By "born again" or begotten from above, we talking about an essential event, not a process of growth, and is a birth of the Spirit which is likened to physical birth and which happens at conversion:
- That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. (John 3:6-7)
‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. (John 3:7-8)
The example that Jesus gives of being born again, is a process and that process entails a life long journey that has a beginning and a end destination, hence the phrase...."you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going". This alludes to an ongoing process, that has a beginning and an ending. It therefore is a life long sanctification process by the Spirit of God and of the Spirit of God, in those who are being continually regenerated, to conform to the image of the Son.
28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
29For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren.
30Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30)
It clearly highlights, that to be born again, is an ongoing process, where the sequence of salvation is from being called, to being justified in Christ, to then being glorified/sanctified, that they MIGHT be born again, that is, as the last Adams, where the old man (first Adam) who is the body of sin, is finally biologically put to rest. Notice the conditional statement MIGHT be.
John, defines what and when the final destination is and he points to this sinless state as being after the faithful finishes their race and keeps the faith. As Jesus said be faithful even onto death and I will give you your crown of life.
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ( 1 John 3:2)
First born applies to being born again, after the old man is put to rest. Though Jesus is the first born, yet following him are also new borns into the Kingdom of God, after the body of sin is finally put to death.
13For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but
if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. (Romans 8:13-14)
Notice the IF......THEN conditional statement of the continuous verb "mortify" in action, implies a path, that has a beginning and an ending.
Dying to self, is an ongoing sanctification process, that buds into that glorified form, only after a person stays faithful even onto biological death.
Being born again in the present tense, is to claim to have the crown of life already. Full Preterists claim this and it is ironic, that you seem to imply that we are in the present tense born again, without any recourse to the life long sanctifying works of God. So in effect you are claiming, like the Preterists that you have arrived at your final destination and that you already possess your crown of life and have been fully conformed to the Image of the glorified Son. John in 1 John 3:2 does not agree with your claim at all.
Should I believe you or the Apostle John?
(Note that henceforth John always refers to being born of God as being a present condition)
No, no, no, he does not!