What is “Born Again”
This blog was triggered by a Facebook post with a clip of Bill Johnson of Bethel Church chatting about Jesus being born again. It was a short clip of about three minutes taken out of a larger session, and he didn’t take the time to go in depth and prove it scripturally.
There was a comment on that post of how Bill Johnson and the Bethel lot were heretics, denying the divinity of Jesus, etc.
I first heard the statement that Jesus was born again taught decades ago as a young Christian in the latter half of the 1970’s by a man named Bill Maginnis, whose ministry I was under. He also told a story about a woman who got all huffy when she heard him say that, until he had a chance to go through and explain it. And that is what I want to do here.
At first glance, the statement “Jesus was born again” comes as rather a shock. “Jesus born again? But He had no need to be born again! He was the spotless Son of God!” That was my reaction when I first heard it, although I didn’t accuse anybody of being a heretic. I certainly wanted an explanation, though.
They key here is understanding what it actually means to be “born again”. We have to define our terms.
John 3:1-17 1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
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 cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?
11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
This is of course the famous passage where Jesus explains to Nicodemus the need to be born again. You cannot see the kingdom of God unless you are born again. Being born again is a thing of the spirit – it is your human spirit that is born again, and it is through the agency of the Holy Spirit (that which is born of the Spirit is spirit).
Jesus gives us some very important details here about the new birth, but He doesn’t give a full theological dissertation. Other writers of the New Testament would build on the foundation Jesus laid, also pulling from the Old Testament.
That which is born of flesh is flesh
Let’s talk a bit about being born as a baby – born of the flesh – with which Jesus is drawing a parallel. What happens there? Well, a new life is created, a new human being is brought forth into this world.
When did that new, human life begin? This is of course the debate over abortion, where those who argue in favor of abortion say that the fetus is not a human being (because it is of course wrong to kill a human being). Life does not begin at the moment of birth, the baby is alive in the womb.
No one can deny that the fetus is alive. If scientists found evidence of simple one celled organisms on Mars, they would cry “we found life on Mars!” What those that are in favor of abortion deny is that it is human life.
Well, that fetus is not a horse, or an elephant, or a lion, is it? What makes a human, human? It is built into our DNA. If you were to take an aborted, or miscarried fetus and sample the DNA, you would find that it is human. It contains the blueprint to make a specific human being. It is that fact why they harvest parts from aborted babies. Specifically, stem cells, which are like basic template cells that can transform into specialized types of cells like heart, muscle, brain, hair, or whatever. They are used in medical research (in more recent times they have discovered other sources of human stem cells than aborted babies).
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit
So that covers the physical aspect of birth. But there is a spiritual aspect also – a human being is an eternal spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
You are a spirit. You possess a soul. You live in a body. For deeper study into the structure of man, see Man In 3D.
A human spirit is created and associated with that fertilized egg at the moment of conception. Even if that baby never makes it to being born through miscarriage or abortion, there is a human being that will live forever. They will grow up in heaven. Women – if you have ever had a miscarriage or an abortion, you will get to meet your offspring in heaven.
So a physical birth is going from not alive to alive. Being born again is passing from death to life.
1 John 3:14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
Human beings need to be born again in their spirits, because they are spiritually dead. Why are we “dead” in the spirit? What killed us? Sin.
Ephesians 2:1-3 1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,
3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned–
That “one man” of course was Adam. The commandment he was given was not to eat of the tree in the midst of the garden, for the day that you eat it, you will surely die (Genesis 2:16). Yet, when Eve, and then Adam bit into the forbidden fruit, they didn’t keel over and die. Was God lying? Was the serpent telling the truth? No!
The literal Hebrew in Genesis 2:16 says “… dying, you shall surely die.” There are two deaths spoken of here. One was a death of the spirit, where the sin nature entered into Adam and Eve, and they died spiritually. It caused a separation between them and God. There was a change of masters; from God, to Satan. For more about this, see my book The Why Behind Redemption. You can read the first chapter here.
To summarize, Adam and Eve’s disobedience caused the sin nature to enter into them, and they died spiritually, immediately. That sin nature, and with it spiritual death which is separation from God, was passed down to their offspring, meaning you and me. To undo that, we need to be born again, and pass from (spiritual) death to (eternal) life.
How does this apply to Jesus?
So pretty much everybody at this point should be following me. Original sin through Adam and Eve, the passing of the sin nature on to the entire human race, creating the need to be born again in the spirit and be made alive spiritually, removing the separation from God – that is pretty basic Christian doctrine.
