Title: The Secret of Rebirth
Contents
Sunday day sermon
Text: John 3:1-15
Title: The Secret of Being Born Again
Regeneration does not refer to a change of thinking or consciousness. This is not to say that consciousness has changed and values have changed. For example, a person who believed in communism felt skeptical, wrote a letter of conversion and turned away from communism, it is not said that he was born again. Being born again does not refer to a change in attitude or behavior. For example, a person who used to be a member of a gang and committed really bad behaviors became really good and behaved well, and this is not called being born again. Regeneration does not even refer to institutional reform. Breaking past wrong practices and systems and creating a new order is not called being born again. Of course, it is true that these things appear as an outward part of being born again.
A person who is born again may have a different mindset and consciousness than before. A person who is born again may have different attitudes and behaviors. And the system or customs of the place where the born again person resides may be newly changed. However, this is not the essence of being born again. It's just a phenomenon that shows up as a result.
So what is regeneration? So, being born again literally means being born again. But it is not easy to understand that we are born again. If you are already born and living well, how can you be born again? Looking at the text, even Nicodemus, who was a teacher of the Bible, did not understand the meaning of these words. So I even asked if it meant going into my mother's womb and coming out again. So, what does the Lord mean when he said that he was born again? To understand this, we have to look at the events of the creation of man in the beginning.
Genesis 2:7 says, “The Lord God formed man from the dust, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” So, it can be seen that from the time of creation, human beings were composed of flesh, the element of the earth, and spirit, the element of life. The whole spirit from the breath of God was poured out on our flesh from the dust and became perfect human spirit. However, man sinned and died as a punishment. However, the body and the spirit did not die at the same time. First, the spirit died and communication with God was lost. And the soul element, the mind, began to decay, and then the body slowly died.
That is, we were born in sin, but the spirit was born dead. All human beings on this earth cannot achieve perfect communication with God because the spirit is born and lives dead. So we humans need the spirit to be reborn. Since all humans born of Adam's descendants are born with the spirit dead, they must be reborn with the Holy Spirit through the blood of Jesus. That is why the Lord said that “you must be born again” to see the kingdom of heaven. Now our lives must be reborn. Our dead spirits must be reborn to restore full function. Not only our spirits are to be reborn, but our bodies, which will become our spiritual bodies (soul elements) in the future, must also be reborn. When our spirits die, our bodies also die with us, so Jesus Christ must come into us and become our spiritual bodies. Only then can we become whole.