HOW CAN WE BE BORN AGAIN?

by Pierre Bittar
May 2015

In John 3:3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

1)WHAT DOES BORN AGAIN MEAN?

When God created the human race, He created us body, soul and spirit. If we are with God, our body, soul and spirit are alive. But if we are separated from Him, we lose that privilege.

When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and followed Satan’s advice, they were separated from God. Hence they lost the privilege of eternal life as explained above. Consequently their bodies, which originated from the dust of the world, discovered death and returned to dust. As for their spirits, which originated from God’s breath (read below Genesis 2:7) they continued to live, but have been deprived of God which is worse than death. Nevertheless, the Bible refers to their spirits as dead spirits. Genesis 2:7 Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

Because the fall of man and his separation from God, we are still separated from Him up to now because we are born with a dead spirit and continue to sin. Also, since the fall of man, Satan has become the prince and ruler of this world as confirmed by Jesus in John 12:31 Now it is time for the world to be judged. Now the prince of this world will be thrown out.

It is clear, from the above, that with our dead spirit we have no chance to be in the Kingdom of God unless our dead spirit is Born again.

2)HOW CAN WE BE BORN AGAIN?

If we want to be born again, we need first, the grace of God. God’s grace is obtained through our faith in Him. That faith needs to grow. The growth of our faith depends on our love for God through our love for Jesus, who is the revelation of the invisible God before the creation of this universe.To be born again, beside our Love and Faith in Jesus, we need also to Love our neighbors, and finally Escape from Satan’s grip.

Our Love and Faith in Jesus.

The first of God’s Commandments is to love Him. He is thirsty for our love, not only because He is our Father and we are His children, but because His essence is Love and love is who He is. We are part of God’s body, like cells are part of our human body. God feels every thing we do. If we love Him, He feels it and remains close to us which will help our spirit to be born again. But if we commit sin, which is against His nature, it will hurt Him and He will separate Himself from us. This, of course, won’t help the revival of our dead spirit which will remain dead.

To love God, we have first to know Him, to discover Him. The best way to know God is to look, watch and admire what He created; the immensity of the galaxies with their countless stars and planets, our planet earth with its beautiful landscapes, mountains, oceans, seas, lakes, trees with fruits and flowers. Watch the ever changing sunsets with their beautiful colors. We cannot enumerate all of what God created. A library full of books won’t be sufficient to describe all and each of His marvelous creations, but we should be convinced and content by what we have already discovered or couldn’t yet completely understand like the complexity of the human brain, the variety of animals, birds and fish with their different shapes and colors. Look at their natural instinct of self-preservation. When we pay attention and study each of God’s creations, we cannot stop praising Him, we cannot stop admiring Him. All that we need is to be more observant when we go out, and spend more time thinking about and contemplating these marvelous things we see, taste, smell, hear and feel.

Another way to love God is to read the Bible. God’s love for us has no limit. He proved it when He stepped down from His heavenly Kingdom and became human in Jesus Christ to save us. In order to accomplish this great act of love He accepted to be humiliated by His own creatures. He sacrificed Himself like a lamb and shed His precious blood to wash our sins. He was crucified on a cross like the worst of all criminals. He died and was buried. He was then resurrected and ascended to heaven. From heaven, His miracles continue to heal and save His faithful everywhere and everyday. He listens to our prayers and protects us. He sends His Holy Spirit to those who deserve to be born again. He will soon come, just before the horrible tribulation of end time and snatch, in a blink of an eye, all the righteous, dead or alive, meet them in the clouds (The Rapture) and take them with Him into heaven. Thus they will be saved from the coming nuclear World War III, in which one third of the world population will perish. Seven years later, He will come to judge those who haven’t yet been saved. Jesus will reign on this earth as a King and ruler. The world will live in peace because Satan and his followers will be seized, enchained and bound for a thousand years.They will then be released, for a short time, with the hope that they will repent, but unfortunately they will continue, with the help of the unbelievers, to attack God’s people, so Satan and his followers, demons and unbelievers will be thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where they will be eternally tormented, and Jesus will continue to reign and be the ruler of this world for ever and ever.

Love our neighbors.

To love our neighbors like ourselves, we should change our behaviors towards all of them regardless their race, nationality, religion, color or gender. Our bad behaviors like; hate, disrespect, selfishness, jealousy, envy, intolerance, impatience etc. should be replaced by good behaviors like; love, respect, generosity, kindness, tolerance, patience, helpfulness etc. We must consider our fellow humans like brothers and sisters because we have the same heavenly Father.

Escape from Satan’s grip

This is not an easy task and will be impossible if we want to count only on ourselves. Satan was an archangel created by God. Because of his envy and desire to be like God, he was driven out from paradise with one third of the angels who followed him and became demons. All of these evil spirits became the enemy of God and are surrounding us, seducing us with their sinful temptations. Their goal is to take us away from God and force us to follow them. They are very powerful and will do everything possible to keep us in their grip. The only way to get rid of their evil temptations is to ask for Jesus’ help. Our prayers should be made with conviction and full of desire to abandon all Satan’s sinful pleasures. We can include the Lord’s Prayer in our daily prayer as Jesus taught us in Matthew 2:9-13 (See verse 13 which is, precisely, protecting us from Satan’s power and his temptations.)

9- Our Father in heaven. Let your name be kept holy.
10- Let your kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
11- Give us our daily bread today.
12- Forgive us as we forgive others.
13- Don’t allow us to be tempted. Instead, rescue us from the evil one.

Jesus will listen to our prayer and will help us to overcome all Satan’s future temptations.

3) HOW CAN WE KNOW THAT WE ARE BORN AGAIN?

If we apply what has been explained above, we will feel the internal revival of our dead spirit until we are born again. We will be conscious of every transformation happening in our life. For example:

• We will gradually despise sin and if, by misfortune, we commit a serious one, we will regret it bitterly, cry and sob with deep sorrow, and turn to God begging Him for forgiveness with tears in our eyes and shame in our heart.

• We will realize that those sins that we formerly considered minor will suddenly become detestable.

• We will feel more and more the desire to read the Holy Bible and will discover explanations to many passages that were not understood before. We will feel the presence of the Holy Spirit making the words of God more accessible to our poor and limited mind.

• We will be less and less attracted by futile discussions and feel, instead, joy when participating in Christian discussions or meetings. We will also feel at home whenever we are surrounded by godly people.

• We will feel our faith growing day after day and be compelled to share it with others. While preaching we will be empowered by the Holy Spirit.

• We will appreciate God’s creation in its smallest details. We will thank Him and constantly praise Him for what He did.

• We will be aware of miracles happening to us that we formerly considered as coincidences or luck.

• We will be full of joy and have no more fear to die. We will look forward to meeting Jesus and living with Him in His Kingdom

4) EPILOGUE

It is not difficult nor impossible to be with God. No matter how big our sins are, Jesus doesn’t want us to be eternally tormented in hell. He is a very merciful and forgiving God. He tried to save us when He lived among us 2000 years ago. If we still don’t believe in Him, we better do it now before it is too late. Jesus wants to save us, He wants us to be with Him. Accept His invitation now. He is constantly encouraging us to come to Him, as we can read in Matthew 7:7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”