On The Day You Were Born Again…

On the day you were born what happened? On the day I was born on June 27, 1961 a couple of news worthy events occurred. Ghana imposed a total ban on exports to South Africa and South West Africa. Arthur Michael Ramsey was enthroned as the 100th Archbishop of Canterbury. On the day I was born I was so upset I did not talk to anyone for a whole year.

What happened on the day you were born is not nearly as important as what happened on the day you were born again. Man was created in God’s image. Sin destroys that creation. When someone is born again he is regenerated into a new creature in Christ.

You Became a Citizen of God’s Kingdom and Member of His Family

Nicodemus came to Jesus by night seeking information about the coming kingdom. “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God’” (John 3:3-5).

On the day you were born again, you began a new life. You were added to the kingdom or church. You gained the right to pray to the Father. As a Christian you now wear the name of Christ. No longer following our own path of sin, you are now under the new covenant. As a child of God you can look forward to a better inheritance. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Peter 1:3-5).

You Became a Slave to Righteousness

Imagine being born to slavery. Yet on the day you were born again, you arose out of the waters of baptism as a slave to righteousness. “But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Rom. 6:17,18). In the spiritual world you are either a slave to sin by choice, or a slave to righteousness by being born again. John wrote that the duty of the slave of Christ is to do what is right, because Christ is righteous. “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him” (1 John 2:29). And a sinner is not born again just to keep on sinning. “whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God” (1 John 3:9). Instead he has overcome the world by faith. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4).

Your Body Was Purchased by the Lord

Paul explained to the Corinthians that they had been born again into the Kingdom. “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9-11). They had fornicated, committed adultery, practiced homosexuality, used their hands to steal, and drink. They had a philosophy that the body was for sinning and sinning was for the body. “Foods for the stomach and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” (1 Cor. 6:13). Like many today who claim: “it’s my body and I will do with it whatever I want.” Paul went on to explain that when they were born again, they no longer had the right to do what they wanted to with their own bodies. “And God both raised up the Lord and will also raise us up by His power Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? Certainly not! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:14-20). On the day one is born again, his body has been purchased by the blood of the Lord. Everything you do with your body from that day forward needs to be examined by the reality that your body is not your own. For example, before a Christian gets that new tattoo he should ask himself a couple of questions. Is getting a tattoo something that desecrates the temple of God, our bodies, or something that glorifies God? How is getting a tattoo on our fleshly temple any different from spray painting graffiti on the wall of a temple? Therefore, think before you ink! You have been born again.

You Gained a Brotherhood to Love

On the day you were born again into the family of God, you received a plethora of brothers and sisters in Christ. Therefore, Command: “love the brotherhood” (1 Peter 2:17). Why? Because “whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him” (1 John 5:1). By loving each other disciples can show the world, they are indeed born again and also demonstrate they are truly followers of Christ.

Most importantly on the day you were born again, you were saved from all sin. “But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5). If you do not repent you will die in your sins (Luke 13:3). Instead die to sin and be born again never to die again.

– Daniel R. Vess