Peter’s reference to “being born again” is quite different from Jesus’ exhortation: “Ye MUST be born again.” Nicodemus, the man to whom the Saviour was speaking, needed to be regenerated; made spiritually alive. But the readers of Peter’s epistle are people who had already been saved – born again. Peter is pointing to matter of personal history; the most important event in these peoples’ lives. He introduces the subject of brotherly love by saying, “Seeing ye have purified your souls…” And in verse 23, he suggests that they purified their souls by “being born again…” As we saw in an earlier lesson, they had been begotten again by the sovereign grace of God. And after due time, that spiritual conception resulted in their spiritual births. They had experienced a new birth; a second birth; they were “born AGAIN.”
Compare that to their first birth, the in way which their mothers brought them into the physical world. If I asked them, or if I asked you, “What was your birthing experience?” How would you reply? Unless there was some sort of drastic circumstances which induced your parents to tell you about your birth, you probably don’t know much about it. Your memory of that event has been blessedly removed from your minds. The only thing I know about my birth is: my mother was there and it was at the Vancouver General Hospital.
Besides the place, there are several things which separate the birth of one person from that of another. There is something called a “ natural birth” which is in contrast to a drastic “Caesarean birth.” About 21% of all births in this country are by way of a “Caesarean section.” And almost all “Caesareans” take place in a hospital because it involves surgery. But, a natural birth might take place in a hospital, at home, in a taxi, on a bed or in a bath of warm water. Your natural birth might have included drugs for your mother’s pain, or drugs to induce you to come. I have known people who had semi-natural births, where the doctor had to use forceps to pull them out. Babies arrive in a variety of different positions and postures; head up, head down, face forward or brow forward, or even trying to shove one of their shoulders out first. And some babies arrive in a breech – in a backward position. Those babies may present their bottoms first, or they may have one or both legs stretching forward. In what way were you born? What was your birthing experience? Ultimately it doesn’t really matter. I am glad you are here. Similarly, the details and experiences of people’s second birth vary, but the fact of the new birth is worthy of God’s praise in absolutely every case.
Returning to Peter’s statement, our apostle reveals several things about his reader’s second birth. And if you have spiritual life, then these things are a part of your new birth as well. They are things about which to praise the Lord. But if you are still living only in your temporary, physical life, as Nicodemus was when he first met the Saviour, then the things of which Peter speaks do not belong to you. “You STILL must be born again.” If you are not a child of God, may these things encourage you to seek out God the Father through the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. On the other hand, may these encourage you Christians, to glorify God’s name for His eternal blessings.
We begin with the fact that it is a SECOND birth.
It is subsequent to the first birth; the birth which brought you into this world. “Ye must be born AGAIN.” Just because you were born in the United States to Christian parents that doesn’t make you a Christian or a child of God. Nicodemus, a highly respected, highly religious Jewish leader, replied to the Lord, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?” He knew that Jesus was speaking about an additional birth of some kind. But what?
Have you ever wondered about the nature of this man, Nicodemus? Was he an ultra serious Pharisee, who took everything at face value, criticizing everyone who didn’t? Or was he a jovial person with a great sense of humor? Was he laughing when he replied to the Lord, picturing a completely ridiculous situation, or was he sneering when he spoke? Was this a serious question? Did he really want to know how someone could be born again? Or was he ridiculing, or dissing, the Saviour? Which ever way the words were spoken, they accurately noted that Christ was talking about a second birth.
Jesus told the man, “That which is of the flesh is flesh.” Nicodemus was standing there in his human flesh, asking for the message of God. And similarly, here you are sitting in a church service in your fleshly body, hearing Jesus’ answer. Going back to our last lesson, you need a second birth, because “all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass witherth, and the flower thereof falleth away.” In other words, in your flesh you are dying. You began dying the moment your mother presented you to the world and to your father. “What is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). As the great grandchildren of Adam, we all desperately need an additional birth – a second birth.
But what we need is not another natural birth; we need a HEAVENLY birth.
As I pointed out a couple of weeks ago, when Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, He said, “Ye must be born from ABOVE,” which certainly includes, “ye must be born AGAIN.” I have no explanation why Nicodemus didn’t seem to hear the word “anothen” – “from above.” He certainly didn’t respond to it. Maybe he was excited or nervous, having crept through the city’s shadows in order to stand in the presence of this Man who many of his coworkers hated and feared. Maybe he was so filled with the questions he had prepared, he wasn’t prepared to hear the answers. Whatever it was, Jesus told him, “Nicodemus, ye must be born from above.”
