When some people hear the phrase being born again, They think of Overly zealous Christians. But today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg shows us what this phrase really means. How it happens, and why this new birth described by Jesus is essential for every believer. Um I invite you to follow along as I read from John's Gospel. And from the third chapter.
And from the first verse. John chapter 3. And from verse 1.
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 are a teacher, come from God. For no one can do these signs that you do. unless God is with him.
Jesus answered him, Truly, truly I say to you, Unless one is born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God. 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? Jesus answered, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, He cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
And that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you. You must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
So it is with everyone. Who is born of the Spirit? Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be? Jesus answered him. Are you the teacher of Israel?
And yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, We speak of what we know. and bear witness to what we have seen. But you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, How can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
No one has ascended into heaven. except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That Whoever believes in him. may have Eternal life.
Amen.
Well, we come this morning to the second of our Truly, Truly studies. If you were here last Sunday. We made a start at this in the 51st verse of chapter 1, in which Jesus is explaining that the realities of heaven are. are brought down to earth. in his person and in his work.
And then you have in chapter two the wedding at Cana of Galilee, which is the first of the signs that Jesus gave concerning his identity. And then you have the cleansing of the temple. And then you have a very interesting little statement that comes at the end of chapter 2. Two.
Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, Many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. And then notice this: but Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them. Because he knew all people. and needed no one to bear witness about man. for he himself knew what is in man.
In other words, Jesus, because of who and what he is, understands not only the immediate identity of an individual, both facial characteristics and tasks and so on, but sees into the very heart of an individual. And in light of that, when you come to the first verse of chapter three, it is interesting that John introduces us to this by saying, Now there was a man.
Now there was a man. Chapter 2 ends. Jesus knows what is in a man, what is in man.
Now there was a man. Causing us to say to ourselves, well, I wonder if this man is. from the category of those people at the end of chapter two. And that is why we need to pay careful attention to the context in which we find our verse, which is verse 3. Truly, truly, or I assure you, Or in truth I tell you, Or believe me.
Truly, truly I say to you. Unless one is born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God.
Now the truly truly is simply Jesus' way of saying All that I have to say is important, but I want you to pay particular attention to this. There is, if you like, a solemnity to it. And there is an importance to it. that he wants to bring out.
Now what we should notice immediately is this. That what Jesus makes clear in this statement is that the new birth Being born again. is essential. It is essential. It's not optional.
It's not an idea. It's not an esoteric option for a certain kind of person, as we're going to see. And in order to understand that, notice that the context in which this takes place is in this conversation with Nicodemus. Who is, according to verse 1, the ruler of the Jews? In verse 10, he is the teacher of Israel.
And it is this man who comes under the cover of darkness. In order to meet with Jesus, who, as we have just discovered in chapter one, is the light of the world. In him was life, and this life was the light of man. Is Nicodemus to be found amongst the category of those at the end of chapter two? people who apparently were intrigued.
When they saw the signs, after all, if we'd been there and somebody had turned water into wine, we would have been intrigued as well. we would have been perhaps attracted to Jesus. But now Speaking for more than himself. Nicodemus responds to Jesus After The statement is made. But having led into it, He speaks to him before ever Jesus says this in a tone that is, I think, almost patronizing.
He refers to him as Rabbi. Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God.
Well, of course, later on in John's Gospel, we're going to see that one of the things that people said in negative terms about Jesus was that he had never had any formal training. In chapter 7, it says, The Jews were marveling, saying, How is it that this man has learning when he has never studied?
So here we have the teacher of Israel. He comes to this individual and he says to him, Rabbi. We can tell that I mean, I've been talking with my friends and And there is definitely something very striking about what you're doing. That's essentially what he's saying. We can tell that you're a teacher.
We can tell because and you've come from God because otherwise there would be no way that you could do these signs. We know that God is with you.
Now what we need to understand amongst other things, is this, that Nicodemus As an Orthodox Jew Understood that the kingdom of God would arrive at the end of history. The Jews looked forward to the passing of the ages and finally in the age to come.
So he knew that there was a coming kingdom. And given his background, he had a pretty strong view That his credentials for entering into that kingdom were probably pretty good. After all, he was from an elite background. Here's uh Relationship with his contemporaries was that he was a leader among them. that he was a a member of the right race.
that he had been keeping all the right rules. Because he understood that the way of salvation for one of these religious and orthodox men, the way of salvation was to be found in observing the law. in keeping the traditions and paying attention to the rules that God had set. Therefore his mindset is When that kingdom comes, I can be pretty confident. That even if the grade is on a curve, I've got a pretty good shot at being a member there.
Now, Jesus knows Nicodemus. How do we know? Because at the end of chapter 2, he himself knew what was in a man. You don't need to introduce yourself to Jesus. Jesus knows you.
And Jesus then preempts any further courteous dialogue. By essentially sweeping away the ground from underneath the feet of Nicodemus. He knocks down everything essentially that Nicodemus stood for. by declaring his need To be born again. Can you imagine what I was like?
Truly, truly. I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see. The kingdom of God. You can't see this, Nicodemus. With all your background, you can't.
Now, that's the immediate context of the statement in the text. Let us pause for a moment and acknowledge that we come to this in a context as well. We come to phraseology like this with at least forty or fifty years of background material in relationship to the whole notion of what it means to be born again. Born again has been applied to all kinds of things, the renovation of companies and the renovation of sports teams and so on. But in terms of its contemporary application, the Jesus movement of the 60s.
