You Must Be Born Again

Have you seen the bumper sticker, “I was born OK the first time”?

Apparently, someone has a bone to pick with Jesus about something He said once to a pharisee. 

Nicodemus wanted assurance of eternal life, so here’s what the Son of God told him:

Unless you’re born again, you’re not gonna make it (John 3:3).

Most unbelievers probably think it was evangelical Christians who coined the phrase.

But while it is true that President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) helped popularize the expression after referring to himself as a “born-again Christian,” the concept comes to us from the lips of the One who came down from heaven (John 6:38).

It’s Jesus who thinks that unless a person experiences supernatural new birth, they cannot enter heaven. 

Now, to the sarcastic comment:  I was born okay the first time—thank you very much!

This witty retort is intended to express disdain (ironically) for the very thing that can save a person from perishing.

Sure, it’s easy to understand the offense—no one likes being told that being a hardworking, descent human being isn’t going to cut it (and we all know enough people who refer to themselves that way).

But when it comes to entering heaven—even for the kindest soul who’s ever lived—“all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory” (Romans 3:23).

Disqualified.

The whole bunch of us.

So if anyone does wind up in a place Jesus calls “paradise” (Luke 23:43), it can’t be on account of good behavior, since “no one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18).

That’s why Jesus lets Nicodemus know that something totally unrelated to man’s behavior has to happen.

The problem isn’t that we are bad; it’s that we’re dead—spiritually speaking, of course (Ephesians 2:1).

When Eve was deceived and defied God’s command and ate, and then gave some to her husband, and he ate; their spiritual union with the Author of Life was severed.

His Spirit was withdrawn; and as a result, everyone born from them is born estranged from God.

So that’s why no one is born okay the first time—and had that been the case, life would look very different than the deplorable conditions we see in the world around us!

No, we were not born okay the first time; spiritually speaking, we were still born ––physically alive but lacking spiritual union with the Lord of life.

And that’s the thing that needed to get fixed.

And, happily, it did.

Now, when anyone trusts in Jesus, who died to take away our sin and reconcile us back to God, His Spirit comes in and reconnects us to Him and raises us to new life.

And that’s the new birth Jesus is speaking of—a new life that culminates in a place called heaven.

Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).