Commentary

 

What the Bible Says about Being Born Again

By John Odhner

Photo by Jenny Stein

I was talking recently with someone who was looking forward to becoming a father. He asked me, "Is it hard to learn how to be a good father? How did you deal with that change in your life?"

"One of the nice things about becoming a father," I said, "is that it happened one step at a time. First we got engaged, and then some time later we got married. During that time, talking about parenting helped prepare me mentally. A few months after our marriage, my wife became pregnant, and then we still had nine months before our child was actually born."

"Of course, having a new baby was a big change, but still there were many parenting tasks that came later. For example, discipline wasn't an issue for the first year, and it was two years before we had to help our son learn to get along with his new baby sister. Being a good father all at once would be impossible, but the Lord gives us a chance to learn slowly."

Most changes in our lives are gradual. An inch of growth may take a child half a year. It can take several years to learn to speak a new language or play a musical instrument. Two people can be married in a day, but the actual marriage of minds takes decades to accomplish.

Changes in our spiritual life are also gradual. They take place one step at a time, and spiritual growth will be easier if we know that it does not take place in a moment. It is an ongoing process. Jesus said,

"Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3)

Many passages in the Bible indicate that being born again spiritually will be just as much a step by step process as physical conception, gestation, birth, growth, and development. For example, Peter describes it in seven distinct steps:

"Add to your faith, virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, self-control, and to self-control, perseverance, and to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, love." Only by completing this process can we be sure to enter the Kingdom of God. (2 Peter 1:5)

One reason why being born again must be a gradual process is that it involves a complete change of character. Paul describes it this way:

"If any one be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 5:5)

Rebirth involves new knowledge, new habits, new activities, new loves, and new awareness of the Lord.

New Knowledge

Rebirth does not take place through a blind leap of faith, but through gradual education, study and enlightenment. Jesus said,

"If you continue in My Word, ...the truth shall make you free." (John 15:3)

Truth is the tool of change, the means to a new life. Jesus said,

"Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." (John 15:3)

Instead of accepting dogmas without question we must make sense of the truth in order to be reborn. Being "childlike" does not mean being childish in our beliefs.

"In malice be children, but in understanding be adults." (1 Corinthians 14:20)

In one of His stories, Jesus describes a good person as one "who hears the Word, and understands it, and also bears fruit." (Matthew 12:23)

Most important of all is the understanding of God. If God's nature is a mystery to us, we can hardly say that we are born again, or that we are His sons. (Compare John 15:15.)

Knowing God goes hand in hand with being born from Him. (1 John 4:7)

"The pure in heart shall see God." (Matthew 5:8)

When we are born again, God "shines in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians 4:6)

New Habits

Anyone who is in the habit of doing or thinking evil things is living the "old" life, and is incapable of the genuine goodness of the person who has overcome them.

"Can the leopard change its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil." (Jeremiah 13:23)

"He who commits sin is the servant of sin." (John 8:34)

Receiving the new life requires fighting against the old habits.

"Cast away from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die? ...Turn and live!" (Ezekiel 18:21, 31-32.)

"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, put away the evil of your doing from My eyes! Cease to do evil, learn to do good." (Isaiah 1:16.)

This kind of repentance cannot take place merely by praying for forgiveness. It requires a struggle, an ongoing battle to overcome the old ways of life. Paul called this a struggle between the "flesh" and the "spirit." (Galatians 4:29, Romans 8:7.)

It is a battle that requires our greatest effort -- "all your heart and all your soul and all your might." (Deuteronomy 6:4)

Eventually, through constant effort, God gives us such power over our habits that we no longer would think of doing something evil. When this time finally comes, we can be called "born again."

"Whoever is born of God does not commit sin.... He cannot sin, because he is born of God." (1 John 3:9)

"Whatever is born of God overcomes the world.... We know that whoever is born of God does not sin, but he who is born of God keeps himself and the wicked one does not touch him." (1 John 5:4, 18)

New Activities

Along with new habits come new activities. A person who neglects to be useful cannot be born again, and cannot go to heaven. Jesus indicated that some Christians would not be saved because they lacked good works.

"Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, ' shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in the heavens." (Matthew 7:21)

In one of His parables, Jesus told of some people who would go into everlasting punishment, not because they had lacked faith, but because they had failed to help people who were in need. (Matthew 25:41-46)

After death, the Lord "renders unto everyone according to his deeds." (Matthew 16:27)

A person who is born again is concerned for others, and orients his life around the work he can do to help others.

"Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead... A person is justified by works, and not by faith alone." (James 2:17, 24)

To be born again, you must "bring forth fruits worthy of repentance." (Luke 3:8) Service and usefulness are marks of the new life.

New Loves

Even more than faith and more than works, the power that causes a person to be born again is love. Peter tells us that we are reborn by means of loving and for the purpose of loving others.

"Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, being born again...by the word of God." (1 Peter 1:22, 23)

John also makes it very clear that only those who love others can receive the new life:

"We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death." (1 John 3:14)

"Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love, does not know God, for God is love." (1 John 4:7-8)

New Awareness of the Lord

We must take it upon ourselves to have faith, to fight the evil impulses within ourselves, to serve others, and to love others if we wish to be born again. Yet in all these things we need also to realize that it is the Lord who is working within us.

