The Bible and the New Birth: An Expository, Somewhat Exhaustive, Discussion of What Jesus Meant When He Told Nicodemus, "You Must Be Born Again"

By Leon Stansfield

In our day of "easy believism" and a culture which is dominated by the philosophy of humanism, it becomes the church to clarify exactly what it means to believe in Jesus Christ. Jesus made clear that when he returns...

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. (Matthew 7:22-23)

The church needs to make clear in its presentation of the gospel and in its appeals to the hearers that to believe in Jesus is far more than a simple mental decision on the part of the listener. First, it means that the person has been drawn to God by the Holy Spirit. Second, it means that God has done the work of regeneration--the miracle of transforming a person from being a natural person born into the world to a spiritual person born into God's eternal kingdom.

Jesus said, "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die" (John 11:26).

At the heart of Jesus's discussion of the new birth is the following simple statement by Jesus which needs to be understood and experienced by anyone drawn by God's Spirit:

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)

When a person is born of the Spirit, it is the direct result of the work of the Spirit "blowing upon" him. He may realize immediately what has happened in him, or it may be sometime later that the newness of his inner being is recognized. But that he is a new creature will inevitably be obvious to the newborn believer. God has done it!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 27, 2023
• ISBN: 9798886165142

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The Bible and the New Birth

An Expository, Somewhat Exhaustive, Discussion of What Jesus Meant When He Told Nicodemus, You Must Be Born Again

Leon Stansfield

ISBN 979-8-88616-513-5 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88832-658-9 (hardcover)

ISBN 979-8-88616-514-2 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Leon Stansfield

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations used in this book are from the King James Version (KJV).

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

Introduction

You Must Be Born Again—An Exposition of John Chapter 3

New Testament Passages which Refer to Being Born Again by God's Power

New Birth in the Old Testament

Raising People from the Dead Physically and Spiritually

The Involvement of the Will of Each Person in Being Born Again

Edited and Abbreviated Summary of the Footnotes for The Bible and the New Birth

About the Author

To all those in my life who have influenced me to become who I am and what I have achieved in the long life given me by God.

My dear parents: Merriedith Earle Stansfield and Frances Ruby Stansfield (both deceased in their nineties).

My elementary teachers at Peninsula School in Portland, Oregon (kindergarten and first grade), and at Jerome Prairie School in Grants Pass, Oregon.

My high school teachers at Grants Pass High School (grade 9), at Eugene High School in Eugene, Oregon (grades 10 and the fall semester in grade 11), and at Medford High School in Medford, Oregon (grade 11 [spring semester] and grade 12).

My teachers at Bethany Bible College in Santa Cruz, California (freshman year).

My teachers at Southern Oregon State College (now SOU) during the ten-year period during which I completed my BS degree in elementary education.

My teachers at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon, where I completed the MEd degree in curriculum and instruction and where I later completed the Oregon Principal's Certificate.

My teachers at the Christian Life School of Theology (CLST) in the campus in Loveland, Colorado, as well as those teachers at the main campus (Columbus, Georgia), who supervised my distance learning program, by which I completed the MDiv degree late in my education career (2006).

All the educators who taught with me during the years I taught in public schools and, later, Christian schools.

All my fellow students at every level of my education and in all the locations I studied.

Finally and most importantly, I give thanks for the resurrection of my dead spirit (literally) by the God of the heavens and by Jesus Christ, who raised me from the dead spiritually when I was sixteen-year-old sophomore at Eugene High School who didn't know which way was up or what was really important in this brief time given me on this earth. Jesus Christ has taken all that my parents, my teachers, my fellow professionals, and my dear wife of fifty-six years gave me and has made it into something I believe has brought glory to his name. And I will continue to do so throughout eternity.

Soli Deo Gloria

Preface

Before we begin, let me address a special group of readers: those to whom the whole concept of being born again is completely new. Perhaps you attend a church where the new birth is never discussed or taught. Or perhaps you do not attend a church at all. Here is my suggestion regarding how you might want to approach the reading of this book.

Read chapter 1 completely. If you wish, read it a second time.

Then lay this book aside and read the entire gospel of John at least once.

If you are wanting to know what else is being said in this book, then return to this book and start again at chapter 1 and read the entire book.

If you sincerely wish to make the truth of being born again a personal experience, continue to seek God's grace and mercy until you find it real in your own life.

