Often our Evangelical brothers and sisters will call themselves “Born Again Christians.” They will often ask, “Have you been born again?” Lutherans will respond, “Why, yes, I’ve been baptized.” This answer is not satisfactory to them. The problem is not that we disagree on what being born again is all about. The difficulty is we have radically different ideas on how we get there.
For Evangelicals, there are a series of things a person needs to do before God will give you new birth. You need to realize you are a sinner. Your need to repent of your sin. You need to invite Jesus into your heart. It is only then that God will give you new birth.
Of course, Lutherans believe there is absolutely nothing we do before God gives us new birth. In fact, many of us were baptized as infants where there was nothing we could do to prepare the ground. (Of course, Evangelicals violently disagree with infant baptism, but that is another post!) We insist that we cannot do anything at all before God gives us new birth — that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone for the sake of Christ’s death on the cross alone.
To see which is correct, it helps to look at the two passages which use words translated into English as born again.
The first passage is in among the most beloved chapters in the Bible — John 3. In verse 3-7, Jesus tells Nicodemus, one of the most respected Pharisees of his day, that “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God … unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.” Here Jesus tells us that you cannot be saved if you are not born again. He then explains that one is born again by Holy Baptism. Why is this the case? Because if you are born sinful (“of the flesh”) you cannot be born again. Holy Baptism comes with the Holy Spirit which gives you new life.
The second passage is 1 Peter 1. Here St. Peter tells us that ” According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. ” (Verses 3-5) Here we see that it is God who causes us to be born again and the power comes from the resurrection of Jesus. Later he tells us that we are born again from imperishable seed — God’s word.
From these passages, then, it is clear that we are born again by God’s work alone when he unites us to the death and resurrection of Jesus in baptism and when we hear his word proclaimed to us. It is after we are born again that we fully appreciate our sinful state, repent of our sin and dedicate our lives, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to serve him alone.
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