A Necessary Birth

Today, on Renewing Your Mind… Welcome to Renewing Your Mind. On this Monday, I'm Lee Webb, and we're glad you could be with us today as we begin a new week with a study on the new birth. As we just heard Dr. Stephen Lawson say unequivocally, it is absolutely essential and necessary to be born again in order to be considered a child of God.

Let's look at why. I'm excited for us to begin this series on the new birth, and I cannot think of a more important subject for us to focus our attention upon than this subject of regeneration. If you have your Bibles, I want you to turn with me to the signature text in all of Scripture on the new birth. You know what passage I'm talking about, John chapter 3.

And I want to begin by setting this passage in front of us, and in each of our sessions as we will be addressing the subject of the new birth, this will be our focal point. We'll be looking at many verses that surround this important subject. But as you're turning to this, I want to remind us that greater than Jesus turning water into wine is Jesus transforming sinners into saints. And greater than Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is Jesus raising those who are dead in trespasses and sins to newness of life in Jesus Christ. Greater than Jesus healing the blind and giving them physical sight is Jesus healing those who are impaired by spiritual blindness and in the new birth, giving them eyes to see and ears to hear and a heart with which to believe.

The greatest evidence of the power of God, I believe, is in the new birth and in the salvation of a soul. So I want us to look in John chapter 3 in these sessions. And in this first session, I want us to think about the necessity of the new birth.

It is a necessary birth. Beginning in John chapter 3 and verse 1, God's Word says, Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. What is the new birth? In simplest terms, the new birth is the life of God in the soul of a man. It is God immediately implanting eternal life, supernatural life, within the soul of a man or a woman where there has been spiritual death, where there has been no life at all, and suddenly one goes from death to life. It's likened to a spiritual resurrection where we are raised from the dead, raised from being dead in trespasses and sins, and made alive in the Lord Jesus Christ. Louis Berkhof defines the new birth this way, regeneration is that act of God by which the principle of new life is implanted in man, and the governed disposition of the soul is made holy. It is a total transformation of the person on the inside.

R.C. Sproul writes, regeneration is the act of God alone in which he renews the human heart, making it alive when it was dead. In regeneration, God acts at the origin and deepest point of the human person. It is the immediate supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, Dr. Sproul writes, wrought in us.

Its effect is to quicken us to spiritual life from spiritual death. And one more sentence, it changes the disposition of our souls, inclining our hearts to God. No greater change could ever take place in our hearts and souls than for us to be born again.

Now, as we in this first session consider the new birth, I want us to think first in this session about the necessity of the new birth, that it is a necessary birth. From a human standpoint, if there was anyone who did not need to be born again, it would have been Nicodemus. If anyone could have bypassed regeneration, it would have been Nicodemus.

By all outward appearances, he had everything going for him toward God. I want you to look with me in verse 1, some things about Nicodemus. First it says, now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee, and the word means a separatist, a strict separatist. It's one who has separated themselves from the muck and the mire of this world.

They have pulled away. They're off to themselves. And the Pharisees were so strict that they separated themselves even from their fellow Jews. They wanted to give themselves wholly to the things of God. They were highly zealous. They were Bible-believing. They were what we would call conservative, orthodox, Bible-believing people. They held fast to their traditions. They observed the Old Testament law. They were devout.

They were disciplined. There were about 6,000 Pharisees at the time that Jesus encountered Nicodemus. So, if anyone was set apart from the world to pursue godly things, it was Nicodemus. And more than that, it says he was a ruler of the Jews.

Now, let me tell you what that means. He was a part of the Sanhedrin. He was one of the spiritual elite. Out of the 6,000 Pharisees, there were only a handful of these Pharisees who would become members of the Sanhedrin.

This was like the Supreme Court and the Senate of Israel all rolled into one. There would be 71 of them, including the high priest of Israel. And so, Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews. He was looked up to. He had a very prestigious religious profile among the people of God. And if we had seen Nicodemus on the street and observed his life, we would be impressed with how carefully he attended to the most minute parts of the law of God. And more than that, later in verse 10, Jesus says that he is the teacher of Israel.

