Straight Dope on Medicine: Born Again

Author

Scott Ganser
May 01, 2023

Rebirth is a great thing.

What is it all about?

As John succinctly puts it, it is the entrance fee to the Kingdom of God.

You Must Be Born Again

John 3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 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.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 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?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

People made new.

The technical term is palingenesis.

It is a regeneration of the human spirit.

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God. 1 Peter 1:23.

The word translated as again is ἄνωθεν (ánōtʰen), which could mean either "again", or "from above"

There are many stories of how God has saved people and changed them. Unshackled from Pacific Garden Mission tells many of these tales.

It is a core doctrine of the denominations of the Anabaptist, Moravian, Methodist, Baptist, Plymouth Brethren and Pentecostal Churches along with all other evangelical Christian denominations.[i]

Billy Graham relates the story of a transformed life.[ii]

A young Marine Corps officer, a veteran of the Vietnam War, described publicly the night battle in Vietnam when he and his troops came under enemy attack. Only a few were lifted out alive by helicopter. The sixteen surgical operations he endured had helped to restore his physical powers, but now he was speaking of the spiritual rebirth he had received since returning home. He said, “We bear an allegiance to the flag of our country, but unless we have been born again through faith in Christ, all our religion is worth nothing.”

Not everyone has the same notion of rebirth. The Greeks coupled a forgetfulness that does not exist in the Christian purview.

Schopenhauer, who applies it to his doctrine that the will does not die but manifests itself afresh in new individuals.[iii]

Another operative word is "kenogenesis " (Gr. καινός new), in which the inherited characteristics are modified by environment. This means that not everything from before is thrown out.

The most well-known term the ancients used was psyche. For Greek philosophers and poets, psyche referred to breath. However, it did not denote the literal act of breathing but rather the final exhalation one takes at the moment of death.[iv]

The second-most common term used by the ancients was thumos. A person’s thumos represented their will or life force and compelled them to action or fulfill their desires. A separate but important concept for the Greek philosophers was the eidolon, a fully-realized image of the individual in the afterlife. According to Greek mythology, once a person had died, their psyche would be released from their bodies. The psyche would travel to Hades where it would live as a shade of that person’s former self, or – if they had been sufficiently virtuous – an eidolon.

The Pythagoreans believed that the body was a tomb in which the soul is trapped. The only release from a continuous cycle of rebirth into this trap was by living a pure life. They practiced rituals of purity, abstained from wearing wool, and helped animals achieve their own transcendence by exercising devout vegetarianism.

He posited that during the process of rebirth, the individual would forget everything they had learned in their previous life.

Matthew 7:15-23

A Tree and Its Fruit

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

I Never Knew You

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Many people have made professions of Christianity throughout history. Jesus said, “We will know them by their fruits.” Actions speak louder than words. Words can sometimes be lies.

A fig tree cannot bear apples, and a Christian does not put forward a life of sin. Opposite its nature.

Paul Washer give a great illustration of how change should/must happen. Fictitious illustration. He says he was to speak to a youth group but was half an hour late. The leader of the group admonished him when he finally did show up. “How can you not appreciate being given the opportunity to speak to these young people?

Washer responded, “Just hear me out. While I was driving here, I got a flat. While I was changing the flat, the spare rolled away onto a four-lane highway. I went to retrieve it, but a 32-ton logging truck ran me over. That’s why I am late.”

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The leader responded, “That’s a ridiculous story. How can you be run over by a 32-ton logging truck going 70 miles per hour and not be changed?”

Really, he should be dead.

The same goes with your encounter with Jesus. He is the living God. How can you meet him and not be changed? When Moses went up to Sinai, he came back with his face aglow.

Are you born again?

How do you know?

One way is that you turn toward God.

Paul defines the effects of this deep repentance when he rejoices that the letter, he wrote rebuking the Corinthians led them to turn away from sin and toward God. He writes: Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. (2 Cor 7:10–11, NIV)[v]

New desires arise that align with the will of God.

For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:11–14 KJV).

