You Must Be Born Again

I John 5:1-5 “You Must Be Born Again”

Imagine the Apostle John in a search plane. He is on the hunt for what makes a genuine Christian. He is searching for what helps true Christians grow in their fellowship with God. As he searches, he is flying in wide circles over the landscape. As we fly with him, we see the same 3 features on the landscape again and again:

-A true Christian believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God

-A true Christian lives a righteous life

-A true Christian loves their fellow Christians

As he circles the land, we’ve these before: belief in Christ; live a righteous life, love for one another. As John nears the end of his search, he flies in tighter circles, and we see: faith, righteousness, love. Faith. Righteousness. Love. He circles faster and faster, and he then spots it. John finds what holds together faith, righteousness, and love in the Christian. What is it?

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In this short passage, we see faith in Christ, a righteous life (obeying God’s commands), and love for one another. What binds them together in the Christian?

I grew up reading the Hardy Boys detective stories. And if you’ve read them or other similar detective novels or watched detective TV shows, they are always looking for clues. And normally all the clues begin to point to one criminal or one evil organization. The clues begin to unravel the mystery.

Some crime novels or TV shows are more psychological. They find a criminal, then they spend the rest of the story trying to find out what makes them tick. Why did they do this? What will they do next? And usually, it’s an event in the criminal’s early life that drives their behavior.

The new birth is like that. It is the mystery that makes sense of all the clues. Why do Christians believe in Christ, obey God’s commands, and love one another? The new birth is the answer. The new birth is the one event that explains all the actions of a true Christian. And it shows what they will do in the future.

The new birth holds together all the other elements of the Christian life. The new birth is like trying to get one branch out of a brush pile. “I want that one.” You pull and the whole pile comes with it. Or like trying to get one piece of spaghetti. All of sudden, you’ve got the whole plate, meat balls and all.

The new birth is the decisive act of God that makes the rest of the Christian life work. The new birth instills in use:

-Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ

-Love for God and His children

-Obedience to God’s commands

We will see today that the new birth creates faith and love in us…and that faith, that love have their own effects in our lives.

1. New birth creates faith

It is clear from verse 1 that everyone who believes is born of God. The KJV and NASB have “is born” and the ESV has “has been born” of God. The tense of the verb “born,” or “has been born of God” is the perfect tense. It describes a past action with ongoing or present effects. The new birth happened in the past, and it has ongoing effects in our lives. The first one is faith. If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, it is because God gave you spiritual life. We did not climb into heaven and grab our salvation. God reached down and gave us life.

This is how it has always been. When Abraham was off in Mesopotamia worshipping idols, God appeared to him and called him. When Saul was hell-bent on destroying Christians, Christ appeared to him and stopped him in his tracks. Whether you remember it or not, at one moment you were dead in your sins and an enemy of God. The next moment you were alive in Jesus Christ. That’s the new birth.

According to John 1:13, we were born, not of human descent, not of human will, but of God. God’s gracious work in our lives is the ultimate or final cause of our salvation. Ongoing faith is the result. Sometimes we give too much weight to a person’s initial decision to trust Christ. The most important thing is this: do you believe today that Jesus is your Savior? If you do, it is because God has given you the new birth.

What do we believe? Faith always has an object of trust. The object of our faith is Jesus Christ. Specifically, we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the promised Savior for our sins. We believe that he is the Son of God. He is fully God.

What is the outcome of faith in our lives? There are many outcomes, but the main one here in our passage is found in vs 4: we overcome the world (more on this later).

2. The new birth creates love for others

In the same way that the new birth creates faith, it creates love. There is clearly laid out for us in 4:7- “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” True love comes from being born again and knowing God.

In the second half of 5:1, John gives another cause and effect. If you love the Father, you love his children. The KJV instead of Father has “him that begat.” That is speaking of the one who gave us birth. And that is God. It makes sense that if the Father gives you life, that you will love him. It makes equal sense that we will love others who have the same new birth we have. They are our siblings. Our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I am the oldest of 4 children in my family, 3 boys and 1 girl. As you can imagine that our house was not always a picture of peace and tranquility. We had our share of fights and squabbles. But as a child, the best way for me to love my siblings is to obey my parents’ instructions. Like: stop hitting your brother. Boys, stop picking on your sister. Verse 2 tells us that we love the children of God by loving God and obeying his commands.

