BORN AGAIN
Being born again, what does that mean to me? Is it just some term that made its way into our vocabulary during the 1970s and everyone seems to be using these days? Is it deciding to be a christian by joining a church and giving up my old ways? Or is it a feeling I get when I go to the altar and confess my sins to God?

I guess it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The question we need to ask is, what does being born again mean to God, since He is the one that came up with the term (I think that was before the 1970s).

I Peter 1:23
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
When God uses the term born again, He is talking about seed.

Seed is the origin of something that is born. Without seed there is no birth. And once something is born, you cannot remove the seed from what the seed produces. If it is corruptible seed, the seed and what the seed produces could corrupt and die. But you cannot remove the seed from what the seed produces.

God says we are born again of incorruptible seed. So this seed associated with being born again cannot corrupt and die and it cannot be removed from what it produces.

I John 5:1a
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God:
What does God mean when He is talking about being born of Him? How can a person who was born many years prior be born a second time? There was a man who asked this question of Jesus Christ.
John 3:1-6
There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Jesus Christ in his answer to Nicodemus talked about two types of birth; being born of the flesh (also stated as being born of water which denotes the embryonic fluids) and being born of the spirit. Being born of the flesh is something we are all familiar with, but Jesus Christ also talked about being born of the spirit. The gospel of John tells us something about God that will help us understand this.
John 4:24a
God is a Spirit:
Many of the translations state this part of the verse as “God is spirit.” Now the picture is getting clearer as to what God means when He uses the term born again. To be born the first time is to be born of the flesh, which is to be born of our earthly parents. To be born the second time, or to be born again, is to be born of the spirit. And to be born of the spirit is to be born of our heavenly Father who is spirit.

Many people trace their bloodline to see who are their ancestors. What does it mean to trace your bloodline? It is to trace the seed, which is the origin of your being born, from your father, and from his father, and from his father, etc.

Those who are Christians by believing that Jesus is the Christ can trace the seed, which is the origin of their being born again, directly from God. In other words, when a person is born again, he or she is born of God.

To be born again is not just some term that made its way into our vocabulary during the 1970s that everyone seems to be using these days. It is not deciding to be a christian by joining a church and giving up my old ways. Nor is it a feeling I get when I go to the altar and confess my sins to God. To be born again is to be born of the spirit. It is to have spirit created in you; spirit which is the seed of God; an incorruptible seed making you a child of God. That incorruptible seed cannot be removed and it produces spiritual life that cannot corrupt.

I John 3:9
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

I John 5:18
We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
It would be foolish to think that once a person becomes a Christian he never sins. But when you understand that there is a birth in the flesh and a birth in the spirit and that the spirit is incorruptible, then when God says that “whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him”, you understand that He is talking about the spirit part of man. For it is the spirit part of man that is incorruptible.
I John 4:4a
Ye are of God, little children…

I John 5:4a
For whatsoever is born of God…

I John 5:19a
And we know that we are of God…
Whosoever is born again is born of God, they are “of God.” The term born again is a good and accurate term for there is a birth involved and it is the second time for an individual. Being born again is not joining a church or a feeling. It is a birth. It is the birth of spirit life in an individual, a spiritual birth from the seed of God.

How a person gets born again is simply stated in the book of Romans.

Romans 10:9
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
God made it available for everyone to be born again, and He made it simple to obtain. Being born again is not something I do; it is something God does when I believe His word.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
When we are born again, that spirit life which is created in us is the workmanship of God. Being born again or being born of the seed of God, which is spirit, is not my decision to change my actions; it is God’s decision to have children.

There are many things that being born again makes available, but what God means, when He talks about being born again, is to be born of spirit. It is to have spirit life created in you. It is to have the seed of God in you making you a child of God.

In God's Love
Ray
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