But how does that apply to Jesus? He never sinned, He did not have a sin nature, so He would never need to be born again.
We know that in order to redeem us, Jesus bore our sins on the cross. That is also basic Christian doctrine. We imagine that our sins were like a sack of bricks on his shoulders, a burden He carried.
But it was much more than that.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
The one who knew no sin because He had never committed a transgression in His life, Jesus – was made to be sin for us. He became sin. I’ve looked this verse up in many translations, consulted Greek dictionaries, and they all point to the same thing. Somehow on the cross, our sins were not just placed upon Jesus, they were absorbed into Him.
For all intents and purposes, Jesus became a “sinner” because He took on our sins.
Now you cannot build a doctrine out of one verse. You have to have at least two scriptural witnesses, and the more you have, the more solid your case is. One of those witnesses is found in the passage where Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus.
Jesus sites the example of Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. The story is found in Numbers 21:4-9. I have written a whole blog post, The Snake on the Pole, that I encourage you to read, but I will summarize the main points here.
The Israelites complained against God, and He sent fiery serpents that bit the people and they were dying. Moses interceded, and God instructed him to make a bronze serpent, put it on a pole, and everyone who looked on it in faith would be cured from the snake bites.
John 3:14-15 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus likened Himself to the snake on the pole. What was plaguing the Israelites? The snakes. Moses made a replica of what was plaguing them, lifted it up on a pole, and those that looked to that replica were cured of what plagued them.
What was plaguing us? Sin. Jesus was made sin, a replica of what was plaguing us, lifted up on a cross, and those of us that look to Him in faith are cured of the sin nature that was plaguing us.
The blood of bulls, goats, and lambs
Hebrews 10:1-4 1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.
2 For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins.
3 But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.
4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
Animal sacrifices do not have the power to take away sins. Why not? Because an animal only has a physical life to give as a sacrifice, they have no spiritual life. The perfect sacrifice would have to be of an eternal being, such as a man.
Any man? No, because the Lamb of God also had to be spotless. Jesus was the only one unspotted by sin. Furthermore, God abhors human sacrifice because it is murder. But He, in the form of His Son, was willing to give His own life in behalf of man.
Mark 15:34 records that on the cross Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” This is a quote from the beginning of Psalm 22. What follows is a very accurate prophetic description of Jesus’ crucifixion.
Why would Jesus cry out those words? One explanation is that He may have wanted to draw people’s attention to Psalm 22 and that even in His death He was fulfilling prophecy. That may be true, but it is not the full explanation. He cried those words because the Father had forsaken Him.
What is it that causes God to be separated from any man? It’s spiritual death, the sin nature. When Jesus took on our sins, made to be sin, He also took on the nature of spiritual death. Just like Adam and Eve did when they sinned.
Jesus as Scapegoat
We normally think of Jesus as the Lamb of God without spot or blemish that was sacrificed in our place, so that our sins may be forgiven. And He is that. But there is also another role He played in the atonement for our sins: That of the scapegoat.
Leviticus 16:5-10 5 And he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering, and one ram as a burnt offering.
6 “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering, which is for himself, and make atonement for himself and for his house.
7 He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.
8 Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat.
9 And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the Lord’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering.
10 But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.
Leviticus 16:21-22 21 Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.
22 The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.
The literal meaning of “scapegoat” is “the goat of departure” or the “goat that goes away”. The Hebrew is difficult to translate. English translators associated it with a goat that was always escaping, and so called it the escaping-goat or scapegoat.
This goat was not killed. Aaron as high priest laid his hands on the head of the goat and confessed the sins of Israel, the idea being that the sins of all the people were transferred to the goat. Then, the goat was taken away out into the wilderness – to an isolated place – and left there. It bore their sins away, never to return.
Historically, there were a couple of times when the goat did find its way back to civilization. And that was considered such an evil omen that in future times they would release the goat on such a steep slope that it was sure to fall to its death.
The modern meaning of “scapegoat” is someone who is set up to take the blame for others.
So Jesus, besides being the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, was also our scapegoat, who bore our sins into the wilderness. Just as the scapegoat was not the one that committed the sins that it was bearing away, the sins of the people were transferred to it – so also Jesus never committed any of the sins He was bearing.
After His Death
After Jesus died physically, committing His spirit into the Father’s hands and giving up the ghost, what happened to Him? Did He return immediately to the Father? Did His spirit float around for three days and nights until the resurrection?
Ephesians 4:8-9 8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high,He led captivity captive,And gave gifts to men.”
9 (Now this, “He ascended”–what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
Matthew 12:38-40 38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Jonah 2:1-2 1 Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the fish’s belly.
