The New Birth (Part 2)
April 5th, 2010 by Mark C.
Part of the hope of the Gospel is that one day the world will be restored to its original state, when Christ rules in God’s Kingdom. Jesus refers to this in Matthew and uses another word from the same root as gennao, the word for born or begotten.
Matthew 19:
28 And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed me, in the regeneration [paliggenesia] when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
This word paliggenesia is only used twice in the Bible. Once in this reference to the regeneration of the world to come, and one other place in Titus.
Titus 3:
3 For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,
5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration [paliggenesia], and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
In these two occurrences of this word, we see the two instances of regeneration. The world will be regenerated when God’s Kingdom comes to pass, and in the meantime we experience a foretaste of it in our own lives as we are regenerated by the Word and renewed by the holy spirit. This process that changes us from the way we once were begins with receiving, understanding, and believing the Word about the Kingdom of God, which is the Gospel that Jesus and his disciples preached.
Throughout Acts, when people believed that Gospel, they were called to repent. To repent does not just mean to stop sinning, although that will be a result. But no one will be completely free of sin until Christ returns. The word repent means to turn. Specifically, it is to turn your heart away from your past sinful life, and to turn it towards God. It is not salvation by works, but it is a turning toward God, in response to the wonderful news of His coming Kingdom. From that point on you are living with a whole new purpose.
This is what is meant by confessing Jesus as Lord, referred to in Romans 10:9. In order to confess him as Lord you must know who he is and what he is all about. It also says to believe God raised him from the dead. The proof that he is the Messiah is that he was raised from the dead (Matthew 12:39; 16:4; Acts 17:30-31; Romans 1:4; I Corinthians 15:12-19). It is also the proof that God will raise us up as well when Christ returns (I Corinthians 15:20-23; II Corinthians 4:14). So to confess Jesus according to Romans 10:9 is to believe that he is the promised Messiah, the coming King, and that he rose from the dead after dying for our sins, and is coming again to judge the world and reign over all nations, as promised by the Prophets. All this must be understood in order to make Jesus Lord. It is not enough to just say “Jesus is Lord” if you don’t know what that entails. And knowing what that entails includes knowing what is asked of you, namely to repent or turn your heart towards God and decide to live in light of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
In John 3:5 Jesus told Nicodemus, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” When saying these things, he implied that it was not something that was unknown. “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” he said in verse 10. The Old Testament Prophets spoke of a rebirth of Israel that was to come. Isaiah 66:8 asks, “Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.” Ezekiel describes a vision in chapter 37 about the dry bones coming to life again, which is specifically identified as the “whole house of Israel.” It says that God would bring them up out of their graves and would put His spirit in them, and they shall live. We saw in the The New Covenant that what came on the day of Pentecost was a foretaste of the ultimate fulfillment of His promises to Israel. These promises include being “reborn” and God pouring out His spirit. The new birth which we partake of now is based on the “seed” of the Kingdom Gospel, and a foretaste of the ultimate restoration. All of that will be accomplished when God brings His Kingdom to pass on earth.
Ezekiel 36 says that in addition to a new heart and a new spirit, God would sprinkle clean water on them. This language is echoed in Titus 3:5, when Paul refers to “the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” When a person hears the Gospel, believes it, and repents, that Word is implanted in his heart. At that point a regeneration process begins, which continues working in him, with a view to inheriting eternal life. It will be complete when Christ returns and we put on immortality.
Because the New Birth is the entrance into the New Covenant, we are expected to do something to demonstrate our faith. By the power of the holy spirit, our sins are washed clean because of the shed blood of Jesus. To symbolize our identification with that sacrifice, and the change which takes place in our lives, we are commanded to be baptized. I was taught, and many still teach, that the only baptism that is necessary is the baptism of the holy spirit. Baptism in water is said to be obsolete and unnecessary. However a close examination of the Scriptures reveals that Jesus commanded this act as a public declaration of our faith and repentance. It is not the baptism of John, which was incomplete, but the baptism in the name of Jesus, which is a baptism in water in his name. It is accompanied by the baptism of the holy spirit, which Jesus himself accomplishes. But nowhere does the Bible say that baptism in water is replaced by one in spirit. This subject is dealt with in greater detail in the Closer Look article on Baptism.
Since the seed which we receive is the Word which is incorruptible, the question arises, can one lose this seed? I was taught that it was like the seed of my earthly father, in that even if I was not in fellowship with him, his seed was still in me, and I was still his son. However, the Bible does not teach this. There are a number of verses which refer to the conditional nature of this new birth (I Corinthians 10:1-12; 15:1-2; II Timothy 2:12-13; II Peter 1:10; Hebrews 3:12-14; 6:11). We are saved by grace through faith and not by works. But we must continue in that faith until the end. If we do not continue in the faith, the Word which is working in us will not remain in our hearts. This becomes easier to understand when you realize that the seed is the Word and not a “new birth seed” that is in you unconditionally, regardless of what you do afterward. This idea of “Once Saved Always Saved” is dealt with in greater detail in a Closer Look article.
So salvation begins with receiving the creative Word of God or Gospel of Truth, the Word about the Kingdom. That Word must remain in the heart and grow and produce fruit. This is how the new heart, which Jesus said was required for righteousness, is received. Ultimately it will result in immortality at the return of Christ. The change that can be experienced in the meantime comes about because of the close connection between God’s Word and His spirit, which we will discuss in the following article.
Mark C.
Great article. I especially like the part where you are talking about what repenting means. “Specifically, it is to turn your heart away from your past sinful life, and to turn it towards God.” That describes perfectly my path after I finally became a Christian.
For about the first 5 years after first calling myself a Christian I didn’t open a bible to study it, as a matter of fact I didn’t even own a bible. My Christian journey consisted of going to several different churches and listening to what the pastor and the various people I was talking to were saying about what they believed.
I would then try to let my heart guide me as to whether what they were saying (and doing) made sense to me or not. Finally about 15 years ago my friend Tim gave me an ESV study bible to read. It was the first bible I ever owned.
He sometimes jokes around saying he made a mistake giving it to me because ever since then we’ve been arguing about our interpretations of what it says and what different scriptures mean.
I thank God for his word and I thank Jesus for teaching us how God wants us to behave.
I have finally turned my life toward God and really love having people like you guys on this website to discuss my beliefs with. Thanks…
Correction to above message.
It was a NIV study bible that he gave me…