At St. George’s we have been talking extensively about what it means to be ‘born again’. There is a lot of baggage that goes along with that term, especially in areas of the United States where it has become nothing but a cultural label – an awkward, glib cliche far removed from the Bible’s teaching. But understanding what it truly means to be born again, regenerated, as theologians call it, is absolutely vital to understanding ourselves in the light of the Gospel. As Jesus said in John 3:3, “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
New Birth is the transforming work of God that moves us from a state of spiritual death to life. It is the God-caused act that makes us a new creation, with new loves and affections. And so, As Thabiti Anyabwile put it, “Nothing could be more vital than God’s people understanding what regeneration looks, feels, tastes, desires, speaks, walks and thinks like.”
Here are 11 quotes by Christian thinkers and theologians on the miracle of new birth.
1. “Faith is the evidence of new birth, not the cause of it.”
– John Piper
2. “To be born again is, as it were, to enter upon a new existence, to have a new mind, a new heart, new views, new principles, new tastes, new affections, new likings, new dislikings, new fears, new joys, new sorrows, new love to things once hated, new hatred to things once loved, new thoughts of God, and ourselves, and the world, and the life to come, and salvation.”
– J.C. Ryle
3. “The new birth is the power that God is going to use to regenerate the world, brought into your present.”
– Tim Keller
4. There are two kinds of beauty; there is a beauty which God gives at birth, and which withers as a flower. And there is a beauty which God grants when by His grace men are born again. That kind of beauty never vanishes but blooms eternally.
– Abraham Kuyper
5. In the new birth, the Holy Spirit unites us to Christ in a living union. Christ is life. Christ is the vine where life flows. We are the branches (John 15:1–11). What happens in the new birth is the supernatural creation of new spiritual life, and it is created through union with Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit brings us into vital connection with Christ who is the way, the truth, and life… And from our side — the way we experience this — is that faith in Jesus is awakened in our hearts. Spiritual life and faith in Jesus come into being together. The new life makes the faith possible, and since spiritual life always awakens faith and expresses itself in faith, there is no life without faith in Jesus.
– John Piper
6. The kingdom of heaven is for the heirs – and if children, then heirs; if born again, then heirs. Wherefore it is said expressly, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. By this one word, down goes all carnal privilege of being born of flesh and blood, and of the will of man. Canst thou produce the birthright?
– John Bunyan
7. “The born-again Christian sees life not as a blurred , confused, meaningless mass, but as something planned and purposeful.”
– Billy Graham
8. “The Christian life is not just our own private affair. If we have been born again into God’s family, not only has he become our Father but every other Christian believer in the world, whatever his nation or denomination, has become our brother or sister in Christ. But it is no good supposing that membership of the universal Church of Christ is enough; we must belong to some local branch of it. Every Christian’s place is in a local church, sharing in its worship, its fellowship, and its witness.”
– John Stott
9. “To be born again means that suddenly spiritual realities that you could not sense before—that were either invisible to you or maybe you’d say inaudible to you—suddenly you can sense them, because you are given a new sensibility.”
– Tim Keller
10. “The gift of sonship to God becomes ours not through being born, but through being born again.”
– J.I. Packer
11. “We do not cause the new birth. God causes the new birth. Any good thing that we do is a result of the new birth, not a cause of the new birth. This means that the new birth is taken out of our hands. It is not in our control. And so it confronts us with our helplessness and our absolute dependence on someone (namely, God) outside ourselves.”
– John Piper