If you’ve been with us in I John, you’ll remember that John has said the opposite: whoever loves God must love his brother (last verse on chapter 4). Here he says, the way to love your brother is to love God and obey his commandments.

May I remind you, that our first priority is to love God. Nothing else should take its place. The way to love others best is to love God the most. As we saw last week: God defines what love is. God is love. We are most effective in loving others when we love God first. True love is loving others as God as loved us. True love is loving others as he has commanded us.

So far: if you believe, you have been born again. If you love the Father, you love his children as well.

3. The new birth creates obedience to God’s commands

We can see this clearly in 2:29- “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.”

I want to focus here on verse 3. John defines love for God by keeping his commands. As we saw last week, this is completely counter cultural. Love has been separated from truth. It has been ripped apart from the standards of right and wrong. It is define by me. When John says love God by obeying his commands, he is saying that love is based on truth, that love does act on standards of right and wrong, and that love is defined by God.

We can easily see this in parenting. You do not let your child do whatever they want to do. “You won’t me stay up to midnight eating all the candy I want. You hate me!” Love does what is best for the person…based on truth. We should have a deep longing in our hearts, not only to obey our Father’s commands, but also for our fellow Christians to do the same.

We must remember that obeying God’s commands is in the context of a Father – child relationship. Obedience is our response of love to him. Obedience to God is the test of love. Some people may say: I love God. But what they mean is: I get a warm feeling in my heart when I sing worship songs. Or love God, but what they mean- I generally acknowledge that God exists and do what I can to tip my hat to him.

Our depth of desire for God is shown in our obedience to His commands, especially when they are hard. But for God’s children, obedience may be hard, but it is not burdensome (vs 3). This is the idea of being heavy. God’s commands are not a heavy burden that we got to lug around the rest of our lives. He is our Father, and we are his child.

Why does John say that God’s commands are not burdensome? Look at verse 4: for everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. John cycles back to what really matters. The new birth ensures that God’s commands are not a drudgery but a delight. It is because we are of the Father and not of the world.  The world follows sinful desires, but children of God do the will of their Father. We don’t follow the world in the pursuit of pleasure and self, but we follow the Father is worship of him and obedience to His commands.

When Jesus was on earth, he called out the religious leaders for laying the heavy burdens of numerous and complex commands on the people. Jesus, instead, called the weary and heavy laden to taken on his yoke and find rest for theirs souls. Jesus gave simple commands, and boiled down all the laws in the OT to this: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength; and love your neighbor as yourself. I John follows this. How many commands do you find in I John? 3:23 puts it simply: believe in the name of Jesus Christ and love one another.

As we follow the Father, and obey his commands, we overcome the world.

How do we overcome the world? Our faith! Our belief in Jesus. Where does faith come from? The new birth. We can see that everything cycles back to the new birth. Faith. Love for God. Love for others. Obedience to God’s commands. Overcoming the world. If you have these things in your life, you have the new birth.

Conclusion

Jesus says in John 3: You must be born again. Unless you are born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Are you born again?

I do not ask: do you go to church…do you put money in the offering plate…are you generally nice to your neighbors…do you have a “honk if you love Jesus” bumper sticker on your car?

There is a very real possibility that you could grow up in church and not be born again. You could be Christian in name only and not have the reality of the new birth. Are you born again? It will show in your life:

-Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God?

-Do you live a righteous life? Do you follow God’s commands?

-Do you love other Christians?

If you are growing in doing these things, it shows the stamp of the new birth on your life. If you are not, then it shows the absence of it. If your life shows the absence of the new birth, do not lose hope. You too can be born again: John 1:12- But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

Ask Jesus to be the Savior from your sins, your Master, the center of your life, and your treasure. Repent of your sins and trust Jesus alone as your Savior. You will be God’s child.