Being Born Again

Oct 17, 2016

In John 3:3 we find this statement, “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Since the phrase “born again” more accurately refers to (Spiritual) birth “from above,” we wonder, is there an expression in the Bible, which refers to being born again?

Actually, there is another Greek word in the Bible, which is translated “regeneration.” This is the word paliggenesia, made up of two Greek words—the word meaning “again” (as in, “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” – Philippians 4:4), and the word with which we may be quite familiar – “genesis.”

Literally, thus, the word means, “genesis again.” This word, like the phrase “born from above,” directly points to the miracle of salvation: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration [paliggenesia], and renewing of the Holy Ghost” (Titus 3:5)

So the phrase of John 3, “born from above,” refers to the incomprehensible fact that the saved individual is born of God, having experienced a birth, the nature of which is completely, qualitatively different from his physical birth; the word “regeneration” makes irrefutable the fact that the saved individual has experienced a new birth.

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