4 Areas to assess if you are born again:
– Our view of Jesus
– Conviction of Sin
– Genuine Repentance
– Transformation: Assurance of Salvation / Adoption / Love / Obedience & Discipleship / Peace / Humility / Forgiving Others
Jesus said you can not see His Kingdom unless you are born again, so knowing this is *very* important, especially as the Bible says we are so good (and persistent) at deceiving ourselves.
Each of the 4 points addresses a different aspect – you need to look at all four to be sure!
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1) It is *ALL* about Jesus!
From start to finish, our lives, our conversion, our walk, our relationship, our eternity – it is all about Jesus.
When you are born again, there is a fundamental shift in your understanding of who Jesus is…
It changes from a mere intellectual knowledge or doctrine about Jesus (or blatant ignorance of who He is), to a personal and dynamic relationship with Him.
Jesus is not a religion, doctrine, church or position, but a person: a real, risen from the grave, living person.
He is the One who came to earth (from Heaven) & died in our place, yet He is now alive and available to all who call on His name. He is not just someOne to get us out of a bad spot or valley, a but He is a willing, able person who wants to interact with us every day.
It is a paradox: He is God, the Creator, yet is also our brother and friend (IF we are born again)!
To start with, we often don’t fully understand, but the more time we spend with the King of the Universe and we read the Bible, the more we will be amazed at who He is and what He has done.
The natural outworking of this is that we will:
a) love Jesus more and more, wanting to know Him even more
b) be genuinely grateful to Him for *everything*
c) love to talk / pray / sing songs to Him (both on our own and with others)
d) understand His nature both as a human and as the Creator and Everlasting God
e) want to share about Him with others
WHAT IS YOUR VIEW OF JESUS?
2) Conviction of Sin
Generally, humans think of themselves as ‘good’. We compare ourselves to other people who are worse than us and conclude ‘we must be good’. This leaves us completely deceived, believing we are good and therefore will be accepted by God or make it in to ‘heaven’.
Someone who is born again however, has had a spiritual awakening (in their heart), where they come to understand their true sinfulness. There is a fundamental shift from thinking you are good, to understanding you are actually full of sin, dirty, the opposite of God, deserving of His judgment and in desperate need of a Saviour.
The Bible words it like this:
“And when he [the Holy Spirit] comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment.”
John 16:8 (NLT)
If you have not been (or are not) convicted of sin, you are not born again, no matter how many experiences or visions or miracles you have seen. Your sin is what separates you from God (and His promises) and must be dealt with. According to the Bible, there is only One Way of being forgiven and it is not about being good or being religious.
If you are not convicted of sin (or think you have none)…Ask God to reveal your true nature and then start to read God’s law – His standard of sin. This will facilitate conviction (Psalm 19::7):
God says that if you have told one lie you are a liar, if you have ever stolen anything you are a thief, if you have lusted after anyone (this includes pornography) you are an adulterer, ever been angry with someone you are a murderer and so on.
His standard, is incredibly high – actually it is 100% perfection. Never living for yourself, always loving & following Him, never being selfish, always doing the best for others… In short, it is impossible to meet His standard: compared to Him, we are evil and selfish to the core.
Any sin – even a ‘small one’ – leaves us deserving of our wages: death, judgment and hell. God is the perfect and just Judge and will judge all sin. He will not turn a blind eye to anyones sin:
Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NLT)
These things are not just tricks to try to con you, this is the spiritual reality that faces all humans. The loving thing to do would be to warn them & offer God’s only Way out…
WHEN WERE YOU CONVINCED OF SIN? DO YOU STILL EXPERIENCE CONVICTION?
3) The only response that saves:
Thankfully, conviction of sin is not the end of the story… If God awakens you to know your sin & sinfulness (conviction), there is something you can do about it: You can be free from *all* sin because of what Jesus has done…
Jesus was born sin-free and lived sin free – He was perfect. But on the cross, He became sin – effectively drawing all sin, yours and mine included – on to Himself.
Now, being sin, Jesus came under God’s angry judgment, His wrath. As God is the Righteous Judge, the punishment for sin was extreme – torture, whipping, beating, shame and a slow agonising death.
But Jesus endured this treatment in obedience to God…
It was a legal transaction: He paid your fine – all of it! God can let you, the guilty one, go free …
Jesus has purchased an acquittal for you, but you need to know you need it, and receive it by faith.
“Faith” (or “Belief”) is not just a intellectual knowledge but heart-felt trust.
The difference can be explained by thinking about the difference between:
a) someone who ‘knows’ a parachute can save them from an aeroplane jump and
b) someone who actually puts on a parachute and jumps out of the plane.
The first is mere head knowledge, in the second, faith motivates the person to act and put their trust in the parachute that saves.
