May 8, 2011
“How Can You Know If You've Been Born Again?”
Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men. He did not need man’s testimony about man, for he knew what was in a man. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
“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!”
Jesus answered, “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.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (John 2:23-3:8)
“The evangelical church has largely, but not entirely, adopted a view of assurance that is completely unbiblical. They answer the question “How can I know that I have been saved?” in an unbiblical way. Assurance is largely based on a decision at a point in time or an emotional experience.
What does the Bible say about assurance of salvation?
1 John was expressly written “so that you may know that you have life in His Name.” 2 Corinthians 13:5 says to examine yourself to see if you’re in the household of faith. 2 Peter 1:9 says to make every effort to make your calling and election sure. Our passage today is about the new birth; to be born again or more correctly to be born from above. God gives us a passage like this which encourages us to do some examination of our own souls.
Jesus shows us in John 2:23-25 there’s a kind of shallow faith. Chapter 3:1-3 teaches the necessity of the new birth. Chapter 3:4-7 shows the nature of the true birth; the instantaneous and dramatic change that sometimes manifests itself progressively that is entirely done by God. It consists of the impartation of life, which is why it is called the new birth; it is entirely a supernatural act of God. That’s what it means to be born again.
“The wind” in Verse 8 is both a metaphor for the Holy Spirit and a play on words, as the original text uses pneuma, which means both “wind” and “spirit.” The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. The Spirit is like the wind; in the same way the wind is mysterious to us, even though it is very real and you see its effect, the Spirit is just like that. The evidence of the Spirit’s work in regeneration is movement. When the Spirit changes someone, they can’t stay where they were. Another evidence of the Spirit’s work is ongoing movement. The tense of the original text tell us this is referring to continuous, perpetual action.
From church history, Jonathan Edwards helps to differentiate between the “operations of the Spirit” that are experienced by all men, and the “saving work” of the Spirit, which is experienced by those who are born again. The former is temporary; the latter permanent. Being born again radically alters the heart. The essential change is that the heart is redirected, moving away from the world toward Christ. The question is what is the direction of your life? Edwards concluded that the only way to have real assurance is if you are walking with God.
The Apostle John wrote 1 John so that those who have faith can know that they’ve been born again. The idea of being born of God is really about movement; movement away from something toward something else. “Overcoming the world”, “not loving the world”, “wanting to love God more than you did”, “not practicing sin”, “practicing righteousness”, “loving brothers and sisters in Christ”, and “movement away from trusting in self to treasuring Christ” are the marks that John provides as tests for our salvation.”
(Listen to entire sermon here)
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