Well this morning we begin a new series of messages looking at the subject of regeneration, or the new birth. We’re going to be thinking about it for at least four reasons. First of all, since this is the new year, we’re thinking about new beginnings, I thought it appropriate to think about the greatest of all new beginnings in the new birth. Secondly, we are preaching on the new birth because we live in a time of unprecedented pressure on the Church in this country to depart from historic Christian doctrine and practice so that it has never been more important for us to know what a real Christian is. If those who profess to be Christians are to persevere through the storms of opposition and cultural pressure that may yet come upon us, we had better be sure that we possess the real thing rather than the counterfeit. We must be born again.
Thirdly, we are preaching on the new birth because our teaching theme this year is “Awakening: Preparing Our Hearts for Revival.” And if you scan through the history of revivals you’ll see very often they have been sparked in the context of preaching that insists on the theme of the new birth. If we want to see revival in our time it is not unreasonable for us to take up the tools God has been most pleased to us again and again to accomplish His work. And if history is any guide, the preaching of the new birth has been one of His favorite instruments. And then finally and supremely, we are preaching on the new birth because you must be born again. It’s not an option or a suggestion; it’s not a type or subset of Christianity. It’s not a lifestyle choice; it is an imperative, an absolute necessity, a vital non-negotiable. It is the sine qua non of authentic Christianity – “that without which there is nothing.” If you’re not born again, you’re not a Christian. You must be born again.
If, as your pastor, I’ve taught you all the doctrines of the Christian faith but this one and called you to moral duty and to diligence in the means of grace and I’ve shepherded you through trials and I’ve joined with you week in and week out over the years in prayer and praise and I’ve not insisted with all the urgency and force that I can muster on the great fact that you must be born again, well then I fear I’ve not helped you very much at all. I fear that unless we are clear on this point and have grasped this reality for ourselves, many of those who frequent this building on the Lord’s Day might continue to labor under the impression that all they really need is the right form of words to say to God or a kindly disposition toward their neighbors, a liberal smattering of religious sincerity in their hearts. It’s a great burden on my conscience to think that many of our people will face a lost eternity unless they know personally this one thing, this one thing – You must, you must, you must be born again. So in my judgment, the doctrine of the new birth could not be a more appropriate or more urgent subject for us to consider.
And to direct our thinking we’re going to turn together to the epitomizing text in the Scriptures that deal with the theme of regeneration and the new birth; the teaching of our Lord Jesus in conversation with Nicodemus in John’s gospel, chapter 3 in the first fifteen verses. John 3:1-15. If you have your own Bibles to hand, if you would turn there with me please. And today we are thinking about the nature of the new birth. The nature of the new birth – what it is not, and then what it is. The nature of the new birth.
Before we read the passage together, let’s pause once again as we pray. Let us pray.
O God, today we consider a subject that speaks to us of the one great need of every dead sinner, of every human being – the great miracle of the new birth. It is a work only you can perform by the power of the Holy Spirit. You do it, we are born again to a living hope through the living and abiding Word of God. So we pray as that Word is read and proclaimed You would perform that mighty work in the hearts of those who hear. Those who are already Your children by grace through faith in Christ, may they rejoice as they rehearse again the glories of Your grace toward them in Your Son who has caused them to be born again. For we ask it in Jesus’ name, amen.
John chapter 3, beginning at the first verse. This is the Word of Almighty God:
“Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘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.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter 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 marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’
Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Amen.
Well as we begin this series on the Scriptural teaching about the new birth, let me start by admitting up front that any preacher tackling the subject must overcome a number of hurdles. After all, being born again has become something of a cliché. It’s a bit of a trope in American pop culture, isn’t it? For many people at best, it evokes black and white images of a tall, handsome Billy Graham, you know, standing on a platform in a packed stadium thundering forth a call to come and believe in Jesus. In the popular imagination, Christians of that sort, they are born again. But that sort of Christianity, many now think, is really a relic of the past, belonging right along with those heroic black and white images of Billy Graham at his peak, to a simpler time when people were too optimistic, too naive; to a time when people believed in such things all too readily. “But you know, we’ve just come through 2020 and we surely are not nearly so naive. Born again Christianity belongs back there, back then. It doesn’t really fit, and it certainly doesn’t work today. Not anymore.” That’s the perspective of some.
But then for still others, the expression “born again” has a darker and more sinister connotation. For them, it has become synonymous with a sort of anti-intellectual fanaticism that screams and yells in hatred at those with whose moral choices it disagrees; that conjures images of spit and sawdust, tent revivals, and fundamentalist preachers who too closely identify strands of American politics with Christian faithfulness. It evokes televangelists and all the manipulative paraphernalia of a highly commercialized and commodified Christianity that has almost nothing to do with the real message of Jesus but it’s certainly glad to sell you a religious bill of goods for a sizable donation. That, many people believe, is what characterizes the born again crowd.