We need to put our faith in Jesus, trust Him like we would a parachute as a plane is plummeting to earth.
Don’t trust your own ‘good ness’ or religion, but trust that Jesus has paid your debt in full. There is nothing you can do earn or pay back this gift: you can either accept or reject it.
A word of caution here: we are *very* good at deceiving ourselves… We fool ourselves into thinking we can accept Jesus as an ‘insurance policy’, but keep doing the sin Jesus condemns. This leaves us deceived and unregenerate – still condemned – NOT born again!
You can not receive Jesus’ gift if you are holding on to your sin / sinful lifestyle or your notion of being good or your religion.
It’s like this: what Jesus offers is free, but you can only accept if if you have let go of what you were holding on to.
Imagine you are standing in the doorway of a plane that is going to crash. You are holding on to the rail and someone offers you a parachute. You can ‘know’ the parachute will save, but until you let go of the plane, put on the parachute and jump out, you are not trusting it and will still burn with the plane when it crashes.
So let it all go and put your trust in what Jesus has done!
He knew you would sin, He knew what you would do against Him, against His people – but God loved you anyway. He sent His Son Jesus to die for you anyway. What a mind blowing reality!
This is called saving faith – Jesus states it like this:
“Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”
Matthew 4:17 (NLT)
REPENT AND BELIEVE!
These ‘two things’ are vital for salvation, though they are both covered by the Bible’s definition of ‘faith’ (Pistis).
Repentance has two main ideas:
1) Having a change of heart & mind towards sin (something only God can do in us)
2) Turning away from sin (something we do with God’s help)
When we are first born again (and then later as we spend more time with Him), He changes us from inside so we like sin less and less and even start to hate it.
We will also start to desire to make choices that honour Him, our lives becoming more and more holy (like His).
Things like wealth, success (career, sports etc), popularity and entertainment become less and less attractive (or domineering): we love the Giver more and more, caring less and less for the gifts He gives.
While we will still fail at times, our sin is completely paid for and becomes less and less in control of our lives.
If you are Born Again, you will be aware of at least one of two elements of repentance:
a) your ideas & thoughts about ’sin’ start to change: things you once thought were fine, will now seem wrong and cause you guilt. Your inner knowledge will start to line up with what God thinks: you will agree that what He says is wrong, is actually sin (as opposed to your own ideas of what is right and wrong). Your inner desires will continually change so that you want to please God & don’t want to sin.
b) you will become increasingly aware that you need to make decisions to stop sinning: to avoid people or places that lead you to sin and put strategies in place (like accountability, counselling, regular Bible reading, prayer etc) to live like He wants you to. You will be acutely aware that you are reliant on Jesus’ help to abstain from sin.
Both of these areas will be key in your walk with Jesus: always come back to them!
(See notes if you think repentance is not needed)
WHEN DID YOU FIRST REPENT?
4) Transformation: Assurance of Salvation / Adoption / Love / Obedience / Discipleship / Peace / Humility / Forgiveness
When we come to Jesus, we are instantly saved, born again. We are purchased by God and transferred from death to life, from darkness to Light. Spiritually, our reality is changed instantly. 1For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins., Colossians 1:13-14 (NLT) We become actual children of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus!
But there is a process that takes time for our mind, our emotions and habits to come in to alignment with this new spiritual reality. Jesus starts to change us from within in different areas. This is an individual process and will be unique to you as you walk with Him.
Some sinful behaviours will become disgusting to you, some will fall away, while others may be a battle, where you need to ‘put them to death’.
As time goes on, your attitude towards sin should continue to change so that you hate sin more and you sin less & less. This does not come from just ‘trying harder’, but by Jesus changing your heart as you spend time with Him. He transforms us and the Holy Spirit leads us away from sin.
The Bible words it like this:
So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.
Galatians 5:16 (NLT)
May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ…
Philippians 1:11 (NLT)
Some areas that continually change within us:
a) Assurance. This is the opposite of self-deception where our minds tell us we are ‘good’ or ok. But the more we spend time with God & read His Word, the more we will have confident assurance that we are actually saved and will be raised to life just like Jesus was.
We know we fail, we know we fall, we know our sin, we long to be far better and our minds condemn us – but despite all that, we know internally that Jesus has paid our fine. Despite knowing there is a judgment coming where God will judge all hidden sin, we have and internal assurance that we are safe because of what Jesus has done. Our salvation is based on Him, not us… (thankfully!)
… And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory.
Colossians 1:27 (NLT)
b) Adoption. The Holy Spirit will also start to confirm within us that we are not ‘just’ friends of God, but have been adopted by Him into His very family!
