Born Again

In the mid-1970s, Charles Colson, an adviser to President Nixon who became embroiled in the Watergate scandal, claimed to be converted to Christ. Later he wrote a book titled “Born Again,” which sold millions of copies. A few years later, President Jimmy  Carter revealed that he was a “born-again Christian.” Suddenly, the words “born again” became part of American culture. Many people began to call themselves “born-again Christians” without really understanding what it meant. It almost became faddish and cool to label oneself this way. 

But behind the cliché was a truth of monumental proportions. Jesus Christ used that language to describe what happens to a person when they are saved. Jesus said in John 3:3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:5-8). Jesus is saying that a person cannot even open their eyes and see the kingdom without being born again. They cannot perceive it or experience it or fathom it without God supernaturally changing their spiritual existence. In other words, no one goes to heaven without being born again.

This Greek phrase born again may be understood as “born from above,” but the context of John chapter 3 makes it clear that Jesus is talking spiritually and referring to being born from heaven or born from God. The word “regeneration” comes from the Latin rendering of the phrase “born again” so the terms regeneration and born again mean the same thing. Being born again is something that happens to a person when they trust Christ. It is a supernatural event that happens in a moment of time in which believers are transformed from darkness to light, from spiritual blindness to spiritual sight, from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of Christ, from spiritual death to spiritual life. God does this by His sovereign power. In 1 Peter 1:3, the Apostle Peter says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again. The verb form of the word “born again” is passive here, “you were born again.” It is something that happened to you. You didn’t give birth to yourself, it is a sovereign work of God. Salvation belongs to God (Jonah 2:9).

When God regenerates a person’s heart, He changes their disposition from a rebel of Christ to a true worshiper of Christ. He makes them alive spiritually (Colossians 2:13). There is a transformation that takes place in the supernatural realm. There is a new life that replaces the old life with new desires and aspirations (2 Corinthians 5:17). Being born again is all about being awakened to God and the evidence is a changed life. God uses the truth of the Bible as the source material to cause a person to be born again. 1 Peter 1:23, For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. Peter is talking about the fact that the Word of God is the imperishable and eternal seed. This seed goes back to the Gospel of Christ, which a person must believe in order to be saved. Born again is a biblical phrase that should be used often in speaking of salvation to those who don’t know Christ.