"You have also done all our works in us." (Isaiah 26:12)

"There are many forms of work, but all of them, in all people, are the work of the same God." (1 Corinthians 12:6)

In the process of rebirth we come to realize that it is the Lord working within us that enables us to work, believe, struggle, and love. These abilities are His merciful gift. He says,

"I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you...and cause you to walk in my statutes." (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

Patience

In order to be reborn we must renew our knowledge, habits, actions, loves and relationship with the Lord. All this takes time, even a lifetime. Just as childbirth and growth require patience and endurance, so does being born again.

"In your patience you will possess your souls." (Luke 21:19)

"Whoever endures to the end shall be saved." (Matthew 10:22)

God will give eternal life to those who seek it "by patient continuance in doing good." (Romans 2:7)

We cannot expect to be born again in a single moment. Again and again, the Bible advises steadfastness and endurance if we wish to gain the promise of heaven.

"It is good that one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." (Lamentations 3:26, 27)

For although it takes time, if we do our part, the Lord will certainly make it happen.

"Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass." (Psalms 37:5, 7)

The Bible

 

Matthew 25:41-46

Study

      

41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46 And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

      

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #212

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212. Behold, I will make them to come and worship at thy feet, signifies the state of such after death, that they will be out of heaven, and are not to be admitted. This is evident from the connection with what precedes and follows. This verse treats of those who say that they are in truths when yet they are in falsities, because in no charity. Of such it is said in the Word that they will come to the door and knock, but will not be admitted; "to come to the door and knock," is "to worship at the feet;" it is said, "at thy feet," because heaven in the whole complex resembles a man; the highest or third heaven answers to the head, the middle or second heaven to the body, and the lowest or first heaven to the feet; therefore, to stand at the feet and worship, is to be out of heaven and to wish to be admitted, but not to be able. (That heaven in one complex resembles a man, see Heaven and Hell 59-67 seq.; that there are three heavens, n. 29-40; and that the highest heaven forms the head, the middle the body, and the lowest the feet, n. 65.) From this it is clear why those who are out of heaven are said to stand "at the feet." They cannot be admitted for the reason that the whole heaven is formed according to the affections of good and truth, and is divided into societies according to all the differences of those affections; therefore, those who are not in charity are not in any affection in which heaven is, for charity or love towards the neighbor is affection; consequently those who are not in charity have no place in heaven, but are out of it; and such of them as have been in evils and falsities are conjoined according to their loves or affections, to those who are in internals, 1 and thither they are cast down.

[2] That such a lot awaits those who are in faith alone and in no charity, was foretold by the Lord in many passages. Thus in Matthew:

Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire; therefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of the heavens, but he that doeth the will of My Father who is in the heavens. Many shall say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied by Thy name, and by Thy name cast out demons, and in Thy name done many powers? And then will I confess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me all ye workers of iniquity. Every one that heareth My words and doeth them, I will liken to a prudent man, who built his house upon a rock. And everyone that heareth My words and doeth them not, shall be likened to a foolish man who built his house upon the sand (Matthew 7:19-27).

Here those who are in faith from charity, and those who are in faith and in no charity are described; those who are in faith from charity, by "the tree bearing good fruit," and by "the house that was built upon a rock;" "fruits" moreover signify in the Word the works of charity and a "rock" faith from charity; but those who are in faith separate from charity are meant by "the tree that bringeth forth no good fruit," and by those "building a house upon the sand," "evil fruit" moreover signifies in the Word evil works, and "sand" faith separate from charity. Of such it is said that they will say, "Lord, Lord, open to us," but that the reply will be, "I never knew you; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity."

[3] In like manner in Luke:

Strive to enter in through the narrow gate; for many shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and He shall answer and say, I know you not whence ye are; then shall ye begin to say, We did eat and drink before Thee, and Thou didst teach in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity (Luke 13:24-27).

Here again those are treated of who are in faith and not in charity, of whom it is said that they "will stand without, knocking at the door," but that they will not be admitted; "to eat and to drink before the Lord, and to be taught in the streets" signifies to listen to the Word and preachings from the Word, and to know the matters of faith; but as such are in no charity, it is said to them, "I know you not whence ye are, depart from Me;" for the Lord knows all from love and not from faith separate.

[4] The same is meant by:

The five foolish virgins, who had not oil in their lamps, concerning whom also it is said that they came, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us; but He answered, Verily I say unto you, I know you not (Matthew 25:1-12).

"Virgins" signify in the Word those who are of the church; "lamps" the things that belong to faith, and "oil" the good of love; therefore by "the five foolish virgins, who had no oil in their lamps," are signified they who are in faith and not in love. The like is signified also by:

The goats on the left hand to whom it was said that He hungered and thirsted and they gave Him not to eat and to drink; that He was a stranger and they took Him not in; that He was naked and they clothed Him not; that He was sick and in prison and they visited Him not (Matthew 25:41-43);

"the sheep at the right hand" here signify those who are in charity; "the goats" those who are in faith and in no charity. (That the latter are signified by "goats," see Arcana Coelestia 4769; and the former by "sheep," n. 4169, 4809.)

Footnotes:

1. For "internals" the context requires "infernals."

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.