Rebirth according to John

I know there are many Christians who claim to be born-again, but this claim requires some questioning.  I have no desire to dispute their perception of new life within themselves, but rather how they understand that new life.  As I already discussed in my “On the subject of Rebirth” post, there are three different dimensions of rebirth.  To remind the reader, those three dimensions are sacramental, temporal, and eternal. 

What most people aren’t aware of when they claim to be born-again, is the condition John points out for those who actually are born of God; making an obvious reference to a temporal understanding for rebirth.  In his first letter John says; “No one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God.  (1 John 3: 9)  I’m relatively certain none of those people who claim to be born-again are also claiming the incapability of committing sin along with their proclamation of rebirth.  However, John’s statement requires fulfilling that precise condition in order for such a claim to actually be true.

I suspect in most of these cases these people have entered into a genuine personal awareness of God’s presence in their lives, and this presence has truly caused a perceivable change to how they live.  For obvious reasons this can be perceived as a new life, which wouldn’t be entirely mistaken.  Following the Church’s position that all life begins at conception, I would characterize this perception of new life as the conception (or beginning) of their new life in Christ.  Rebirth could follow, but only when they reach the spiritual maturity of becoming incapable of committing sin.  Between this conception and temporal rebirth there is a great distance of time with much work to be done.
 

For more on the subject buy: “A Layman’s Journey: In Search of Spirituality.”