Being born again......
hmmmmm.....
what is it? and how it works?
Being born again is not about Jesus, for it is solely about you the believer in Christ, who was already called to faith, meaning you believe wholeheartedly in Christ's Life, crucifixion and resurrection.
Being born again, as Jesus had alluded to, is elaborated by Apostle Paul in his letters and it is the
infinite verb of putting off your old man and putting on the new man. The act of mortifying the old man, is an infinite verb in continuous action, that is continually being applied. So that being born again is a life long process, until a witness in their struggle against sin (body of sin), have resisted to the point of shedding their blood, meaning to overcome sin onto death, whilst keeping the faith. (Hebrews 12:4)
So every believer called to Christ is being sanctified by the Holy Spirit, over their life time and it is the marrying of the two wills, as two willing partners in union, so that the rehabilitation process can continue to take effect. That is why Jesus said, continue to stay in, as I am in you and you in me. This two party spiritual union, is based on loyalty and obedience to Christ.
12Therefore, brothers and sisters,
we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.
13For
if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but
if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
14For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God.
15The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.
17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ,
if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
This is what Jesus meant to follow him, in his footsteps, by carrying your own crosses onto your own Calvary.
There are obligatory life long conditions of being born again and so it is highly suggestive, that so long we have not yet finished our race of faith (2 Timothy 4:6-8), we are under obligation to keep the faith and stay the narrow path in Christ, whilst we agree as a willing party to
mortify the deeds of the flesh, the Old Man (Romans 6:6-13).
Apostle Paul says, those who are governed by the mind of flesh are hostile to God and will not conform to his ways and Laws. So a born again is a process that gradually and throughout a lifetime is transforming those willing parties called to Christ, to be gradually transformed over a life time, to a mind governed by the Spirit. So no one has actually arrived to being a full born again, for this will be only realised after biological death, when the righteous Judge will give us our Crown of Life, on resurrection day.
In this regard we have not arrived at being born again, but are on a path, a trajectory, to that ultimate sinless state, because being born again is when Christ appears to us, by then we would have been transformed in that sinless state/nature and to see him as he is in his glorified form (1 John 3:2), because we too would have taken that resurrection form after biological death, on the day of judgment (Hebrews 9:28).
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; (
Process of putting off over a life time) fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
9Lie not one to another,
seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him: (Colossians 3:5, 9-10)
So, that no one can boast to claim that they have already arrived at their new birth, as being born again, but are merely travellers in this temporal lifetime, aspiring to reach their destinies and to be reunited with Christ after they biologically die. The Crown of Life is the realisation of the new birth, the born again and we only receive our Crown of Life, our inheritance, only after we as Testators biologically die (Hebrews 9:15-17)