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Are You Born Again or Just Saved?
There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and [of] the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:1-5
Most Christians totally misunderstand the words of Jesus in this passage. They assume that they are born again because they are partakers of the common salvation through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ. These Christians (evangelicals, charismatics and pentecostals) hang their hopes on going to heaven when they die and they see the promise of that in this passage. In fact, this “promise” is the chief motivating factor, along with the fear of eternal damnation, in going to the altar.
When Jesus said that unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God, he was not saying, as most assume, that the reward for being born again is to one day see the kingdom of God. The key word is cannot (to be unable or incapable) as opposed to shall not. It was not a promise to be fulfilled in the future but a statement of a current reality. This is a crucial distinction. What he was saying was that seeing the kingdom of God is the proof that one is indeed born again. It is the very definition of being born again.
At best, what the great majority of Christians have experienced is the salvation of their spirits. One must be born again in order to go beyond the common salvation and to enter the kingdom of God where the mind, the emotions, the will and the body are transformed through submission to His dominion. To be born of God or born again is to begin seeing the way God sees, thinking the way He thinks. Without being born again, you will not be able to perceive the spiritual reality of the kingdom of God within you.
The kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven (and both terms are used to describe the same reality) is not a location, a destination or something that is reserved for a future reign of Christ. It is all about His reign in you in the here and now. What confuses many are scriptures such as the following:
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. I Cor 15:50
I want to first deal with the word inherit. The carnal mind is a sly and slippery thing. We all know that in the natural you inherit something when a loved one dies if he included you in his will. The death that triggers the inheritance is the death of the testator, not the death of the heir. Why is it then that when it comes to our spiritual inheritance our carnal mind is programmed to unthinkingly and automatically place the attainment of the inheritance in an afterlife? We look at this scripture, identify ourselves with “flesh and blood” and assume that we need to wait until we die to come into our inheritance.
But what is Paul referring to when he uses the term “flesh and blood” in the scripture above? To understand the term we need to go back to John. Among the New Testament writers, John had the fullest understanding of what it means to be born of God. (See 1 John especially 3:9 and 5:18 to give yourself something to ponder.)
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which 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
Those who “receive” him are born of God and their identity and life source are no longer in the adamic flesh and blood. To receive is defined as: to take up with the hand or lay hold of any person or thing in order to use it, to take up a thing to be carried, to take upon oneself. When you are born of the water (the germinating Word of God) and the Spirit you experience a change of identity, paternity and life source. You are truly a new creation. This goes far beyond merely believing that Jesus died 2000 years ago to pay the price for you to go to heaven after you die. Being a new creation goes beyond cleaning up your act by giving up all the things religion condemns. You cannot truly receive him now if you are waiting for him to appear in the sky. Do you see how the doctrines of man rob the people of God not only of their birthright, just as Jezebel robbed Naboth, but of their very identity as sons?
The system of religion tries everything in its power to prevent the conception of born again sons. It does this “spiritual contraception” by teaching lies and programming Christians to reject the spiritual Word, which is the supernatural seed of God that engenders sonship. (It is interesting to note how the religious system gets very judgmental and self-righteous about those things in the natural -- contraception, abortion, fornication, adultery -- that it is guilty of in the spirit. Which transgressions do you imagine are worse, the natural or the spiritual, in the eyes of God?)
In order to bring to pass His glorious plan of redeeming the creation from the bondage of death, God had to set aside for Himself a first fruits company of sons, the predestinated elect of God, in whom He is replicating His mind, His personality and the divine genetics that He created in the beginning. These are truly born again because they see with anointed eyes the unfolding of the kingdom of heaven within themselves. As God’s dominion unfolds in our heavenlies, it will begin manifesting in our earthly dimension: our physical bodies. It is then that the creation will begin to see a body of people who are walking in the fullness of salvation: spirit, soul and body.