I have lived eighty-four years. I am somewhat on borrowed time, having been given more than the fourscore years as mentioned in the Bible (Psalm 90:10). Having lived and worked as a school teacher and school administrator in six states (Washington, Oregon, California, Montana, Colorado, and Maryland), my wife and I have attended regularly many different churches and denominations, including small, medium, large, and megachurches. We have listened to many preachers and Bible teachers. I have personally taught Bible in some of those churches. I have been a Bible student all of my Christian life, which began when I was sixteen years of age. In my senior years, with what seems like more time on my hands, I have made reading and study of the Bible a daily priority. I have earned a degree in Bible. I have written and published a major Bible curriculum including quizzes and summary tests for every book in the Bible. Read Thru The Word has been published and sold in the Christian school market since 2012 (www.readthrutheword.com). I am currently working with two assistants remotely online on the complete revision of that curriculum to make it more user-friendly and significantly improved for students (ages twelve to adult) and teachers of all ages. Based upon the long years of exposure to the Bible, which God has graciously permitted me to live, let me assure you that you can trust the Bible as a fully verified and authoritative book. It has been given to all mankind by the Creator himself. It is not the word of men but the very Word of God. The Bible's message is to all mankind. God has commanded all men and women everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). That means that you must recognize your own spiritual blindness and that you are worthy of death because your life has not measured up to God's standard of perfection. It is a matter of believing the gospel and putting your complete trust in the God of the Bible. In mercy and by grace, God has provided a way by which you may meet his perfect standard. It is a matter of the legal imputation of Christ's perfect righteousness in exchange for Jesus taking your sins and trespasses. God sent Jesus Christ to this earth—his only begotten Son—who was and is God in human flesh born to live the perfect life and die as the sinless Lamb of God. In his death and bodily resurrection, Jesus accomplished everything you need to be made acceptable to God through the following:

Your sins—past, present, and future—have all been paid for by the death of Jesus Christ.

In exchange for your sins, you received Christ's perfect righteousness on your account.

The blood of Jesus was all that God required to pay for your sins because you believe the gospel and choose to obey it by your repentance; it is a change of mind about your need for God and your turning from known sins and beginning to do all that you know God expects of you.

Your recognition that you will obey Jesus Christ and the gospel, not to earn any credit with God but in response and gratitude for what Jesus already did for you by his death and resurrection.

Another thing Jesus accomplished in his death was that he caused God to lay aside the wrath which had been stored up toward you for your sins, clearing your entire record of sins to zero.

Please read chapter 1.

Introduction

It is my purpose to write this book in a conversational tone so that it might seem that I am speaking to the reader privately about something which is, or should be, both very personal to every living person on earth and which you would want others to know about. I was born again by the grace and mercy of God when I was sixteen years of age. I was maturing from a boy into a man physically, mentally, and morally. Today, I am an eighty-four-year-old man whose life has been blessed in a multitude of ways, including especially being married to my dear wife for fifty-six years.

Jesus promised, Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die (John 11:26a).

It has taken a good share of my lifetime to fully understand, biblically, what I believe is the true meaning of being born again. It was what happened to me, not of my own doing, when I was sixteen and a sophomore at Eugene, Oregon, Senior High School. Because of my father's job transfer, we had just moved to the city of Eugene from my boyhood home at Grants Pass, Oregon. Then we moved again in the middle of my junior year to another large high school: the old Medford, Oregon, Senior High School where I graduated in June 1956.

My boyhood home was on a seventeen-acre dairy farm near Grants Pass. For about three years, I remember Dad calling up the stairs at us, two older brothers, early every morning telling us that it was time to head for the barn and milk our cows by hand. This morning routine continued for three years while I was in grades 7, 8, and 9. There were also Boy Scouts, 4-H Dairy Club, and other responsibilities and chores common in those days for country kids.

Our home was not what I would call a genuine Christian home. My mother affirmed during my teen years that she had received or accepted Jesus Christ into her heart when she was a young girl attending Sunday School in Long Beach, California. However, the inter-generational influence of Christian principles was far more evident in the way Dad and Mom trained and disciplined us three boys, than in the majority of American homes today. God used both my mother and father to be the essential instruments in our training and discipline; Mom was the primary one causing me to realize that the Bible was the key to eternal life. It was her influence within our home which eventually got our family into a Bible-teaching church. It was from that beginning that my interest in the things of the Spirit developed early in life and have had a strong influence in the direction my life has taken.

A key factor in the Christian life is the doctrine of the new birth. In fact, a person is not a true believer in Jesus Christ until and unless they have had the experience of being born again. There are, it seems, many ways in which churches today teach this doctrine. This book is written out of a lengthy concern that this doctrine be clearly and effectively communicated by anyone who intends to call people to follow Jesus Christ.

There are a number of common phrases—in regular use by many evangelical Christian pastors, evangelists, and teachers—by which they intend to communicate to listeners how to be born again. These phrases are all worded