What Does it Mean to be Born Again?

Well, let me ask you a different question. Does it make any difference? Does it matter if you have been born again? If it does matter then you’d better know what being born again means, right? I’m assuming that you want to know the answer because you are listening to this talk. But let me ask you yet a different question. Are you a true follower of Yeshua, Jesus? Again, I don’t think you’d be listening to this talk if you had no interest in that question.

The short answer to both these questions is this:

It most definitely makes a difference if you have been born again. And if you have not born again you are not a true follower of Yeshua. But if you have been born again you are most definitely a true follower of Yeshua. The two things, being born again and being a true follower of Yeshua are totally connected.

Before I go much further let me ask a third question. Are there false followers of Yeshua? The answer is YES! These would be people who profess to believe in Yeshua but have not been born again. The Letter to the Hebrews, in the New Testament, talks about people in that category. False followers of Yeshua are definitely NOT born again. False followers of Yeshua may profess to believe in Him, but they don’t have faith in Him. They are not born again. They are not saved. You cannot be saved without being born again. People who are not born again will not be spending eternity in heaven with God. So we’d better know what it means to be born again. In fact this is a question of supreme importance, my friends.

Do you remember the famous Jewish leader and teacher of Israel? His name was Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee. He came to Jesus one night, addressed Him as Rabbi and called Him a teacher come from God. But before Nicodemus could pose a question to Jesus, and he obviously came to ask Jesus some questions, Jesus spoke first, cutting right to the heart of things, to what was of crucial importance. Let’s turn to the gospel of John:

John 3:3 NASB

3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

When Jesus says truly, truly - when He says truly twice in a row - Jesus is saying “Listen up. This is really important”. And what was so important? Just this: Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So Jesus is setting down a standard: a person cannot see the kingdom of God unless he is born again. Implicit in this statement is this. Only a saved person, a true follower of Jesus, can see the kingdom of God. What does Jesus mean by seeing the kingdom of God? It means a lot of things, spiritual things, but I think that as a minimum seeing the kingdom of God has to include knowing who the King is (Yeshua) and knowing how one can enter into eternal life (through faith and not through works). You don’t see the kingdom of God with your physical eyes. The prophet Isaiah records what the Lord told him about this kind of inability to see;

Isaiah 6:9–10 NASB

9 And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’10 “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Lest they see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”

So the lord, through Isaiah, is showing us that dull ears and dim eyes are in the same category as insensitive hearts: people with ears and eyes and hearts that are like that can’t understand, they can’t see. In Scriptural terms seeing the kingdom of God is to understand the kingdom of God. And the hearts we were born with can’t see it because they can’t understand it. So what kind of heart do we need to see and understand the kingdom of God? Please bear with me and I’ll try to answer that shortly.

But Now, at this point in his conversation with Jesus, Nicodemus does ask a question. How can a grown man be born again? Nicodemus was thinking of physical birth, the way a baby is born of his mother. Nicodemus didn’t understand that Jesus was not talking about a physical birth. He was talking about a birth from above, from heaven. And Jesus was saying that without this heavenly birth a person cannot see the kingdom of God. Listen to Yeshua’s answer to Nicodemus:

John 3:5–6 NASB

5 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.6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Now in order to understand what Jesus meant we have to understand that Jesus is not talking about physical birth here. He is talking about spiritual things. If Yeshua was talking about physical birth, then we might think that one is born of water might be referring to the rupture of amniotic membranes with the pouring forth of fluid that occurs just prior to a woman giving birth. But what about being born of the Spirit? Spirit here refers to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is not directly involved in physical birth. No, this is a birth of or from the Holy Spirit which is a birth from above. That being the case, being born of water here has to symbolize the Holy Spirit. When a woman says late in her pregnancy, “My water broke”, she is talking about the rupture of amniotic membranes. That is not what Jesus is talking about here. I think a verse from Ezekiel helps us understand what water symbolizes here.

Ezekiel 36:25 NASB

25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

Water in this Ezekiel verse is providing spiritual cleansing, not physical cleansing. And that becomes clearer if we look at Ezekiel 36:25 in context. Let’s take a look. And please note that these verses are talking about something that has not happened yet. This is a prophecy of future events.

Ezekiel 36:24–27 (NASB)

24 “For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land.25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.26 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.27 “And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.

The Lord is talking about cleansing the people of Israel after bringing them back to their Land, from all their idols, about giving them a new heart, about putting a new spirit within them, about putting His Holy Spirit within them, and causing them to walk in His statutes and to obey His laws. Now this is a spiritual operation from start to finish. And all that from sprinkling clean water on them. That water has to signify the Holy Spirit.

So we should read and understand John 3:5-6 like this:

John 3:5–6 (NASB)

5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of Holy Water, yes I say, even the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

I believe that Jesus spoke this way using a figure of speech and saying twice that a person must be born of the Holy Spirit in order to emphasize that this rebirth, this being born again, is of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, from first to last.

Yet, Nicodemus still did not understand. And truthfully my friends if I was Nicodemus back in that time and place, I’m pretty sure that I wouldn’t have understood either. And yet, Nicodemus should have understood. How can I say that? Because of what Jesus said to Nicodemus:

John 3:10 NASB

10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things?

Apparently, Nicodemus was quite a revered teacher of the Scriptures. Those Scriptures were of course the Hebrew Scriptures, our Old Testament or Tanach. Nicodemus would have known those well. So what Scriptures or passages of Scripture did Yeshua have in mind? I feel certain that one passage would have been the one that we just read, from Ezekiel, chapter 36. Let me read it to you again.

