According to Jesus, the church is filled with what he called “tares.” A tare is a weed that resembles wheat until harvest time. Then the difference is evident: tares bear no grain. Jesus said that God will remove the weeds from the kingdom of God at the judgment, leaving only the wheat. Can we know for sure if we have been truly born again and are not a false believer, a tare?
The good news is that, not only do we have the four keys that I covered in the previous article, but also, if we are born again, we know it. In other words, the new birth is self-authenticating.
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Romans 8:16 (NKJV)
Born-again people know in their hearts that they are children of God because the Holy Spirit acts as an inner witness. If we are not sure about it, perhaps we are not yet born again.
However, before going farther, let me acknowledge that many who have grown up in Christian families and believed in Jesus from a very young age cannot point to a defining conversion experience. I have heard many say that they have “always believed,” meaning that as far back as they can remember they have believed in God and Jesus. Nevertheless, all born-again people have the inner witness of God’s Spirit testifying that they are God’s children.
My conversion experience gave me a clearly defined timeline describing what I was like before the new birth and and after it. Although I grew up with a certain familiarity with the Bible, being Roman Catholic, no one ever shared the gospel message to me. I did not know that it is possible to interact with God. I did not understand that I could invite the Lord Jesus to come live inside me. I did not know that the Holy Spirit would open my heart to “see” by faith that Jesus is all that the Bible says he is. I did not realize I could know that I have been eternally forgiven and part of God’s family. I was not aware that eternal life begins when we are born again and my spirit is united with God’s. This is because I grew up in a religious system that keeps people in a continual state of suspense regarding their eternal destiny and teaches them to relate to church authorities instead of directly to God. (If you wish to read more about how the Roman Catholic Church leads people astray from the real gospel, click here.)
I remember sharing with my wife’s father, a lifelong Catholic, just before he died that he could know for sure that he is forgiven. I explained to him that Jesus took our sins upon himself so that we will never have to face judgment for them (Romans 5:24). I further pointed out that Jesus gives us eternal life right now. We don’t have to wait until we die to know we have it. John the beloved disciple who was close to Jesus’ heart wrote the following:
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:13 (NASB)
If your church or religion keeps you in the dark regarding your eternal destiny, it is not the true gospel!
My wife’s father suddenly understood for the first time in his life just how great a gift is the real gospel! He believed and received everything Jesus had for him that morning sitting at our kitchen table. That afternoon I commented that he seemed happy, and he told me that he should be because something big happened to him that day! A week later he crossed the threshold into eternity, having full confidence as to where he stood with God. He could mark the day he was born again. I look forward to one day being greeted by him at heaven’s gates.
Likewise, my conversion was just as clear cut. I transitioned from being a doubting seeker to a confirmed believer in an instant of Holy Spirit revelation. God mercifully removed the blinders from my eyes so I could finally see Jesus for who he truly is – the risen Son of God. In that instant I was born again. Everything from then on in my life would be different, and that was in 1971. This is 2024. You do the math. This was no flash-in-the-pan emotional experience. I have no doubt that I have been born again because the new birth is self-authenticating. My father-in-law knew that his life was different. The same thing happened to my wife when she was born again. We do not wonder if we are saved. We know.
Before a person is born again, he or she cannot understand what the new birth is.
It is only afterward that we gain understanding. In other words, we cannot figure out what the new birth is without receiving it. We cannot reason our way into the experience because it is Holy Spirit generated. This should not surprise us. Jesus did not come to scratch the itching intellect, but to fill the hungry heart. When we believe and obey, God opens our understanding.
Great learning and Bible knowledge can lead us to Jesus, but it cannot open the gate into eternal life. Only revelation by the Spirit can do that.
God’s Spirit opens the “eyes of our heart” to see who Jesus truly is, bringing us into a faith relationship with him. This is why people say that Christianity is a relationship, not a religion. We become God’s true children through the new birth. We are able to relate to God directly as a result of the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13 (NASB)
The Holy Spirit enters every born again child of God, becoming his or her source of life and power.
The secret of the New Covenant is that God lives his life through us.
This all happens when we see Jesus by revelation and believe on him in our hearts, declaring him to be our Lord. It’s called the new birth. Because Christianity is relational and revelational, one’s intellectual capacity is not the primary consideration. That is why children can easily come to Christ. They are not restricted by the acquired cynicism and skepticism found in many adults. Their hearts tend to be more open and receptive to revelational truth and God.
Because the new birth must be experienced in order to be understood, Jesus’ purpose in his conversation with Nicodemus was to create a hunger to experience this for himself.
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 “Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:5-8 (NASB)
Here Jesus explains that to enter the kingdom of God, one must have two births, a natural one and a spiritual one. Then he acknowledges that the new birth is mysterious and entirely dependent on the sovereign activity of God’s Spirit.
Conclusion
The self-authentication of the new birth comes from the Holy Spirit. Whether or not we can mark a particular new birth experience or not, we should know for sure that we are born again. Using the four keys in my previous article will help, but ultimately we have an inner “witness” from the indwelling Holy Spirit.
For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, Romans 8:15-16 (ESV)
If you do not have this inner knowledge that you are God’s child, I encourage you to seek God until you do.
Prayer
Jesus, I want to know you in the way I read about in the Bible. Please come into my life and be my lord and savior. I give myself to you. Please forgive my sins and the way I have lived independently from you all these years. From now on, I belong to you. Holy Spirit, open my spiritual eyes, unstop my ears, and heal my hardened heart so I can see, hear, and believe God’s words. Reveal Jesus to me, so that I can behold him and be born again. I depend on you to do this. I will not give up until you answer my prayer, which I know you will. Thank you. Amen.
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. John 6:37 (NKJV)
