The Word of Truth Ministries       We all Must be Born Again   Jesus told Nicodemus, and by extension, he told all of us, that we must be born again if we are to understand and enter the Kingdom of God. The logical questions that should enter our minds if this proposition is also put to us by extension are these: 1.) What is meant by being born again, 2.) Why must we be born again, 3.) How can a person be born again, 4.) What is the Kingdom of God, and 5.) What are the consequences of not being born again? Born Again defined: The term born again was a relatively common term when used by Jesus to Nicodemus, but Jesus placed a new meaning to it. For the people during Jesus’ time, any significant change of a person’s life situation was to be born again: When a man or woman got married, such a one was considered born again. For Jesus, the term meant a significant change in a person’s life situation, but he described that change in more precise terms, and he dictated how to be born again. What Jesus meant by born again was that man had to change his relationship with God. Since we were born into this world in a state of sin, [Psalms 51:5, 58:3/Romans 3:23] and alienated from the life of God, [Isaiah 59:1-4/Psalms 14:2-3] we have to return to God—that is, to be born again. This second birth is a birth that will return man to a right standing with God. Jesus said that man must be born of water and the spirit, otherwise he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. [John 3: 5] Human beings who are not born again are outside the Kingdom of God; they do not have a right-standing relationship with God. And Jesus said that the only way they can have a correct relationship with God is by being born again. His birth was prescribed: water and spirit. Without that combination, you are not born again his way, and Jesus is the way to God. [John 14:6] Therefore, it is done his way or no way at all. The apostles of Jesus understood what he meant. They commanded all who would have a relationship with God to be baptized in water in Jesus’ name, and they said God would give those baptized His spirit. [Acts 2: 38] They understood Jesus’ statement of water and spirit to actually mean being baptized in water and having the Holy Spirit of God.   Reason we need to be Born Again: Because man’s original relationship with God was destroyed through disobedience to the will of God (back in the Garden of Eden), mankind received a curse of death and all the aspects that pertain to death—sickness, pain, adversities, etc. [Genesis 3:13-24; Rom. 5:14-19] Furthermore, human beings were alienated from God and a life with God. [Isaiah 59, 64:6-8] To remove the curse that God placed upon man, Jesus Christ had to die a substitute death for us so that God’s justice could be met. Jesus Christ was a man approved of God with mighty signs and wonders. [Acts 2] God used his righteous life and accepted his unmerited death to function as a substitute for the sins of all mankind. Jesus’ death atoned for all of mankind’s sins. But to benefit from his death, each individual must be born again of water and of the spirit. That individual act places each of us back in right standing with God. How to be Born Again: The actual way to be born again is by being baptized in Jesus’ name and being filled with God’s Holy Spirit. [Acts 2:38; 8:16, 36-39; 9:17-18; 10:45-48; 19:5-6] Notice that this was the prescription all the apostles of Jesus offered to the world. On the day of Pentecost, the day the New Testament church was established, God had assembled the world at Jerusalem. [Acts 2:5] The entire world heard the same message that we must obey today to be born again. To be born again means to be baptized in Jesus’ name and to receive the Holy Spirit of God, which the Apostle Peter said was a promise of God to everyone who repented of his/her sins and was baptized in water in Jesus’ name. [Acts 2:38-40]. Once this has occurred you have confessed with your mouth and believed with your heart. [Romans 10:8-11; James 2:17] Kingdom of God: Once you have repented, been baptized and received the Holy Spirit, you are in the Kingdom of God. The Apostle Paul defines the Kingdom of God as righteousness, peace, and joy within the Holy Spirit of God. [Rom 14:17] Righteousness is right standing with God, and that right standing with God will give you the peace and joy of God once you recognize that you have a correct relationship with Him. You will see that living in conformity to God’s word and in conformity to God’s desire is not a sad or difficult way to live. It is a natural way to live; it is the way God originally intended for human beings to live; it is a joyous way to live! Being reconciled to God: Now that we have answered the logical questions that you should ask of God, this is the logical question that you should ask yourself: Have you been reconciled to God? That is why Jesus came into the world. Because mankind was out of alignment with God, and we had no way to get back into alignment, God sent his only begotten son to reconcile us back to Himself. [Eph. 2:14-18; Rom 5:11] This reconciliation can only be achieved one way, and that is through Jesus having atoned for our sins. Atonement means Jesus has been a substitute bearer of our sins, guilt, and shame before God. “Jesus paid it all!” Jesus was the only one who was good enough to satisfy the righteous anger of God toward humankind and pay the debt that God pronounced as outstanding. ”...For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shall surely die.” [Genesis 2:16] It was on Calvary’s hill over 2,000 years ago that Jesus paid in full the debt of all mankind that was outstanding before God. Whether you knew it was outstanding or not, it was, and God knew it!  Consequences of ignoring what Jesus has done: If we ignore the death of Christ, ignore that he rose from the dead and became the first of those who will rise from the dead through belief in him, your failure to respond appropriately to that fact does not make that fact void or powerless.   What Jesus did on Calvary was to give us his right standing with God and take our wrong standing with God upon himself. God took the favor that Jesus had and placed it upon us; He took the disfavor that we had and placed it upon Jesus. That is the reason, Jesus cried out on Calvary, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [Matt. 27:46]  God forsook Jesus that we may have his right standing, and Jesus was made sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of God in him. [2 Cor. 5:21] That was the magic, mystery, and majesty of Calvary’s cross. That cross, crude though it was, became an altar upon which Jesus’ body was made a sin sacrifice for all of mankind who will individually accept it. All those who will accept his sacrifice, God’s way, are declared free, innocent of guilt and shame and can stand, once again, in the presence of God!  To reject or ignore what Jesus has done on Calvary is to ignore the atonement that God himself has offered and brought about to give man life and peace again. It is a dangerous decision—it is a decision that you make and one you must live or die with. For the wages of sin is DEATH. [Rom. 6:23] The only way out of sin is to accept what Jesus did on Calvary. And that can only be accepted God’s way.   Repent of your sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit of God. The promise is unto you and your children, and to those who are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Save yourself from this untoward generation!  [Acts 2:38-40] Home The Word of Truth Ministries 2005 by The Truth of God