The Meaning of Born-Again

Many proudly declare, I am saved, but fail to understand that to be saved means they must be born-again. John the beloved had a close relationship with Jesus. He knew who Jesus was from the start. Because he knew and loved Jesus, he realized why God came down. It was so that mankind could have a second chance at life - to be born-again. That entails the sacrifice of the old creature, and becoming a new creation. That event is rebirth.

Nicodemus, a Pharisee, asked Jesus what it means to be born-again. It bothered me because Jesus seemed to never answer the question. He seemed to just ask more questions. As a Pharisee, Nicodemus, "a master of Israel" (John 3:10) knew Holy Scripture, and Jesus knew that he did. In effect, Nicodemus was allowed to answer his own question!

I've read John 3 hundreds of times. I have looked intensely for what it means to be born-again. Of course, I believe I have been, but I wanted to make sure I had not missed the experience. Strangely, unlike Nicodemus, I missed the point. I always skipped over the most important part of Jesus's explanation: "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of God be lifted up."

Nicodemus, I believe, saw the light! He surely considered the serpent and knew what it meant. If he did not, he was an unlearned Pharisee. Let's examine what Nicodemus considered as Jesus was challenging him. Let us also be challenged.

Let's look at it so as to understand because it is a matter of life and death!

John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up...19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.²¹ But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

John 3 is the place where the rebirth is revealed. Of course, the most famous is John 3:16 which I intentionally left out in the passages above. Why? I wanted to focus on our own status - we don't deserve to be saved.  We cannot approach God with the attitude, I deserve salvation because I'm me. Furthermore, even after we are born-again, we still deserve to die... forever.

First off, let's recount the story of the fiery serpent because Jesus thought that important enough to include in His explanation of the new birth.

Numbers 21: 6 And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. 7 Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. 8 And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. 9 And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Of course the serpent represents Satan. Don't blame the serpent in the Garden of Eden. It was Satan who was in that tree speaking through the snake. As a mouthpiece for evil, the serpent was humbled. It's punishment was to crawl on it's belly ever after (Genesis 3:14).

God "saved" the people from Egypt by water. As the waters parted by divine intervention, the Israelites were saved. None deserved being freed from bondage but by grace, God provided safety on the other shore. They were then "safe" but not "saved". Soon afterwards they longed for Egypt again, and the relative comfort it provided. They looked back favorably at the bondage they were once in, and longed for it.

As a punishment for their lack of gratitude, God sent "fiery serpents" which bit the people. Those were poisonous snakes. The "poison" represents sin. It wasn't the poison in the snakes venom which killed the rebellious ones but sin. God once warned: If you sin you will die. (Genesis 2:17). The people sinned, they were bitten by the serpent, just as Adam and Eve were, and like Adam and Eve they died. However, unlike their predecessors, God was fed up with these ungrateful people. He didn't protect them, and as such, the consequences of rebellion was death!

All of the Israelites deserved death. Even the ones who were not bitten, still admitted, "We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us." My dear readers, that is the sinners prayer! The first step in being born-again is "recognition". God convicted the Israelites by punishment. The survivors were convinced - if I don't; confess my sins and seek salvation, I will certainly die! They had just witnessed the power of sin. It kills just as God warned centuries before. The Israelites needed convincing, and God convinced them! Hence, the "evil' snake. once a tool of Satan, was put to good use by God.

Firstly, he used the snake to convict the Israelites of their sins. They acknowledged their guilt, being convinced that justice would be served. Confession is the next step after conviction and convinced, in the new birth. After they confessed, and said the sinners prayer, surely in sincerity, they asked Moses to pray for their "safety". Moses then prayed for them. Moses, symbolic of the Father, lifted up "Jesus" for these sinners.

Moses wasn't the mediator in reality. He knew the promise. It was no secret - salvation was always by grace and by faith in Jesus. Scripture validates that it wasn't Moses who interceded but his prayer to the Word - Jesus Christ:

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus...

In other words, it was by faith in Jesus that saved both Moses and his "household".

Galatians 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. 

The Israelites were kept safe by the faith of Moses. He was in charge. He mentored faith. As such, those in his charge were made safe from sin.  The next step in being born-again is realizing that they had no power over sin. They turned to Moses to intervene with God for them. They recognized that God had he power to save them from the serpent's poison. These Israelites had a little faith. That's all it takes to be born-again.

