You Must Be Born Again !!!

You must be born again !! Come on ! I command you! Be born again! ....what's wrong with you?

I told you - You MUST be born again !!! .....Try harder! Be wise enough to be born again! Come on ! Use that free will that makes you born again !! ........ YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!

Feel encouraged now ?

Of course not.

This would have to possibly one of the most quoted passages from the bible in the world, yet sadly misapplied. It is frequently used in churches to induce decisions by people and I believe it misses the point of the passage this verse is taken from. When most churches use it(mostly sincerely) they nonetheless use it with a massive dose of guilt and obligation heaped upon the recipient.

"You must be born again'' is taken from John chapter 3 : verses 1 - 10. Verses 5-8 specifically speak of the idea of being 'born again'. In most modern day churches this verse is simply ripped out of this passage without any explanation of the context and used as a strong command for people to do something. For many years i did not look at this passage with any real depth, mostly as i was still blinded by my past church culture's accepted and enforced view of this passage.

It's only in fairly recent times that i was able to critically look at this idea of being 'born again'. Why is the notion of being born again used? If Jesus was wanting to command us to do something he could have used a more appropriate term like ''You must commit your life to me!".

But the use of the term 'born again' is there for a reason. How many of us decided that our parents would 'get together' and make us? What say did you have in their conception of you? None! None whatsover!!.......Try all you want and you cannot make yourself be born simply by deciding to. And how many of us (as in verse 8) know exactly where the wind is coming from and going to for any real length of time? Not too many i would think.

Far from being a command John's ''You must be born again'' can only be about hope - that the way to know God is not dependent on us at all. It's ALL ABOUT GOD'S GRACE! And not our effort!

It is not a command but simply a FACT! And in Christ humanity IS Born Again!