Theological Tuesdays: Born-Again

Today's word we here in church but don't really get is: Born-Again. Now before you brush this off and say, "ah I know what that means," think about it, do you really? What if a stranger came up to you one day on the street and asked you, "What is a born-again Christian?" Would you be able to respond accurately? Is this different than just a Christian? Is it just a label we give ourselves?

This term is found in the Bible so first let me give you the reference so we'll have some kind of bearing to get us started:

John 3
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." 3In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.^[a]" 4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" 5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

So we see here that Jesus told Nicodemus that for us to see the Kingdom of God, or Heaven, then we must be "born-again." So I think this is an important term to look at. In simple words, being born-again, is synonymous with salvation or regeneration. For the sake of brevity I'll not include all the scriptures which the doctrine of salvation or regeneration come from but you can click this link to read an article on the topic. The basic idea here is that once we realize the bankrupt state of our soul, that we are born sinners(Rom. 3:23, Isa. 53:6), and because of our sin we are separated from God(Isa. 59:2), we therefore deserve death. But God's free gift to us is salvation(Rom. 6:23), which we can receive by confessing that "Jesus is Lord" and believing in our heart that God raised him from the dead(Rom. 10:9-10). At that moment, when we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart, the promised Holy Spirit enters into us and takes up residence in our heart and soul(Eph. 1:13-14). At that same moment we receive salvation, we are justified and we are "born-again," regenerated, therefore becoming a new creation(2 Cor. 5:17, Rom 10:10, Eph 2:1-10).

Ok yall, so that's the basic Gospel message in a nutshell, but it takes the entire message to explain what being born-again really means, especially if your going to try and explain John 3:5 and what Jesus meant by being born of water and spirit(which you should be able to do with this Gospel presentation).

Now, why the term "born-again Christian" started being used, I don't know. I did a little research and found out that Jimmy Carter used the term in his 1976 Presidential Campaign to describe his faith experience. Who knows, maybe ever since then that's why we hear the term in politics to describe "real Christians." You know, I think it has basically become a label we created to separate us "real" Christians from the "other Christians" or those who claim they are Christians (around 80% of the US) but aren't really. Make sense? We hear it used in politics and on TV a lot and now if we think back to the 2004 elections its much like the new label of "evangelical Christians." So now we have two labels to give ourselves, "Born-again, Evangelical Christians." And the next popular term in 'hip-culture Christianity" is "Christ-Followers." What's next? Probably have to call ourselves "Born-Again-Evangelical-Christ-Following-Jesus-Freaks."