What Does Born Again Mean and Why is it So Important?

In John Chapter 3 Jesus told Nicodemus a member of the Jewish ruling council “Unless a man is born again he Cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven”…..you should not be surprised at my saying you Must be Born Again.”  This was the first time Jesus spoke about being born again.  He said it twice.  The first time He said a man CANNOT enter heaven unless he is born again and then said you MUST be born again.  He obviously wanted to emphasize the importance of what he said and rightly so.  According to Jesus, our entrance into Heaven depends on whether we are Born Again or not.  So because this is So Important, let’s have a close look at what being Born Again means.  

In the same chapter, Jesus also gave us the most quoted saying  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have Eternal life.”  So if we obtain eternal life by believing in Jesus then obviously being Born Again must also mean believing in Jesus.  Therefore, believing in Jesus will get us Born Again, and being Born Again means believing in Jesus.  So let’s see what believing in Jesus actually means because we need to get this right as our eternal destiny depends on it.  

The Greek word used for the word believe is the word “pisteuo” and it means three things.  It means to give mental acknowledgement to, to trust in, and to rely upon.  Here is how it works.  When you first believe in Jesus, it’s because you have heard or read about him, and you have come to believe that it’s all true.  You have given mental acknowledgement to what you heard about him.  So you trust in what he did for you on the cross regarding your sin. Once you get to know Jesus more, you begin to rely on him for everything.  That is how you come to Believe in Jesus and to be Born Again.  We were all born physically but now we need to be born spiritually.  We were disconnected from God, now we need to get re-connected to God.  We do that by making a decision that we want God in our life.  So we thank Jesus for dying for our sins, we ask Him to forgive our sins, and we tell him that we want to learn His ways and live His way from now on instead of Our way.  That is what Believing in Jesus or being Born Again really means.  You can find a more detailed study on this by Clicking Here.  If you are not Born Again, I pray that you would consider doing so. I got Born Again about 40 years ago and the only thing I regret is that I didn’t do it a lot sooner. 

God Bless.