You Must Be Born Again

I've heard it said here and there "those born agains" or "I'm a Christian, but I'm not a born again". Now, I can understand semantics and not wanting to identify with this label or that one, but, labels aside, let's make one thing perfectly clear. If you are not born again, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. Period. There's no way around that. Don't believe it? What did Jesus say to Nicodemus? "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus was confused. Jesus clarified with "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

What does that mean? The Barclay Daily Study Bible puts it nicely: “There are two thoughts here. Water is the symbol of cleansing. When Jesus takes possession of our lives, when we love Him with all our heart, the sins of the past are forgiven and forgotten. The Spirit is the symbol of power. When Jesus takes possession of our lives it is not only that the past is forgotten and forgiven; if that were all, we might well proceed to make the same mess of life all over again; but into life there enters a new power which enables us to be what by ourselves we could never be and to do what by ourselves we could never do. Water and the Spirit stand for the cleansing and the strengthening power of Christ, which wipes out the past and gives victory in the future.”

In other words, when you are born again, you are made new. Like Paul said, you are literally a new creation. Your heart of stone is torn out and replaced. Your carnal, fleshly, worldly, natural nature is dead, crucified with Christ on the cross. You rise with Christ. As he rose from physical death so do you rise from spiritual death. You're no longer in bondage to sin. No, now you have the spirit of God himself put in you so that you can live a life pleasing to him, for his glory.

So what's that look like? Well for one, you're not a natural man anymore, you're a spiritual man.

From the time the natural man gets up in the morning to the time he goes to bed, what does he think about? Things of the flesh. I'm not just talking about overtly sinful perverted things or anything like that, only, but rather things of this world. The natural man gets all wrapped up in work, family, finances, sports, entertainment, movies, whatever. He may go to church once a week and go to a Bible study now and then. He may do service projects and volunteer at the church. He may do many things that look good on the outside, and these things are not wrong. But the natural man's heart and mind are not focused on God.

The spiritual man is different because he a new creation. He has his heart and mind focused on the things of God. He doesn't make big decisions in life without consulting the Lord for direction. He dives head first into things of the spirit, seeking God's will, God's plan, God's purpose, God's priorities.

Now, don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying the spiritual man thinks about God 24/7 -- the same way (some) natural men don't think about the world 24/7. It's really just a priority reversal, but its not one that comes from our own efforts. In our own efforts the best we can do is try to kill the flesh with the flesh. It never works. All the well intentioned lifestyle choices we make won't do it. All the service in the world won't do it. All the giving in the world won't do it. All the rituals in the world won't do it. All that will do it is to recognize our spiritual bankruptcy and come to Christ in humility, with a pure heart, pleading for him to save us. All that will do it is realizing and believing in his work on the cross. Only then can we be born again and have something greater to kill the flesh, and that is the spirit of Almighty God living in us.

Grace and Peace