Ye Must!

“Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ (John 3:7 NKJV)

“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12 NKJV)

My One String Banjo

I know that I often deal with the importance of the new birth and of salvation.  The reason that I do is that there is nothing more important than knowing based on the written promises of God that you will go to heaven when you die.  We don’t asked to be born, but we do come into this world miraculously.  We don’t ask to die, but apart from the rapture of the church, we will all die.  In between the cradle and the grave, those who live to the age where they can understand the difference between right and wrong must prepare to meet God when their tickets are punched.  The question becomes very simple:  “Will we believe God about the way to heaven or won’t we?”

Do I Make too Much of the New Birth?

I have had people who are nice people and who do a lot of “good works” get mad at me for “making too much of the new birth.”   While Nicodemus didn’t understand it in John 3 and many today are like him, it is a MUST of scripture.  I think we need to understand what it means.  

We read about the new birth in John 3.  Peter writes about it in 1 Peter 1, ” Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever (1 Peter 1:23 NKJV).”  He mentions it in the third verse of that first chapter as well where he says,   “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3 NKJV).”  James mentions the new birth when he says, “He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession (James 1:18 NLT).”  James’ statement is made clear in the New Living Translation.  Paul talks about Christians being a new creation.  In addition,  he says in Ephesians 2 says that we who were dead in trespasses and sins are “made alive.”  John makes several references to the new birth in his first epistle.

So is the new birth a doctrine that is important?  I think it is.  Is the doctrine of salvation important?  I think it is.  One might ask, “What is the difference between the new birth and salvation?”  They are both looking at the same event from different points of view.  Both are a deliverance.  The new birth delivers us for a life with Christ that starts the moment we believe or trust Him.  It is called eternal life.  Salvation delivers us from a self-willed life now and from a life of eternal conscious punishment after we die.  The crowning sin that sends people to hell is the sin of rejecting the love of God for the sinner as seen in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.  The question is, “Are we going to trust God when He says that Christ died to save us?”  If we are going to be in heaven, God wants us to worship Him and Him only.  That worship starts with believing that Christ died for our sins.  Only God and each individual in this world knows the heart and whether or not people are truly trusting in the Lord or whether they are trusting in something that they “think is right.”  

So What is the New Birth?

Nicodemus in John 3 is the best example.  In John 3, he didn’t understand the new birth but through the old testament story about a serpent lifted up in the wilderness, he grasped the truth that the serpent represented the judgment of sin.  The serpent was a deceiver in the Garden of Eden, but the serpent is judged at the cross.  Since Satan has not yet been cast into the bottomless pit nor has he been cast permanently into the Lake of Fire, he still has the ability to deceive people through his lies and the angels that serve him.  The new birth represents a complete change of mind about our sin and about Christ.  Nicodemus apparently talked to his friends about the Lord (Joseph of Arimaelthea being one of them).  But his public defense of the Lord didn’t come until John 7 where he admonished the rulers to listen to the Lord.  He said, “Does our law judge a man before it hears him and knows what he is doing (John 7:51 NKJV)?”  His public confession and identification with the Lord came in John 19 when he helped give the Lord a King’s burial rather than the burial of a criminal that the Romans would have given him.  

I think the evidence of the new birth is seen in a love for the Lord and His word.  It is seen in a conscience about sin (believers are not sinless but they should acknowledge and confess any sin that the Lord brings to their attention).  I think people that are born again have peace with God (the Bible calls it rest in some verses).  Believers want to be publicly identified with Christ through baptism which reflects their new found faith and not the faith of their parents or of their church.  They want to know what pleases the Lord when it comes to church associations.  They don’t go to the church of their choice, they go to the church of the Lord’s choice.  They are willing to submit to the teaching on headship in 1 Corinthians 11 even if they don’t understand it.  They recognize that they are testifying to angels when they are doing what the Lord asked them to do even when it seems to be outdated by current social norms.  They enjoy spending time with the Lord and with his people.  They pray and they remember the Lord with others by participating in the Lord’s supper. 

A person who is born again or saved wants to be obedient to what pleases the Lord but they thank the Lord that their salvation is not dependent on what they “do” but on what the Lord “did” for them.  A truly born-again person depends on the promises of God and not on the “sinner’s prayer.” Nor did they “give their hearts to the Lord” to be saved.  They should have done that because they are saved according to Romans 12.  

Question?

Are all of us who are reading this, SURE, that we got it right?  Eternity is real and we need to be prepared.  Making a mistake about this important issue is a mistake that cannot be undone after we die and it is a mistake for eternity.  We need to take God at His word and believe what He says.  That is what we mean by faith.

Bruce Collins

Meditation for the week of October 25, 2025

If you would like further conversation about the issues in these meditations, contact me at collinsbd@yahoo.com and I will try to accommodate you with a virtual Bible Study.