• What Does It Mean to be “Born Again”?
    Awake!—1976 | June 22

    • Jesus’ words indicate that a spiritual rebirth is involved and that both water and spirit play a role in this. But how is a person “born from water and spirit”?

      The answer to this question becomes clear when we consider the work of John the Baptist. On one occasion Jesus Christ stated: “The Law and the Prophets were until John. From then on the kingdom of God is being declared as good news, and every sort of person is pressing forward toward it.” (Luke 16:16) So the activity of John the Baptist served as a preparatory arrangement for those of his own people to be in line for entrance into the heavenly kingdom.

      Only by acting in harmony with what John proclaimed could a circumcised Jew come in line for this marvelous privilege. As Jesus Christ told unbelieving religious leaders of Judaism: “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and the harlots are going ahead of you into the kingdom of God. For John came to you in a way of righteousness, but you did not believe him. However, the tax collectors and the harlots believed him, and you, although you saw this, did not feel regret afterwards so as to believe him.”​—Matt. 21:31, 32.

      Those harlots and tax collectors therefore submitted to water baptism by John. Of course, the baptism in itself did not put individuals in line for the heavenly kingdom. This is clear from what John the Baptist told certain Pharisees and Sadducees who wanted to be immersed: “You offspring of vipers, who has intimated to you to flee from the coming wrath? So then produce fruit that befits repentance.” (Matt. 3:7, 8) Accordingly, ‘being born of water’ involves water baptism, but such baptism must be preceded by repentance and a turning around from a wrong course. This is one essential for membership in the kingdom of the heavens.

      A person’s being “born from the spirit” points to yet another baptism. John the Baptist called attention to this, saying: “I, for my part, baptize you with water because of your repentance; but the one coming after me [the Christ] is stronger than I am . . . That one will baptize you people with holy spirit.”​—Matt. 3:11.

      On the day of Pentecost of 33 C.E., some 120 baptized disciples of Jesus Christ experienced such a baptism with holy spirit. As a visible proof of that baptism, they were empowered to speak in foreign languages. Explaining that Jesus Christ was the one partly responsible for this, the apostle Peter said to an astonished crowd: “Because he was exalted to the right hand of God and received the promised holy spirit from the Father, he has poured out this which you see and hear.”​—Acts 2:33.

      By thus being born of spirit, those disciples became spirit-begotten sons of God, with the prospect of heavenly life. They are Kingdom heirs in association with Jesus Christ. Commenting on this in his letter to believers at Rome, the Christian apostle Paul wrote: “You received a spirit of adoption as sons, by which spirit we cry out: ‘Abba, Father!’ The spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are God’s children. If, then, we are children, we are also heirs: heirs indeed of God, but joint heirs with Christ.”​—Rom. 8:15-17.