Born Again: Another Look

You must be born again

How does Christ give us the victory over that law of sin in us? He does it by giving us Himself, to live in us, and He is not under the power of that law. Let's look at what Christ has to say about the second birth in John 3.

“Most assuredly, 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, “Most assuredly, 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.”
John 3:5-8.

Jesus Himself says that we must be born again in order to be saved. Why is this so? Perhaps it has something to do with that law that is within us that keeps us from doing good?

The born again experience that Christ spoke of was more than just a change in attitude. Christians who claim to have taken part in the second birth are not just claiming that their mindsets have changed, or that their lives are completely different than they were before. There is much more to being born again than that. The second birth involves our very genealogy.

Paul speaks of this fact in Romans 5. Remember earlier we spoke of how the law of sin and death is passed down to us? It is because of our genealogical relationship to Adam— because we are all descendents of Adam. Because of this, we all are born with sinful natures. Paul pointed this out by saying, “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners.” Let us now look at more of this passage.

Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.
Romans 5:18-19.

Paul is pointing out two important facts here. The first fact is that through Adam we are all sinners and condemned. The second fact is that through Christ we are righteous and there is no condemnation. Paul is comparing these two facts side by side, to show the way in which these facts are related to each other. Let us take a deeper look at these two facts.

The first fact says that through Adam's disobedience we are all sinners and condemned. That is how the law of sin and death Paul spoke of becomes a part of us. How is it possible that one man's action, in this case Adam's disobedience, can affect another person to such a strong degree? It is because that person is genealogically from the person who acted. “By one man's disobedience many were made sinners.” After this statement, Paul signifies the strong tie of this statement to the next by the words, “so also.”

The second fact says that through Christ's obedience many will be made righteous. I ask again, how is it possible for one man's action to affect another person to such a strong degree? The answer is the same. It is because that other person is genealogically from the person who acted. In the same way that Adam passed sin down to us, which is genealogically, Christ passes righteousness down to us. “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous.” If it is genealogical ties that cause the law of sin and death to be present in us, it will take even stronger genealogical ties to give us victory over that law of sin and death.

If this is true, then in what way are we genealogically related to Christ? It is through the second birth. This is why a man MUST be born again in order to be saved. No, he is not physically born again by reentering his mother's womb, but he is born spiritually, now with God as his Father. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” This is why we are called sons and daughters of God. The term “son” or “daughter” is no mere metaphor, it is a fact.

Are we born again with the same genealogical inheritance as our first birth? When we are first born into the world, our inheritance from Adam is our sinful nature; the law within us that keeps us from doing good. Is this the case with the second birth? No, it is not the case. Christ did not sin, He was perfect. Therefore, there is no law of sin passed down to us from our genealogical relationship with Him. When we live by the flesh, our fleshly inheritance as sons and daughters of Adam is so strong that we will certainly sin against God. However, when we live by the Spirit, we can rest assured that our spiritual inheritance as sons and daughters of Christ is even stronger and we will even more certainly resist all sin even until death. This is why it is so important to recognize our genealogical relationship with Christ from the second birth. We are fully aware of how strong our genealogical ties are with Adam, since before we are converted we live only by the flesh and the result is plain to see. We need to learn that our genealogical ties with Christ are just as strong, and this is why the second birth gives us victory over all sinful behavior.

When we are born again, it is so much more than just a change of attitude. We are a new creation, and are children of God. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away: behold, all things have become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17. The old man is crucified with Christ. The old man is who we are; the one condemned to death, and the one who can't even help himself do right even if the desire is there. This old man is helpless, and is buried in Christ. “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in the newness of life.” Romans 6:4.

The Christian who is born again is a new creation, he walks in the newness of life. The word creation is no mere metaphor here either. God has awesome creative power. By His Word the earth, the hosts of heaven, and even the whole universe came into existence. This same power He uses to create a new life in us; to create a new heart in us. Paul recognizes this by saying that the new man was created by God. “Put on the new man, which was created according to God, in true righteousnes and holiness.” Eph. 4:24. God doesn't create the new man to be once again held under the law of sin and death. The new man was created “in true righteousness and holiness.” God wants to restore in us the image of Himself. “Put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.” Col. 3:10.

There is another important fact to keep in mind. Remember earlier when we recalled how even Christians struggle with victory over sin? How even after we accept Christ, if we determine in our minds to stop doing something we may still end up doing it anyway? This is because the old man in us is not literally dead. We still have sinful flesh; we still have sinful natures. It is important to realize that to be born again does not mean that God takes away all of our sinful inclinations and bad habits. The law of sin and death is still a part of us, and it will always be a part of us as long as we are in these bodies. When Paul says that “Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death,” Paul is not saying that Christ did away with that law. He is not saying that Christ took that law out of him and that the law no longer exists in him. Paul is saying only that Christ has freed him from the power of that law.

Only in Christ do we have that freedom. The freedom from the law is not something that Christ gives to us to have of and by our own selves. The freedom is only in Christ. When I say that the freedom is “in Christ,” I do not mean that you can go to Him, and take the freedom from out of Him and keep it for yourself. When we are born again, it is not as if we now have the power within ourselves to defeat the law of sin and death. The victory is there only in Christ. Only when we are in Christ, and Christ is in us does the law of sin and death have no power over us.