I admit that Peter didn’t use the same word as the Lord Jesus. He simply said, “Ye must be born AGAIN.” But I also point out that Peter referred to being born from seed which was non-corruptible – versus that which was corruptible. And this was a word which he introduced earlier. “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as sliver and gold…”
As I pointed out a few weeks ago, some people think of gold as indestructible, but the omnipotent God doesn’t. In fact, there is nothing occurring naturally in this world which is not going to be vaporized during the judgment of the Lord. II Peter 3:10 – “The day of the Lord will come… in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up… all these things shall be dissolved…” Even today, plants die, sometimes in God’s power becoming coal, which we burn for heat and electricity. Animals die and become food for other dying animals. Nothing in this created world is permanent.
And people, with only one true exception, have been dying since the days of Adam. Because of the rebellious sin of that man, God has condemned everything in His creation to corruption. That is why you need to be born from above – born from a source which is not of this corruptible world. And all God’s saints have been born a second time, but not with corruptible, earthly or Adamic seed. They have been born from above. They have been born of heavenly, divine seed.
Obviously, this birth to which Peter refers is SUPERNATURAL.
In some ways it parallels the birth of Christ Jesus. Mary, Jesus’ mother, was, physically speaking, a very real, very ordinary, person. She was godly and moral; her faith was in the Lord, and she tried to live in a fashion which pleased him, so in some ways she was a bit extraordinary. But the point is, before she was married, before she had any sort of relationship with any man, the Lord created a baby within her. It was a miracle.
We call Jesus’ entry into this physical world: “the virgin birth,” and that is an accurate description. In Luke 1:35 God’s angel told Mary, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” And this birth – this kind of birth – had been prophesied centuries earlier. It was a miracle. No one else has ever been conceived in the way Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary. His was a supernatural conception and therefore it was a special birth.
And when a new child of God is brought into the world, it is likewise a supernatural conception and birth. It is an operation of the Holy Spirit and God the Father, using the will and word of God. “Being born again… by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” Some preachers point to Christ Jesus, when they read the word “word.” Christ is described as “the Word” in John 1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us…” The Son of God, the eternal Word, at the appropriate time, became incarnate – taking on human flesh. We might be tempted to say that Peter was thinking of Christ Jesus, but I think verse 25 does away with that idea. “This is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” Peter is referring to the extraordinary, eternal and divine written word; the Bible.
How does the gospel, the word of God, generate spiritual life? If you are looking for a scientific or naturalistic explanation, it doesn’t exist. It doesn’t exist any more than there is a natural explanation for the conception of Christ. It was a miracle. The new birth is as much a miracle as God’s original creation of the universe. If the world and all things therein were going to exist where nothing had before, it was necessary for the omnipotent God to create them. And in the same way, for a sinner to be saved, it was necessary for Him to begat him into spiritual life.
The new birth is supernatural and it is also an ETERNAL birth.
It is a sad fact that complications can occur during the birth of a baby. Two hundred years ago and earlier, many mothers died bringing their children into the world. Queen Victoria was expected to produce an heir to her throne, but she was terrified at the prospect of giving birth. She had relatives who had died in child birth. As a new bride, she was very reluctant to get pregnant. But ultimately, she successfully brought nine children into the world. I hope that your mother survived your birth and was there to help you grow up. And I expect that when your mother presented you to your father, they didn’t talk about death. I hope that on that blessed day, all the talk was about the future and about love and joy. But as I have said, from the moment of your physical birth, the final outcome was going to be death. “It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
But remember there is a part of every person, created by God, which is eternal. When they eventually have your funeral, people will deal with your body in one way or another. But your soul will survive your death and will spend eternity in either Heaven or the Lake of Fire. This is why “Ye must be born again.”
In this new birth, this second birth, this birth from above, there comes upon the believer eternal life from the God who is eternal. What did Jesus say to Nicodemus after: “Ye must be born again?” He said: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have ETERNAL life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have EVERLASTING life.” People who are born again begin living spiritually, and that life shall never die. Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd, and the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep…. And I give unto them ETERNAL life; and they shall never perish…” Paul added, “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Peter doesn’t come out directly speaking about the eternality of being born again. But he does refer to the incorruptibility of the Word of God through which we are born again. And he does add, “the word of God, liveth and abideth for ever.” I know that it’s not he same thing, but if the seed from which we are spiritually born is eternal, the life which it produces is equally eternal. And then there are those dozens of scriptures which directly speak of eternal life. Not one of God’s children will ever die. Period.
Something else about this second birth is that it is a FAMILY birth.
By that I mean that it comes in a context which most of us can understand – a family. And even though there is no mother involved, per se, there are other family members. Peter speaks of “God the Father,” in verse 2, who chose to begat us. And then in the next verse he praises “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Not only do we have a divine Father, but we have a divine Older Brother. Christ is the only begotten Son of God and therefore the heir of all things, but neither the Father nor the Son are unloving or unkind to the rest of the family. Paul, writing to the saints in Rome said, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit; that we are the children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and joint-hers with Christ” (Romans 8:14-17).
