Born Again

We are looking at all the blessings which flow from the atonement.

Specifically we are looking at our coming into the family of God as His children.

last week we saw the parable of the loving Father and how he had compassion on his rebellious son, restoring him to sonship.

This is God’s desire for all people:

2 Peter 3:9 BSB

9 The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.

Who can become a child of God?

John 1:12 BSB

12 But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—

We are going to look deeper at this restoration.

Groundwork

This son, as we saw:

Luke 15:13 BSB

13 After a few days, the younger son got everything together and journeyed to a distant country, where he squandered his wealth in wild living.

This sons calamity and distress were not a result of unfortunate, unforeseen outcomes.

His pain was the result of foolish, wicked and evil decisions that he made.

The famine only intensified the consequence.

Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he reap.

When this son repented and came back home, as we saw: His deepest desire was to start again.

To have a fresh start.

To wake up with a clean slate.

To make all new decisions, decisions not based on sinful desires, but to make decisions that would be holy, decent, honorable and God glorifying.

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The fresh start is a longing of many human hearts.

To have a blank slate and have all the potential to make decisions that lead to life, love, hope and prosperity.

Today, God offers a miracle.

God offers to each person the chance to have a fresh start.

But it may not be as straight forward as you think....

A new beginning.

The passage we are about to read is mothers milk for the christian.

Its so familier, so much part of our faith that we tend to give it little thought.

However, what Jesus is about to say is so radical, so bizaar, so confusing.

John 3:1–3 BSB

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs You are doing if God were not with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

Jesus says that God has offered to sinners the opportunity to start again. But in a very bazaar way….

To be born again.

This is a radical suggestion, one that confused poor Nicodemus:

John 3:4 BSB

4 “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time to be born?”

Nicodemus was thinking in physical terms but Jesus was speaking in Spiritual terms.

The phrase “Born again” literally means “To be born from above”.

“Born Again?”

“Born Again?”

You need to understand what Jesus is saying:

He is saying that our fresh start look very different from simply starting again with a clean slate.

Why not just forgive us our sins, wash them all away and then let us simply start again?

Why is conversion a matter of being reborn anew?

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Why can our slate not just be cleaned?

Why can not all of our past mistakes not be wiped away?

Why all this about being Born Again?

The answer is simple:

All those sinful, greedy, lustful, angry decisions that you made that led you to hopelessness - those decisions that we want to be delivered from..

Those decisions are NOT the problem.

Those decisions are SYMPTOMS of the problem.

If God did just wipe your slate clean and give you a fresh start - do you know what will happen?

It would not be long before it looked just as wretched as it did before!

Proverbs 26:11 BSB

As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.

Why?

Matthew 15:19 BSB

19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander.

Our terrible decisions are merely the symptoms of a diseased heart.

James 4:1–3 BSB

1 What causes conflicts and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from the passions at war within you? 2 You crave what you do not have; you kill and covet, but are unable to obtain it. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 And when you do ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may squander it on your pleasures.

The reason we must be Born again, born of water and the Spirit, is not just to remove the symptoms, but to cure the disease of sin itself.

We do not need a new slate.

We need a New Heart!

And this is precisely what God has promised to do and has done through the Holy Spirit.

Ezekiel 36:26 BSB

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

When David prayed and confessed his sin says:

Psalm 51:10 BSB

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Why is a new heart so important?

Last week when Jesus rebuked the religious leaders he said to them:

John 8:44 BSB

44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out his desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, refusing to uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, because he is a liar and the father of lies.

We poses the nature of whoever we serve.

In sin we served the Devil, and we reflected his evil nature.

“You want to carry out his desires”.

But through the blood of Jesus we can be set free from the kingdom of darkness and be brought into the family of God.

Colossians 1:13 BSB

13 He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son,

True Sons

Here is what is so important:

When we become children of God by believing in Jesus Christ - we do not become God’s STEP-children.

The bible says that we become legitimate Children of God by the Spirit.

Hebrews 12:7–8 BSB

7 Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8 If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons.

Take note of the phrase “sons”.

This is not an exclusive phrase referring to males.

“Sons of God” is not speaking about male Christians.

“Son” speaks of AUTHORITY not BIOLOGY.

That is next weeks message.

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We need to be born again so that we will die to our satanic sinful nature and inherit God’s holy nature.

Galatians 5:24–25 BSB

24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us walk in step with the Spirit.

This is why, speaking of God’s born again children scripture says:

2 Peter 1:4 BSB

4 Through these He has given us His precious and magnificent promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Notice that as God’s children we have been granted to partake in the divine, holy nature of God.

As a child inherits their nature from their parents - so now do God’s born again children inherit a nature from their heavenly Father.

This is precisely why the bible says:

2 Corinthians 5:17 BSB

17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!

A Child of God is not a washed sinner given a fresh start.

That would be pointless.

It would be like bathing a pig.

The Child of God is a new creation.

Like a new born baby is a totally new creature, a born again believer is new creature as well.

Only this time, they are born, not of the flesh, but of the spirit.

And no longer is it their nature to “carry out the devils desires” as it once was.

Rather:

2 Corinthians 5:9 BSB

9 So we aspire to please Him, whether we are here in this body or away from it.

Conclusion:

What does all this mean for me and you?

It means that the new beginning God offers us is not a “Get out of jail free” card, that we can cash in every time our sinful decisions land us in sorrow.

It is a real new beginning, as a new creature, with a new Father, part of a New Family and:

NB: Possessing a new heart!

Why else would Jesus say:

Luke 9:62 BSB

62 Then Jesus declared, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Does this mean that a born again christian never sins or makes sinful decisions again?

Of course not!

We do still sin.

We do still make sinful decisions.

However, when we sin, we sin contrary to our new nature not in agreement with it.

The conviction we feel is proof of that.

Our repentance, like the Prodigal son is proof.

And should we not repent, God’s loving discipline will show our legitimacy as God’s children.

CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART

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