As human beings our knowledge is limited to our physical world and what God tells us about the spiritual world through the revelation of his word. We all understand the godly principle of each species producing after its kind because we see it every day in the world. We’re also familiar with the normal birth process whereby a mother will grow a new life in her body until it’s time to come forth or be born. A male (or father) is needed to provide the other half of the chromosomes needed to produce this new life. This applies to most forms of life including both humans and animals. Let’s start by defining some key terms from my Oxford English dictionary so we’re on the same page when it comes to Bible interpretation:
1. Birth – the emergence of a baby or other young from the body of its mother
2. Born – existing as a result of birth
3. Reborn – brought back to life or activity
4. Renew – begin something again after an interruption
5. Again – returning to a previous position or condition
6. Regeneration – means the same thing as reborn
As a Christian reading these terms in the Bible I found it a little confusing at first and I’m sure that’s the case with most people. We think we know what God means by what is said in his word but we’re not absolutely sure all the time. When it comes to the phrase “born again” most of us see things a little bit like the Pharisee Nicodemus in the gospel of John. When Jesus told Nicodemus, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Of course we all know we can’t be physically born a second time so we assume it must be a recalibration of our mind in order to be more righteous; to think the way God wants us to think. Does God gives us a completely new spirit or does he just wash or remove the sin from our existing spirit? I couldn’t make up mu mind what to think. I always leaned to the removal of the sin from the spirit because I was thinking in human terms and not from God’s viewpoint. If you have a new expensive shirt and you get a gravy stain on it you don’t throw the shirt away and go buy a new one. You wipe off the stain, use a wet cloth to remove the stain or throw it in the laundry and wash the stain away. The shirt comes out of the wash good as new. It turns out that I was dead wrong about this. When God gives us a new eternal spirit at salvation it’s a brand new one. We’re a new creation in Christ Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Romans 5:17 – For if by one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:12 – Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.
Ephesians 2:10 – For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Philippians 3:20 – For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
With my limited understanding of God and spiritual things I just couldn’t grasp that God would instantaneously swap out two identical spirits, one without sin for the one with the stain of sin. Kind of like a heavenly shell game. Our spirits from God are like fingerprints, no two are exactly alike. My wife taught me when doing the laundry to separate the lights from the darks. If you accidentally wash something light in with the dark clothes there is a chance the darker colors will bleed into the light clothing (which I’ve done). Once that dark stain gets into the light clothes it’s embedded and is there permanently. Scripture refers to it as “corruption” in both our body and spirit. I think the sin nature we all inherited from Adam’s original sin in the Garden of Eden is like that. The original sin caused by Adam can’t be removed from our body or spirit so our spirit must be replaced and our body must die. We must be given a brand new spirit to be saved. There’s no other way. When my mother was alive she was adamant none of her kids would be cremated. Mother wanted to make sure there was a body in a grave for God to resurrect. Mom worried about that needlessly.
Psalm 35:9 – And my soul shall be joyful in the Lord; it shall rejoice in His salvation.
When God gives believers their glorified bodies at the rapture and the resurrection saints on the last day those glorified bodies won’t have one atom from our old bodies because of the sin that permeated our old physical bodies. Scripture says you don’t sew an old piece of cloth on a new garment and you don’t put new wine into an old wineskin. That same principle applies to our bodies as well. God made us the first time and he can do it just as easily the second time, only without the sin nature from Adam. God hates sin; God cannot abide sin; and God will not allow sin in heaven. Our eternal spirit was stained by the original sin from Adam’s body and must be replaced in order for us to be able to go to heaven. After studying the Bible I find that God does indeed give each believer a brand spanking new spirit upon salvation unto eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We get our new glorified body at the rapture or the resurrection, depending on when you were saved. God does that because he loves us he is merciful. With God nothing is impossible. God made us to live with him forever in heaven so he came up with the salvation plan for man to restore the fellowship that existed between God and man before Adam’s fall.