Repeatedly Paul admonished believers to “put on the new man.” Paul likewise said to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 13:14. In both of these expressions Paul is referring to the same thing. To put on the new man is to put on Christ. Even though we are new creations, we are nothing if Christ is not in us, and if we are not in Christ. Even after we are born again, we still have that law of sin and death within us, and of our own selves we still have no power over it. When we determine in our hearts and minds to do good in our own strength, the law still laughs at us and says, “go ahead, I still won't let you do it.” By ourselves we cannot defeat the law of sin and death. This is not to say that we are still helplessly doomed, however. The fact is, even though we still can't defeat the law, once we are born again there is one in us who can. When we give control of our life to Christ we are now in Him, and He is in us. Now when we determine to do good, the law stops laughing, not because there is any change in our own power, but because the law of sin and death has no power over Christ, and Christ is in us. That is why if we are in Christ, and Christ is in us, we have victory. Now when the law tries to keep us from obeying God, that law meets a strong opponent in Christ who in no way will succumb to obeying that law. The law of sin and death fights against Christ, but God promises that in that battle Christ will always have the victory. This is why the weakest Christian is more than a conqueror when he depends on Christ. The true born-again Christian is not trying to fight his own battles by himself, but he fully cooperates with Christ as He enters combat on his behalf. Paul speaks of this fact in Galatians.

Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do no do the things that you wish.
Galatians 5:16-18.”

What is Paul saying here? The flesh is the law of sin and death that makes us commit the same sins over and over again. The Spirit is Christ in us. The flesh in us determines to do a specific sin— it wants to do it, but Christ meets the flesh head-on and fights against it. What is the result of this fight? We “do not do the things that we wish.” Does this mean that we do not do the good things that we want? No. What Paul is saying is that the flesh no longer does the sin that it so much wants to do. We are so intricately tied with our sinful nature that we do not have any power to change what we really want to do at all times. At one moment we decide to never do that sin again, but at the next we find ourselves wanting to do that sin. But praise to God it is the Spirit who is striving against the flesh, and not us doing the striving in our own strength. With Christ in us we are no longer powerless against what the flesh wants to do. If we walk in the Spirit, we “shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.”

So when we are born again, we still have a sinful nature. The law of sin and death is still a part of us, however Christ is now in us, and He has complete power over it. This is why the gift of the new man is the gift of Christ. God gives His Son to us to live within us and to make our heart His home. Everything that Christ has— righteousness, a right to life, and even perfection (1 Cor. 1:30), is ours as new creations because Christ is in us and we are in Christ. None of that is ours in the sense that we have taken it from Christ and now we have it for ourselves. It is ours because it is Christ's, and Christ is in us and we are in Him. The focus is all on Christ, and nothing of ourselves. The difference between the old man and the new man is that Christ is living in the new man, and the new man's life is hidden in Christ. We still have no power of our own. We are completely and totally dependent on God to fight our battles. Christ is “The Lord Our Righteousness.” Jer. 23:6. If at any moment we are not in Christ, and Christ is not in us, then we have no chance of victory.

As long as the Christian tries to defeat the law of sin and death by himself, he will always lose. If for any moment we try to defeat sin ourselves, we are trying to save ourselves by our own works, and at that moment we no longer have victory because Christ is not in us (Gal. 5:4). This is why a born again Christian can determine in his mind to stop committing a sin, but soon after commit it again and again. He is not letting Christ fight his battles, but trying to win in his own strength.

In order to let Christ fight our battles, we must give complete and total control of our lives over to Him. There is nothing halfway about it; we cannot halfway be in Christ and have Him halfway in us. “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.” Matt 6:24. So if Christ is in us, then He has complete control over us. We will serve only Him, and He will fight all of our battles for us.

When Christ lived His life here on earth, He did not commit any sins. No temptation was too strong for Him to overcome. Would it be right for us to think, after He has conquered sin and is now seated at the right hand of God, that He lost His power over sin? If Christ is at the steering wheel, is it possible for Him to lead us into sin? No it is impossible. He will not even lead us into what we may consider to be a small or insignificant sin. The same victory that Christ had in His own life He lives in our lives when He is in us. Even though we may sin after we have accepted Christ into our life, that does not mean that it is Christ who is leading us into sin, neither does it mean that Christ is too weak to overcome that sin. It means that, at least momentarily, and perhaps unknowingly, we have taken control of the wheel away from Christ and ran ourselves off of the highway of holiness.

When Christ came and lived here on earth, did He succumb to the law of sin and death? No, He condemned it.

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:3-4.

Christ “condemned sin in the flesh.” We know that this is true for Christ's own flesh, but is that it? No, Christ not only condemned sin in His own flesh but He condemns sin in our flesh as well, as long as He is in us and we are in Him. Christ condemns that law of sin and death that keeps us slaves to sin, and He delivers us, so that “the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.” He gives us victory over the law of sin and death so that we now can keep the law of God. Now when we will to do good, or to have victory over a sin, it becomes our reality, because Christ is in us condemning that law of sin and death so that it has no power.

We must remember that even after we are born again we still, in our own power, do not have strength over the law of sin and death within us. However with Christ in us we have victory. We are more than conquerors when Christ is in control of us. With Christ we have righteousness. With Christ there is no condemnation of death. With Christ we have perfection. Yes, all of those are ours through Christ, yet we must remember that it is only because of Christ that we have them.