On the Bible and being “Born Again”

Before I was a true believer I often thought when I was told you need to be born again that if this was so important then why does the Bible not mention this issue more?Mainly because most people primarily quote John 3:3 almost always.

John 3:1-8 NIV

3″ Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. ² He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

³ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.^[a]”

⁴ “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶ Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit^[b] gives birth to spirit. ⁷ You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You^[c] must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit”

I am not going to go into the Born Again verses Born from Above argument because I don’t know Greek and also pragmatically they mean the same thing anyway.They both mean a new birth of spirit and not of the fleshly world we were first born too.To me they mean the same thing from a practical point of view.In this article I want to talk about other mentions in the Bible of the born again experience!

Here is is the first letter of Peter 1:3 NIV

“³ Let us thank the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was through His loving-kindness that we were born again to a new life and have a hope that never dies. This hope is ours because Jesus was raised from the dead.”

Here is also 1 Peter 1:23 NIV

“ You have been given a new birth. It was from a seed that cannot die.”

Here are two more examples of the absolute need for a rebirth or a new birth to be saved in the New Testament but what does the Tanakh ,the Old Testament say on this.Lets look here at Ezekiel 18:31!

לאהַשְׁלִ֣יכוּ מֵֽעֲלֵיכֶ֗ם אֶת־כָּל־פִּשְׁעֵיכֶם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר פְּשַׁעְתֶּ֣ם בָּ֔ם וַֽעֲשׂ֥וּ לָכֶ֛ם לֵ֥ב חָדָ֖שׁ וְר֣וּחַ חֲדָשָׁ֑ה וְלָ֥מָּה תָמֻ֖תוּ בֵּ֥ית יִשְׂרָאֵֽל:

“Cast away from upon you all of the trespasses which you have transgressed and get for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit,for why should you die ,house of Israel!”

Very interesting for sure but a clear reference to the new birth.Here is Ezekiel 36:26 :

וְנָתַתִּ֚י לָכֶם֙ לֵ֣ב חָדָ֔שׁ וְר֥וּחַ חֲדָשָׁ֖ה אֶתֵּ֣ן בְּקִרְבְּכֶ֑ם וַֽהֲסִ֨רֹתִ֜י אֶת־לֵ֚ב הָאֶ֙בֶן֙ מִבְּשַׂרְכֶ֔ם וְנָֽתַתִּ֥י לָכֶ֖ם לֵ֥ב בָּשָֽׂר:

“I wiil give to you a new heart and a new spirit and I will give within you,and take away from you a heart of stone from your flesh and give to you a heart of flesh”

Because of of structure of languages the Masoretic text (Hebrew) and English Bibles label this one different,this is Ezekiel 21:15 in the Hebrew and 21:10 in most English Bibles but to keep it simple I will only quote the English in Ezekiel 21:10 NIV

¹⁰ “sharpened for the slaughter,
    polished to flash like lightning!

“‘Shall we rejoice in the scepter of my royal son? The sword despises every such stick.”

This talks of the one who went as a sheep to the slaughter and will rule one day with the iron rod or sceptor.Anyhow a short but powerful article ,hope you were inspired by it.Best wishes and God Bless!