WINNING WITH THE WORD

“Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life.

Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post.

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Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, August 7, 2023, and this is Episode #31 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Why You Need to Be Born Again."

One of Satan's tactics to thwart God's plan and a person's destiny is to cast aspersions on Biblical principles and terms. Chief among these, in my opinion, is the term "born again." For various reasons, and sad to say, the term "born again" has acquired a negative connotation for many people. 

So in this week's message, I would like to set the record straight and explain exactly what "born again" means and why you need to be born again.

The term "born again" originates with Jesus Christ Himself. He was the first to "coin" the expression, so to speak, in the Gospel of John, chapter 3, verse 3 where He said this: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (NKJV).

Let's look at these words of Christ one by one in order to grasp their meaning.

First, Jesus used the words most assuredly. Why did He use these specific words? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines assuredly as meaning certainly or without a doubt [whatsoever][Brackets mine]. Most assuredly, then, means most certainly. So Jesus is saying here that most certainly you need to be born again. In other words, there is absolutely no doubt that you need to be born again. 

So, the next question becomes, what does it mean to be born again?

Simply put, to be born again means to be reconnected to God by receiving a new nature, a nature compatible with God's holy nature. When we are born physically into this world, we are born with a sin nature, a nature that has been corrupted by sin. Some people call this "original sin" because we received this sin nature by default from our original parents, Adam and Eve. When they rebelled against God, Papa Adam and Mama Eve lost their holy nature and got a sin nature instead. This sin nature, therefore, was the only nature they could pass on to their descendants.

And that's exactly what they did. All the way down to you and me.

Since a sin nature is not compatible with God's holy nature, there can be no spiritual connection between God and us. And since we were created to have a spiritual connection with God, we soon discover, to our great dismay, that we face a huge dilemma. We have a sin nature but we need a holy nature. But we can't acquire a holy nature on our own. We need help. We need a Savior. Someone who can take away our sin nature and give us a holy nature in its place.

So the next question becomes, why do we need a holy nature? That is, why do we need to be born again? 

Jesus gives us the reason in the second part of the verse. He explains that we need to be born again in order to see the Kingdom of God. Jesus lives in the Kingdom of God. So, if we want to see Jesus and to reconnect with Him, we need to be born again. We need a holy nature. 

Okay, but what is this Kingdom of God that Jesus wants us to see?

The Kingdom of God is where Jesus lives. We normally call it Heaven. It is the place of eternal life,