in his writings.  It refers to the regeneration that happens when a person accepts Christ and is spiritually reborn into the family of God. (see also, 2 Cor. 5:17, Rom. 8:11-14, Rom. 8:28-30, Gal. 4:6-7).  

John 3:3 speaks about being "born again" in context of God's saving work: The Son of Man, who must be crucified, so that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life (Jn. 3:15), so that the world may be saved and not be condemned (Jn. 3:17).  Jesus unfailingly uses general terms here--"everyone," "the world," etc.  

And in verses 18-21, He clarifies what it means to being born again: when the light comes into the world, you come to the light which exposes your deeds, rather than loving darkness which hides the truth.  Being born of God, then, begins with faith.  

Later, in John 8:42-47, He revisits this idea: of whom are you born?  If God is your Father (i.e., you are born of God), then you will believe in Jesus, love Him, and reflect His character of truth; if the devil is your father, then you reject Jesus, lie to yourself and others and despise the truth.  Being born of God, then, is about loving the truth.  

Finally, let's jump to the first Epistle of John.  

"Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." (I Jn. 5:1a).  

Whoever believes!  Whoever believes in Jesus Christ can be born of God.  This invitation is open to everybody, not just a few, not just a handful of believers who want to reign as kings in the upper realm.  It's for whoever believes.  

The Watchtower book, Reasoning from the Scriptures, defines being "born again" to include only the 144,000 in Revelation 7, of whom only a handful of Witnesses today are supposedly included.  "Only persons who have been 'born again,' thus becoming God's sons, can share in the heavenly Kingdom," the book says.  However, the next Scripture they quote refutes their limitation of those "born again" to an elite class: 

"As many as did receive him [Jesus Christ,] to them he gave authority to become God's children, because they were exercising faith in his name; and they were born, not from blood or from a fleshly will or man's will, but from God,"  (John 1:12-13).

(As many as did receive him" does not mean all humans who have put faith in Christ.  Notice who is being referred to, as indicated by verse 11 ["his own people," the Jews.]) (Reasoning, p. 77)

I would contest that "As many as did receive Him" DOES mean all human beings.  Jesus came first to Israel, so the first people who received Him, the people He came to initially, were Israelites--albeit only the dregs of society, the tax collectors, prostitutes, and 'sinners,' received Him, not the upper Jewish society.  Although Jesus lived and preached in Israel, there were a few non-Hebrews who believed in Him as well, such as the Syro-Phonecian woman and the Samaritans.  However, after His resurrection and ascention, the Holy Spirit made it clear first to Peter and subsequently to the Church, that God's plan of salvation allowed Gentiles to receive Christ as well (Acts 10).  Those Gentiles of Cornelius's household who listened to Peter's message and believed it were anointed the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues on the spot.  The Gospel started in Israel and went out from there to the nations.  As Paul explained in the book of Romans, "you", the Gentiles, have been grafted into the olive tree that is Israel.  You, too, can receive Him.  You, too, can be born again as a child of God.  

There is NOTHING in John 1:12-13 that would suggest a limit on who, receiving Jesus Christ, can be born again.  To the contrary, John 1:11 says that "his own" did not receive Him, but in contrast, 1:12 says that "as many as received Him" (i.e., everybody else!) could be born of God.  

Remember, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." (I Jn. 5:1a).  And these words were written to Gentiles who had not seen Christ, "that you also may have fellowship with us," (I Jn. 1:3).  

What happens when you are "born of God"?  

Being born of God is not about getting a free ticket to heaven or a fire insurance policy.  It's about so much more than that.  

When you become a child of God, your life begins to change on the spot.  

There are two absolutes in the universe: light and darkness.  God is light. (I Jn. 1:5).  Whoever walks in sin, which John defines as hating one's brother, lives in darkness.  Whoever walks in the light loves others the way God loves us (I Jn. 2:9-11).  Measuring ourselves against that standard of God's love, I would venture to say that most people today are walking in darkness.  

Here are a couple of other places in I John that deal with what it means to be "born of God."  

I John 3:9-10. The evidence of your new birth in Christ is that you practice righteousness = love your brother.  

I John 4:7. Whoever is born of God loves. 

I John 5:1-5. Whoever is born of God overcomes the world.  Overcoming the world, in this passage, includes the ability to love one another, to love God, and to keep His commandments.  

(Nowhere in the entire book of I John does he talk about the future or the apocalypse.  Being born of God starts with the here-and-now!  As John said earlier, "As He is, so are we in this world." (4:17).  In other words, we start to become like Him in this world, as opposed to our lives in the next world.)  

