Bible Study On New Birth

INTRODUCTION

Every person knows his birthday – the day on which he, through his mother, was born into the world. Our birth was the beginning of our life on this earth.

Jesus talks about the new birth.

When a Catholic says that he has been “born again,” he refers to the transformation that God’s grace accomplished in him during baptism.

Then the reformation happened in the 16^th Century.

 Martin Luther

5 Solas of Reformation 1517

• Scripture alone
• Grace alone
• Faith lone, not through works
• Christ alone, not in the minister
• Glory of God alone

17^th Century – John Calvin started the evangelical movement

It is not enough to have orthodoxy, right beliefs we need to have orthopraxy, right living.

Right beliefs have to have a transformative effect in our lives.

Puritans emphasized how we are to be born again. We need to have our life transformed by the Spirit of God.

Out of that heritage the evangelical message was born – renewed need to be born again.

God Calls Man To Change.

1 Timothy 2:3-4

³This is good, and pleases God our Savior, ⁴who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

John 6:44

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.

2 Corinthians 5:20

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

Acts 2:38-40

³⁸Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

We Must Decide To Change

Acts 2:37

³⁷When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

Acts 11:20-21

²⁰Some of them, however, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began to speak to Greeks also, telling them the good news about the Lord Jesus. ²¹The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.

Acts 26:17-18

¹⁷I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them ¹⁸to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

The process is:

• To receive the Gospel.
• To make a decision for Christ.
• To accept Jesus
• To come to know Christ.
• To be converted.

What Does New Birth Mean?

The words “new birth” or “born again,” in the NT clearly explains the procedure by which God makes a person spiritually alive and into his child.

New birth is God’s work in a person who turns to Him through conversion.

John 3:1-3

¹Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. ²He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” ³Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

John 3:5

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. ⁷You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’

1 Peter 1:3-4

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, ⁵who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:23

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

Titus 3:5-7

⁵he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.

The Gift Of A New Life

We Bring Our Old Nature Believing In Jesus And He Gives Us The New Life.

Ephesians 2:1-10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. ⁴But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. ⁶And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Through The New Birth, We Become God’s Children.

John 1:12-13

¹²Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

Through The New Birth We Become Partners In The Divine Nature.

2 Peter 1:3-4

³His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. ⁴Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

Why Is New Birth Necessary?

To Enter The Kingdom Of God

John 3:3

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.

John 3:5

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.

Who will not enter the Kingdom of God?

1 Corinthians 5:9-10

⁹Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men ¹⁰nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19-21

¹⁹The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

To Receive a New Life

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:  The old has gone, the new is here!

Ephesians 2:1-3

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

To Become A Member Of God’s Family

Ephesians 2:19

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household,

1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

We become children of God.

John 1:12-13

¹²Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

We are part of his body, the church.

1 Corinthians 12:27

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

Hebrews 2:11

Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.

How Does The New Birth Happen?

By The Grace Of God, He Gives The New Birth As A Gift.

The new birth always follows the free-will decision of a person who has decided to accept Jesus. The new birth happens:

Through The Will Of God.

John 1:13

children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

James 1:18

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

Through The Holy Spirit.

John 3:5-6

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

Through God’s Word

1 Peter 1:23

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

The New Life

At the point of new birth, we begin a new life. Many changes are immediately felt and visible, while others appear after a period of time. Some changes which the new life brings about is:

A Desire For God’s Word.

The Bible is God’s word and food for our spiritual life.

Matthew 4:4

Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

1 Peter 2:2

Like new born babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

We must have an inner desire for God’s word.

A Desire To Live A Righteous Life.

1 John 2:29

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

We desire for a righteous life as God is righteous.

 1 John 5:4

…for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.

A Love For Other People.

Love is the most important characteristic of a Christian. Because God is love, we should love one another.

1 John 5:1

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.

1 John 4:7

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

Other Important Versus on the New Birth

James 3:18

He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

1 John 2:29

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

1 John 3:9

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God.

1 John 5:18

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.

1 John 4:7

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 John 5:4

…for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.