What does born again mean?

Salvation & the GospelIn theological review

The short answer

To be born again is to be given new spiritual life by the Holy Spirit, so that a person turns to God, believes in Jesus and begins a genuinely new life. Jesus taught that this birth from above is necessary to see and enter the kingdom of God. It is God's work, received through faith.

The fuller answer

The phrase comes from a night conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a respected teacher of Israel. Jesus told him that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again, or born from above, since the Greek word can carry both meanings. Nicodemus took the words physically and asked how an old man could re-enter his mother's womb. Jesus was pointing to something deeper: a second birth, spiritual in kind, without which the first birth is not enough.

Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”

John 3:3 (BSB)

Jesus explains the second birth as birth of water and the Spirit, set against ordinary birth of the flesh. Flesh gives life of the same kind as itself: human, fallen and dying. The Spirit gives a different kind of life, God's own life at work in a person. Like wind, the Spirit's work cannot be controlled or fully traced, yet its effects can be seen. A changed direction, new love for God and new hunger for holiness are its footprints.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

1 Peter 1:3 (BSB)

Peter uses the same picture and fills it out. God, in his mercy, has given believers new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus, and that birth comes through the living and enduring word of God. So new birth is never bare feeling. God normally works through his word heard and believed, by his Spirit, producing faith and repentance. The person is passive in being born, as every baby is, yet becomes active at once in living the new life.

He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Titus 3:5 (BSB)

Paul's letter to Titus calls this the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, poured out through Jesus Christ. Born again, then, is not turning over a new leaf, joining a church, or feeling emotional at a meeting, though it may involve all three settings. It is the start of resurrection life now: forgiven, adopted, indwelt by the Spirit and headed for a future inheritance that, Peter says, can never perish, spoil or fade away.

Sources

Berean Standard Bible (BSB)

Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.

Dig deeper

No answer here is a dead end. Follow the question on, test it in practice, or work the method yourself on the Dig deeper page.

How can I be saved?By grace through faith in Jesus Christ, and not by anything you contribute. Ephesians says it outright: it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. To be saved is to turn from your sin, confess Jesus as Lord, and trust that God raised him from the dead for you. The rest of your life is learning to live from that gift.What is the gospel?The gospel is the good news of what God has done in Jesus Christ: he died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he was buried, and he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. It is news before it is advice: a death that pays for sin, a resurrection that proves it, and a living Lord who is to be confessed, believed, and followed.What is baptism?Baptism is the sign Christ gave his church of washing, burial, and resurrection. In it a believer is plunged under water and raised again, picturing what Paul describes: buried with Christ through baptism into death, raised to walk in newness of life. It is done in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and it marks a person as Christ's before the watching world.What is sanctification?Sanctification is God's ongoing work of making his people holy in real life, set apart for him and growing in likeness to Jesus. It begins at conversion, continues through the whole Christian life by the Holy Spirit, and involves real effort on the believer's part, effort God himself supplies and sustains.Who is the Holy Spirit?The Holy Spirit is God himself, the third person of the Trinity, not a force, a feeling, or God's power in the abstract. He is there at creation, hovering over the waters. He speaks, teaches, and can be lied to, and when Peter confronts Ananias he says the lie told to the Holy Spirit was a lie told to God.Bible Character: NicodemusThe Pharisee and ruler of the Jews who came to Jesus by night to ask his questions, later spoke up for a fair hearing in the council, and helped to bury him with a royal weight of spices.Bible Character: JesusThe Son of God, born of Mary in Bethlehem, who preached the kingdom of God, was crucified for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was raised on the third day.Bible Character: PeterThe Galilean fisherman who confessed Jesus as the Christ, denied him three times on the night he was betrayed, was restored by the risen Lord, and preached at Pentecost.