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FEATURES |
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WHAT DOES
IT MEAN TO BE “BORN-AGAIN”? -
Philip P. Eapen |
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The world today identifies the term “born
again” with evangelical Christians who make it an
essential criterion for salvation and for calling
oneself “Christian.” Theologians refer to the experience
as “regeneration.” A person is said to be “born again”
when God gives him/her a new spiritual life. And
evangelical Christians claim that this spiritual
regeneration happens when someone prays the “sinner’s
prayer” and accepts Jesus Christ as his/her personal
Saviour. Calvinists or those of the Reformed tradition
however claim that the experience of this regeneration
is what causes sinners to accept Jesus as their personal
Saviour.
Is this definition of regeneration based on the Holy
Scriptures? A passage in John’s Gospel says,
“11 He came to his own home, and his own people received
him not. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in
his name, he gave power to become children of God; 13
who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh
nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:11-13
This passage clearly says that those who received Jesus
– in other words, who believed that Jesus was what He
claimed to be, namely, the Son of God – were given the
right to become children of God. Therefore evangelical
Christians have taught that those who “receive” Jesus
(or “accept Jesus” for their salvation) are born of God.
An intellectual assent to Jesus’ claims, trust in His
atoning work on the cross, a penitent prayer asking for
forgiveness of sins and an invitation to Jesus to “come
into my heart”—these are the steps advocated by
evangelicals to receive salvation or the new birth.
Anyone who goes through these steps is assured that
he/she is “born again.”
The verses quoted above do not say that those who
received Jesus became the children of God. It says that
those who received him were given “power to become
children of God.” But how exactly does one become a
child of God? This passage does not spell it out.
Moreover, it does not spell out how people were supposed
to “receive” Jesus. The context clearly gives us the
impression that to “receive” Jesus is the opposite of
what most Jews of his time did—“his own people received
him not.” The chapter begins with claims about the
divinity of Jesus. Those who received Jesus certainly
had to accept and submit to his divinity and to his new
mission as the “lamb of God.” How exactly was someone
expected to show that he/she “received” Jesus?
Let us see how Nicodemus “received” Jesus. One night,
the senior Jewish rabbi visited Jesus. Having seen or
heard about the miracles and signs that Jesus did, he
was convinced that Jesus was sent by God. “Rabbi, we
know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one
can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him,”
he said. He should have been commended for his honest
evaluation of Jesus. Truly, he did what other Pharisees
did not do. He verbalised his faith in Jesus’ teachings
and works. He was different from the Jews who did not
“receive” Jesus; in fact, by our standards, he
“received” Jesus and had the courage to confess his
faith.
Jesus was however not impressed with Nicodemus’
confession! Jesus, taking into consideration the role
and status of Nicodemus in Jewish religious life of that
time, revealed to him the essential condition for any
sinner to see or enter the Kingdom of God: “Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot
see the kingdom of God.” To Nicodemus’ question as to
“how” a person could be born again when he is old, Jesus
said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is 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. Do not be amazed
that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (John
3:3-7)
I have heard people say that verse 3 refers to
“accepting Jesus” or to “giving one’s heart to Jesus”
while verse 5 refers to water baptism and Holy Spirit
baptism. They go on to say that those who “accept Jesus”
will see the Kingdom of God whereas those who
subsequently take water baptism and receive the Holy
Spirit baptism will enter the Kingdom. The two
statements in verse 3 and 5 are not two different sets
of conditions. We need to note here that Jesus, in the
true Jewish style, was repeating in verse 5 what he said
in verse 3. In verse 5, Jesus included an answer to
Nicodemus’ query as to “how” a person could be born
again. A person gets born again “of water and the
Spirit.”
What does the phrase “born of water and the Spirit”
mean? Some think that birth through water refers to
natural child birth while birth through the Spirit
refers to a spiritual regeneration. In other words,
Jesus was saying, “It is not enough to be born naturally
(of water) into the world; a person should be born of
the Spirit once he as grown up.” In fact, there is
nothing in these verses to suggest that Jesus was
referring to two separate births in verse 5. Jesus
explained that the very new birth that he mentioned in
verse 3 takes place through water and the Spirit (Cf.
New Jerusalem Bible). Calvin interpreted the verse by
subsuming water into the Spirit. He read it as “born of
water which is the Spirit.” This too is erroneous. Both
the factors – water and the Spirit – are important. One
should not be sabotaged by the other (Marvin R. Vincent,
Vincent’s Word Studies, 1886).
A key to understanding this new birth through water and
the Spirit is found in verse 10 and 12. Jesus expected
Nicodemus, a Jewish rabbi, “a teacher of Israel,” to
understand his teaching on this new birth through water
and the Spirit. Yet, when Nicodemus questioned Jesus,
“How can these things be?” Jesus asked Nicodemus how the
latter could be a teacher of Israel and still not
understand his teaching on new birth. In fact, Jesus was
not referring to something that that was totally unheard
of among Jews.
The Jews of Jesus’ time, as in modern times, practised
different kinds of washings. These “washings” were
sometimes more than just a washing; they were
immersions. Vessels bought from the market place were
thus subjected to ritual immersions. Priests who served
in the Temple immersed themselves both before and after
sacred services. People who repented of certain sins
immersed themselves once or many times, depending upon
the gravity of the sin, to cleanse themselves from their
sin. This was in addition to the atonement made through
sacrifices. The atonement was for forgiveness and the
immersion was for cleansing from the sin. The baptism of
John, a baptism of repentance, was a similar baptism.
Men and women who were polluted by sexual union, women
who completed their monthly periods of ritual impurity,
people who were polluted by such women or things used by
them, people who were made unclean by corpses—they all
practised ritual self-immersion in order to be ritually
clean.
The highest of all “washings” was the immersion
associated with conversion to Judaism. A convert was
baptised in the presence of at least three witness in
“living waters” (water from flowing natural sources). A
convert had to repent of his sins and confess his faith
in the God of Israel. Such a person was considered to
have received a new birth.
“The baptismal water (Mikveh) in rabbinic literature was
referred to as the womb of the world, and as a convert
came out of the water it was considered a new birth
separating him from the pagan world. As the convert came
out of these waters his status was changed and he was
referred to as “a little child just born” or “a child of
one day” (Yeb. 22a; 48b; 97b). (For details, see Ron
Moseley, “The Jewish Background of Christian Baptism” )
- To be continued ...
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This page
is updated on Apr 21, 2010 |
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