The New Birth

The New Testament speaks of a new or spiritual birth in many verses and passages. The Lord said to Nicodemus that being born again of the spirit was essential: John 3:7 “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” No man shall live in heaven’s glory world that has not been born of the Spirit. Moreover, no man is capable of seeing or entering the church kingdom of God who has not been born of the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit works independently of man in bringing about the new or spiritual birth:

1. John 1:13 “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” The Lord taught us in this verse that the new or spiritual birth is not brought about by a blood relationship to some Old Testament patriarch or some blood sacrifice, nor is it brought about by either the desire of the flesh or the choosing or will of man. Rather, the new birth is of God alone.

2. John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” This certainly teaches us that the flesh and the spirit do not cooperate in bringing about the spiritual birth, but rather it is solely the work of the Spirit.

3. John 3:8 “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” Just as the wind blows independently of our actions so the Holy Spirit acts independent of our actions in causing every one that is born of the Spirit to be born of the Spirit.

4. John 6:63 “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” Once again, the Lord taught that the flesh (this would include the preacher, teacher, parent, or individual) is of no profit in the spiritual birth, but that the spirit works alone in quickening us into spiritual life.

5. Eph. 2:1 “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins:” Paul taught us that we were not capable in helping to bring about the spiritual birth as we were dead in trespasses and sins. Thus, the quickening into spiritual life had to be by the work of the Spirit alone.

6. Eph. 2:5 “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)”

7. Col. 2:13 “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;”

8. Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” Again, Paul taught that our works were not in any way involved in causing the new birth, but the Holy Ghost was solely responsible in having us to be born of the Spirit.

When the Holy Spirit works in us to cause us to be born again, He imparts within us a new nature that is not capable of sinning: 1 John 3:9 “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Perhaps you are saying to yourself, “but I still sin.” The new or spiritual birth imparts a new nature within us known as the inner man. However, the new birth does not change the flesh and its nature. It is still corrupt. This sets up a warfare within everyone that is born of the Spirit. Gal. 5:17 “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Paul said concerning his flesh: Rom. 7:18 “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” We therefore conclude that all that are born again have two natures. On the one hand he has a nature in which Paul said (dwelleth no good thing). On the other hand we have a new spiritual nature that John said, “doth not commit sin” and “cannot sin.” This conflict between the two natures of a child of God will continue until he goes to the grave. Having this internal conflict is one of the evidences to us that have been born of the Spirit that we have been born of the Spirit.
In the new or spiritual birth, the Holy Spirit writes God’s laws in our heart and mind:

1. 2 Cor. 3:3 “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.” Here we are told that the epistle of Christ is written in the heart and that this writing was a direct writing of the Holy Spirit to the fleshly tables of the heart. There is no intermediary in this work.

2. Heb. 8:10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:” Here we are told that the laws of God are written into the heart and put in the mind of those covenant children of God.

3. Heb. 10:16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;” Here the order is reversed from the passage in Heb. 8:10. The laws are written in the mind and put in the heart. By taking both passages together we conclude that the laws of Go are written and placed in both the heart and the mind.

4. Jer. 31:33 “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” This is the Old Testament passage pointing us to the passages in the book of Hebrews.

5. Rom. 2:14 “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)” Here, Paul describes to us the condition of the born again Gentiles on whom God has written in laws in their hearts. We shall have more to say about this passage a little later in this essay.

We may ask ourselves, "Just what laws did the Spirit write in our hearts and minds?" I Thes. 4:9 seems to be the key to answering this question, "But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love one another." Clearly God has taught us to love one another and not man. This was a direct teaching from God to man without any intermediator (preacher). I John 3:14, "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren." Love for the brethren is a direct evidence of the new birth. Anyone who loves the brethren has been born again! Therefore, we know that God has written love into our hearts and mind in the new birth. Matt. 22:37 40 ties down for us that love toward God is to be manifest in our heart, soul, and mind, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all they heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." God writes these two great laws in our hearts and mind and as a result we are able to love God and our neighbor. Without these laws written in our hearts and mind we would be unable to love either God or our neighbor. James 2:8 says, "If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well." Rom. 13:8 reads, "Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

Finally, we read in Rom. 2:14, 15 "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts.” The basis of our love toward God and toward our neighbor is founded on the laws of love that God wrote in our hearts and mind when he caused us to be born again.