John 3:5-8 – (Jesus speaking) – Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
As we can see from the above Scriptures every person has two births, one physical and one spiritual. Our physical birth we understand as I’ve previously explained. Our spiritual birth is something God explains in his word. God is Spirit and normally has no physical form. God made everything in the universe, including you and me. We exist and have our being because of the power of God. If God removed his hand from creation everything would instantly dissolve into nothing. At our physical conception God gives each new person a part of himself, a spirit that is eternal because God is eternal. That part of God that he puts into each person belongs to God and that spirit will one day return to God at our physical death. On the cross just before his death Jesus committed his spirit to God as a human being just like us. Jesus was being an example. It’ll be the same for us. There’s only one God, one divine being, so our spiritual birth can only be from God. God is both our birth mother and our birth father. God gives birth to our eternal spirit at our conception.
1 Corinthians 8:6 – Yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we are all things, and through whom we live.
Colossians 1:17 – And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
Luke 23:46 – (Jesus speaking) – Father, into your hands I commit My spirit.
Revelation 21:7 – He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.
Luke 8:55 – Then her spirit returned (Jairus’ daughter), and she arose immediately.
When you pray to God and call him father you’re being truthful. When God says you’re a child of God and his son God is also being truthful. As sons and daughters of the King we’re royalty in heaven but that’s a discussion for another time. We don’t have zombies or the walking dead in the real world. One of the spiritual truths of God is your spirit must leave the body when it dies and if you’re dead your body is not walking around without a spirit. If you’re a living human being you have both a flesh and blood life just like the animals of the earth and you have a spiritual life through your eternal spirit, which is God’s. Humans have their being in both the physical world (our bodies) and the spiritual world (our eternal spirit). Our mind is the conduit or interface between the physical world and the spiritual world. Our mind was given to us by God as our worship organ so we can know God and give praise, honor and glory to his name through prayer. Two gifts from God make human beings different from the other animals on earth; human beings have an eternal spirit and a mind that is the greatest computer in the universe.
Galatians 4:19 – My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.
John 3:3 – (Jesus speaking) – Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
1 Peter 1:23 – Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.
1 Peter 1:3 – Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
Isaiah 44:24 – Thus says the Lord, your redeemer, and He who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth by Myself.
How is it I know we get a brand new spirit upon salvation? I use Scripture to interpret Scripture. God almost always confirms spiritual truths in multiple Bible verses so all we have to do is find them and compare them in order to get a clearer picture of what God is actually saying to us. The five verses above all confirm in one way or another what Jesus says in John 3:7 about being born again. By definition to be born is to exist as a result of a birth. To be born again is to go through the process of birth a second time which is just like the first time. Reborn means to be brought back to life. We were all dead in our sins and Jesus brought us back to life by the shedding of his blood on the cross for our sins. We were reborn. Again means to return to a previous position or condition. Begotten is the past participle of beget which menas to produce a child. 1 Peter 1:3 goes on to say this second spiritual rebirth results in our salvation because Jesus rose from the dead. Since we know we cannot physically be born a second time then the verses must mean being born again spiritually, a spiritual rebirth. In Galatians 4:19 God clears up any ambiguity by telling us he is the one who births us with an eternal spirit, not only the first time but again the second time because only God can accomplish this miracle. 1 Peter 1:23 confirms to us that our new spirit is eternal and therefore can only have come from God.
John 6:40 – (Jesus speaking) – And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 – Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:6 – So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.
John 3:27 – A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.
Psalm 32:8 – I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.
In summary, every human being goes through two births; a spiritual birth at conception from God and a physical birth nine months later with their birth mother and biological father. Believers who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior receive a third birth; a second spiritual birth to replace the original spirit received at conception which became stained as a result of Adam’s original sin in the body. This spiritual rebirth is the important one because it’s a part of God’s salvation plan for man to restore fellowship with God and allow believers to enter heaven and live with God forever. God is pure and God will not have anything to do with sin whatsoever. When God is birthing our first eternal spirit at conception there’s no sin on it; there can’t be. Adam’s original sin in the Garde of Eden was in his body not his spirit; giving him and all men who came after a sin nature. Even in a fallen world we all still receive a pure spirit from God at conception but the sins of our body inherited from Adam bleed over and stain our eternal spirit which then prevents us from entering heaven without a new spirit; a rebirth of our spirit from God.