2 And he said: “I cried out to the Lord because of my affliction, And He answered me. “Out of the belly of Sheol I cried, And You heard my voice.
Sheol (Hebrew), and Hades (Greek), “the place of the dead”, is spoken of as being in the heart of the earth. It is not a physical place, since the center of the earth physically is made of molten rock under great pressure, but a place of spirits. Jesus went to this place.
Acts 2:24-28 24 whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.
25 For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the Lord always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.
27 For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
28 You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’
Read the passage in Luke 16:19-31. Sheol had two areas, separated by a chasm. One half, called Abraham’s Bosom, was a place of rest and peace. Across the chasm was a place of torments. Some people say that in this passage in Luke Jesus was speaking a parable, that he wasn’t talking about real places. However, He gives no indication that He is speaking in parables; usually when He does, He uses a phrase like “The kingdom of heaven is like…”. He also uses the phrase, “There was a certain rich man…”. A certain, particular rich man, “name withheld to protect the guilty”. Tradition gives him a name – Dives. And of course Lazarus is named. It would not be like Jesus to be ambiguous about such an important subject as the afterlife.
One rule of scriptural interpretation is that if a passage makes plain sense, then take it at that sense. There is no indication that Jesus is speaking symbolically, so we should take it that Sheol has two halves separated by a chasm, one a pleasurable place, and one a place of torment.
Jesus went to both places. He was loosed from the pains of death – this was on the Torments side. What was Jesus doing there? He was suffering and bearing the punishment we deserved. At whose hand? The devil and his cohorts.
You see, when Jesus became sin, it acted as bait to the devil to take Jesus to hell. Satan has authority over those who are spiritually dead. When the devil was able to get Jesus on the cross, he expected Him to die and His spirit to return to the Father in heaven. When Jesus died spiritually, it was just too good an opportunity for the devil to pass up – to take his frustrations out on the One who had kicked him out of heaven, and who had condemned him to an eternity in the lake of fire.
Jesus gave the impression on the cross that He had somehow sinned and the Father had abandoned Him. This was the devil’s ultimate triumph (or so he thought).
But Jesus hadn’t sinned; He just looked that way. And when the full price for man’s sin had been paid, Jesus was “justified in spirit” (1 Timothy 3:16). The word justified means to be made righteous. Jesus was turned back into the Holy Son of God.
What happened next was a fight – not with fists or swords, but a spiritual fight with words and spiritual weapons. Jesus whipped the devil good (as I heard a preacher from Georgia say, “He put a hurtin’ on him”).
Colossians 2:15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
The word translated disarmed in the NKJV (spoiled in KJV) is apekduomai, which means “to put off, to divest oneself of”. E.W. Vine has this to say about it:
“The exposition given by Lightfoot and others seems to be the right one. There is no doubt that Satan and his hosts gathered together to attack the soul of Christ, while He was enduring, in propitiatory sacrifice, the judgment due to our sins, and fulfilling the great work of redemption. There is an intimation of this in Psalm 22:1 “Save Me from the lion’s mouth; yea, from the horns of the wild-oxen” (cp. Psa. 22:12, 13). Doubtless the powers of darkness gathered against the Lord at that time, fiercely assaulting Him to the utmost of their power. He Himself had said, “This is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53). The metaphor of putting off from Himself these powers need not be pressed to the extent of regarding them as a garment clinging about Him. It seems to stand simply as a vivid description of His repulsion of their attack and of the power by which He completely overthrew them.”
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old Testament and New Testament Words
Jesus conquered and stripped the demonic forces of their wealth and power. Satan was defeated before his own cohorts, in his own territory – he was humiliated, and made a public spectacle. “Triumphing over them in it” – “it” what? The cross – the very thing that Satan and his human agents used to publicly humiliate Jesus was the thing that Jesus used to shame them.
Hebrews 2:14-15 14 Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,
15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Raised from the Dead
(Colossians 1:18, Revelation 1:5) Jesus is called the firstborn from the dead. Jesus was not the first to be raised from physical death – He Himself raised three people from physical death. He was however the first to be raised from spiritual death. We call it being born again.
Think of it: what is the new birth about, essentially? It is having your spiritual nature changed from one that is marred by sin and separated from God, into zoe, or eternal life, which is according to the nature and likeness of God. The sin is done away with and you are brought into right standing with God. This is exactly what happened to Jesus in the pits of hell.
Romans 8:29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Jesus was our forerunner in the new birth. He opened the path to the Father by traveling it Himself.
