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Born of God: The Process of the New Birth
The Principle of Kind Reproducing Kind
A healthy newly born creature is an entirely true and complete reproduction of the creature-kind or species of the creature that has given birth to it. By this I mean, for example, a newly born calf is a reproduction of the cow-kind because it was born of a cow. One does not expect a cow to reproduce a lamb. One expects a cow to reproduce a calf. In the same way, one does not expect a cow to reproduce an offspring that is partly lamb and partly calf, and for that creature to grow gradually in being more cow and less lamb until it eventually grows fully into a cow.
We see in the normal reproduction process in nature that every species reproduces after its kind. God did not create living creatures, as well as plants, to reproduce offspring that are different from their kinds or partly of their kinds and partly of other kinds.
Living creatures, including plants, are grouped into distinct kinds or species. And unless it is by man's interference, creatures of one species do not normally crossbreed with creatures of another species. A member of a particular species has the unique nature of its species and reproduces this nature in its offspring.
The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:39-40:“All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.”
The human race is of one species, the human species. Therefore, reproduction between races, tribes, and ethnic groups has nothing to do with cross-breeding between species. This principle of reproduction by species after its kind was established by God at the beginning of creation. Several Scripture passages in Genesis support that.
We read in Genesis 1:11-12:“Then God said, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth’; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”
We read also in Genesis 1:21:“So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”
Finally, we read in Genesis 1:25:“And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”
These Scripture passages show us clearly that the order and principle of reproduction established by God in nature is that species were created in distinct kinds and should reproduce after their kinds. A hybrid, which is reproduced by the crossbreeding of species, is not reproduced by natural process but involves man's intervention.
Let us examine what the Bible says about the process of being born of God. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God"(John 1:12-13).
Clearly, the Bible’s description of being born of God demonstrates a reproduction process which is not hybrid in manner. There is no intervention or crossbreed in the reproduction of God's offspring, "who were born ... of God."
Let us examine this more closely. Note the Holy Spirit's description of this birth process and the manner in which He excludes completely all interventions except God – “who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." It completely excludes bloodline, which refers to human genealogy or genetics. It completely excludes the will of the flesh, which has to do with the choice, will, or determination of carnal or unregenerate man. And, lastly, it excludes completely the will of man, which would involve human psychology, sociology, choice, will, or determination. In other words, this new birth of God is of God alone and completely excludes humanity. Therefore, the new birth process certainly is not hybrid reproduction between God and man.
One may ask why isn’t man involved with God in the new birth when God created man in His image and likeness. Many Bible teachers promote fallen man’s being in the image and likeness of God with the assumption that all the new birth or salvation involves is virtually a redoing or repair of human nature. They ignore the serious effect which the devastation by the Fall of man in the Garden of Eden had on the nature of man. While it may be true there is still some residue of the image and likeness of God in man no one would seriously want to identify unreservedly the corrupt and sinful nature into which man descended after the Fall with the nature of God. Moreover, God is Spirit, and any likeness and image of God must be spiritual.
It is clear that, according to the Bible, death, that is spiritual death, came upon the entire human race through the sin of Adam. “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Spiritual death certainly would have destroyed man’s original image and likeness of God. Therefore, there was nothing left of fallen humanity for God to involve in reproducing His own offspring. God determined that His offspring must be born solely of Him.
This is a profound truth. And we will examine it more closely later. But the following Scripture passage says much about it and we can ponder on it for now. We read in 1 Corinthians 15:45-50:“Thus it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.”
Religious Pretensions
We read in John 3:1-3: "There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, 'Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'"
Jesus taught the truth about the new birth to Nicodemus and there is much we can glean about the process of the new birth from that lesson. Jesus' teaching on the new birth to Nicodemus highlights the bankruptcy of fallen humanity, even in their utmost religious zeal, to contribute anything to the new birth. Therefore, it presents the new birth as an outcome of the active grace of God in the transformation of a sinner into a child of God. Furthermore, it emphasizes the necessity for every human being, religious or not, to be born again of God in order to understand and enter the Kingdom of God to fulfill God's righteousness.
Nicodemus was a member of the Pharisees, who were a separated and very zealous religious sect among the Jews. They placed great emphasis on the exactness and discipline of the performance of the Law. But as is characteristic of all fallen humanity, their inside remained corrupt and void of the true righteousness of God. So to cover up their inward corruption, they pretentiously followed zealously a strict outward, mechanical, and formal observance of the Law. Their system of religion was a mere form which lacked genuine substance on the inside.