Isaiah 45:22 – Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 – Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man.
Psalm 112:1 – Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments.
2 Corinthians 5:11 – Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
Isaiah 32:17 – The work of righteousness will be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever.
By his grace, God washes away the sins of the body through the blood of Jesus Christ who died as an atonement for the sins of all men. This washing away of sins from the body and rebirthing our eternal spirit occur simultaneously as an act of a loving, gracious and merciful God. God gives everyone the free will choice to accept his saving grace; to decide whether to serve God or Satan. Those who decide to serve Satan and decline the second spiritual rebirth then their sins will remain with them to be judged on the last day. God’s eternal creatures, angels and men, were created to eternally reside in one of two locations, heaven or hell. Those whose sins have been removed go to heaven and those who still abide in their sins go to hell. Anyone who fails to choose God chooses Satan by default. The option to choose God is only open to men while they yet live and before the rapture happens, which could occur at any time. Don’t delay making your decision.
Isaiah 44:22 – I have blotted out, like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
Titus 3:5-7 – Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
John 1:12 – But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even those who believe in His name.
2 Corinthians 5:10 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Isaiah 30:18 – Therefore the Lord will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are those who wait for Him.
Every time you read your Bible from now on and you read the verses that say you are reborn it should send a thrill through your soul. It’s not symbolism, an allegory or a spiritualization of God’s word. It’s the literal truth of God. Interpret God’s word literally unless the context indicates otherwise. By the word of God know you have a reborn eternal spirit without sin which is just as much proof you’re going to heaven as being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Actually, the opposite is also true. Being indwelt by the Holy Spirit proves your new spirit is without sin because the Holy Spirit couldn’t live in a body that still had its sin nature. Remember, God can’t live near sin and the Holy Spirit is God. There’s no way God will indwell a sinful body unless it has been purified by the blood of Christ. In the Old Testament times people worshipped God in the temple and God resided there. Under the new blood covenant of Jesus Christ believers are the church and our bodies are the temple of God and the proof is that God resides on the inside of believers as the Holy Spirit. Our body and our spirit belong to God and we need to start acting like it.
1 Corinthians 6:20 – For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s
Romans 8:12 – But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 – Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
2 Corinthians 5:1 – For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2 Corinthians 4:16 – Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
In Scripture I kept running across the words regeneration and renewing and thinking they meant the same thing but they don’t. Regeneration means the same thing as being reborn. Renewing means to begin something again after an interruption. When Adam was in fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden he had the mind of God. After Adam sinned God broke off the fellowship with man (an interruption) until Jesus came and reestablished that fellowship with God (begin again). That is renewing. Believers have the mind of Christ and can now renew their minds through the word of God. Adam and Eve were immortal beings but when God kicked them out of the Garden of Eden because of their sin they became mortal beings who grew old and died like us. Adam originally had great mental powers but after the fall that was greatly reduced. That’s why fallen man can use only 10% of his brain capacity. God didn’t shrink our brain after Adam’s fall he just deactivated part of it.
Malachi 4:1 – For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch.
It’s as though God put some kind of governor on our mind like you would an engine, in order to limit our brain output temporarily. No doubt when we receive our glorified resurrection bodies we’ll regain 100% of the brain power that was once Adam’s. Our brain is another proof of God. The theory of evolution is linear which means a species only evolves to the capacity it needs to survive. The fact that man has more than 90% more brain power than needed to survive as a species debunks the theory of evolution and fits perfectly with the story of creation in the book of Genesis. Our highly complex human brain is far greater than what we need to survive and function as a species which proves beyond any doubt that man was made by God in his image.
Romans 12:2 – And do not be conformed to this world, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
2 Timothy 1:7 – For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
1 Corinthians 2:14 – But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned.
John 4:24 – (Jesus speaking) – God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
2 Corinthians 5:9 – Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.