While studying "born again"

The study of God's word is so amazing and illuminating. I find myself often blown away by the clarity and consistency that I see all through the Bible. In this present season of my life, Nancy and I are ministering on Wednesday nights at Carmel Baptist Church. Russ Rosser has asked me to teach a 10 week course on "How to study the Bible." Last week was week #4 and it was time to start covering the "Laws of the Heart." I have taught this before and so as I was reviewing my notes I again came across the section in John 3 where Jesus is having a discussion with Nicodemus. But this time I went into a more in depth study of the phrase "born again." So I want to share with you some of my study notes that I hope will really encourage you about the phrase and meaning of "born again."

First of all the phrase "born again" only occurs 4 times in the entire New Testament. Christians often throw this phrase around so much that you tend to think it is everywhere. It shows up in the following verses:

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:7 “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

1Pet. 1:3 ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1Pet. 1:23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.


Now let's turn our attention to the phrase "is born again" located in John 3:3 and you can see it listed above

If you have a study Bible look at John 3:3 and there should be a number 1 to the right of the word “born.”
In the study column of your Bible check and see if it doesn’t say the words “from above.”
This indicates that you could translate as follows “unless one is born from above”

Also “is born” in the Greek is gennao and is a verb which is in the passive voice.
The difference between the active and passive voice
In this case born from above must happen to a person

For example - check out these two sentences:
Bert hit the ball - in this sentence the verb hit would be in the active voice as it is an action that I am performing or doing.
The ball hit Bert - however in this sentence we see that the verb is passive voice because the action is now something that happens to me.

Just follow those principles of grammar and look at the verb "is born again." This is in the passive voice which means the Lord Jesus is telling Nicodemus if a man is to be "born from above" then that action must happen to him. Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Don't read past that implication so quickly brothers and sisters in Christ. Jesus did NOT tell Nicodemus that a man must make himself born again or go get himself born again. But instead Jesus said the state of being born again is something that must happen to a person from above or from God.

And while we are in John 3:3 here are a few more things for us to consider:

The word "unless" is what is known as a necessary precondition, which means in this sentence
Nicodemus listen to Me very carefully about this Biblical truth.

I am not saying that you “might not” and I am not saying that you “will not” but I am saying that you “can not” meaning it is absolutely impossible for you to see the kingdom of God “UNLESS-UNLESS-UNLESS” you are born again!!!
The Greek word for “see” used here means to know, understand or perceive.

Putting it all together…
If a man, woman, boy or girl is ever going to see the kingdom of God it can not happen…UNLESS
They are born from above which means some action from above must happen to this person.
Hear me clearly on this important point - a man cannot get himself born again by anything that he does but is born again by everything that God does to him!

If you have spent years and years in the American church then that statement probably will not sit very well with you. Because if you tell an American that people in the church need to be born again they will figure out a strategy, program, plan or some gimmick that can get people born again! There is a danger in our Christian culture especially in some of our fast growing churches that tend to point toward how many people got saved or made decisions for Christ. But the statistics are revealing that one year later 85-90% of those who walked the aisle, prayed a prayer, signed a card or raised a hand actually fell away. How can that be? OK, are you ready for a Biblical truth that can explain it? They tried to get themselves born again and that is not what Jesus said to Nicodemus. But rather Jesus said that the state of being born again which is the only way a person can see the kingdom must-must-must be done by God Himself to the person.

Read that last paragraph again slowly, and carefully. It might surprise you or even amaze you - does it? Well you are in good company because now read John 3:7 as Jesus reiterates to Nicodemus these words - “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ If you do a quick check of the verb "be born again" you will find that it is still in the passive voice. Jesus is continuing to tell Nicodemus - this born again must happen to you!

At this point in my study I was having an official glory fit! And I had only studied two verses in John regarding the phrase "born again." Remember that the phrase "born again" only occurs 4 times so I was excited about looking at the other 2 references in 1 Peter. Now before we go to those verses would it not be incredible if the verbs used by Peter meant the same thing as the verbs used by the Lord Jesus in describing how one is "born again." Well with that in mind, let's go take a look shall we.

1Pet. 1:3 ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
All we need to do is read slowly, carefully and observe the basic structure of this sentence to understand what Peter means in regard to how a person is born again.

First of all who is Peter referring to in the first part of this verse:
Answer - God (God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ)

What is he telling us that God has caused? Read the sentence and ask who is causing what to happen?
Answer - God is causing "us" Christians to be born again - is that consistent with what we learned in John 3?

Why does He do this for us?
Answer - His great mercy

Do you see how good Bible study works when you ask questions like who, what and why?
Who did this? God
What did God do? He caused us to be born again
Why did God do it? His great mercy

At this point in the salvation equation so to speak man has not done a thing, is not responsible for any of it and can take no credit for it! So let me ask this question how much credit or glory should a man have in being born again? Answer - nothing
How much credit should God get for a person being born again? Answer - everything or all credit or better yet all glory!
Does that sound consistent with how God does everything that He does in and throughout all the Bible? Doesn't God wants us to be sure to know that He and He alone is to get all the glory?

OK, keep moving we are still not done, now go to:
1Pet. 1:23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.

Again let's look at the verb "have been born again." Well guess what? Just like in John 3:3 and John 3:7 this verb is in the "passive voice." By now you should know that means that something is happening to the person and in this case they are being born again.
You have been born again (it happened to you)
NOT by a seed which is perishable (not by yourself or your flesh which we know according to Scripture is all perishable)
But you being born again came from that which is imperishable and that is God Himself!
Could that verse be any clearer to you in what it means?
Does this match us with the other 3 uses that we have in the New Testament with what it means to be "born again."
Answer - yes it does!

There is more much more but for the sake of this blog article that is more than enough for all of us to spiritually chew on for some time.

In this exercise we are simply studying the phrase "born again." And the object of this drill is to understand what the author meant by what he wrote when he used "born again." From our study it seems clear to me that in order to be born again God must perform this action on a person and when He does so it is because of God's great mercy. In other words there is no person who has ever existed or who will ever exist that deserves, earns or can merit being born again. Even as creative and brilliant as the American church can be they still can not make or get a man to be born again because only God can do that act!