Jesus time and again denounced the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in His teachings. He clearly did not dilute His words in exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisaic religion. The following Scripture passage tells it all. Here Jesus lamented in Matthew 23:25-28:“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee; first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
The Pharisees were classical examples of the extent of pretensions that religious man can engage in to cover up their true inability to attain to God's righteousness. Although sometimes people are convinced that these outward religious forms are all that are needed to attain to true righteousness before God, the truth is no amount of these outward religious practices, as sincere as they may be, can change a sinful man into a righteous man before God.
It is from this background that Nicodemus emerged to secretly seek counsel from the Lord and to finally hear the true message of the Gospel and find the way to true righteous living. He had seen in Jesus the genuine righteousness he had pursued in vain all his life. And he wanted to find out how Jesus did it.
Nicodemus was a victim of the same old religious mindset which has crept into the Christian religion and has left many professing Christians and devout churchgoers with a desperate sense of emptiness and lack of the true righteousness of God. They are taught, some of them from childhood, all they need to do to be righteous and to enter the Kingdom of God is to try their best to follow the rules and precepts of their religion. They are told that, as time goes on, with discipline and perseverance, they will gradually grow out of their sinful habits and nature into godly persons fit for the Kingdom of God. But time has come and gone, they have attended church seminars, they read books, they say many prayers, and they have kept trying harder and harder, and yet just when they think they have mastered their sinful vices, they find themselves floored again.
This is the result of the distortion of the true Gospel into a message of human philosophy and psychology that makes salvation more a product of a legalist self-righteous effort and human reformation than a fruit of God’s grace by which God and God alone effectively changes sinners into saints by the miracle of the new birth. Paul testifies: “I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die”(Galatians 2:21).
Spiritual Process
Nicodemus asked Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”(John 3:4).
Jesus’ plain answer to Nicodemus regarding the process of the new birth is that the new birth is a spiritual process, distinguishing it from a natural or human process of birth or change. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”(John 3:6).
It is important for us to appreciate the distinction made by Jesus between the natural process of birth and the spiritual process of birth. According to Jesus, the flesh, which is the original nature of man, can only produce flesh and not spirit. Therefore, even if a man were to return to his mother’s womb and be born again, he would still be born in the same carnal nature. No psychological, sociological, or physical process can change man into a spiritual being. Only the Spirit of God produces spiritual beings. Therefore, the new birth is a birth of the Spirit and by it one is born again into a spiritual being.
To confirm that the new birth does not involve any earthly process and is not just a reproduction of the same old nature of man, Jesus refers to it as being born again. To be born again does not mean another birth of the same kind in terms of repetition. The word again used in the Scripture passage means to be of a different kind and is translated from a Greek word, anothen, meaning 'from above,' distinguishing it from that which is earthly or of humanity. Therefore, to be born again is to be born from above of a different nature from one’s earthly nature.
Incorruptible Seed of the Living Word
The new birth involves the incorruptible living word of God. Peter refers to the process of the new birth as to be “born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever”(1 Peter 1:23). We read in James 1:18:“Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.”
This is powerful. You will recall all of creation came into existence by the creative power of the living word of God. Now we are dealing with not just the creative power of the word of God but with the life producing power of the word of God. Jesus Christ was conceived by the word of God. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”(John 1:14). In the same way, one who is born again is born into a new existence by the life producing power of the living word of God. The origin of the born again offspring of God is in the incorruptible seed of the living word of God, the same divine seed sperm that gave birth to Jesus.
An Important Truth
The process of the new birth is an important Biblical truth. It is a truth which needs to be emphasized and brought out in its integrity and plainness as stated in the Scriptures. It is an important aspect of the faith for Christians because it contains the fundamental seed or basis of Christianity. Because if we do not know or understand the truth of our beginning in the Christian life, how will we know who we really are and how to live the new life of Christianity?
No doubt, our Biblical examination of the process of the new birth here shatters a lot of this human psychological and sociological ideas which have crept into the Gospel and our understanding of the salvation process. But this is plainly the word of God. And if it seems now different from our received views it is because we have not taken time before to examine it like it is in the Scriptures in order that the Holy Spirit can open up the truth to us.
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