“Born again” is one of the most often used phrases in recent Christian
experience in North America. We’ve heard it ad nauseum in sermons and
songs. “Are you a born again Christian?” “Ye must be born again.” And
the list goes on.
Is being “born again” about a particular event that determines our
eternal destiny? Is it some sort of measuring stick so we can
differentiate between those who are “born again” and those who are not?
Is being “born again” about saying the sinner’s prayer, going forward
at altar calls, signing decision cards, slipping up my hand with all
eyes closed?
Is this really what Jesus was talking about? It sounds more like a
nineteenth century American revival preacher than a first century
Jewish prophet! I have a sneaking suspicion Jesus was a lot more
mysterious than we would like to think.
“Born again” is actually not a common term in the Bible. The most
familiar text is from the Gospel of John where Jesus tells the
religious teacher, Nicodemus, “you must be born again” (John 3:1-8).
The Greek word ANOTHEN in verse three is usually translated “again” but
it has a double meaning and also means “born from above.” In context,
“born from above” is a better translation. Nicodemus misunderstands
Jesus’ use of the word as “born again” and thus replies, “I cannot
enter again into my mother’s womb…” (John 3:4). Then Jesus corrects him
by saying, “no, I mean born from above, by the Spirit of God.”
This correction of a misunderstanding is a common literary device used
by the writer of the Gospel of John. A person misunderstands a term and
then Jesus gives the correct, and usually deeper, meaning. It’s used
again with well water and living water in chapter four and physical
blindness and spiritual blindness in chapter nine.
It is interesting how most English translations get it wrong just as
Nicodemus gets it wrong. But this is a spiritual birth Jesus is talking
about. The birth from above, Jesus says, is like water and wind; the
two most powerful forces of nature. Water and wind illustrate this one
mysterious spiritual movement. Water is cooling, cleansing, refreshing
and nourishing. Wind, breath and Spirit all come from the same Greek
word PNEUMA. The wind is mysterious, you can’t see it or predict its
next move, the results can be seen, but how it happens can’t be
explained.
We have trivialized “born again” to be a certain formulaic human
experience, when it cannot be labeled or boxed. You can’t box the wind!
Then it is no longer wind! The point of this imagery is that this
“birth” is entirely different from what the religious teacher
perceived, or maybe also what we as modern church people perceive.
I love the way Eugene Peterson says it in The Message:
“So don’t be surprised when I tell you that you have to be born from
above, out of this world, so to speak. You know well enough how the
wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees
but you have no idea where it comes from or where it is headed next.
That’s the way it is with everyone born from above by the wind of God,
the Spirit of God.”
In an interview for a ministry position we were discussing my theology
of conversion at length and I was trying to make a point that maybe it
was more of a mysterious process than a prescribed event. One of the
interviewers, weary of the discussion and wanting to resolve the issue,
said in exasperation, “surely you must remember a date when you were
born again.” After a slight pause, and with a smile and a twinkle in my
eye I said, “Yes, last Thursday” (And in fact I had had a significant
“epiphany” kind of moment on that day). Needless to say, I didn’t get
the job!
New birth is kind of like the wind, hard to contain and label- “now
I’ve got it!” It’s not so much about an experience we have had in the
past or need to have in the future.
The Greek word for new, as in “Behold, I make all things new,” is
KAINOS. This word does not refer to a point in time but rather a
quality of living, a freshness of being.
The new birth is not so much about a prescribed particular punctiliar
experience that happens on a specific date in time. It is primarily
about a way of living, a quality of being. A way of living that is
always in anticipation of what might be around life’s next corner, a
way of being that is sparkly-eyed expectant of what the Spirit Wind
might surprise us with.
This is adapted from a sermon preached at Point Grey Inter-Mennonite
Fellowship on March 26, 2006. For me, a sermon is an art form and it
seems entirely appropriate since the Bible itself is a work of art. And
this does not at all diminish the truth that a sermon speaks, rather it
enhances it.
Gareth Brandt
Abbotsford, BC