And given all of that, it really is important that we come to terms with the fact that the vocabulary of the new birth, of being born again, is not a creation of 1950s pop culture or of tent revivals or even of conservative politics. In fact, it is the fundamental category of the New Testament scriptures for describing what has happened in the human heart when a person becomes a true Christian. And part of our task this morning and in the weeks ahead, God willing, will be to scrape away the layers of cultural misappropriation and distortion and to try to recover the meaning of this vital doctrine in its pristine, biblical character.
What the New Birth is Not
And so in the interest of clarity, as we consider the nature of the new birth today, we begin by asking first of all about what the new birth is not. What the new birth is not. And here I want to focus on three things as we look at the text together. In the first place, I want you to see that the new birth is not a matter of mere or more religion. The new birth is not a matter of more religion. Neither can we say, in the second place, that the new birth is a matter of better instruction. Not more religion; not better instruction. Thirdly, we must also deny that the new birth is a matter of moral reformation. We have to banish from our thinking any idea that all Jesus means by being born again is, “Do better. Try harder.” Alright? So when Jesus says you must be born again, He doesn’t mean mere religion, He doesn’t mean better instruction, and He doesn’t mean moral reformation.
The New Birth is Not a Matter of More Religion
He doesn’t mean more religion, first of all. You’ll notice in verse 1 that Nicodemus is called “a man of the Pharisees.” Do you see that in verse 1? In Acts 26:5, Paul says the Pharisees were “the strictest party of Judaism.” And in Acts 23, Paul’s advocacy of the bodily resurrection results in a fascinating dispute between the Sadducees and the Pharisees, two of the religious factions of Judaism at that time. The former, the Sadducees, denied the bodily resurrection and much of the supernatural character of the faith, while the Pharisees, they upheld it. So in other words, the Pharisees are the orthodox, the Bible-believing conservatives of the day. They were incredibly precise about adherence to the Mosaic law and to the various rabbinic codes and requirements in addition to it, so that the freedom and the simplicity of the life of Christ and the pattern of discipleship that He used with His followers became a matter of significant scandal to the Pharisees. “Why don’t You fast like we do? Why don’t You wash ritually like we do? Why do You eat with tax collectors and sinners? Why do You heal on the Sabbath?” and so on and so forth. These are hard core guys, the Pharisees.
And according to the ancient Jewish historian, Josephus, there were about 6,000 of them in the Roman province of Judea at this time. And Nicodemus is one of them; he’s among them. But he’s not just one of them. Nicodemus, John tells us, was a “ruler of the Jews.” That means, in all probability, that he belonged to the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. It’s a body of about 70 leaders, mostly from aristocratic, priestly families; the majority of whom were Sadducees. There were very few Pharisees among them. That Nicodemus the Pharisee belongs to the Sanhedrin then means he is among the greatest religious leaders of his people. He is an elite among elites, epitomizing strict religious devotion. You remember how Paul spoke about his own great status as a Pharisee in the Jewish community before he became a believer in Jesus in Philippians chapter 3 verse 5 – “If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more. Circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” Well Nicodemus could put Paul in the shade. Nicodemus is the very model of a Pharisee.
But for all his devotion, all his purity, all his zeal, all his religious correctness, somehow he knew that he still lacked something. Maybe you can relate to that; maybe that’s why you’re here today or why you’ve tuned in and joined us from home. You have so much, and yet still you know you lack something. Well Nicodemus came to Jesus that night seeking answers. Of course he doesn’t get a chance to ask any of his questions because as soon as he begins to speak, Jesus declares, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” That’s a stunning statement. It must have hit Nicodemus like a slap. “Nicodemus, you are blind to the kingdom of God.” Or look down at verse 5, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” “Not only are you blind, you can’t see it, you are excluded from the kingdom of God; you can’t enter it! You’re on the outside. You’ve poured over the Torah, you’ve committed great chunks of it to memory, you’ve led the people in prayer in the synagogues, you have advocated for the truth in the councils of the Jewish faith; you have kept the Sabbath scrupulously, you avoid all uncleanness assiduously; you are a Pharisee of Pharisees, a pure one. But for all your religion, all your piety, all your purity, you are still, and until you are born again you will remain on the outside of things when it comes to the kingdom of God.”
And I dare say that that is, perhaps, amongst the very hardest aspects of our Lord’s teaching here on the new birth for some of us to come to terms with. It is vital, however, that we do. You have been baptized in the church, raised and catechized here perhaps; you’ve been faithful in worship. Maybe you read your Bible from time to time; you try to pray. You give. And you’re not just any old sort of Christian, you know; you’re a Presbyterian! You believe the Bible is the Word of God. You believe in the supernatural like Nicodemus; verse 2. You could say with all sincerity, “Look, I believe in Your miracles, Jesus. No one can do these signs unless God is with him.”
