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.