Born Again

I used to hate the phrase "born again". It brought images to my mind of a backwoods preacher who didn't get it.

I am now starting to appreciate the term. It has fresh life for me.

In John 3, Jesus tells a religious leader that he has to be born again. He has to have a spiritual birth.

Jesus eludes to the Old Testament, referring back to when God prophesied through Ezekiel about giving people a clean heart in a way that the Law never could.

The reason this truth of being born again is so important is because of the subtle lie that is going around in our culture about salvation.

Salvation is now a trendy topic. Everybody wants to have a "spiritual" life and reach a higher level of harmony. The prevailing mood is that there are many paths to this peace and joy. The other subtle false prophecy that comes to bear is that its all based on self.

This modern way of spirituality and finding God, is all completely selfish. Its all self-improvement, self-fulfillment, yada yada yada.

The part that tricks us is that this sounds good right? God wants us to be happy? Right? Can't people just find their own way to God? Can't we just all get along?

The problem is that the starting point is all wrong. The starting point makes the false assumption that we are just sick. We just need a little work and a little improvement and we'll be in tip top shape. Annnngggghhhh! Wrong!

The Bible teaches that we are DEAD in our sins, not just a little sick. We need new life. We need a complete overhaul. I.E. we must be born again. We need a new life that is from God. We can't get over our sin with a self help program. We can't get over our sin by trying harder. We can't just try to be a better person. We have to completely start over and be born again.

So "born again" is not a troublesome phrase, its the reality of what needs to happen for God to make us alive and saves us from our state of death.