But listen, Jesus has some very bad news for you. All of that, all of it will count for nothing unless you are born again. Your prayers cannot open the gates of heaven. Your presence in church cannot close the gates of hell. Your intellectual assent to the proposition that Jesus is the Son of God leverages no consideration from the hand of the heavenly Judge. Jesus’ instruction to Nicodemus, to each of us this morning, if we would enter the kingdom, is not, “Pray more,” or, “Read the Bible more,” or, “Be more consistent in church in 2021.” These are all good things – commanded things, let’s be clear. But prayers and Bibles and churches are terrible saviors. They’re terrible saviors. Don’t look to them. Jesus says to the most religious among us, “You must be born again.” The new birth is not a matter of more religion.
The New Birth is Not a Matter of Better Instruction
Then secondly, the new birth is not simply a matter of better instruction. From Nicodemus’ point of view, let’s be clear, Jesus is an untrained, uneducated peasant from Nazareth. And yet it’s a mark of unusual open mindedness on His part, isn’t it, that instead of dismissing him as a charlatan suffering from religious delusions like so many of his Pharisee peers were doing, Nicodemus approaches Jesus in some humility. He calls Him by the same title that people typically used for Nicodemus himself. He calls Jesus, “Rabbi.” “Rabbi, we know You are a teacher come from God.” Those are Nicodemus’ categories for Jesus. Do you see them? This is the box that he’s put Jesus into. He is a teacher.
And yet for all his apparent openness to learn and be instructed by Jesus, as the conversation develops isn’t it equally clear that poor Nicodemus really struggles to grasp the message. Until verse 9, you can almost hear the frustration. He cries out, “How can these things be?” You’ll notice Jesus’ reply in verse 10. “Are you the teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things?” Now don’t miss the definite article there. According to Jesus, Nicodemus is the teacher of Israel, not just a teacher. He is the premier teacher. He is the big name that everyone wants on their conference platform. He is the celebrity Bible teacher at whose feet all others sit to be instructed. The teacher of Israel doesn’t get it at all. And so Nicodemus seems to expect to discover that the difference between the evident power of Jesus’ ministry and the comparative weakness of his own lies mainly in better information. It’s a matter of instruction and education. “Come on, now, Jesus. One teacher to another here – what’s Your secret? What is it that I am missing? I have most of the pieces in the puzzle in place, surely. So what have I overlooked?” “Oh no, Nicodemus. Unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. You must be born again, Nicodemus!”
This is my situation right now. We are not yet citizens of the United States. We have green cards, we’re permanent residents, but before I will be able to become a citizen I will have to answer a battery of examination questions on American history and culture and politics. And only if I pass the test can I then become a citizen. But do you see that citizenship in the kingdom of God, the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, isn’t like that. This is Nicodemus’ mistake. It comes not by passing a test of knowledge or intellect or understanding. It doesn’t matter how many catechism questions you can answer. That doesn’t secure your place in the kingdom of God, you see. Jesus says to enter the kingdom you have to be born into it by the power of God. “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. You must be born again.” So the new birth is not a matter of more religion, nor of better information.
The New Birth is Not a Matter of Moral Reformation
Then thirdly, it’s not a matter of moral reformation either. When Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again in verse 3, look how Nicodemus answers. “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Now Nicodemus is not stupid. He knows Jesus is using a metaphor here and he is using some irony in response when he talks about entering his mother’s womb a second time. He’s spluttering with cynical incredulity because he thinks Jesus is talking about a second chance, a moral do-over. Here he is now, likely an older man with most of his life behind him, doubtless with many regrets, many hard lessons he’s had to learn under his belt. He’s been there, he’s done that; he knows better. He knows you don’t get a second crack at the whip! “If only wishing made it so, Jesus, but come on now. What are You going to do? You’re going to be born all over again? Give me a break!”
But Nicodemus has missed the point. Jesus isn’t talking about a second chance at doing better. Suppose we could in fact clean up our acts and rewrite the script of our lives. Understand, please, that there’s no amount of doing better short of perfect perpetual obedience to God that will ever be good enough to secure, to merit His favor. And that’s the problem Nicodemus just doesn’t get. And truth be told, we all tend to miss it. Don’t we? We think that we are essentially sound, moral agents, basically good people who make some mistakes along the way. “All we need is to turn over a new leaf, make a few resolutions, a fresh start, and then surely then all will be well!” But Jesus says, “It is not moral reformation that you need, Nicodemus, any more than it’s more religion or better instruction. It is a radical new self, a new creation, a spiritual resurrection. You must be born again.” So the new birth is neither more religion, better education, nor moral reformation. So what is it? What the new birth is not.