Not just a teacher, but the teacher. He knew the Bible inside out and had an active public teaching ministry of the Word of God. If you had a question about the Bible, Nicodemus is your go-to man.

He is the one that you want to approach and ask your question. He can give you chapter and verse before the Bible was even divided up into chapter and verse. He knew it inside out. We would say he was a walking Bible. This man whom Jesus said is the teacher of Israel. And yet, he needed to be born again, didn't he? You can be religious, but lost. You can have the Bible in your head, but not have Christ in your heart. You can be so close and yet so far away. In fact, the hardest person to reach with the gospel is someone who is religious, but lost, because they rarely see their need for the new birth.

The new birth is always for the down and out. It's for someone a long ways away from God. But it's that person who is so close to the truth and so close to the Bible, yet not born again.

That person, I believe, is the hardest one to reach with the gospel. That's where Nicodemus is. Notice verse 2. This man came to Jesus by night, probably because it wasn't politically correct for Nicodemus to be seen with Jesus. I mean, the teacher of Israel, ruler of the Jews, Pharisee.

He's going to have to come by night and have a private, discreet meeting with Christ. And he says, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher. Well, listen, Jesus was not a teacher come from God.

He was God come to teach. And Nicodemus is still spiritually blind. And he cannot see that Jesus Christ is whom he claims to be. So Jesus, in verse 3, answered him.

Now, you know what should strike us about this? Nicodemus has not even asked a question yet. And yet Jesus answered him. Jesus read Nicodemus like an open book. Jesus cut through the façade of his religiosity on the outside, this outward appearance of piety. Jesus looked into the innermost recesses of his soul, and Jesus answered the question that was burning on his heart. We're not told what the question was, but I think it's reasonable to assume it was probably something like what the rich young ruler asked when he said, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Something like that. And Jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly, I say to you. And that is Jesus's way of saying, what I'm about to tell you is of utmost importance.

Everything that Jesus said was correct and accurate. Yet there are some things that rise to a higher level of importance. And Jesus often flagged those statements by saying, truly, truly, I say unto you. This is true.

This is true. And we need to learn what Jesus now is about to say because this is of utmost importance to every one of us. Our eternal destiny really hinges upon a proper understanding and response to the truth that Jesus is about to state. Truly, truly, verse 3, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You know the difference between can and may. The word may is a word of permission.

The word can is a word of ability. What Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, you have no ability in and of yourself to even see the kingdom of God unless you are born again. It is an absolute necessity for you to enter in to the saving grace of the kingdom of God unless you are born again. It matters not how religious you are. It matters not how much of the Bible that you know.

It matters not what kind of home you were raised in. It matters not even if you went to a Christian school and have Christian parents and live in a Christian home. Unless you are born again, you will not even see the kingdom of heaven. To see the kingdom of heaven means to have spiritual discernment, to have spiritual understanding, first of your need for the new birth, but also to be able to see and comprehend who Christ is and what he has come to provide, and that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. No doubt Jesus startled Nicodemus. No one has ever said this to this religious leader that unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of heaven. Oh, verse 4, notice Nicodemus' response.

Nicodemus said to him, he is flabbergasted. How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he? Do you expect me to crawl back into my mother's womb and to be born again?

What are you even talking about? Well, Jesus has Nicodemus right where he wants him. Bringing him under the spotlight and into the very center of what he has to say, Jesus now follows up in verse 5 and says, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Apart from the new birth, no one can have access into the kingdom of God. They have no moral ability with which to enter.

They have no basis by which to find acceptance into the kingdom. God must act upon that soul. God must birth them into the kingdom. God must, by a sovereign act of his grace, create life in that heart and that one be born again.

The God who said, let there be light, must command gospel light to shine into the darkness of one's cloaked soul. I want to say again, you can be a church member and not be born again. You can be baptized and not be born again. You can profess to know Christ and not be born again.

