You Must Be Born Again

I remember sitting in a church service on the first Sunday of 2021 when the teaching pastor opened with a bold statement: “Over half of you sitting here today are not truly saved.”

Gulp!

As you can imagine, you could have heard a pin drop. Everyone began looking around at each other, some with shocked expressions that conveyed: “Did he really just say that...out loud...in church?”

Yep.

Christianity Today

In today’s culture, it seems there is a growing disconnect between what many professing Christians say they believe and how they actually live. Increasingly, those who claim the name of Christ are embracing values and supporting ideologies that directly contradict Biblical truth. What makes things even more confusing is when prominent Christians with influential public platforms take positions on moral issues that clearly contradict Scripture — often reflecting the values of the world more than the fruit of the Spirit. Because so many hold these individuals in high regard, their compromise doesn’t just blur the lines of truth but it leads others astray, giving the impression that Biblical faith can coexist with culture, and that we’re being unloving when we don’t agree. And yet, 1 Corinthians 13:6 says that love, among other things, “never rejoices in wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.”

Make no mistake, Christianity produces a distinct kind of fruit. And when that fruit is consistently absent, or replaced with the values of the world, it raises serious questions:

• Have we lowered the standard of what it means to follow Christ by ignoring the necessity of the new birth?

• Have we settled for a version of Christianity today that looks right on the outside but lacks the power and evidence of a truly changed heart?

• Have we assumed that church involvement or moral living equals being born again?

• Are we assuming salvation without examining whether the marks of new life are present?

Although difficult, these are important questions for us to ask ourselves.

Born Again

How did you begin your Christian life? What was your conversion like? Did you repeat a prayer? Get baptized? Walk an aisle? Were you raised in a Christian home and always assumed you were “in”?

This matters now more than ever, because as the world shakes and shifts in every imaginable way, it’s becoming increasingly evident that many who claim to follow Christ have never truly experienced the new birth in Him. As a result, they’re drifting through a sea of moral and spiritual confusion — confident, yet blind — deceived into walking the broad road that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).

If a person is a true Christian, he is “born again.” That means he’s got a Divine seed in him. He’s a partaker of the Divine nature, and it must show itself.

To be born again is to undergo a spiritual transformation, a complete inward change brought about by God. It’s not about turning over a new leaf, trying harder, or becoming more religious. It’s about receiving a new heart, a new nature, through faith in Jesus Christ.

Just as we were born physically into this world, we must be born spiritually into the kingdom of God. It’s a birth that comes from above (John 3:7), a work of the Holy Spirit. When someone is born again, the Holy Spirit comes to live within them. He changes their desires, convicts them of sin, teaches them truth, and empowers them to obey God. In short, to be born again means you’re no longer who you once were. You’re a new creation, and you now live to glorify and obey God, or at least your walk should be reflecting the progression in that. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Jesus said it plainly:

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God (John 3:3).

No one drifts into the kingdom of God. You must be born into it. And without the new birth, no amount of religion, morality, church involvement, or popularity can save you. In other words, without this new birth, a person cannot truly know God or enter eternal life.

Do You Know Him?

Was that pastor in the wrong to challenge his congregants with such a question? I personally think it’s one of the most loving things a pastor can do for his church. Many know about Jesus, but do not know Him. They may attend church, speak the language of faith, and even affirm sound doctrine, yet show no evidence of a transformed life. No evidence of spiritual fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). Therefore, it’s critical that as we enter into this season of great shifting that we take the time to examine ourselves and ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts on this matter.

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? - unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.

In 2 Corinthians 13:5–6, Paul urges believers to examine themselves to see whether they are truly in the faith. He challenges them to test whether Christ is genuinely in them, warning that failing this test means they are disqualified. Don’t gloss over the seriousness of this passage. It’s a call to a personal, honest self-assessment and not to rely on appearances, knowledge, or past experiences, but to ensure there is real evidence of salvation and the presence of Christ in their lives.

Are you truly born again?

Now is the time to examine ourselves in the faith, seriously and honestly. As the world grows darker and more unstable, the need for true, Spirit-empowered Christianity has never been greater! There is nothing more important than making sure you are truly a new creation in Christ, not just a Christian in name only.

Genuine salvation produces real fruit, real holiness, and a real transformation of the heart – a transformation that takes you down the narrow path – the only path that Jesus took. I urge you not to settle for a lukewarm, counterfeit version of Christianity. A faith that lacks obedience to Christ is no faith at all.

Test yourself. Eternity is too important to risk.

In Love,

Carole