"You Must Be Born Again…."

Jesus’ statement is clear and uncompromising. To gain immortality in the coming Kingdom we "must be born again" (John 3:3, 5, 7). How, according to the New Testament, does this essential rebirth (regeneration) take place?

To understand a biblical teaching it is necessary to encompass all the relevant data bearing on a chosen topic. A partial or selective approach will result in a defective understanding. At present Jesus’ major discussion on rebirth is usually ignored. We are not referring to the verses cited above, which are well known. Jesus had much more to say about the process of rebirth. Please read on.

In his conversation with Nicodemus Jesus teaches that rebirth is through the spirit of God. He also mentioned water (John 3:5-7). Let us see how the trained Apostles of Jesus understood their Master’s central teaching. James says that we are born again through the "word of Truth" (1:18). But just what is that "word of Truth"? Peter gives us more information. He connects rebirth with Hope: "God has caused our rebirth into a living Hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an incorruptible inheritance…[of the coming Kingdom]." Christians are "born again, not from corruptible SEED, but incorruptible SEED, through the word of God which abides forever…This is the word which was preached to you as the Gospel" (I Pet. 1:3, 4, 23-25).

So the essential ingredients of the rebirth process, so far, are clear. There is a word or Gospel. There is spirit. Rebirth launches us into a living Hope in view of a future inheritance of the Kingdom of God. And the whole process is traced to the action of "the incorruptible SEED." Without the SEED the process malfunctions.

Seeds, of course, are responsible for the creation of life, human, animal and vegetable. Seed is also the agent of the rebirth which is the absolute necessity for salvation.

But what is that "word of Truth," "Gospel," "Seed" with which we must make contact?

Seed brings about the generation or creation of new life. So Paul writes: "If anyone is in Christ [a Christian] he is a new creation" (II Cor. 5:17). Paul describes the same regenerating process elsewhere as "the washing of rebirth and the renewing of the holy spirit" (Titus 3:5).

John speaks often in his letters about Christians being "begotten" by the Father. In I John 3:9 he refers to the essential SEED of God which remains in the believer.

It is at this point that many attempted descriptions of rebirth fail. They fail because they omit to trace this essential Christian teaching to the Master-Teacher himself, Jesus.

Jesus gave by far the fullest account of how the SEED of rebirth/regeneration/conversion operates. This foundational teaching about Rebirth, the teaching on which the brief remarks of Peter, Paul, John and James depend, is found in the "Parable of the Sower," which we might also call "the Parable of the SEED" (Matt. 13; Mark 4; Luke 8).

The Bible provides an exact definition of the SEED. Jesus said, "Whenever anyone hears the word about the Kingdom and fails to understand it, the wicked one [the Devil] snatches away what was SOWN in his heart" (Matt. 13:19). Others receive the SEED and retain it for a while but fall away under the pressure of persecution. Still others receive the SEED but anxiety and other preoccupations choke the SEED and it bears no fruit. The fourth category is successful. These people receive the SEED and bear fruit in varying degrees (see Matt. 13:18-23).

Mark and Luke report the same full account of how rebirth through the vital SEED occurs.

Luke reports Jesus as saying that "the SEED is the word of God" (Luke 8:11) (cp. James: "word of Truth," Peter: "word preached as Gospel"). Remember that Matthew gives us the full definition of that word: It is the word/gospel about the Kingdom. Satan, knowing how the salvation process works, deliberately tries to frustrate God’s creative, sowing activity. The Devil "comes and takes away the word [of the Kingdom, Matt. 13:19] from hearts [minds] so that they cannot believe it and be saved" (Luke 8:12).

This precise instruction from the lips of Jesus is most enlightening. Salvation, says Jesus, begins when the creative Gospel/word of the Kingdom/Truth lodges in the mind of a person and when he gives it an intelligent reception. That word must remain as the vital SEED in the believer until he is finally immortalized in the resurrection when Jesus comes back (I Cor 15:23, 50-52; Rev. 11:15-18, etc.).

Mark’s version of Jesus’ teaching on rebirth through SEED emphasizes a further point about the process of salvation. Jesus says: "To you [who receive the Gospel with intelligence] the mystery of the Kingdom has been made known, but to those outside everything comes in parables, so that seeing they may see, yet not understand, and hearing they may hear and yet not understand what they hear. If they did, they would be converted and their sins would be forgiven them" (Mark 4:11, 12).

Do you see that Jesus here makes intelligent reception of the Kingdom Message/Gospel/Word the indispensable condition of conversion, repentance and forgiveness?

Can the Gospel be successfully preached, then, if the Kingdom of God is not presented to the potential convert? Can Christ be accepted apart from Christ’s own saving Gospel — the Gospel of the Kingdom?

Once the Kingdom Message of Jesus comes to the listener, he makes a choice to receive it or not. Without understanding it he cannot receive it. Without receiving it he cannot be forgiven. Such is the rebirth procedure as Jesus teaches it.

It is important to observe that Jesus was not at this stage of his ministry speaking of the other great factor in salvation: Belief in his atoning death and his resurrection. These great teachings were later incorporated into the salvation program. (Jesus first mentions his death only in Matt. 16:21, Mark 8:31 and Luke 9:22.) The Kingdom/Seed/Gospel remained, of course, as the most fundamental element for salvation. Jesus indeed had taught regeneration through reception of the SEED message of the Kingdom, and he expects his Gospel of the Kingdom to be spread to all nations until his return at the end of the age (Matt. 28:19, 20).

To be "born again," "born of the Spirit," "born again through the word," "the word of Truth," "the Gospel," or to be a "new creation" means to receive the saving SEED of immortality sown by Jesus and the Apostles with their Gospel about the Kingdom of God.

Paul agreed entirely. He states the same great truth in other words: "Abraham had two sons, the one [Ishmael] by a slave girl, the other [Isaac] by a free woman. The child of the slave girl was born according to the flesh [cp. Jesus: "he who is born of the flesh…." John 3:6] and the other, the son of the free woman, was born from the PROMISE…Now we, brothers, like Isaac, are children born from the PROMISE. But, as then, he who was born from the flesh persecuted the son who was born of the spirit, so it is now" (Gal. 4:22, 23, 28, 29).

The Promise is in fact the Promise of the Kingdom. Christians are "heirs of the Kingdom which God has promised to those who love Him" (James 2:5). Abraham received as Gospel (Gal. 3:8) the same promise of the Kingdom: "The Promise to Abraham and his seed that he would be heir of the world…" (Rom. 4:13). So the spirit is transmitted in the Promise presented in the Gospel. Paul actually calls the spirit the "holy spirit of the promise" (Eph. 1:13, see KJV and Henry Alford’s comment).

Rebirth is the key to God’s creative activity, His New Creation through the preaching of Jesus and the death and resurrection of Jesus. Rebirth, being "born again," means hearing, understanding and receiving the Gospel preaching of Jesus himself as the model evangelist. A word in the Bible is the instrument of God’s creative energy and action. It was by a word that God said "let there be light." It is by the word of the Truth, the Gospel that He lights a light in our understanding, a light which we are then commanded to take to others (Mark 4:21-25). It is by the SEED/word of the Kingdom (Matt. 13:19) that God, through the Son, sets in motion the creation of immortal persons. No wonder then that the Devil is enraged when that saving, creative word and spirit are successfully conveyed to a willing, receptive mind. The Devil tries (hopefully in vain!) "to snatch away the Gospel/Word of the Kingdom so that we cannot receive it and be saved." What a brilliant intelligence report from Jesus whose mind was steeped in the spirit and insight of God, his Father.