John chapter 3 tells the story of Nicodemus, a Pharisee who came to see Jesus by night. (Apparently he came at night for fear of what others would say.) He began speaking to Jesus in a flattering tone, but the Lord quickly cut him off, saying, 

"I tell you the truth; no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'”

Surprised or not, Nicodemus was certainly confused. "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" Nicodemus is not alone.  For centuries people have wondered what Jesus meant when He said, "You must be born again."

Over the next couple of weeks let's you and I examine this issue together. First of all, if it true that we "must be born again", we should rightly expect our loving Lord to tell us how to do it.  And He does!  He gives specific information as to how the whole process starts: "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." We all learned in biology class that human life begins when a living male reproductive cell successfully unites with and fertilizes a living female reproductive cell.  In the "born again" process the Holy Spirit gives birth to our spirit.   But how?  Scripture is instructive:

Romans 10:17
Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

To put the above Scripture in other words: "Faith is created when a person hears and responds to the Gospel message."  I deliberately said "Faith is created" and not "Faith is born" for a reason.  When a human egg is fertilized life is created, but it cannot be said that the child is born at that moment.  We know that 9 months will pass before that happens.  A lot of development will take place in the meantime.  And when birth finally takes place a very specific process occurs.   

Something similar happens when we are born again.   Responding to the Gospel may create, or awaken, faith in us.  But development and birth must also take place. We'll talk more about that next time.

Till then, take care!

Bill