In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

A few years ago, when I was studying to be a pastor at our sister Seminary in England, I was on my way into town one day to buy some groceries when a street preacher decided to single me out from the crowd. He pointed at me and said, “You there, if you die tonight what’s going to happen to you?” I respond with something like, “If I die tonight, I’ll be with Jesus in heaven.” The man was pleased with my answer up to that point and proceeded to asked me what I can only assume was his standard follow up question, “So, you’re saying that you’ve been born again?” I said, “Yes,” and then he asked me if I’d like to talk about it with him for a little bit. But when I started to tell him how it happened a few weeks after I was born when I got baptized as a baby, the man cut me off mid-sentence and said, “That’s not possible.” I asked him why he thought so, and he said something to the effect of, “Because babies do not have the rational capacity required for faith, therefore babies can’t be born again.” When I told him that Jesus seemed to disagree, citing a few passages from the Bible that talk about babies believing and little children entering the kingdom of God, the man proceeded to tell me a story about how he once saw a woman miraculously healed from a goiter. At that point, I kept on going to get my groceries.

It's without question that according to God’s Word in order for a person to be saved and go to heaven when they die, they have to be born again. As Jesus Himself tells us very clearly in our Gospel lesson today from John chapter 3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And yet, as my conversation with the street preacher in England showed, there is a lot of confusion about what it actually means to be born again and how that happens in a person’s life. So, since this is such an important and controversial topic, and since we have a reading in front of us from the Bible that speaks to it directly, what I’d like to do in this morning’s sermon is simply take some time to explain what it means to be born again and how it actually happens.

We’ll start with what it means to be born again. According to God’s Word, the essence of what it means to be born again is to have true saving faith in Jesus. As we read very clearly in 1 John chapter five, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.” This is also what Saint John tells in the first chapter of his Gospel. There he writes, “But to all who did receive [Jesus], who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” And, of course, this is the exact thing that Jesus Himself was talking about in His conversation with Niccodemus from our reading. After explaining how a person must be born again to receive the kingdom of God, which is another way of talking about being saved, Jesus said, “So must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.” Therefore, to be born again simply means that person believes in Jesus and trusts in Him for forgiveness and salvation. It means that they have true faith.

Now, sometimes the Bible will also talk about being born again in the context of living a godly life. As we read in 1 John chapter 3, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” But even though this passage talks about being born again in the context of living a godly life, that does not mean that being born again is something more than having true faith in Christ. Rather, when a person has true faith in Christ, that faith shows itself in the way that they live. It is not as if people who are born again never sin anymore at all, but rather that their attitude toward their sin has changed. Besides trusting in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, they also try and fight against their sin and suppress it in their life. Instead of “making a practice of sinning,” that is, sinning on purpose, those who have been born again do their best to avoid sinful things and repent of the times when they fail. They are sorry for their sins and want to do better. But none of this would be possible in the first place if they did not already trust in Jesus and have the Holy Spirit. It would not be possible if they did not have faith. As the author of Hebrews tells us, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” So, again, that is the essence of what it means to be born again. It means to have true faith in Christ.

In the second place, then, it’s important for us to also understand how this happens in a person’s life. How does someone become born again, meaning, how does a person come to saving faith in Jesus? As I’m sure many of you already know, nowadays the term “born again” or “born again Christian” is almost always associated with the concept of “decision theology.” Decision theology is the teaching that in order for a person to be saved they have to make a conscience decision of their own free will to come to faith, or, as it is often said, “give their heart to Jesus.” Upon having an intense spiritual experience, where a person becomes overwhelmed by the knowledge of their sinfulness, they are told to pray a special prayer, sometimes called the “Sinner’s Prayer,” where they invite Jesus into their life and ask Him to be their Savior. After that, it is said that the person has been “born again.”

But there are a lot of problems with this particular understanding of how a person is born again. On the one hand, Jesus tells us very clearly in John chapter 3 that being born again is not caused by an act of our own free will. When Nicodemus asked Jesus how it was possible for a man to climb back into his mother’s womb to be born a second time, Jesus explained how being born again is not a matter of something that we do, but something that the Holy Spirit does for us. As Jesus says in our reading, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So, it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” And remember what Saint John said in that passage that I quoted earlier from John chapter 1? He said that we Christians are born again “not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

The reason why being born again, or coming to faith in Jesus, is not something that we do on our own, but something that God must do for us, is because on our own we do not have the ability to do it. That’s what Jesus is getting at in our reading when He tells Niccodemus that “that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” We aren’t born “basically good” as many people so often think. We are born sinful. According to our first birth from our earthly parents, we received from them a fallen and sinful nature. The worst thing about this sinful nature is that it leaves us incapable of bringing ourselves to faith in Christ. It renders us hostile to God and unreceptive to His Word.

Listen to how Saint Paul describes our spiritual condition prior to our conversion in Ephesians chapter 2. There He writes, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passion of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.” Notice that when Saint Paul describes our spiritual condition prior to our conversion, he calls us spiritually dead. He doesn’t say that we are spiritually weak. He doesn’t say that we are spiritually wounded. He says that we are spiritually dead. How is it possible for a person who is spiritually dead, meaning they have no spiritual power within themselves, to do the most important spiritual work of all like bringing themselves to faith in Jesus? It’s impossible! It can’t be done! And that’s why decision theology, which teaches people not only that it can be done, but that it must be done for a person to be saved is so wrong. It stands completely against the teachings of the Bible. It gives the impression that we are born again because of something that we do. But that’s not how a person is born again.

