There are several important questions we will be asking.
One is: What is the new birth? That is, what actually happens? What is it like? What changes? What comes into being that wasn’t there before?
Another question is: How does it relate to other things that the Bible says God does to bring us to himself and save us? For example, how does being born again relate to
- God’s effectual calling ("Those whom he called he justified" Romans 8:30),
. - The new creation ("If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation," 2 Corinthians 5:17),
. - God’s drawing us to Christ ("No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him," John 6:44),
. - God’s giving people to his Son ("All that the Father gives me will come to me," John 6:37),
. - God’s opening our hearts ("The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul," Acts 16:14)
- God’s illumining our hearts ("God. . . has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," 2 Corinthians 4:6),
. - God’s taking the heart of stone out and giving us a heart of flesh ("I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh," Ezekiel 36:26),
. - God’s making us alive ("even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ," Ephesians 2:5),
. - God’s adopting us into his family ("You have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry,‘‘Abba! Father!’" Romans 8:15).
How does God’s act of regeneration relate to all these wonderful ways of describing what happened to us when God saved us?
Another question we will ask is: Why is the new birth necessary? Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:7, "You must be born again."
Another question we will tackle is how the new birth happens. If it is the work of God, which it is, how do I experience it? Is there anything I can do to make it happen?
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And a final question we must deal with is: What are the effects of being born again? What changes? What is it like to live as a born-again person?
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Millions in Church have not been Born Again. If the same as the Barna Group's.
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One of the most intense study I have had is this subject of salvation. The purpose hasn't been because I have doubt about my salvation, far from it, but to give a clear understanding of what the Bible means when it says "Ye Must Be Born Again."
The more you learn about what God has done in this matter of our salvation the more you will know of how great this salvation is.
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