My personal experience would suggest that I thought at one time that I could not and would not ever fit the characterization of a “born again Christian.” I just didn’t see me in any way subscribing to what that definition meant to me. The consensus today would infer that a born again Christian is an enigma more readily associated with a holier than though religious fanatic, rather than a true believer.
Then something happened on the way to the ranch. Yep. You got it. I got saved. Then I began to understand those things about faith that convinced me that I was indeed a new me.
Biblically speaking, John 3:5-7 says, “Jesus answered, ‘I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying you must be born again.”
Rather than think being born again is some kind of insidious conservative political movement of otherwise religious zealots, this passage lets us know that being born again relates to an awakening in all of us to the real presence of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives every day.
“Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply from the heart. For you have been born again, not perishable seed, but imperishable (seed), through the living and enduring Word of God.” Peter 1:22-23.
My Bible explains it to me this way. This imperishable seed, the seed of the Word of God planted and accepted by a new believer, gives way to a new spiritual life. This new life, when implanted in a person’s soul, is eternal because God’s Word is eternal.
By becoming good soil, by being spiritually involved in the process, a new eternal life is born. Therefore, the life you live once you’ve acknowledged your faith is a new life in the service of the Almighty, hence, “born again.”
