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What did Jesus mean when he said that you must be "born again"?

Sometimes you hear a word at small group, Bible study, or church and don’t quite know what it means. But you are too shy or embarrassed to ask anyone. One of those words is regeneration. It’s a word that many Christians don’t understand, but it has tremendous significance for any follower of Jesus.

The Moment of Regeneration

Regeneration is the special work of God in a person giving them new life. It’s a total transformation. It’s a complete heart transplant. And it’s all God’s work. Specifically, regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit as he comes into your life.

In the moment of conversion, a person comes to faith in Christ and is regenerated by the Holy Spirit. This is the same thing that Jesus refers to in John 3 when he says that a person must be born again. They must be made new by God.

John 3:3 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Regeneration Was Promised in the Old Testament

The word regeneration doesn’t come up too much in the Bible, but it is referred to all over the place. One of the easiest ways to understand regeneration is to look at the promise of regeneration found in the OT.

Ezekiel 36:26-27 (ESV) And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Let’s step back for a moment and find the context of this verse. God is writing to his people in the OT. In the OT when a person put their faith in Jesus they didn’t receive God’s Holy Spirit. The Spirit would come and go in a person’s life. As a result, humans couldn’t fundamentally honor God with their lives.

This gets at a bigger problem we have in life: human sinfulness. Sin separates us from God and it makes us unable to please him. But God wants us to honor him with our lives. So, how can God use messed up people to honor him? He must change us. He must regenerate us. And that’s the promise of Ezekiel.

God said that one day he would give his people new hearts. Now the heart is the place of your deepest values and principles. It’s the seat of your emotions. And it’s messed up in us because of sin. But God promises to change all that. God will give us a new heart and we will have his Spirit. This happens when we put our faith in Jesus. This is the work of regeneration. God comes into your life and gives you a heart transplant.

God Makes Us Completely New

Think of it like this. A few months ago my water heater broke. I tried every little trick I found on YouTube to fix it, but it was hopeless. I had to replace the whole burner unit. Well, this is kind of like God’s work in us. God doesn’t just tinker around with our hearts and put some duct tape on them. He gives us new hearts to love and honor him. And that is the work of regeneration

Talk About It
  1. What is your initial reaction to this topic? What jumped out at you?
  2. What is the definition of regeneration? How does this definition help you understand what Jesus means when he says that you have to be “born again” (see John 3:3)?
  3. Read Ezekiel 36:26-27. List the promises that God makes to his people in this passage.
  4. How does sin get in the way of obeying God?
  5. What is some evidence in your life that you have experienced a total transformation since becoming a Christian?
  6. Write a personal action step based on this conversation.
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