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Regarding New Birth Teaching


By E.A. Green

There sure is a lot of talk in religious circles about being born again. I've spoke to a number of people from different religious persuasions and it appears they each have their own idea of which steps are necessary for the sinner to take in order to be born again.

A while back, I saw a religious pamphlet which had been left in the men's room. According to the instructions in this pamphlet, the sinner must take five steps before he could be born again. This number varies according to the religious persuasion of the person you happen to be talking with.

The common denominator of these various notions is they all require something to be done by the sinner in order to be born again. This is "salvation by works" regardless of all their protest to the contrary. If this is your Theology, you're at liberty to believe it, however, please put the correct label on it and don't attempt to pass it off as "salvation by grace".

The Bible portrays the sinner's reception of spiritual life in the symbolic language of a birth and there is good reason for this analogy. The graphics of the symbology employed make it indisputablely clear that the event is not of man, but wholly of God. This fact is verbally stated in John 1:13:

"Which were born, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
In the natural birth, the infant is passive during the process. There were not five steps required of the unborn infant, no not even one. All the labor is on the part of the mother. Likewise with the spiritual birth. If even one step (condition) was necessary on the part of the sinner to effectuate the new birth it would not occur. Like the unborn infant, the sinner lacks the capacity to meet conditions or take any step to facilitate the new birth.

Is Conception Part of the New Birth Lesson?
We need to be careful lest we attempt to squeeze more out of this allegorical lesson than was intended. In my opinion this has occurred when we begin to speculate how conception and\or gestation relates to the new birth. While these events have their place in the natural birthing process, it is my opinion they have no viable or profitable application in the lesson of the spiritual birth. One thing seems certain, they open the door to speculation and shift the focus from the primary subject of importance.

    Natural Lessons are used with limitations

It was a common practice of Jesus to teach and illustrate spiritual realities by using common events familiar to ordinary people. Thus he taught profound lessons using illustrations such as a farmer sowing seed, fishermen engaged in their vocation, a merchant man seeking quality pearls, a shepherd tending his flock, ect.

In every illustration a specific lesson was being taught. Additionally, the illustrations were interpreted and clarified in their meaning by Jesus. Where clarification has been made, it is prudent to recognize it and not create new dimensions to the lesson through speculation. This is what I believe occurs when conception is introduced into the New Birth lesson.

    Observe that the focus of the new birth lesson has been clarified by Jesus in John chapter three :
  1. The necessity of being born again.
    "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." verse three
  2. Clarification of which "part" of man is the object of the new birth.
    "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." verse six
  3. The singular, independent Sovereignty of God causing the event.
    "The wind bloweth where it listeth... ect." verse eight.
If conception\gestation had a role of any significance in the New Birth event, Nicodemus' question opened the door for Jesus to include it. He asks, How can these things be?" verse nine.
This would have be the ideal time for Jesus to begin discussing the conception process. Instead he answers:
"If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?"
In my opinion, the conception\gestation theory is an attempt to answer Nicodemus' question, How can these things be?" However, this approach takes the search for answers in the wrong direction--to a more earthly explanation. Jesus' avoidance of this course ought to be our cue.
There are additional problems created when introducing the conception\gestation process into the Spiritual Birth event.
If conception\gestation had a role in the New Birth event, then we would expect other illustrations of the same lesson to have a corresponding couterpart. Since this is not the case we are warranted to reject it. Consider the following:

Other illustrations which teach how a sinner recieves life have no
similar process corresponding to conception\gestation.

    In addition to a birth, I understand the following illustrations are used in the scriptures as graphical descriptions of the same event.
  1. A New Creation (Ep.2:10, 4:24)
  2. A Resurrection (Jn.5:25, Ep.2:1)
  3. A Translation (Col.1:13)

    If there was a process preceding the sinner recieving life (as a conception\gestation notion suggests), these scriptural illustrations are, at best, confusing.
    I'm satified that the best possible illustrations of this event were employed. Each illustration, in a simple yet profound way, graphically excludes the introduction of a stage\process preceding the life-giving event.

In my opinion, the conception theory is a serious error because in effect, it changes the Spiritual Birth from an event to a process.
Conception introduces the notion of a preliminary or intermediate state\process prior to actual birth. There is no corresponding process in the other illustrations of the same event. For this reason I conclude that the Conception theory at best, is superfluous to the discussion, and at worse, it is potentially dangerous-- it invites the use of means\instrumentality in a process which precedes the actual birth event. I therefore must reject it as an unbiblical concept.

When we understand the new birth as a sovereign and independent work of God, it gives us a great practical advantage in our service to God. As God's servants, we have plenty to do in His service without depleting our energies and resources attempting a work beyond our capabilities and not designed for human hands to do. Giving a sinner spiritual life is a job only God can do.

The Bible does give us numerous evidences which indicate that a person has been born again. Show me a person that believes that Jesus is the Christ and I'll show you a person that has already been born of God. (1 John 5:1)
Show me a person that has a sense and sorrow of their own sinfulness and I'll show you one that is already born of God. (Lk. 15:7,10; 2 Cor.7:10)
Show me a sinner receptive to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and I'll show you one that is born,
"not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (Jn.1:13)

URL: http://home.sprynet.com/~eagreen