It is absolutely essential and necessary you must be born again. Notice what Jesus says in verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That is to say, human nature only propagates human nature. Like produces like.

Apple seeds produce apple trees, right? Like produces like. And human nature can only produce human nature. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. So Jesus is saying only the Holy Spirit can generate a spiritual birth. The supernatural realm is totally distinct from the natural realm. God must supernaturally invade the natural realm of our hearts and souls and cause there to be a new birth.

R.C. Sproul says, no one is born a Christian. The flesh does not produce redemption. You may have been born to Christian parents, raised in a Christian home, gone to a Christian school, or a Christian college, but none of those things makes you a Christian. Dr. Sproul says, all that your natural birth has given you is flesh. Unless you are born of the Spirit of the living God, whatever you do in your flesh will avail nothing toward entering the kingdom of God. Close quote. Those are strong words.

Those are true words. No one is born a Christian. That is why we have to be born again.

We have to be born from above if we are to enter into the kingdom of heaven. So in verse 7, notice how Jesus strongly emphasizes the absolute necessity of the new birth. Verse 7 could not be any more clear. Do not be amazed that I said to you, you must be born again. Jesus is not backing off this.

He's pushing down on the gas pedal even harder. He is accelerating his emphatic stress here that you must be born again. Let me tell you, if Nicodemus must be born again, every one of us must be born again. You see this word must in verse 7?

You must be born again. This is to say that the new birth is absolutely obligatory. It is compulsory. It is mandatory. It is required. It is demanded. It is imperative. It is inescapable.

This is not an option for some of us. Every man and every woman born of woman must be born again. There is only one who did not need to be born again, and that is the one who was born of a virgin, the Lord Jesus Christ. But every other one of us has been born separated from God, born alienated from God, and have need to enter into the kingdom. Does it not imply that if you have to enter the kingdom that you were born outside the kingdom? If you have to enter in by the new birth, that clearly implies that we started outside the kingdom. We were born outside the kingdom.

We must be born again to enter into the kingdom. George Whitefield is one of my heroes in church history. In fact, if I could be anyone in church history, I'd want to be on the back of a horse and be George Whitefield. Just riding from town to town, and George Whitefield was very well known for preaching on the new birth. He stressed the new birth up and down the Atlantic coast as he went from Boston to Philadelphia to New York, and he would go into the large common squares and say, you must be born again.

After one of those sermons, a lady came up to George Whitefield and said, why do you keep preaching to us? You must be born again. Whitefield with a twinkle in his eye said, dear lady, because you must be born again. I say to you, and I say to myself on the authority of the word of God, that unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of God, you will not enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, you must, you must, you must be born again.

It's really that important. If you're not born again, that means your heart has not been changed. Your sins have not been forgiven, and your eternal destiny remains the same as that of all unbelievers. Today's lesson is just one of twelve in Dr. Stephen Lawson's series, The New Birth. It's an in-depth study on what it means to be converted and how God is the author of salvation from start to finish. This is a wonderful series for personal study or for your church Sunday school class, and we'd be happy to send you the DVD for your donation of any amount. Simply ask for The New Birth by Dr. Stephen Lawson. When you go online to renewingyourmind.org, you can also call us at 800-435-4343.

My colleagues are standing by right now to take your call. This study on The New Birth will help you grasp God's sovereignty and appreciate the grace that He shows sinners like you and me. Once again, our web address is renewingyourmind.org. Our goal here at Ligonier Ministries is to provide sound, trustworthy teaching, and one of the many ways we do that is through conferences we host. We have a national conference here in Orlando every March, but we also host regional conferences.

And if you'd like to find out more and register for that national conference coming up next March, just go to ligonier.org slash events. You may be asking, what difference does this new birth make? And the difference is immeasurable. We go from being God-haters to God-lovers. We go from those with a troubled conscience of guilt to those who have peace with God and who have the peace of God. It is the birth that only God can give. We hope you'll join us tomorrow for Redoing Your Mind. .