John Piper On What Jesus Demands From The WorldSýnishorn

You Must Be Born Again 

Books, media reports, and sermons commonly refer to “born again Christians,” but what does that phrase mean? The Barna research group uses the label “born again” for people “who say they have made ‘a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today’ and who also indicated they believe that when they die they will go to Heaven because they had confessed their sins and had accepted Jesus Christ as their savior.”

The phrase comes to us from John’s Gospel where we find a man named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee—an expert in the Scriptures—and a ruler of the Jews. He was also a respectable and important religious leader (see John 3:1). Nicodemus saw Jesus perform signs in Jerusalem. He may have been present when Jesus drove the merchants and animals from the temple with a whip (see John 2:14-15). And so he came to Jesus by night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him” (John 3:2). Jesus’ teaching about new birth and the kingdom of God explodes Nicodemus’s human categories and exposes that this esteemed scholar is in the dark concerning the true ways of God. Nicodemus asks, “How can these things be?” Jesus challenges him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?” (John 3:9-10).

Nicodemus claims that he can see and understand something of who Jesus is from these miracles. However, Jesus insists, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). The Jewish scholar doesn’t get it: “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4). A person may be born into a religious family, may receive biblical education, may be a law-abiding, moral person, and may even hold a religious job, and yet may be spiritually dead and ignorant of the true reality of God’s saving rule. Nicodemus was. The dead can’t see. 

You see, Jesus divides all people into two groups. Those born only once are born of the flesh, are spiritually dead, and do not understand and believe Jesus’ teaching. Those who are “born again” by the Spirit receive Jesus’ testimony about heavenly things and are alive to God to see His saving rule as true and glorious.

The person who is ignorant or unskilled needs education. The sick or injured require medical attention. The depressed or troubled may seek counseling. Sinners who are liable to God’s judgment and the spiritually dead do not fundamentally need new knowledge, moral reform, or religious affiliation—they need new life. We must be born again. We need to experience the supernatural transforming work of God in our lives. That’s what Jesus demands.