The Spirit in Animation: Born Again

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The Work of the Spirit in Animation: Born Again

Introduction: Before we begin our lesson on the work of the Spirit in rebirth, let’s take a few minutes rehearsing the end of our previous lesson on how the Spirit changes our hearts and field any questions you may have.

1. Review of the Spirit Changing Our Hearts
   1. Ezekiel 36:25-27 Notice the text proclaims that when God put his Spirit within us, he causes us “to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” There are basically two possible ways this could happen: either against our will or by us being willing to change our will based on what God has done. The first choice cannot be true since throughout Israel’s history God’s prophets repeatedly urged them to choose God and they would not. Why urge them if God could just change them? That leaves the possibility that God did something to change our will.
   2. Without mentioning the Spirit, 1 John 4:19 states, “We love because he first loved us.” This we understand easily. God loving us so much that he gave his only Son melted our hearts and turned us to love him and our brothers.
   3. Romans 5:5-6 explained this principle in “Spirit” terms when Paul said God poured his love in our hearts through his Spirit when Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners and enemies. In this case, what Jesus did in his sacrificial offering poured God’s love in our hearts and changed us.
   4. To better understand, consider Ezekiel 37:11-14.
      1. First the words, “I will open your graves and raise you from your graves…” Compare Jesus’ words in John 5:25-29.
      2. Now notice the words of verse 14: “And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live…” How did putting the Spirit within us bring us life? Comparing John 5:25-26, the Spirit also worked to bring us to life by hearing the voice of Jesus. Therefore, the OT describes our heart change happening when God puts his Spirit within us. But the NT explains this happening when Jesus gave himself up for us while we were enemies and then by us responding to the voice of Jesus. Either way, the Spirit’s work is done through the work and words of Jesus.
2. Comparing Ezekiel 36:25-27 with Born Again in John 3:1-10
   1. The “water–Spirit” metaphor is common in the Old and New Testaments. [John the baptizer: “I baptize you with water…he who comes after me will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38; etc.] In our next lesson we will thoroughly examine the texts that use this metaphor and make NT comparisons. However, in this lesson we will primarily compare the fulfillment of Ezekiel 36 with John 3.
   2. Let’s begin with how John introduced being “rebirth” in 1:11-13. The saved person is not born of blood, the will of the flesh, or the will of man. The saved person is born of God. That means that his birth is what God does; it is God-generated, not generated by us. This is exactly the message in our text and the reason Nicodemus did not understand Jesus’ words.
   3. Note further, the phrase, “born again” is translated by the NRSV as, “No one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” This is also in the marginal reading of most Bibles. The same phrase is used three other times in John and translated “from above” (3:31, 19:11, 23). Therefore, it is not just a rebirth, it is a heavenly birth, a God birth.
   4. The next phrase we want to notice is “water and the Spirit.” Please connect Jesus’ explanation of born from above and water and the Spirit with Jesus’ rebuke in verse 10. We must draw the conclusion that Nicodemus should have understood and been able to teach this principle. Whatever Jesus meant by “water and the Spirit,” can be learned from the OT.
   5. Notice verses 6-8 and the parallels between wind and Spirit. There is actually a play on words here. “Wind” & “Spirit” are the same Greek word: pneuma. Pneuma is also translated breath. The idea of the text is that the Spirit represents spiritual life breathed out by God. We can see the changed life of one who is born of the Spirit, but since the transformation is generated by God and takes place in the heart, the actual rebirth is not visible.
   6. Compare the above to Ezekiel 37:8-9, “But there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” Then the interpretation in 37:14, “And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live.” Note the same connections between “breath,” “wind,” and “Spirit.” 
   7. Therefore, we can now determine Jesus’ overall message: the kingdom of Jesus is the resurrected Israel of Ezekiel 37, which are made up of a nation and a people who were dead beyond hope. Therefore, only God through the process of cleansing by “sprinkling clean water on them” (36:25) and changing/restoring his people by giving his people “a new heart and new spirit…and putting my Spirit within you” (36:26-27).
3. The Correlation between Water and Spirit in John 3
   1. Now with what we have discovered, what is “born of water and of the Spirit?” Please note, it is not two births. It is one birth, a rebirth, that takes place “by water and the Spirit.” Those words would then represent God’s words through Ezekiel in 36:25-27. Two works were done by God in that text: a cleansing and a heart/life changing. 
      1. First the cleansing. It was done by God when he “sprinkled clean water on you.” That is obviously a metaphor. God did not literally sprinkle actual water on us. But it is still a direct cleansing by God.
      2. Second, there is the heart/life change. The purpose of forgiveness/cleansing is to bring us to be a new person who would glorify God instead of profaning his holy name as the physical nation did.
   2. Titus 3:4-7 mirrors our texts. There is a “regeneration” that takes place through “washing” and there is “renewal” that takes place by the Spirit being “poured out richly” upon us. And by the way, this change is not instantly completed. As Paul said in 2 Cor. 3:17, the Spirit does that changing over time as we gaze intently at the Lord and are changed from one degree of glory to another.
   3. When does this happen? Romans 6:3-4 summarizes how and when this happens through our response to God.
      1. Note first that there is a rebirth: died and raised, resulting in a new life. 
      2. For this rebirth to happen, there is a cleansing: “baptized into his death” – the former life is put to death.
      3. The phrase, “that we too might walk in newness of life” indicates the changed life. You will note that it is still a freewill choice on our part, but without the power of God we could not be cleansed our changed! 
   4. 1 Peter 1:22-25 completes our picture by showing us that it is by God’s “imperishable seed” implanted in us that creates that continual change and allows us to be a new living being that will not perish but “remain forever.” This imperishable seed is not just words on a page, but as Paul states, “God, who said, ‘’Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

Berry Kercheville