When the Spirit causes us to be born of the spirit, He sprinkles the blood of Christ upon our heart:

1. 1 Pet 1:2 “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.” In this passage, we see the Godhead working together in covenant to redeem the elect family of God from their sins. First by the foreknowledge of the Father we were chose in Christ before the foundation of the world. Second by the work of the Holy Spirit we are sanctified (set apart) in the New Birth. Third, we are justified and cleansed by the obedience of Jesus Christ and by his atoning sacrificial blood.

2. Heb. 12:24 “And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” Sprinkling of blood was a part of the Old Testament ceremonial law. The High Priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat once a year in the tabernacle and later in the temple. However, this pointed us to the work of Christ. The sprinkling of Christ blood speaks better things than the sprinkling of Abel’s blood. Abel’s blood cried out for vengeance. Christ blood speaks to us of redemption and forgiveness.

3. Heb. 10:22 “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” In the New or spiritual birth, the Holy Spirit sprinkles our heart with the blood of Jesus. This cleanses the heart of the inner man giving him a good conscience and removing the evil conscience. It is with this true heart that we can draw near to God in full assurance of faith.

When the Spirit causes us to be born again, our soul is cleansed. Before, we are born again, our soul is polluted with sin as well as our body. In the spiritual birth our soul is washed or cleansed and knitted together with the spirit. That our soul is washed in the new birth we consider the following scriptures:

1. John 3:5 “Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” The water in this verse is not water sack broken in natural birth nor is it water baptism. It is the washing in regeneration, which is the cleansing of the soul.

2. Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” This verse considers two actions that the Holy Ghost performs in the new birth. The renewing is the making new of the spiritual inner man that we refer to as the spirit of the child of God. The washing of regeneration is the washing or cleansing of the soul.

3. 2 Pet. 2:7 “And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: 8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)” The only way that Lot or any man could be considered righteous is that he was judiciously made righteous by the atoning sacrifice of Christ: 2 Cor. 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Lot had more than the judicial or legal righteousness of Christ, but his soul was also righteous. This was a timely righteousness as a result of his soul being washed from sin by the washing of regeneration.

In studying, Rom. 2:14, 15 we see where the Holy Spirit has set up a court room within our heart and mind when He caused us to be born again: Rom. 2:14 “For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: 15 Which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)”

There can be no trial or judgment without a law. No one can be tried for breaking a law when there is no law. In a court room there are laws, witnesses, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and a judge. First, the laws are in the hearts and minds of God's people. Secondly, God has given us a conscience whose purpose is to be a faithful witness. Thirdly, our thoughts thru either accusing us or excusing us serve as both the prosecutor and the defense attorney. Finally, our hearts serve as the judge (I John 4:20).

God has built within each of his children a court room. The trials within our heart and mind serve to convict us and lead us to repentance. First, we are convicted of our own sinful condition which causes us to see ourselves as condemned before a just and holy God. Afterwards, we are enabled, by faith in Christ's atoning blood, to see Jesus as our Savior. Thus the court room of our heart and mind has served to both convict us and to justify us. For an example of these principles I encourage the reader to look at Isaiah's experience in Isaiah Chapter 6.

Secondly, this court room serves to convict us of individual sins, causing Godly sorrow within us. This in turn leads us to repent (II Cor. 7:10, "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of.") We do not repent in order to be born again or to become a child of God, but we repent because we are born again!

Moreover, when the Holy Spirit causes us to be born again, He imparts within us spiritual gifts: 1 Cor. 12:7 “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.” Notice that not all of God’s children have all the spiritual gifts, but we all have more than one of the spiritual gifts. These gifts were imparted by the Holy Spirit according to the will of the Spirit and not according to the will of man.

There are five senses that we have in our nature as human beings. We have the senses of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and feeling. When we are born of the Spirit of God, He gives us five spiritual senses as the following verses attest to:

1. Matt. 11:15 “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Eight times in the four gospels and eight times in Revelations chapters 2 and 3 a similar phrase is made. Obviously, this is not talking about natural ears as all men have natural ears. It is talking about having spiritual ears and hearing spiritual things.

2. Eph. 1:18 “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,” It is through spiritual eyes that we can understand the things of the spirit of God.

3. Acts 17:27 “That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:” The only ones that can feel after God are the ones who have been born of the Spirit.

4. Heb. 6:4 “For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,” Only born again children of God have tasted of the heavenly gift.

5. Phil. 4:18 “But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God.” The sacrifices and good deeds of the members of the church at Philippi were an odour of a sweet smell to Paul. This odour was a spiritual odour to the spiritual nose of Paul.

The work of the Holy Spirit in bringing about the new or spiritual birth is a marvel and wonder to every person who is born of the Spirit. May God be praised for his wonderful grace.