God is not like so many creatures in the animal kingdom which lay their eggs in the warm sand and then walks away, leaving them to whatever fate which might befall them. Our God is not the false deity who many in this country worshiped as deists. No, our Father is more like those fish who carry their babies in their mouths to protect them from their enemies. Praise God we have a Father and a loving Elder Brother, who together carry us into eternity. Jesus said, “I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand” (John 10:28-29).
While we’re on this subject, let’s not forget the context of all this in this epistle. “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with pure heart fervently.” We have been begotten into a family with a Father and Elder Brother, along with a host of other brothers and sisters in grace. Not only are there indescribable blessings to us from God the Father and God the Son, but assuming our other brothers and our sisters are better than we are at unfeigned and pure fervent love, the joy of being children of God increases exponentially. I hope you find pleasure in the smiles and hearty handshakes of your brethren in Christ. I hope you become excited to unexpectedly find a Christian sibling out there in world. There is strength in the ability to share our burdens with other believers who have suffered in much the same way as we have. Where two or three are gathered together in the Lord’s name and in prayer, there in the midst is our Mediator, the Lord Jesus. But those poor souls who profess to believe in Christ, and yet who are not enjoying the Christian family, are left to suffer the cold and loneliness unnecessarily. We, who are children of God, are part of an extensive and wonderful family: the family of God.
One other thing: to be born again is to experience a LIVING birth.
Our Heavenly Father has seen fit from time to time, to permit Christian families to suffer loss through still-births. Mother carries her child for months and even to full term, and then delivers a baby who has already died for one reason or another. There are fewer things in this world more heart-breaking than a still-birth. That death is vivid proof of the corruption of sin within every father and mother. But the spiritual second birth is never a still-born birth. It is never a mistake. It is never a failure. As I said, it is unto eternal life.
But I make this point in order to suggest something else. We have been born again by the grace of God with a divine purpose. There are couples, even Christian couples, who are determined never to have children. They use a number of arguments which I don’t need to address, because they are wrong from the start. God created our first parents, the first family, to serve and glorify Him. And even while Adam and Eve were still in the Garden, He said, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it” as part of God’s service and glorification. The multiplication of Adam and Eve involved babies. I will say as a general statement: married couples who refuse to have children appear to me to be living contrary to the will of God.
But then I wonder: what were my parents thinking when they decided to bring me into the world? 200 years ago, families were deliberately large, because the father wanted sons to work the farm with him. Albert, consort of Queen Elizabeth, may have wanted children so that his wife would have an heir. Some women want babies in the same why some little girls want dolls. Some men want children in order to feel complete; to be a real man, whether they are married or not. But if the Lord doesn’t give a wife children, it doesn’t make her an unfit spouse. You don’t need children to be a good man or a good Christian. And yet the question remains: why did your parents decide to have a family; to bring you into the world?
Furthermore, why did God bring us into His family? Why did He save us and bless us with eternal life? He wasn’t thinking about how happy we’d be if He decided, away back before creation, to give us spiritual life. He didn’t save us simply for ourselves. And Jehovah didn’t need any of us to complete Himself. He is thoroughly glorious without any help from us. Yes, He is glorified in all His creatures, especially those whom He saves. But He didn’t need to save us to make Himself more glorious.
Nevertheless God is glorified in His children, when they live in the way His children they are supposed to live. The Lord has saved you “that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (I Peter 2:9). We have been born again as God’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). The Lord has given us spiritual life, “according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved (Lord Jesus), in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5-7). It is God’s will that His children serve and glorify Him.
And most of us come into this physical world with the potential of sight, with eyes, and the ability to see things. That too begins to die the moment we are born until we need glasses, cataract surgery and glaucoma meds. Similarly, when the Lord gave us our spiritual life, it came with vision; with a new perspective. It came with the ability to look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, so that we don’t have to look to human governments with their governors and presidents. Our new life enables us to “set our affections on things above, not on things on the earth… where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God” (Colossians 3:1-2). Salvation gives us opportunities to see and enjoy creation in ways the unbeliever never will.
To be born again, gives us a perspective – a world view – which is different from the world. With this life comes peace in the midst of all the world’s turmoil. With this life there is joy which the world cannot take away. Even in the middle the manifold temptations to which Peter referred earlier, to be a Christian is the most blessed of all conditions. I don’t know if it is true, but I read the other day: “No one ever cursed the day of their new birth.”
Have you been born again? Do you possess eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord? Despite the medical jargon, no baby ever chose to be born or chose to be conceived. That was the choice of the baby’s parents. And similarly, there is nothing for you to do in order to become a child of God. There are no hoops through which you must jump, and there is no religious birth canal through which you must pass. Simply believe that God wants you to live, and trust Him for the life necessary for you to live. Simply cling to what Christ Jesus did on the cross to reconcile you to God. Humbly, “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” It is as simple as that.