Exodus 34:29-35

The Radiant Face of Moses

29 When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the covenant law in his hands, he was not aware that his face was radiant because he had spoken with the Lord. 30 When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, his face was radiant, and they were afraid to come near him. 31 But Moses called to them; so Aaron and all the leaders of the community came back to him, and he spoke to them. 32 Afterward all the Israelites came near him, and he gave them all the commands the Lord had given him on Mount Sinai.

33 When Moses finished speaking to them, he put a veil over his face. 34 But whenever he entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him, he removed the veil until he came out. And when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, 35 they saw that his face was radiant. Then Moses would put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with the Lord.

Two camps in evangelicalism

1. Free grace: you believe in Jesus, and you’ve made a profession. No matter how you live, you are saved.

2. Lordship salvation: must not only receive Jesus as savior, but as Lord. He calls the shots, and you should strive to do His will. That’s bearing fruit.

Both have good intentions, but both have problems. The first wants to protect salvation by faith, and not require works. They are saying it is simply an act of grace on God’s part.

The second wants to prove a point: that true faith is demonstrated by what we do.

Neither are looking at the doctrine of regeneration. It’s not that I hear the gospel and I receive Jesus as savior and lord, and I follow him as lord. In truth, the Christian is regenerated by the Holy Spirit who changes their nature. Having a new nature, they live in a different way.

Is everyone familiar with spider-man. Peter Parker is an ordinary, nerdy teen-age boy until he gets bitten by a radioactive spider. Then he acquires spider abilities. He’s ten times stronger than what he was, can sense danger. He can shoot webbing out of his wrists and fly from building to building. He now fights crime and uses his abilities to better society.

Christians should have a new disdain for sin. They should have a heightened sensitivity to it. Seek to avoid it, and likewise have a yearning to do God’s will, not just their own. Should love to learn about God’s word too.

This is like being born again.

Good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit. What a thing does, or how it reacts is dependent upon its nature.

The flip side of a good tree is the bad tree. It cannot produce good fruit.

Explains a lot in our current culture. Manhattan DA has decriminalized theft. Won’t prosecute it anymore. Crime of poverty. Can also be a crime of greed. Bernie Madoff and Sam Bankman-Fried led privileged exalted lives and stole billions. They were not looking for their next meal. So it goes with the thieves in New York and Chicago. You cannot eat a Gucci handbag or drink Air Jordan sneakers.

Criminal is the victim. Society did it.

Removes responsibility and culpability from people. It’s disgusting.

Unregenerated man is familiar with sin and can justify it.

A Christian cannot.

A Christian cannot live a life of continual rebellion against God. There might be times, but they are isolated incidents. Rebelling against God is against your nature.

What about the troubling verses?

. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

These are claiming good fruit. Jesus is countering with bad fruit: lawlessness.

ἀνομίαν.
anomian: work iniquity.

They have the guise of purity but are evil at the core. Bite into a good apple and taste the rot. Look at it and it is all brown inside.

They do good works not to honor God or that it is their new nature, but they can get money, power, and prestige for doing it. That is what they are truly after.

They might put on a good show on Sunday, but when no one is looking they are stealing, abusing people, doing drugs, and perverting justice. What they have been doing is a masquerade.

A true Christian will give God credit for the power for good that exists in their lives. God should be magnified, not us. Workers of God’s will declare emphatically that he is Lord.

Your heart of stone that was unresponsive to God has been removed, and in its place is a heart of flesh that responds to him. Not only that, but if God has begun a good work in you, he will finish it.

What about “I never knew you.”?

God knows everybody and everything. Doesn’t mean he has an intact relationship or saving connection to all. Having information about someone is not the same as having a relationship with them.

You didn’t share a meal with me. You didn’t call upon my name in when you were weak. Where is the trust? Relational currency is absent.

Addressing the last bit of this statement, “lawlessness.” Lived as if God had never given a command to man. They did what was right or pleasing in their own eyes. First allegiance. Not God.

Ezekiel 36

I Will Put My Spirit Within You

22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

What would motivate a holy, righteous God to save us? It is not something within us. It is for his own name and character. God reveals himself to us and sacrificed His son so that we might be spared hell. In its place is an eternal Eden with the Creator God. No more death, mourning or pain. The old order of things has passed away. Everything has been made new.

Including us.