So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
Romans 8:15-16 (NLT)
If you are concerned you are outside of God’s family, I encourage you to ask God to confirm this to you, cry out to Him until you *know*. Please be aware though, despite an inner knowing and desire, if you have had a difficult, painful, distant, absent or abusive experience with your earthly father, this area will not come easily – you may even benefit from counsel or help to start to retrain yourself in healthy relationship and connection.
c) Love. God is love and as such, the more we remain in Him, the more love becomes the driving and directing force in our lives. Selfless, others-serving, Kingdom building love.
First, we will love God, second we will love other Christians, third we will love our family, forth we will love everybody and finally love even our enemies.
So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.
1 John 3:10 (NLT)
Don’t be fooled, if you don’t love God or other Christians, according to the Bible, you are not born again. Love is a sure-fire litmus test of salvation: if you are born again you WILL love people!
Conversely, your love of this world, the fleeting pleasures of sin, the lust of the flesh & selfish pleasures, will continually diminish until a point where you will hate the sin you used to love. Loving these things leads to death, while loving the God who gave you life is an indicator of you having life. Again, there is a need for you to put to death these old desires and activities…be sure to read up on this as you walk with Him.
If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?
1 John 3:17
The more you are full of Jesus, the less you will be affected by this world and you will be offended less and less even when wronged. The love God gives is pure and unconditional – yours will be too!
d) Obedience & Evangelism / Discipleship
Jesus made it clear that those who love Him will do what He commanded them (John 14:23-24).
His commands cover how we relate to God and others. You will take your role as husband / wife / father / mother etc seriously, saying no to selfish things and making them your priority.
In fact, the Bible goes as far to say that those who do not listen to what Jesus commands in the Bible have a spirit of deception!
But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.
1 John 4:6 (NLT)
God also wants us to tell others about Jesus and devote our lives to discipling them (Matt, 28:19-20, Acts 1:8) our family first, then others.
When we understand our own sin and the fact that all sinners will be judged & sent to hell, we can’t help but warn people & share about Jesus with them… we will work at what He considers important.
Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Romans 12:11 (NLT)
We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 1 John 3:16 (NLT)
e) Peace
Jesus, the King of Peace can and does give us peace despite our circumstances. He promises that we will have trouble, trials and suffering, but despite this we can experience His peace (John 14:27). This peace will be a testimony that others see – and you will be able to point to Jesus as the source of this peace.
f) Humility
Although totally opposed to what is normal in this realm, humility is a natural outworking of us being born again. As Paul commands to those born of the Spirit:
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Philippians 2:3 (NLT)
We are told why: because we ought to follow our example… Jesus.
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8 (NLT)
g) Forgiving Others
As we walk with Him, we will understand more and more our sinful nature and the mistakes we make. Knowing this, we will start to have compassion on others, even if they have wronged us. Compassion leads to the ability to genuinely forgive others – to release them fully from the debt of wronging us.
Jesus worded it like this:
“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Matthew 6:14-15 (NLT)
I pray that as you go through this list, God the Holy Spirit, would open your eyes and bring conviction. May you experience the power and life changing transformation of knowing your sin is forgiven. May you see the fruit of what Jesus has paid for in and around your life – the ability to live with and for Him. May you be awakened to all that God has for you. Always follow Jesus!
NOTES:
Three things to note about repentance:
a) it does not earn us anything or count towards us being saved: salvation is a gift, undeserved grace. How Amazing!
b) it is impossible to repent without God. Our heart & mind must change to line up with His thoughts on sin. There has to be an inward shift away from sin. Only God can enable this in us, so start by asking Him to change you. The Holy Spirit has likely already started this work as we are normally very slow to recognise God’s work in our lives!
c) part of it is our response – even responsibility. We are told in the Bible we must turn away from sin and begin to live a different way. If we are stealing, we stop and use our hands for good, if we are committing adultery or fornication we turn from it and follow the Holy Spirit, if we use substances, we need to be filled with etc Spirit.
We put to death the old actions, put off the old deeds and put on the new deeds. Put things in place to make sure we don’t keep living the same way a huge part of that is serving and loving others.
If we don’t walk in repentance, it may fool others (or even ourselves) but will not fool God. That is not genuine, saving faith – don’t be fooled!
The Bible is clear on the need of repentance 2
Matthew 4:17 (NLT) From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”
Acts 2:38 (NLT) Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Luke 24:47-48 (NLT) It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’
Acts 20:21 (NLT) I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.
And the way that salvation is not just a simple decision, but a life and action changing reality 3
Romans 10:9-11 (NLT) If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.
Footnotes:
- 1For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins., Colossians 1:13-14 (NLT)
- 2
Matthew 4:17 (NLT) From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent of your sins and turn to God, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”
Acts 2:38 (NLT) Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Luke 24:47-48 (NLT) It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’
Acts 20:21 (NLT) I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus. - 3
Romans 10:9-11 (NLT) If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.