Ezekiel 36:24–27 NASB

Now it surely seems to me that this passage is talking about a new birth, a spiritual birth. Is there evidence for that in this passage? Indeed there is. The Lord is talking about bringing the Jewish people, as a nation, back into their own Land, the Land of Israel, and as you know the Lord has started to do that but he hasn’t finished that yet. Once His people are all back in their land the Lord is going to cleanse them from all their filthiness and idols by sprinkling them with clean water, spiritual water, meaning the Holy Spirit. And He will give His people a new heart and a new spirit and He will also fill His people, the Jewish people, with “My Spirit” meaning His Holy Spirit. And what will that do? It will enable them to finally fully obey the Lord, to walk in His statues and obey His laws. And then they will be able to see the kingdom of God.

Now it surely does sound like this passage is describing the New Covenant first mentioned in Jeremiah. Let’s read it:

Jeremiah 31:31–34 NASB

31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.34 “And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

It surely sounds as if this New Covenant will fit perfectly with the New Birth described in Ezekiel 36 and discussed by Jesus with Nicodemus in John 3:5-6. In fact it seems as if the two are completely dependent on one another. Without the one you cannot have the other.

Now isn’t it just amazing that this description of the New Birth in Ezekiel is in the Old Testament? And that the description of the New Covenant that God will make with His chosen people is foretold in Jeremiah 31 also in the Tanach, the Old Testament? And Nicodemus was supposed to know about these things but He didn’t. But that’s OK. Again, if you and I were standing next to Nicodemus we wouldn’t have understood these things either. Not then, not yet. You see the scales would have still been covering our eyes. But isn’t it wonderful to know it now, whether you’re a Jew or a Gentile? How liberating this knowledge is! And how liberating, totally liberating, it should be to our Jewish friends, today, who do not yet know Jesus! Don’t you just want to share this with them? And these are not the only places in the OT that God speaks regarding the New Birth. He also speaks about it through Moses shortly before the children of Israel entered the promised land. Let’s read that:

Deuteronomy 30:5–6 NASB

5 “And the Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.6 “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.

A circumcised heart indicates a new birth. The new birth requires a new heart, a circumcised heart.

But let’s take a look at what else Jesus said to Nicodemus during this one conversation:

John 3:7–8 NASB

7 “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Now many of you know that the name of the Holy Spirit in Hebrew is Ruach HaKodesh. Ruach also means wind. So the Holy Spirit, although a person and also God - He is part of the triune God - is in a sense a Holy Wind. And like the wind, the Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways. He causes something called regeneration to happen to a person. Regeneration is the implanting within us of a source of spiritual life. God the Holy Spirit does it. We have no part in causing regeneration. It’s an instantaneous and invisible miracle and act of God the Holy Spirit. It is invisible, like the wind. Titus mentions it:

Titus 3:5 NASB

5 He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

Regeneration must PRECEDE faith. IT HAS TO. WHY? BECAUSE WITHOUT Regeneration we are spiritually dead and we can’t receive anything from God. Without regeneration we have no spiritual faculties. We have no spiritual ears or eyes or understanding.

Now some of you might tell me that God operates in eternity and I should not be outlining a sequence of events that describe the order of what does does to save a person. And I wouldn’t necessarily disagree with you except to remind you that God invented time and logic or rules by which we can reason. He did that for us and He expects us to use what He invented for us and by golly something has to wake us up from spiritual death to spiritual life - that is required - and that something is regeneration. Done by God, for us. What a gift, what a miracle!

The Scriptures testify to the need for regeneration:

1 Corinthians 1:18 (NASB)

18 For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1 Corinthians 2:14 (NASB)

14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

Isaiah 29:14 NASB

14 Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, And the discernment of their discerning men shall be concealed.”

We as a people were not always spiritually dead. How did this happen to us? How did we become dead?

Genesis 2:16–17 NASB

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely;17 but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.”

And what happened after our first parents disobeyed?

Genesis 3:8–11 NASB

8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”10 And he said, “I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”

Romans 5:12 NASB

12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—

So, Adam and Eve sinned and they were fundamentally changed. They became spiritually dead, unable to understand the things of God, unable to receive the gift of faith from God. In order to understand and to receive they would have to become spiritually alive. Only God could do that. He would have to quicken their souls, to regenerate them, to cause them to be born again. Then, what is written in Romans 10 can occur:

Romans 10:9–11 NASB

9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;10 for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”

I believe that the Apostle Paul is speaking here to people who have received that spark of divine life. It has been implanted within them. They have been regenerated. They are now ready to complete the process of being born again, of becoming converted, of being justified by God and of then gradually growing in holiness and in their walk with God.

So what does all this mean for you and me, my friends?

Romans 10:14–15 NASB

14 How then shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?15 And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!”

My friends, we need to share the words of truth. You and I need to be preachers. We don’t have to have pulpits to do this. We can do it sitting on a sofa in the living room of an unbelieving friend or relative or even parent. We must be meek, humble, and patient. We should have a Bible with us. That our friends might hear and believe and call upon Him and ask Him to save them.

You and I can’t regenerate a person but we can share the Good News. And some of those who hear, who have been quickened by God, will respond. But you ask, how do I know which ones have been regenerated so that I can share only with those and not be rebuffed? My friend, that is not what God has called us to do. It is not for us to know who will respond and who will not. God has called us to share with everyone and that’s what we must do. He will take care of the rest.

God bless you my friends. Until the next time, this is Art Wolinsky, the Messianic Jewish Expositor.

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