This article is based on Pastor Adrian Rogers' message, Miracle Births.
The birth of any baby seems like a miracle to us. The birth of one particular baby, Jesus, who was laid in a manger in Bethlehem has been celebrated for two millennia. In truth, Jesus’ birth teaches us about at least three miracle births: the sinner’s birth, the Savior’s birth, and the second birth.
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:3-4).
It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, to be born into the natural world. Because all human beings are born into the natural world, we are bound to a sinful world.
Every boy and girl is born with a sinful nature. We are “by nature children of wrath.” (See Ephesians 2:3.) “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5).
If you want to know what evil every human being ever born is capable of, here it is: “Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like” (Galatians 5:19-21a). The problem is not what a man does, but what a man is.
A blind person in a room full of light still cannot see. Nicodemus was born into the natural, sinful world, so he was blind to the spiritual world. Jesus said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3b).
Nicodemus said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (John 3:2b). Nicodemus was right, but not completely. Jesus was more than a teacher come from God; He was God come to teach. Nicodemus did not understand he was meeting with the Messiah.
Why did Jesus Christ come to this Earth? Why the first Christmas?
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:14-16).
Christ was born for Nicodemus and for each one of us: sinners by nature, by birth, by practice, by choice; under condemnation and deserving judgment.
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God (John 3:17-18).
Had Jesus been born only as a man—like Nicodemus was, and like each one of us was—He would have been born into the natural world. He would have been bound to the sinful world, and blind to the spiritual world because He would have inherited the sin of Adam.
Christ was born of the Spirit of God and of the virgin Mary so that He would be sinless. He was sinless in order to die on the cross. He died on the cross to save His people. He became the Son of Man so that we might become sons of God the Father.
Jesus was born for us to have forgiveness of sins. Apart from the Virgin Birth, there no redemption and no hope. There is no way to know God apart from Christ.
Jesus came to restore us to what God made us to be.
To say you are “a born‑again Christian” is redundant. If you are a Christian, you have been born again. If you have not been born again, you are not a Christian. It is that plain.
The very name of Nicodemus means “superior.” He was a Jew, a member of the chosen race; he was a Pharisee, a ruler in the Sanhedrin. He tried to keep the commandments—yet Jesus said that he needed to be born again. If he had to be born again, so do we.
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:4-5).
In the Old Testament, water is a metaphor for the Word of God. When we are born again, there is the washing of regeneration.
Peter says we have “been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23).
We can preach truth, but only the Spirit of God can impart truth. When the Word of God and the Spirit of God come together, there is a new birth.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
When a birth takes place, a character is produced.
Why do we sin as we do? Because we are children of Adam. We share the character and nature of Adam before we are saved.
When we are born again, we get a new nature from our new parent. We become “partakers of the divine nature.” (See 2 Peter 1:4.) As a child of God, you will have the character and the nature of God.
What are the traits of the twice-born?
If you have no love for Jesus or love for the Word of God, you have good reason to doubt that you have been born again. If the nature of your heavenly Father is in you through the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, you will love what He loves—and He loves His own dear Son.
“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:16).
That witness of the Spirit is not an emotional experience. It is the awareness that you belong to Him. You cannot explain it, but you know it. Do you have that sweet assurance?
If you have been born again, you will have the nature of your father.
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 6:3b). And what kind of Spirit is He who comes to you? The Holy Spirit.
This means that not only will you have a love for Jesus; you will have a hatred for sin.
Does that mean that if you ever sin, you are not saved? No. But before you were saved, you were running to sin. Now you are running from it. When God saves you, He transforms you so that you cannot sin and enjoy it anymore.
Life wants to reproduce. If you have been born again, you will want to share the Lord Jesus Christ with other people.
But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God (John 3:1).
Nicodemus—as each of us—was born into the natural, sinful world. Jesus was born of a virgin so that Nicodemus might be born again. That is the meaning of Christmas.
John 3:2-21; Ephesians 2:3; Psalm 51:5; Galatians 5:19-21; 1 Peter 1:23; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 2 Peter 1:4; Romans 8:16; Isaiah 6:3
And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us” (Matthew 1:21-23).
Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments (1 John 5:1-2).
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons (Galatians 4:3-5).
