Born Again
July 21st, 2006 by Larry D. Burton
Joh 3:1-6
- Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
- the same came unto him by night, and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that thou doest, except God be with him.
- Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
- Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
- Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God!
- That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
I was listening to Neal Boortz yesterday at lunch. He had a few less than complimentary things to say about born-again Christians. I actually have to agree with his sentiment but while he was using the term “born-again Christians” I don’t think that was really the group he was condemning.
See, most people think of born-again Christians as the holy rollers, the ones that have the fish on the back of their car and on their business cards. I don’t think you can tell a born-again Christian by what they say or by what is on the back of their car. You have to look at what they do and understand why they are doing it.
From what I’m understanding Jesus to be saying in the above is that to enter the Kingdom of God (I don’t think he’s referring to going to heaven when you die by this statement) you have to completely change your life. You have to become the type of person that loves God above all else. That love has to manifest itself in such a way that doing God’s Will is the number one priority in your life. This love, this change in priorities, will so affect your life that you are like a new person. I like the Literal Version’s way of putting it, generated from above.
A lot of people claim to be born again who aren’t. These people think they have been born again because they are going to church and sitting on church committees and sometimes even going on church missions but on finding out that a neighbor is a homosexual they begin treating that neighbor as a leper. People that go around labeling who is going to hell aren’t born again Christians.
How can you tell a born again Christian? You have to look at the way he or she lives their life. You have to look at their spirit. Are they living their life themself or are they living their life to the glory of God? Are they loving and supporting their neighbor even while condemning their actions or are they allowing their neighbors actions to cause them to condemn their neighbor?
Born-again Christians rarely address themselves as such, they just show it in their lives. This is the reason I rarely take exception to people condemning born-again Christians, they usually aren’t really talking about the real ones.
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I think this is related to my complaints about “fundamentalist” becoming “evangelical”. Jimmy Carter claims to be evangelical, but he’s tried pretty hard to distance himself (and vice-versa) from the Southern Baptist Convention, which also calls itself evangelical.
Those of us who critique elements within Christianity have to work pretty hard both to stay ahead of the changing language with which those who ascribe to the religion use to represent themselves, and those (like the aforementioned SBC) who commandeer language and change meanings don’t do the rest of y’all any good, because in taking over those words they redefine them in such a way that those who originally had the term get tarred.
Which is why it’s easy for folks like me to fall into the “oh, screw it, let’s just say ‘Christians’ or ‘people who follow a religion’” situation.
And, as you may have guessed, that commandeering of the language is part of my motivation to write more about my religious views.
Thanks, you may have just inspired another essay.
Jesus tells us that we all have to be born again of water and the Spirit in order to eneter the Kingdom of Heaven . Therefore, it is an essential qualification of being a Christian and cannot be monopolised by any denomination or group. So I agree with you wholeheartedly; it is the Biblical truth. Further Jesus warned us about wearing our religion on our sleeves [Matthew 6:1-8 and elsewhere]. It is not by people’s public posturing but by their fruits you will know them [Matthew 7:16-20]. Living a Christlike life requires humility, meekness and service amongst other things.
What I would take exception at is your apparent categorisation of those that call themselves “born again Christians”. I call myself “a born again Christian” when asked. What that is really saying is that I am a strictly Bible-based Christian and take the Scriptures to be the inerrant Word of God. I think though that my friends and I are real Christians and not usurpers nevertheless.
Steve,
I’m sorry if I worded that so that you thought I was saying that anyone that called themselves “born again” aren’t. I didn’t mean it that way at all, just that it seems that most I run into that do haven’t shown me that they are.
My post was dealing with those people who claim to be Christian but show no real outward appearance of living their life for the glory of
God. I don’t even think a lot of them realize what they are doing. After all, aren’t we inundated with all the rules we must follow to get to heaven instead of just becoming as Jesus?
Now, I would take a little exception to your definition of “born-again.” All “born-again” describes is that God has changed your life and you are now a new person. What you are using “born-again” to describe is what I call “Evangelical”. The terms aren’t mutually exclusive. One describes your experience of becoming a Christian while the other describes the theology you ascribe to.
I don’t believe you to be an usurper. I do not believe you to not be truely “born-again.” It’s just that with so many people claiming to be “Born-Again” when they really mean that they have started going to Church on Sundays when they use to not do it don’t you believe that we must be on our toes to maintain control of our terminology?
Christians allow Christians to get bad reputations when we don’t call down those that call themselves Christians but don’t display Christian behavior. Don’t you agree?
Why don’t you read Randy Alcorn’s “The Grace and Truth Paradox”. One of the problems is that “born again” Chrsitians stress the “truth” part of the Gospel, forgetting that our faith is based on grace. Properly it must be in balance. Grace without truth opens up a world of tolerance of everything. Truth without grace encourages the righteousness that Jesus so deplored.
It is now on my “to read” list.
There are two other Randy Alcorn books you should put on your “to read” list: The Treasure Principle and The Purity Principle. I find he writes clearly and well and everything he writes is built on the most solid foundation, indeed the only foundation: the Word of God.
what does the “fish” truly mean, to a borne again , like my neighbor put a fish on his car, now do i have to worry about him preachin me?
you people , your kind, all rubbish, brainwash me too while your at it! here - heres some of my money too. take it, and while your at it with your organized cult army, go knock on those cult acidic jews doors too, there just as bad, dumb bornie’s, go preach to the deaf. all the little fish’s in the world cant help your people get into heaven.
Joe and Adolf, you are both posting from the same IP address.
yeah larry, your right, is there anything wrong with that?
It makes me think the two of you are the same person which makes me wonder about the motives.