What is "born again?" - rethink

Recently we've been reconsidering many of the things we thought we understood regarding doctrine and faith. We have begun to question certain beliefs, church structures, and practices of the western church. Too often we have discovered unbiblical doctrines and activities. This causes us concern. We have deemed this our “rethink.”

Our questions include, how did we arrive at our doctrines? Does the Bible really teach what we think it teaches? Why do churches do what they do? What is the biblical basis of church leadership structure? Why do certain traditions get entrenched?

It's easy to be spoon fed the conventional wisdom, but it's an entirely separate thing to search these things out for one's self. In the past we have read the Bible with these unexamined understandings and interpreted what we read through those lenses. We were lazy about our Bible study, assuming that pastors and theologians were telling us the truth, but we rarely checked it out for ourselves.

Therefore, these Rethinks are our attempt to remedy the situation.

We should note that we are not Bible scholars, but we believe that one doesn't need to be in order to understand the Word of God.

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Introduction

Reformed/Calvinistic teachers seem to like to use terminology that obscures rather than clarifies. They use terms like soteriology, impassibility, aseity, regenerated, and... "converted."

The last term is the subject of our post, not because it's a significant issue, but rather because it irritates us. We think that it is unnecessary and even counterproductive to shroud basic concepts about God with pretentious terminology.

Born Again

Jesus told Nicodemus,

Jn. 3:7 You should not be surprised at my saying, `You must be born again.’

Jesus didn't say, "you must be converted." Nicodemus, like all Jews, believed that only Jews would be saved, and this is why Nicodemus was so confused with "born again." This was the fundamental issue regarding the debate between the Jews and Jesus in John chapter eight. The Jews asserted Abraham as their father (Jn. 8:39), but Jesus told them their father was the Devil (Jn. 8:44). Jesus' point was that being children of Abraham wasn't enough. Being born a Jew wasn't enough. Jesus demanded something else, "you must be born again."

1Pe. 1:23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

Here Peter makes essentially the same point. "Perishable seed," i.e., natural birth as distinct from a different kind of birth, a birth that is imperishable, a birth supernaturally achieved by the words God speaks, the unperishing logos coming from the mouth of the Logos. 

"Born again" is profound. It conveys a breadth of meaning about the transformational nature of salvation. It's simple yet amazing. So substituting a different word like "converted" suggests either intellectual posturing, or perhaps a bit of dishonesty. Or both.

Converted

The NIV uses the word "convert" eight times, seven times from the Greek prosélutos, with a different Greek word is used once, epistrophé. Prosélutos is used almost exclusively for people who converted to Judaism: 

Ac. 13:43 When the congregation was dismissed, many of the Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who talked with them and urged them to continue in the grace of God.

Epistrophé is found only here:

Ac. 15:3 The church sent them on their way, and as they travelled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted.

However, epistrophé is closely related to epistrephó (to turn, to return), which is used 36 times. Most often, epistrephó is used to describe changing course. This can be a vessel changing course, a person turning around, or occasionally, people turning to God.

Another word, strephó, means to turn, but mostly to change direction. But it can also refer to turning to God:

Mt. 18:3 And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

"Converted," therefore, is a less precise term.

Repentance

We are now getting into process. How does one become born again? Repentance is a part of that mechanism. "Repent" is metanoeó, change my mind, change the inner man:

Mt. 4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

To repent really only means to change, but does not describe what to change to. Thus, the command to be Born Again, the crucial part of the process. That is the moment when the Old Man dies and is replaced with the New Man.

When we repented and believed, we first died to several things:

• The bondage of the law (Ro. 7:6)
• Hostility to God (Ro. 8:7)
• deadness in transgressions (Ep. 2:5)
• confidence in the flesh (Ph. 3:3)

Our fleshly nature was circumcised from us, and we were buried and raised:

Col. 2:11-13 In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ.

Paul clearly states that the sinful nature has been put off. But we need to align ourselves with this reality, a process known as sanctification. The new birth ("...alive in Christ") begins that process of aligning:

Ro. 8:12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation — but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.

Ro. 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Ro. 13:14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

Col. 3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

This can only occur by the leading and empowerment of the Holy Spirit:

Ro. 8:14 ...because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

2Co. 3:8 ...will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?

2Ti. 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Ga. 3:3 Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

Ga. 5:25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Conclusion

"Born again" is simple yet profound. "Converted" is inelegant and misleading. To us, conversion implies an action in response to pressure or the weight of evidence. A convert is someone who is persuaded to join up after being presented with sufficient reason to change.

"Born again" implies none of this. It's a new start, a supernatural work, an abandonment of the old dead life in order to embrace the new. It's identity, transformation, something that is completely different from the previous thing.

"Born again" is a better and more biblical term.