Whats it like to be born again?

[imadesomanymist]

jesus says we must be born again what exactly does it fell like to be born again

 

[Della]

jesus says we must be born again what exactly does it fell like to be born again

Feelings usually don’t come into it because being “born again” is a reference to water baptism, and since most people are baptized as infants or small children, it isn’t applicable to them that we know of.

For adults who are baptized, though, it can be, and usually is a very moving experience. But, I’ll let those who have had that experience speak for themselves.

If you are referring to experiencing a spiritual awakening to faith, then that’s another matter yet again. Oftentimes that is an emotional as well as spiritual experience. People like St. Francis of Assisi and St. Therese of Lisieux had such an experience that profoundly changed their lives into ones of total consecration to and trust in God.

Many of us have such experiences–awakenings to faith that deepen our love of God. They are wonderful to have, of course, but actually we are to grow in holiness, conforming ourselves to Christ in the every day experiences of life, which is less exciting but quite necessary.

 

[adrift]

5

Jesus answered, "Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.

Jesus is speaking here of baptism. Like all washings it is refreshing clean and a new start in being part of the family of Jesus.

 

[imadesomanymist]

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. <— that kind of born again (John 3:3)

 

[Della]

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. <— that kind of born again (John 3:3)

Exactly. That’s what baptism does–it initiates us into God’s kingdom. Jesus defined it when he went on to say that we are “born of water and the spirit.” Water baptism removes the stain of original sin and makes us children of God.

 

[Randy_Carson]

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. <— that kind of born again (John 3:3)

Yes, we know.

What is your point?

 

[jmcrae]

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. <— that kind of born again (John 3:3)

That’s Baptism with water.

Don’t let anybody fool you into thinking it’s about your feelings.

 

[andyklein]

Can you be born again after you’re born again?

I ask this because that phrase seems to imply that someone suddenly, randomly gets a religious urge and then it changes his or her entire metaphysical state. But I think, at least in my experience, that conversion does not change your state of being. For example, one could be born again and then fall back and then be born again and continue the process for an entire lifetime. If we accept our lack of perfection, then we would see that being “born again” is an erroneous idea. We only struggle to overcome our weaknesses as human beings.

 

[vincent10395]

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. <— that kind of born again (John 3:3)

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.

God Bless!

 

[crochet_lady]

The book of John talks about being born ’ again’. We’re All born physically from a sack of water that was formed in our mother’s womb. Being born ‘again’ refers to the Spiritual birth of a person. I’ve been ‘born again’. When I was a teenager. When the Holy Spirit ‘tugs’ at your heart. A person needs to realize their personal Need for salvation in the 1st place. Salvation means being ‘saved’ From ‘something’. So - salvation ‘saves’ a person from having to end up spending eternity in hell and ‘saves’ a person TO being able to spend eternity in Heaven.
There’s the need to recognize our personal sinfulness – that our sinfulness won’t allow us into heaven – because that’s a sinless place. So there needs to be a way to take Away our sinfulness. Scripture says that nothing We personally can do will ever be good enough to get us to heaven, ourselves. That’s why Jesus Christ came into this world. He came to be the Sinless sacrifice on the cross – He took All our sins upon Himself – on the cross – He died – Gave His life for us. He died and went to hell IN OUR PLACE – and Rose bodily from the dead. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life – no person comes to the Father, but by Him – John 14: 6. Jesus Christ’s blood shed on the cross – washes away our sins – God then sees us Through the shed blood – just as if we’d never sinned – ‘justified’.
When we come to the time in our lives when we recognize those things – then we simply talk to God – admit / confess our need to Him. That His ‘gift’ of salvation is all we need to ‘get to heaven’ – that His dying – shedding His blood on the cross – is all that’s needed – nothing on our part is needed – God’s grace is sufficent. Ephesians 2; 8 and 9.
Thank Him for what He’s done For in / in our place. Tell Him you want to accept His gift. and He Will do it. 1 John 1:9 'If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousnss."
There Will be a peacefullness Within when this has been done. I know from God’s Word.

