Spiritual Rebirth

The entrance requirement for God's kingdom is a new birth. It's in the Bible, John 3:3-8, TLB. "Jesus replied, "With all the earnestness I possess I tell you this: Unless you are born again, you can never get into the Kingdom of God. 'Born again!’ exclaimed Nicodemus. 'What do you mean? How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again?' Jesus replied, 'What I am telling you so earnestly is this: Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. Men can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven; so don't be surprised at My statement that you must be born again! Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it will go next, so it is with the Spirit. We do not know on whom He will next bestow this life from heaven.'"

Eternal life begins at the moment of spiritual rebirth. It's in the Bible, John 3:36, TLB. "And all who trust Him—God's Son—to save them have eternal life; those who don't believe and obey Him shall never see heaven, but the wrath of God remains upon them."

Spiritual rebirth means dying to your old life. It's in the Bible, Romans 7:4, TLB. "Your 'husband,’ your master, used to be the Jewish law; but you 'died,’ as it were, with Christ on the cross; and since you are 'dead,’ you are no longer 'married to the law,' and it has no more control over you. Then you came back to live again when Christ did and are a new person. And now you are 'married,’ so to speak, to the one who rose from the dead, so that you can produce good fruit, that is, good deeds for God."

Spiritual rebirth brings changes in our lives and goals. It's in the Bible, I John 3:9, TLB. "The person who has been born into God's family does not make a practice of sinning because now God's life is in him; so he can't keep on sinning, for this new life has been born into him and controls him—he has been born again."