Be Born Again

When you have met a child of a friend or family member for the first time, have you been struck by how much they look like their parents? Even when a baby is born, you can see the likeness of their parents in their features. Whether it’s the color of their eyes, the shape of their chin, or the way they smile, you can see different aspects of parental resemblance. As that child grows and matures, they begin to look more and more like their parents.

In the command Be Born Again, we see the reality that, just as we have all been born of physical parents, we also need to have a spiritual rebirth where we are born again of the Spirit of God. In John Chapter 3, the passage our command comes from, Jesus told Nicodemus that just as he had been born of the flesh and was flesh, he needed to have a second birth by the Spirit of God.

All of mankind has been born of the flesh with a sinful nature and exhibits this fallen nature through doing things that violate God’s law and grieve His heart (see Romans 3:23). Because of our sin, we all rightly deserve God’s judgment and eternal separation from Him in hell (see Revelation 21:8). But God loves us so much that He sent His Son the Lord Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins (see John 3:16). Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, defeating death and making regeneration available to all who would receive His free gift of salvation (see Titus 3:5 and Ephesians 2:9).

When a person puts their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation, they are born again of His Spirit and receive new life in Him. Scripture speaks of this new life in II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Just like when someone is born physically they showcase the likeness of their parents, the same thing happens when a person is spiritually born again. They receive a new nature and begin to showcase the likeness of their Heavenly Father (see I John 3:9).

Because of our new birth, we as believers have been made partakers of the Divine nature. “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (II Peter 1:4). We should be growing to look more and more like our Heavenly Father everyday because we have His nature in us through regeneration. Just as a baby grows physically by eating, crying, and resting, so we as believers will grow spiritually as we eat Christ’s Word, cry out to Him, and rest in our new identity as His children (see I Peter 2:2). As we mature in our Christian walk, people will begin to see more and more of the character and likeness of our Heavenly Father exhibited through our lives as His children and they will be drawn to Him.