The expression “born again” has been used very loosely over the last few years, and it is easy to see why many people do not actually understand what the term means. When we are born again, we acquire the mind of Christ, and when we truly believe that, only then will our thinking begin to line up with His.
This term has scriptural roots. We read in John,
After dark one night a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a member of the sect of the Pharisees, came for an interview with Jesus. “Sir,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miracles are proof enough of this.” Jesus replied, “With all the earnestness I possess I tell you this: Unless you are born again, you can never get into the Kingdom of God.” “Born again!” exclaimed Nicodemus. “What do you mean? How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” Jesus replied, “What I am telling you so earnestly is this: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Men can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven; so don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again!” (John 3:1–7 tlb)
According to the dictionary, to be born means to be brought into life or existence. When we are born physically, we are brought into life in the world where we now live. We are at the same time brought into an existence that will last for a certain number of years on this earth. When we are born physically, we undergo a complete change of environment, thinking, acting, and behavior. We go from a total dependence upon our mother’s body to a dependence upon ourselves.
To be born again is in many ways the same thing as being born the first time. When we are born again, our behavior changes, our thinking changes, our actions change, and most of the time even our environment changes.
That doesn’t mean we have to move out of the house in which we are living when we are born again, but our associations (environment) change because we no longer have a desire to go to the places where we formerly had fun. We no longer enjoy the people with whom we previously associated, because we possess a new way of thinking and a brand new set of values. We go from a total dependence of one form, upon our own brain power, to a total dependence of another form, upon the power of God. We are going to think like a new creature.
One Bible translation says that unless a man is actually or honestly born again, he cannot “see” the kingdom of God, which means that we cannot know the kingdom of God; we cannot even become acquainted with the kingdom of God until we are actually born again by the Spirit of God.
Many people say, “Just saying a prayer makes you born again.” While there are many people who have been born again by praying a very simple prayer, unless a change has come into their lives and they are actually able to “see” the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven, they are not truly born again.
I vividly remember one of the things I said the first time I ever gave my testimony. “The day I was saved, I believe God opened the windows of heaven and gave me a glimpse of what eternity was all about, and from that day on, I have never wanted anything of this earth.”
This same experience applies to every born again believer. When you are truly born again, you “see” the kingdom of God. It is not an actual physical thing, but in the supernatural you see that God has called you to a life that is above and beyond the life you are now experiencing.
Once we have truly seen the kingdom of God, there will never be “backsliding” or going backwards. There should be no desire to return to the things of this world because we have caught a glimpse of that perfect hope, which is the eternal kingdom of God.
Looking again at the fifth verse, we see that Jesus said, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (tlb). Because we have let His mind be in us, we are going to believe exactly the same way. We are not going to let our carnal minds come into play and say, “Well, I have gone to church all of my life. I have joined my church. I have said the church creed.” Those things have nothing to do with being born again.
Jesus said, “Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Because we have allowed this mind to be in us that was also in Christ Jesus, we are going to agree 100 percent with Jesus that we must be born again by God’s Spirit before we can actually see the kingdom of heaven. Yet once we have truly been born again by God’s Spirit, we will be able to see into that spiritual realm with our recreated spirits, or that new man that has risen up within us. We are going to shed the old clothes, the old robes, and we are going to put on the new ones, because we are new creatures in Christ.
Second Corinthians 5:17 tells us, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
We are new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17 kjv). We are sparkling new lights in the kingdom of God. We are transformed from the old persons we used to be into the recreated persons that we now are. We should have no desire to do the things we formerly did, because the old things have all passed away and all things have become new (verse 17).
We are going to act like a new creature!
We are going to think like a new creature!
We are going to speak like a new creature!
To go back into sin, the old way of life, would be the same principle as a grown man saying, “I want to go back into my mother’s womb because it was so nice and warm, and I felt so secure there.” Once you are born, you are no longer that little baby floating in the water sack in the womb. You are an individual who is now living in the world, and you can never go back.
The same thing is true of a genuine born-again experience. We have no right, nor should we have a desire to go back to the old things of the sinful world and continue participating in the old ways of life. Before I was born again, I smoked, drank, cussed, and told dirty jokes. I certainly was not an example of someone possessing the mind of Christ; however, once I was born again, I became a new creation and the “old things” passed away!
Frances Hunter, Let This Mind Be in You: Thinking Thoughts of Jesus
