New Birth

What it means

The new birth is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit who makes spiritually dead sinners alive, granting a new heart and new life so that a person turns from sin and trusts Christ. Jesus taught Nicodemus that unless one is born again, born of water and the Spirit, he cannot see or enter the kingdom of God; this birth is from above, not from human effort or descent (John 3:3-8; John 1:12-13). By nature we are dead in trespasses, but God, being rich in mercy, makes us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5). This regeneration is the fulfillment of God's covenant promise to replace a heart of stone with a heart of flesh and to put His Spirit within His people (Ezekiel 36:26-27). The result is a new creation: the old has passed away and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17), evidenced by faith, repentance, and love.