Unless You are Born Again

[Sue J Love]

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into 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 be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:1-7 NASB1995)

When we are born into this world as human babies, we are born from the wombs of our mothers with sin natures, in the image of Adam, the first man created by God, and the first man to sin against God. We are lost in our sins without hope, destined to spend eternity in hell apart from God’s love and grace. So that is why God the Father sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to the earth, to die on a cross, to put our sins to death with him, so that we can now die to sin and live to God and to his righteousness.

So, when we die to our old lives of living in sin and for self, by faith in Jesus Christ, we are thus born again of the Spirit of God, and we are given new lives in the Spirit to now be lived for God in walks of obedience to his commands, in moral purity, uprightness, honesty, faithfulness and walks of surrender to the will of God for our lives. This is what it means to be “born again,” to die to sin and to now live for God. Our lives given over to the flesh are now to be done away with so that we can now live to be pleasing to God.

So, we are not “born again” if all we do is make a verbal confession of Christ as Lord and Savior, but while we continue to live as we did before we made that confession of faith. And we are not “born again” if obedience to God is not our practice, but if deliberate and habitual sin is still what we practice. For “born again” is not some status we wear, but it means to begin again, to start over, only not the same as you were before, but different, changed, transformed in heart, mind, and behavior by the power and grace of God.

Now, Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus meant by “born again,” for he was thinking in human terms. And it is important here that we pay close attention to the context, for that determines what comes next. And the context is that of being “born again” and of Nicodemus thinking in terms of being born again from the womb of a mother. And when we are born of a human mother, we are born of water. So Jesus said we need to be born of water (our physical birth) and of the Spirit, our spiritual birth. We need both.

And then what did he say? “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” And when we are born of the flesh, that is in reference to our physical birth, which is when we are born of water, from the wombs of our mothers. So he was letting him know that there are two births. The first one is physical (of water, of our mother’s womb), but then we need to be born again, this time spiritually, of the Spirit, by God persuaded faith in Jesus Christ, resulting in death to sin and obeying God.

So there is no need ever to interpret “water,” in this context, in any other way than to refer to our physical birth from the wombs of our mothers.

But the main message that we need to come away from this today is that God requires that we be born again, only this time not physically, but spiritually, and not of our human mothers, but of the Spirit of God, and only as we, by God-gifted and God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ, die with him to sin, and we are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves (addicts) to sin, but as slaves to God and to his righteousness, in walks of obedience to his commands, by the grace of God.

For if sin remains our practice, and not walks of obedience to our Lord’s commands, we will not have salvation from sin and eternal life with God.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:5-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

Broken and Contrite

An Original Work / May 13, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

I come before You, Lord, my Savior,
With humble heart and crushed in spirit.
I bow before You, I implore You,
Heal my broken heart, I pray.
Love You, Jesus, Lord, my master,
You are the King of my heart.
Lord, purify my heart within me;
Sanctify me, whole within.

Oh, Lord, I long to obey fully
The words You’ve spoken through Your Spirit.
I pray You give me grace and mercy,
Strength and wisdom to obey.
Father God, my heart’s desire,
Won’t You set my heart on fire?
Lord, cleanse my heart of all that hinders
My walk with You, now I pray.

Oh, Jesus, Savior, full of mercy,
My heart cries out for understanding.
I want to follow You in all ways,
Never straying from Your truth.
Holy Spirit, come in power,
Fill me with Your love today.
Lord, mold and make me;
Your hands formed me;
Live Your life through me, I pray.

Unless You are Born Again
An Original Work / May 27, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love