The Life of Jesus in Harmony |
Index
born again
BORN AGAIN.
The new birth is a creative life-giving operation of the Holy Spirit upon a
lost human soul, whereby in response to faith in
Christ crucified <John 3:14-16; Gal. 3:24>, the believing one, "dead in . . . trespasses and
sins" <Eph. 2:1>, is quickened into spiritual life and made a partaker of the
divine nature and of the life of Christ Himself <Gal. 2:20; Eph. 2:10; Col. 1:27;
1 Pet. 1:23-25; 2 Pet. 1:4>. The complete necessity of this spiritual
transaction is the result of fallen man's state of spiritual death, his alienation from
God, and his consequent utter inability to "see" <John 3:3> or "to enter into"
the
kingdom of God <3:5>. No matter how moral, refined, talented, or religious the natural or
unregenerate man may be, he is blind to spiritual truth and unable to save
himself <3:6; cf. Ps. 51:5; 1 Cor. 2:14; Rom. 8:7-8>. It is clear, therefore, that
the new birth is not the reformation of the old nature but the reception of a new
nature.