 

[jmcrae]

The book of John talks about being born ’ again’. We’re All born physically from a sack of water that was formed in our mother’s womb. Being born ‘again’ refers to the Spiritual birth of a person.

Quite so. This takes place at Baptism.

I’ve been ‘born again’. When I was a teenager. When the Holy Spirit ‘tugs’ at your heart. A person needs to realize their personal Need for salvation in the 1st place. Salvation means being ‘saved’ From ‘something’. So - salvation ‘saves’ a person from having to end up spending eternity in hell and ‘saves’ a person TO being able to spend eternity in Heaven.

All of these things are true whether the person is aware of them or not.

T

here’s the need to recognize our personal sinfulness – that our sinfulness won’t allow us into heaven – because that’s a sinless place. So there needs to be a way to take Away our sinfulness. Scripture says that nothing We personally can do will ever be good enough to get us to heaven, ourselves. That’s why Jesus Christ came into this world. He came to be the Sinless sacrifice on the cross – He took All our sins upon Himself – on the cross – He died – Gave His life for us. He died and went to hell IN OUR PLACE – and Rose bodily from the dead. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life – no person comes to the Father, but by Him – John 14: 6. Jesus Christ’s blood shed on the cross – washes away our sins – God then sees us Through the shed blood – just as if we’d never sinned – ‘justified’.

How we here living in different places around the world in the 21st century gain access to the Cross is by means of the Sacraments, which were instituted by Christ Himself, and promulgated to the Church by the Apostles.

In the Sacrament of Baptism, the water that poured forth from the side of Christ washes us of our sins. A Sacrament is a sign that really is or really does the thing that it signifies or represents. In Baptism, the water signifies washing, and when the words are used by the appropriate minister, and the other elements of the ritual action are done correctly (that is, according to how Jesus taught the Apostles to do it), sins really are washed away from the soul of the person being baptized.

For the forgiveness of sins committed after Baptism we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation (also called Confession) in which we admit our sins by name, by kind, and we say how many times we did them. God already knows what we did, but we cannot be forgiven of our sins if we don’t confess them (say them out loud in the presence of someone who didn’t know about them before), so we do so in the presence of the priest, who then assures us of God’s forgiveness in the Absolution.

 

[LegoGE1947]

Quite so. This takes place at Baptism.

All of these things are true whether the person is aware of them or not.

T



How we here living in different places around the world in the 21st century gain access to the Cross is by means of the Sacraments, which were instituted by Christ Himself, and promulgated to the Church by the Apostles.

In the Sacrament of Baptism, the water that poured forth from the side of Christ washes us of our sins. A Sacrament is a sign that really is or really does the thing that it signifies or represents. In Baptism, the water signifies washing, and when the words are used by the appropriate minister, and the other elements of the ritual action are done correctly (that is, according to how Jesus taught the Apostles to do it), sins really are washed away from the soul of the person being baptized.

For the forgiveness of sins committed after Baptism we have the Sacrament of Reconciliation (also called Confession) in which we admit our sins by name, by kind, and we say how many times we did them. God already knows what we did, but we cannot be forgiven of our sins if we don’t confess them (say them out loud in the presence of someone who didn’t know about them before), so we do so in the presence of the priest, who then assures us of God’s forgiveness in the Absolution.

I have heard Protestant evangelical preachers say that baptism DOESNT save you. Wonder what they do with the passage in 1st or 2nd Peter which states that it does save you?

 

[jmcrae]

I have heard Protestant evangelical preachers say that baptism DOESNT save you. Wonder what they do with the passage in 1st or 2nd Peter which states that it does save you?