Being "born of God" happens by receiving Christ.  And to receive Christ is to receive the capacity to love as He loves us.  

John McDowell describes this inner transformation as the greatest personal evidence to him of Christ's resurrection, greater than all the historical evidence he had gathered in his search for God: 

 

There's another area in my life [that Jesus changed] of which I'm not proud.  But I mention it because a lot of people need to have the same change in their lives, and I found the source of change: a relationship with the resurrected, living Christ.  That area is hatred.  I had a lot of hatred in my life.... I hated one man more than anyone else in the world.  My father.  I hated his guts.  To me he was the town alcoholic.  If you're from a small town and one of your parents is an alcoholic, you know what I'm talking about.  Everybody knows.  My friends would come to high school and make jokes about my father being downtown.  They didn't think it bothered me.  I was like other people, laughing on the outside, but let me tell you, I was crying on the inside.  I'd go out in the barn and see my mother beaten so badly she douldn't get up, lying in the manure behind the cows.  When we had friends over, I would take my father out, tie him up in the barn, and park the car up around the sily.  We would tell our friends he'd had to go somewhere.  I don't think anyone could have hated anyone more than I hated my father.  

After I made that decision for Christ--maybe five months later--a love from God through Jesus Christ entered my life and was so strong it took that hatred and turned it upside down.  I was able to look my father squarely in the eyes and say, "Dad, I love you."  And I really meant it.  After some of the things I'd done, that shook him up.  

When I transferred to a private university, I was in a serious car accident.  my neck in traction, I was taken home.  I'll never forget my father coming into my room.  He asked me, "Son, how can you love a father like me?"  I said, "Dad, six months ago I despised you."  Then I shared with him my conclusions about Jesus Christ: "Dad, I let Christ come into my life.  I can't explain it completely, but as a result of that relationship, I've found the capacity to love and accept not only you but other people just the way they are."  

Forty-five minutes later, one of the greatest thrills of my life occurred.  Somebody in my own family, someone who knew me so well I couldn't pull the wool over his eyes, said to me, "Son, if God can do in my life what I've seen him do in yours, then I want to give him the opportunity."  Right there, my father prayed with me and trusted Christ.

Usually the changes take place over several days, weeks, months, even a year.  My life was changed in about six months to a year-and-a-half.  The life of my father was changed right before my eyes.  It was as if somebody reached down and turned on a light bulb.  I've never seen such a rapid change before or since.  My father touched [alcohol] only once after that.  He got it as far as his lips and that was it.  I've come to one conclusion.  A relationship with Jesus Christ changes lives. 

You can laugh at Christianity, you can mock and ridicule it.  But it works.  It changes lives.  If you trust Christ, start watching your attitudes and actions, because Jesus Christ is in the business of changing lives." (More Than A Carpenter, 1977.)

I first experienced this receiving of Jesus Christ as a child, as I said before.  I was about 5 years old when I put together in my mind the simple truth: that I loved Jesus, that I wanted Him in my heart, and that I wanted to become like Him when I grew up.  

But it wasn't until the winter after I turned 13 that I really experienced God's transforming power in my life.  I was old enough to make an informed decision about the direction I wanted my life to take.  I put that decision in God's hands and asked Him to make me a better person.  

Right away, He began to teach me to love.  

It didn't happen all at once.  Like Josh's story, it was more of a gradual awakening to a new set of values, a realization that the one most important thing to God, and therefore to me, was the sanctity of His human creations.  

I remember in particular that there was a girl who lived down the street from me, whom I had not spoken to in a long time.  I had quit associating with her because she went down "another path," and originally I looked down upon her as I suppose many people would who do not have the Holy Spirit.  After allowing Christ lordship of my life, my attitude toward her changed.  I saw her as my sister and began to pray for her and repented of my judgmental attitude.  I tried to be a sincere friend to her--something I would never have done before.  I felt the same way toward a lot of people; those whom I had looked down on before, I was now moved with compassion toward them.  To those who had hurt me in the past, I now felt the call to be reconciled and turn the other cheek.  

I cannot honestly say that this has been consistently the pattern in my life.  The transforming work of the Holy Spirit occurs only in conjunction with our free will.  There have been times when God and I were not getting along.  During these times, I'm not proud to say that there was little evidence of God's work in my life, because I wasn't letting Him work in my life.  But the sonship of God is, as Jesus said, available to as many as receive Him.