More than any other Period, at least in my lifetime, brought to the fore this question, this notion of being born again. Classically, Coulson, Chuck Coulson, the the hatchet man for the Nixon administration, Coulson finally gave the title to his book, Born Again, which was right at the very center of all these things. And if we're honest, we recognize that It became viewed as for a certain type of person. for a certain type of Christian. You could either be a Christian Or you could be one of the kind of crazy Christians, the born-again Christians.
who are regarded as the emotional segment, or the needy segment. Or, God forbid, the political segment. But they managed The media managed to segregate the notion. To say, now there are plenty of people who have got this button down without all of that other stuff. And that's the context.
to which we come. Or in which we come. And in that mindset, the Bible makes it clear that being born again is not optional, it is indispensable. We're asking the question: what does Jesus say? What does Jesus say?
Jesus says, truly, truly. You must be born again. or you will never see the kingdom of God.
Now, Nicodemus responds, you will notice, despite the fact that he's a bright fellow. And it's intriguing that he responds in this particular way. He shows no spiritual insight at all. He responds literally to things. Just as a side note, this is a feature of John's Gospel.
Already in chapter 2, you've had this juxtaposition between the figurative and the literal. Jesus says, Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days. And they said, Well, how could you build a temple in three days? He said, I'm not talking about a physical temple, I'm talking about my body. You go into John chapter 4, and Jesus says, There is living water.
And the lady says, Give me the water, so I don't even like coming to the well in the middle of the day. He's not talking about water in the well. And in the same way here, he's not talking about physical birth. How can a man be born when he's old? Is this Nicodemus' way of dismissing it, of saying this is a ridiculous idea?
Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb? and be born.
Well, the fact of the matter is. That the Old Testament The Old Testament. Which Nicodemus was familiar with Provides essentially the background for what Jesus then says in verse 5. Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. I'm not going to delay on this, but if you take notes, you can make a note of Ezekiel chapter 36.
And there in Ezekiel 36, you will see that the word of God, through the prophet of God, speaks of a cleansing that will come, speaks of a new heart that will come, speaks of a radical transformation that will be brought about by God in the lives of people. and that, of course, would be familiar material to Nicodemus himself. I'm not going to get into a debate about whether we're talking here about baptism, which I don't believe we are, or any other thing along those lines. My understanding of verse 5 is that it is a recapitulation of verse 3. He's not saying something different.
He's saying the exact same thing. To be born again of the Spirit of God, the water, to be born of the water and of the Spirit, is a picture of spiritual cleansing. That comes in the new birth. The sprinkling of water is an outward sign.
Now With all of that said, we have only said one thing. Jesus says, this is Essential Secondly, we observe that that to which he refers is supernatural. It is supernatural. There are six. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
Notice the contrast. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. He said, I'm speaking to you about a spiritual reality. You have responded by asking, Can we do this again physically? Clearly, we can't.
Now let me say it to you again. Human birth produces people who belong to humanity. Human birth produces people who belong to the earthly family. of humanity. Jesus says spiritual birth gives birth to spiritual people.
That's the contrast. Nicodemus should have understood this. In light of Ezekiel, And that is why Jesus says to him. Do not marvel that I said to you. You must be born again.
In other words, Nicodemus, why would you be surprised by this? After all, you're a teacher of Israel. You're one who understands the background of things, and this is your response. This is a supernatural reality. It is the work of Almighty God.
bringing about a radical Change in the nature of an individual. A change that the individual cannot bring about by themselves. That's what Jesus is saying. It's not external renovation. It's not cleaning your act up.
It's not even illumination. being attracted, being intrigued. It's certainly not baptismal regeneration. which some of you still hold on to. A dangerous position.
in which to take your security. as if somehow or another our condition before Almighty God could be made right by the activities of some inferior being in the course of earthly ministry. Not for a moment. Becoming a Christian is always and in every case A miracle. Because God is the cause.
of the change. It is God who does it.
Now, that word which is used both in 1 Peter and here in Titus, I'll give it to you, it's a Greek word, it's palin genesia. Palingenacea. P-A- If you want to in English, as it were, P-A-L-I-N, G-E-N-N-E-S-I-A. Regeneration.
Now Born again. Generation Re Okay?
So it's born again. It's re generated.
Now, as I've been thinking about this all week, I always go to the guys that help me most.
So, Sinclair Ferguson is top of the list, and I was greatly helped. My listening to him answer a question that was posed. The question was this: Is there a difference between regeneration and being born again? Classically, Sinklo replies.
Well Yes and no. And he simply points out that the New Testament uses the term regeneration. In terms of cosmic renewal. Remember, Jesus says to his followers, in the new world, when the Son of Man will sit on his throne. When the world is cosmically renewed, when there is a new heaven and a new earth in which dwells righteousness, when everything is put back together the way God intends for it to be, in that day, that is that great work of regeneration.
So, what then is the regeneration of being born again? It is essentially this. It is the bringing of that cosmic reality into the present experience of an individual. The same power by which God will recreate the entire universe is the power that is brought to bear in the life of an individual when He recreates us as the children of God.
So that being born again in terms of New Testament theology. is essentially our participation In the inauguration. of that great final cosmic renewal.
Now we are the children of God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be. Because when he appears, we shall be like him. In the new birth, What God did Cosmically which will eventually be appearing. He does. Personally.
It is a complete change. of heart and character. Produced in a person by the Holy Spirit. It is the power of God. to regenerate the entire world brought into your heart.
Now It is miraculous. And it is at the same time mysterious. The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound? You don't know where it comes from.
or where it goes.
So it is with everyone. who is born of the Spirit. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg. We'll hear more tomorrow about the significance of being born again.
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