What Does it Mean to be "Born Again"?


	What Does it Mean to be "Born Again"? Introduction At the moment we first believed in the Lord Jesus and received Him as our Savior, something wonderful happened to us. The Bible describes it by saying that we were "born again": "Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). The term "born again" has been used so many times that it carries little impact. But even though so many people use this term, and so many Christian teachers have spoken about this subject, very few of us understand how rich and wonderful it is to be born again. We do not realize how much took place in that instant when we first believed in the Lord Jesus. When we repented of our sins and opened our heart to the Lord, we probably prayed something like this: "Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. Please forgive my sins. I open to You now. Lord Jesus, I receive You as my Savior." After we prayed, we were thankful that our sins were forgiven. We were glad that we were no longer going to hell. But we had no idea that the Lord had prepared something greater for us than "not going to hell." We didn't realize that the Lord Himself had a desire. The Lord's purpose in saving us was much higher than our understanding. In fact, only in eternity will all the riches we received at our salvation be completely revealed to us. Only in eternity will we fully realize how deep and how precious it is to be "born again." When we were born again, something marvelous happened that is almost beyond comprehension. "Born Again" Does Not Mean "Going to Heaven" Being "born again" has often been misunderstood. We ourselves may think that to be born again means that one day we will go to heaven. We will either go to heaven when we die, or when the Lord comes back. Yet this teaching is one-hundred percent wrong. In the Bible there is no such thing as "going to heaven." Instead the Bible tells us that at the end of this age, the heavenly city New Jerusalem will come down to earth (Rev. 21:2). We are not going to heaven. The New Jerusalem will come down to earth, where we will be with the Lord for eternity. The concept of "going to heaven" misleads us. It causes us to think that after we are born again, but before we go to heaven, we can live any way we choose. The typical understanding of being born again is that we make a deal with the Lord. After we make this deal we will no longer go to hell. Instead we will go to heaven. Before we go to heaven we can do whatever we like. We can go to the church of our choice. We can be quite free in our daily life. Perhaps we can do some religious work on the side. Meanwhile we can pray to the Lord so that He will take care of all our personal needs. Now that we are born again, we may think the Lord's purpose today is only to take care of us. Suppose we are short of money, so we pray to the Lord. Then our boss gives us a raise. Then we pray, "Thank you, Lord, for helping me with my finances." Suppose we are trying to catch a bus, but we're late. Then we pray, "Lord, please hold the bus for me." We find out the bus is there waiting for us. Then we tell the Lord, "Thank You for holding the bus for my sake." If we accidentally leave our wallet somewhere, and we go back to look for it, we will pray, "Please, Lord, don't let anyone else pick it up." If we find our wallet exactly where we left it, we will pray, "Lord, thank You. You kept my wallet from being stolen." All of these experiences are simple and understandable. Yet it seems that so often we look for these kinds of experiences, and we are not looking for the Lord Himself. The Lord does answer prayers like this, but that should not be the extent of our born-again experience. If we think that the Lord's only purpose is to meet our own personal needs before we go to heaven, we are treating the Lord Jesus unfairly. This concept makes Him into a Santa Claus sitting in the middle of a shopping mall. The Lord becomes nothing but a gift-giver, waiting around for us to pray and tell Him what it is we need. We assume the Lord will give us everything we ask for, except His very person. The Lord has no intention we would live the way we choose. His purpose is not that we would go to heaven. His existence is not just to meet our practical needs. The most important need we have is for Christ Himself, and the Lord's desire is to give Himself to us. We were born again so that we would gain subjective experiences of Christ. "Born Again" Means that Christ Lives in Us We may think that when we were born again the Holy Spirit came into us, but Christ Himself remained outside of us. This is also a wrong concept. Because God is Triune, we usually divide Him into God the Father, God the Son, and God the Sprit. Yet we often neglect the oneness of the Triune God. When we were born again, who was it that came into our spirit to live within us? We might answer, "The Holy Spirit." This is certainly true, but we should not separate the Spirit from Christ Himself. If we say that only the Spirit came into us, but not Christ Himself, then being born again has nothing to do with the person of the living Christ. If we were asked, "Where is the Spirit," we might say, "The Spirit is inside me as the representative of Christ." Then if we were asked, "Where is Christ," we might say, "He is sitting on the throne in the heavens." But this is not accurate. We must remember that God is Triune. Not only is the Spirit in us, but Christ is also in us. When we were born again, Christ Himself came into us. The Bible makes it clear that after we are saved Christ lives within us. Col. 1:27 says, "To whom God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory." According to this verse Christ is not just on the throne in the heavens. He is within us as the hope of glory. 2 Cor. 13:5 says, "Test yourselves whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves. Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are disapproved?" This verse is very serious. If Christ is not in us, then we are disapproved. Rom. 8:10 says, "But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness." Finally, Gal. 2:20 says, "I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me." All of these verses prove to us that it is not the Spirit alone who came into us when we were born again. To say that the Spirit is in us merely as the representative of Christ, who is sitting on the throne in the heavens, is not correct. Now that we are born again, according to the Bible, Christ Himself lives in us. Christ Wants Us to Experience Him Subjectively Why is it so important to realize that Christ Himself now lives in us? Because He wants to be subjective to us. It is not enough just to know about Him objectively. Christ wants to be real to us in our experience, and that is why He saved us. As an illustration, suppose I have a piece of candy that I want you to taste. The taste and enjoyment of the candy is subjective. But suppose I only care about the objective facts. I can tell you all the details about the piece of candy. I can tell you what it tastes like. I can describe the color and the shape. I can talk about the ingredients. I can tell you where I bought it. But after hearing all these facts you'll finally say, "Just give me the candy. I don't care about what it looks like or where it came from. Let me taste it." Then if you take the piece of candy and put it in your mouth, it is no longer objective to you. It becomes very subjective. We must ask ourselves, do we have a subjective Christ? We know so many facts about Him, but is He real to us? We can talk about Him and appreciate Him, but do we experience Him in our daily life? To be born again is to have a genuine, subjective experience of Christ. But that should only be the beginning. We need to substantiate our born-again experience day after day and year after year. We should enjoy the riches we received from our salvation throughout our entire life. The Lord saved us so that He could be subjective to us. What we received the moment we first opened our heart and believed in the Lord Jesus should become our continuous enjoyment. This is what the Lord desires, and this is why we were born again. Being "Born Again" Leads to Three Wonderful Results Three marvelous things happened to us when we were born again. First, we received a change of life. The life of the Triune God came into us and revived our spirit. Second, we received a change of position. We were no longer earthly, but were seated with Christ in the heavenly places. Third, we received the necessity of a changed living. We were born into the Body of Christ, to live the Body life. These were the three wonderful results when we were born again. The moment we received the Lord everything changed in an instant. Our life, our position, and our living became new. Being "Born Again" Makes us Great in the Lord's Eyes None of this ever happened to God's people in the Old Testament. No matter how wonderful the patriarchs and prophets from the Old Testament were, they never had the experience of being born again. They never had a change of life, or a change of position, or the necessity of a changed living. For example, in Genesis God called out Abraham, but Abraham was never born again. Therefore Abraham never had a change of life. Abraham always remained Abraham. God also appeared many times to Jacob, but he was still Jacob. His name was changed to Israel, but his life was still the same. He never received a change of life, or a change of position, or the necessity of a changed living. Jacob could never be born again. God used many great patriarchs, kings, prophets, and scribes in the Old Testament. He appeared to them, He spoke to them, and He used them in many different ways. But not one of them ever had the experience of receiving a new life. Not one of them ever received a new position. And not one of them ever received the necessity of a new living. We are not looking down on these forefathers. We are their descendants by faith. We appreciate Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, and so many others. But not one of them was born again. God could never interact with them or work with them in the same way that He now does with us. To take a very negative example from the Old Testament, Jehovah used the prophet Balaam. Balaam was hired by Balak, the king of Moab, to curse the Israelites (Num. 22:1 - 24:25). But as he was trying to curse them, all Balaam could do was bless them. When Balak protested, demanding that he curse the Israelites, Balaam responded in a very spiritual manner: "What Jehovah speaks, that I will speak." Balaam pronounced several beautiful blessings on the children of Israel. But after all of his blessings, was Balaam himself any different? Did he change, even a little? The answer is no. Eventually he found a way to damage the Israelites. He could not curse them, because the Spirit of God was not upon him to do so. But he taught Balak how to stumble the Israelites by bringing them into immorality and idol worship (Rev. 2:14). This aroused God's anger and caused Him to punish the Israelites (Num. 25:1-9). Even after God had spoken through Balaam, he was still an evil man. Balaam was used by God, but he remained Balaam. Of course, the people we admire from the Old Testament were not like Balaam, but the principle is also true of them. No matter how God used them, their life, position, and living remained the same. They did not receive the blessings that we enjoy today by being born again. In the Old Testament there were many great forefathers who were used by God in a positive way. But none of them ever experienced what we experienced when we repented and believed in the Lord Jesus. The moment we were born again we instantly became greater than all the forefathers from the Old Testament. We received three great things that they never received. We received a new life, a new position, and the necessity of a new living. This makes us greater than all of God's people in the Old Testament. When the Lord Jesus was on this earth, He said that John the Baptist was greater than all of the Old Testament saints. He said, "Among those born of women there has not arisen one greater than John the Baptist, yet he who is least in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he" (Matt. 11:11). John the Baptist was greater than every person who came before him. Of all the Old Testament saints - Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel - not one was greater. But the Lord also said something surprising: "Yet he who is least in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than he." That means every person who is born again is greater than John the Baptist. We often consider ourselves to be small and insignificant, but we should not look down on ourselves. The Lord Jesus said that we are greater than John the Baptist, who in turn was greater than all of God's people who came before him. Even if we have only been saved a short time, we are extremely special to the Lord. We are greater than all of the Old Testament forefathers. We are greater than John the Baptist ever was. Praise the Lord, we have been born again! We have a new life, a new position, and the necessity of a new living. That is why we are so great and so precious in the Lord's eyes. To purchase the book Born Again