This reminds me of a quote from Patty Bonds, who converted from Reformed Baptist to become Catholic:

Scripture is filled with “if” clauses. But I always had a “weknow” to cover them. A “weknow” is a presupposition that we apply to a scripture that keeps us from seeing what is really written there. For instance, in 1 Peter 3:21 we read that baptism now saves us. But we just apply our “weknow” and tell ourselves that “we know” that it does not mean water baptism because “we know” baptism does not save us. I had been a big user of “weknows” and now the Holy Spirit was causing me to see all those scriptures at face value. It would require taking off my Protestant glasses and taking the chance of discovering I had been wrong. It was terrifying. - Patty Bonds, on the reasons for her conversion to the Catholic faith.

 

[LegoGE1947]

This reminds me of a quote from Patty Bonds, who converted from Reformed Baptist to become Catholic:

I converted from Pentecostal to become Catholic. So lots of this stuff was a shock to me as well.

 

[Michael_Mayo]

jesus says we must be born again what exactly does it fell like to be born again

I was baptised as an infant and yet grew up as a selfish sinful young man. Then after confesson one day I sat in the church and it was as if God lifted a darknes from me and filled me with a joy I never knew. I had been to confession befor but this was diferent. I told God I did not love him because I did not know him and I asked him to shoe himself to me so I could know and love him. My life began to change.

 

[Contarini]

jesus says we must be born again what exactly does it fell like to be born again

It isn’t a matter of feeling. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of baptism. People certainly have emotional experiences as the result of God’s work in their lives, but those experiences are not “being born again.”

 

[Contarini]

The book of John talks about being born ’ again’. We’re All born physically from a sack of water that was formed in our mother’s womb.

That’s pretty definitely not the “water” the Gospel of John is referring to

There Will be a peacefullness Within when this has been done. I know from God’s Word.

Moving and powerful as your testimony is, your interpretation seems to be taken primarily from the human traditions of evangelical Protestantism rather than from God’s Word.

Edwin

 

[Cathoholic]

whats it like to be born again?

Just what Jesus says: Being born again is being born of water and the Spirit (John 3:3-5, Titus 3:5, Hebrews 10:22, 1st Peter 3:21, and elsewhere).

You can bet if there is something fundamentally SUPERnatural in nature with being born again (or “born from above”), your emotions may or may NOT be involved with this.

You cannot equate being “born again” with a mere emotional experience.

crochet lady stated:

Being born ‘again’ refers to the Spiritual birth of a person.

Amen.

But HOW do we undergo this rebirth? Fortunately JESUS tells us.

Just what Jesus says: Being born again is being born of water and the Spirit.

 

[Cathoholic]

crochet lady stated:

Scripture says that nothing We personally can do will ever be good enough to get us to heaven, ourselves.

I agree with this too.

But if you “accept Jesus into your heart as personal Lord and Savior” is THAT good enough to get you to Heaven?

When you correctly answer “no” to this question go back and re-ask it of yourself (re-ask the same question) . . . except instead of putting something that is NOT IN SCRIPTURE in the formula (such as merely accepting Jesus into your heart as personal Lord and Savior), put what Jesus tells you to do explicitly IN SCRIPTURE, that is, being born of water and the Spirit which for adults includes belief in Jesus and repentance.

Then you will see being born of water and the Spirit as a grace and not something “you do” to earn Heaven, AND you will be conforming to Sacred Scripture too.

You already have the concept down (“accepting Jesus into my heart isn’t something I do, it is a grace!"), now put what Scripture says and you will have the whole of Jesus’ teaching on what being “born again” really is.

Being “Born Again” = Just what Jesus says: Being born again is being born of water and the Spirit.

 

[LegoGE1947]

It isn’t a matter of feeling. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit in the sacrament of baptism. People certainly have emotional experiences as the result of God’s work in their lives, but those experiences are not “being born again.”

I went through the evangelical “born again” experience (several times) and never felt a thing. Left me confused and frustrated until I became Catholic and discovered I actually was “born again” when I was BAPTIZED! I received baptism the week after I first prayed the Evangelical sinner’s prayer, and THAT was when I was really born again according to Catholic theology.