What the New Birth Is
Now, what the new birth is – very briefly. Look at the expression Jesus uses once again – “born again.” He uses it in verse 3 and again in verse 7. “You must be born again.” The word, “again,” there is capable of two meaning. Nicodemus plainly understands Jesus to mean a second birth, to be born another time; describing the character of the life this new birth begins. It’s another birth. But the same word can also mean, “from above,” describing the source from which this new life comes. And in context, I think, actually both senses are involved. The first sense is to be born again, born a second time. Here’s the character of the new birth. We’ve seen the new birth is not a second chance to do better and try harder. Wouldn’t we all just mess it up all over again even if we had a second chance? It’s not more information that we need, as if our only problem was ignorance of the fact. “Even when I know the truth, I can’t help myself living as if it were a lie. I like the lies I tell myself more than the truth as it really is much better.” That’s the reality. And it’s not more religion I need, as if I could pray enough, sing enough, attend church enough to secure God’s favor. That was the treadmill that Nicodemus was running on flat out all his days. And even he came to Jesus seeking answers knowing that somehow he wasn’t getting anywhere. What we need is the one thing only Jesus can give us – a completely new life, as radical and fundamental as a birth. “Implanting,” in the words of Henry Scougal, “Implanting the life of God into the soul of man.”
The Character of New Life
The New Testament actually has two other metaphors that help illustrate the radical newness of this mighty work of God in the heart. The first is to speak of the new birth as a new creation. Second Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come.” So he’s saying before we are born again we are like Genesis 1:1 – formless and void. And then the Spirit of God begins to work and He brings light and life and order and beauty. When a person becomes a Christian, what is the explanation? Have they been swept along by emotion at some events? Have they been brainwashed by religious fanatics? Are they so needy that they’re willing to embrace religion just to find community and a place to belong? Is that the explanation? What has really happened when someone is converted to Jesus Christ? New creation! There was darkness and emptiness and chaos, and now suddenly there is life and light and order and beauty. New creation!
And the second metaphor is even more wonderful. The new birth is a kind of resurrection. Ephesians 2:1, “We were dead in our trespasses and sins,” and then it goes on to say, “but God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even while we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with Him.” Utterly powerless we were, utterly helpless, utterly lifeless, and then God brought us, like Jesus Himself up from our spiritual death into everlasting life. But the character of the new life that the new birth brings, it is a completely new self. It is a new creation. It is a resurrection.
The Source of New Life
And then we need to notice, last of all and very quickly, the new birth is not just being born again; it is being born from above. Here now is the source of new life – it is a gracious gift of God. And here’s the real miracle of it. The true explanation of its radical, transformative power – God the Father, by the power of the Spirit of His Son, Jesus Christ, bestows new life upon us and creates it within us. We are passive and He is sovereignly active in this mighty work. We don’t make ourselves live, you see. We are spiritual corpses. But God raises the dead. We are formless and void, but God speaks new creation into being. The shocking point, the thing that really defeats Nicodemus in his conversation with Jesus is that the one thing he must have, the one thing without which he will remain blind and shut out of the kingdom forever, is the very thing he cannot obtain by any means of his own invention. He is altogether powerless in the matter.
And listen, beloved, that is the critical point. The new birth is the gift of God alone and we make no contribution to it of any kind. None! But you’ll say, “Jesus is hardly being fair then, is He? If God requires of us the one thing we cannot perform, doesn’t that plunge us all into despair? What hope is there? If I must have what I cannot obtain, what hope can there be for any of us?” I recently heard a preacher deal with that objection like this. If Jesus’ teaching plunges us into despair, he simply asks, “What is it we’re despairing of? Doesn’t it simply make us despair of ourselves, of all remedy in ourselves, of all strength of our own, of all ingenuity or wisdom or any doing of ours?” And why should that trouble us? After all, isn’t that precisely the point? Isn’t that what makes this good news? You see, what Jesus offers isn’t something for you to do. It is a gracious gift He is glad to give. You get it from His nail-pierced hands. He died that you might live, you see. And so what must you do? You must entrust yourself wholly to Jesus Christ. Give up on your religious doings as the ground of your confidence before God, your philosophical speculations; trample underfoot all your self-righteousness. None of it can help you, none of it. Only Jesus can help you. He says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, will never die.” He has life for you, and you must come and entrust yourself to Him.
May God help us all to do that today. Let us pray.
God our Father, we bow before You to praise You for the Lord Jesus Christ who is the resurrection and the life, in union with whom we are raised from the dead and given the new birth. We pray for everyone here and for those listening or watching at home. We ask, O God, that by the hand of the Holy Spirit You might take away their hearts of stone and give them indeed hearts of flesh. Cause them to be new creation in Christ. For we ask it all in Jesus’ name, amen.