What does it mean to be Born-Again?

[Gabriel2020]

no it does not.. you were being prepared as a child to be saved as an adult., where you are held accountable for how you live your life. All must come the way Jesus said you must come. children are not accountable until the age of 13. that is the age Jesus became accountable, and began to worship his Father. Anyone under that age is considered immature and blameless, and if they die before the age of 13 then their souls are saved. they just don't know any better, even though they might be taught to hate or love. Mary was only 14 years old when she was with God's seed inside her. She knew God at that age, and believed what the angels told her. Only God knows how old Joseph was.

 

[posthuman]

I understand what you mean. But should not being born again bring about a renewal in your spirit? Which would be a feeling. So, is being saved simultaneously being born again? As a child, I was saved. But what I did over and over again was just repent.

There came a time when I went way beyond repenting and really surrendered to live for Jesus. To die to self, and accept His Lordship over my life - let go of control. Wouldn't that constitute the moment when I was born again?

or would it constitute something like maturity? puberty?

i don't know the answers. i can help come up with questions, and begin to evaluate them

 

[posthuman]

no it does not.. you were being prepared as a child to be saved as an adult., where you are held accountable for how you live your life. All must come the way Jesus said you must come. children are not accountable until the age of 13. that is the age Jesus became accountable, and began to worship his Father. Anyone under that age is considered immature and blameless, and if they die before the age of 13 then their souls are saved. they just don't know any better, even though they might be taught to hate or love. Mary was only 14 years old when she was with God's seed inside her. She knew God at that age, and believed what the angels told her. Only God knows how old Joseph was.

birth takes place at least 12 years before bat/bar mitvah.

i'm not 100% certain, but i think they are considered "having been born" before that time, right?

is there a correlating spiritual 'life stage' & what is it?
do new believers have a '12-13 year' period of grace in their lives, and then they can lose their salvation?

 

[Gabriel2020]

That's a very good question. Never considered it, but it is very possible that it is, because when I was first saved, it took about that length of time before i really made up my mind to serve God whole heartedly.

 

[Gabriel2020]

God has always looked for a holy seed through birth, and i am sure he knows who will be from birth, and others that have to be saved as adults.

 

[Nehemiah6]

was i really born by my own natural choice or my human will?
either the first or the second time? or both?

this scripture has to fit perfectly with our proper understanding of birth/rebirth:

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who 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)​

The New Birth is supernatural but it does not happen unless you have (1) received Christ as your Lord and Savior ("as many as received Him") and (2) believed that Christ died for your personal sins, and rose again for your justification ("as many as believed on His Name"). So unless you respond to the Gospel and obey the Gospel, you cannot be born again. So did you have something to do with your New Birth? Absolutely.

The purpose of preaching the Gospel (which is also the Word of God) is to bring sinners to repentance and salvation through the New Birth. Therefore the Gospel is likened to the seed of the New Birth (1 Pet 1:23-25):

23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.

 

[Sherril]

You folks remember that old song.....born-again there's really been a change in me, born again just like Jesus said, born-again and all because of Calvary I'm glad so glad that iv been born-again...

 

[MarcR]

When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he immediately died spiritually; and later he died physically.

When we are born from our mother we are born physically.

When we acknowledge Jesus' claim of (ownership) Lordship, as a result of what He did for us on the cross; The Holy Spirit of God comes to indwell us, and that is our Spiritual (new) birth.

 

[Johnny_B]

I am having font size problems too...oh well.
To be born again necessitates the death of the "old" you.
This happens at baptism in Jesus' name for the remission of your past sins.
It is written..."Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." (Rom 6:3-6)
We can walk in newness of life in Christ after our death, burial, and resurrection with Him.

Romans 6:3-4 are not talking about water baptism and baptism does not cause you to be born again.

John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Notice you cannot see the kingdom of God, unless you are born again, why? Because you cannot see the kingdom of God until you have been born again, if you have not been born again you cannot see the need to be baptized or to repent/believe or anything to do with the kingdom of God. Notice Romans 6:4 "we shall walk in the newness of life"

Romans 7:6 tells us what the newness of life is, “so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

The newness of life is of the Spirit or to be born of the Spirit. We are all baptized into the body of Christ is the baptism of the Spirit not a water baptism,

I Corinthians 12:12-13 “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”

Outside of the book of Acts there is no book in the New Testament that speaks of water baptism, not even I Peter 3:20-21 “because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. 21 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,”

Notice the baptism that save us corresponds or is an anti-type of the water that brought them safely through the judgement on the world.