Rather, a person is born again not when they give their heart to God, but when God opens His heart to them by giving them the gift of faith through His Word. It happens when the Holy Spirit, who works through the preaching of the Gospel, causes someone to repent of their sins and believe in Jesus, raising them to new spiritual life. As Saint James tells us in his Epistle, “Of His own will, [God] brought us forth by the Word of truth.” And as we read in 1 Peter chapter 2, “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God.” When God’s Word is preached, and the message of salvation in Jesus is accurately proclaimed, that’s how God changes people’s hearts and gives them eternal life. That’s how He gives them faith. It is exactly how Isaiah describes it in Isaiah chapter 55, “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” God always and only causes people to be born again through His Word. 

At this point in the sermon, then, it’s important for us also to say a few things about God’s gift of holy Baptism. It is the official position of the Lutheran Church that God causes people to be born again through our Baptism. The reason why we teach this is because of something else that Jesus says to us in our reading today from John chapter 3. Besides telling us that a person must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God, Jesus also teaches us that one of the places where this happens is in our Baptism. As He plainly says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one in born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Now, as I’m sure you know, many people do not believe that God causes us to be born again in Baptism. But there is no getting around the clear Words of Jesus. And instead of ignoring them, we should try and understand them. The reason why Jesus can tell us that Baptism gives a person the new birth from above is because Baptism is a Sacrament connected with God’s Word. Baptism joins the Spirit filled Word of God with the physical element of water. It’s not the water in Baptism that does something special, it’s the Word. Again, when God’s Word is spoken to us and over us, that is, when the Gospel is applied to us, that’s how God gives us the gift of faith and causes us to be born again. And that’s why God can use Baptism to do it. Because Baptism is God’s Word. It is the Word of God connected with the water.

Whenever we maintain that Baptism truly does give a person new birth, we should be prepared to respond to what others who deny this reality will most likely say in return. The most common argument that we hear from those who deny baptismal regeneration, which is what this teaching is called, is that if Baptism truly did cause someone to be born again, then why are there so many people who have been baptized that no longer live a Christian life? But the answer to this accusation is actually quite simple. Instead of saying that those people who got baptized but now reject the faith never had real faith to begin with, we can simply recognize the sad reality that it is possible to lose your faith. It is possible to fall away from the faith. As Jesus reminds us in the parable of the sower, “The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in a time of testing fall away.” Or remember what Saint Paul tells us about the sad case of those two men named Hymenaeus and Alexander? Paul says that they made “shipwreck of their faith,” meaning, they had faith, but then they destroyed it. That’s what can happen to anyone who has been born again. Instead of listening to God’s Word and cooperating with the Holy Spirit who is at work in their life through the Word, they can suppress God’s Word and turn away from it. They can plug their ears to what God’s Word is telling them so that they no longer listen to God’s Word anymore at all. But that doesn’t mean that they were never actually born again. It means that they gave up their birth right and forfeited their inheritance.

And yet, God’s Word also teaches us that our Baptism is not something that can be undone. Since it is His work and not ours, even if we should, for a time, turn away from it, that does not mean that God will not turn away from us. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal son, He will patiently wait for our repentance for as long as possible. In mercy, He promises to reach out to the lost with His Word of Law and Gospel, in order to safety return them to His fold. As we read in Philippians chapter 1, Saint Paul writes, “And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” These words should not be taken to mean that we can live a sinful life on purpose and still go to heaven, or that it is impossible for people who have been baptized to go to hell, but rather that everyone who is sorry of their sin and clings to their Baptism should have the confidence that Jesus will not abandon them no matter how bad their sin has been. He will forgive them, and continue to make them new, until the day that they are made completely new in heaven. God will finish what He started in their Baptism. He will bring them to the culmination of their new birth, where they received the gift of faith through His Word.

The other day I was thinking about that conversation I had with the man in England and it finally occurred to me why he told me the story about the woman he saw who got miraculously healed from a goiter. He told me that story because he could not show me anywhere in the Bible where it says that Baptism does not save us and that infants cannot be born again. And since he couldn’t give me the Word of God, he thought that it might be just as good to give me a miracle. But he could have told me about a thousand miracles. He could have performed one there right in front of me on the street. And yet, none of that would have made the Scriptures any less clear. Being born again is when a person is brought to faith in Jesus. This is isn’t something that we do for ourselves, it is something that God does for us. Just like we received earthly life from our parents apart from any decision of our own free will, we receive eternal life from our Father in heaven purely through His grace. We receive it when God’s Word is preached to us and the Holy Spirit causes us to believe it. We receive it when the Gospel is applied to us personally at our Baptism and all of our sins are washed away. We receive it as a gift. God can give that gift to anybody. He can give it to babies. He can give it to adults. He can give it to whoever He wants. So may the Lord help us to cherish this gift, and guard the new life He has given us through His Word. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.