Notice that it was fear of dying which turned their hearts. They wanted to save their wretched selves, knowing full well that they deserved to die like the others. Those who died are symbolic of the unrepentant thief on the cross beside Jesus. Those who came to Moses were representative of the contrite thief. All it took for that thief to be in Paradise was his faith in the blood of Jesus. He was shackled and nailed so that he could do nothing to save himself so he turned to God for mercy. That is the next step in being born-again - faith is Jesus Christ.

Remember, Moses was not Jesus! However, he was God's representative and messenger. He stood in for Jesus. Where was Jesus? He was there in Spirit and in Truth (John 4:24)!

The Lord - pre-incarnate Jesus told Moses what to do. When God spoke in Scripture, it was the Word who became flesh who spoke. Jesus, as God was to be "called", spoke to Moses. He assumed the status of Emmanuel - God with us.

God was merciful. He had a plan to make the Israelites safe from sin. He instructed Moses to put all their sins on a pole. Jesus Himself was represented by the serpent on that pole. He was there rather than all the snakes on the ground! He was "a fiery serpent", and that poison which was used to kill the Israelites was put up high. That was so the snake bore the sins (fieriness) which could kill them all. Ironically, Jesus, just like the snake, was humble - a servant to all. The snake's crawling on the ground, in this case, represented the humility of Jesus. The serpent was a substitute for Jesus. He served mankind by hanging from that pole. Likewise, the serpent on the pole was a type of Adam. It was he who was responsible for sin, and Jesus who was able to cancel it!

The snake propitiated for that service was a made of brass - technically copper, which represents several things: It is a symbol of insensibility and obstinacy in sin ( Isaiah 48:4 ; Jeremiah 6:28 ; Ezekiel 22:18 ), and of strength ( Psalms 107:16 ; Micah 4:13 ); from biblestudytolls.com.

Obviously the "brass" represented Jesus power over sin. A step in being born-again is recognizing that Jesus has the power to overcome sin but we sinners do not! It was not a man which Moses placed on high but a symbol of lowliness. It wasn't a king who saved the sinners but a servant. When sinners are born-again, they accept the service of Jesus. It is the power of Jesus which provides life.

The brass represented that power:

Hebrews 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

Brass, their copper, is red. It represented the blood of Jesus! To be born-again, sinners must accept Jesus's blood propitiation for their sins:

Romans 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. 

To be made safe, we put our trust in Jesus, as the Israelites did with the serpent on the pole. They had faith in that bright-shining serpent in the face of deadly vipers. Just like Jesus did for us, the serpent took on sin to defeat sin. The Israelites were redeemed by the symbolic blood on the pole, just as we were by Jesus on His tree.

What do we do to be made safe? Let the serpent on that pole redeem us - allow Jesus to redeem us! As the Israelites had faith in the copper snake and its power, we quit depending on ourselves and let Jesus make us safe! Note that the fiery snakes were still down there and biting but their venom was no longer effective. The Israelites were kept safe by their faith as the serpents (demons) spewed fiery darts.

Ephesians 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

The wicked were the serpents on the ground (in the world). Unlike the brass serpent, those treacherous snakes were of flesh. The flesh kills, but the blood saves. There is power in the brass and power in the blood!

You see, it was faith in the efficacy of the brass serpent which provided safety to the Israelites, and it is faith in the blood which protects Christians from the fiery darts of the wicked ones. Those slimy serpents were still being used for Satan's purpose - to kill off the Israelites whose seed would become Savior! God saved the Israelites that day for a purpose - to serve Him. Jesus saves us for the same purpose - to serve Him!

Therefore, those born-again are reborn to serve Jesus.

Mark 10:44 And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. 45 For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Committing to serving Jesus is the crowning at our rebirth. Just as Jesus was King even as a servant, we are "crowned" by serving Jesus and others. That new person reborn is one who loves enough to serve Jesus and others. Being born-again is assuming the role of servant to Jesus Christ. That means for Christians to step above the vipers and follow the Cross - symbolized by the pole.

With the power of the brass snake, the serpent's fiery bite was no longer killing. Rather than standing up by the pole, the Israelites could have served the serpents by crawling on the earth with them - thus emulating their flesh. However, they rose above the temptation to cling to the world. Their eyes were higher than that. They kept their eyes on the brass serpent, and walked in safety. It was looking at the brass serpent which kept them safe. That's the same for us! If we keep our eyes on Jesus, our safety is assured.

The Israelites obeyed Moses. They looked on the serpent above and stepped on the ones crawling. If they did glance down, all they needed to do was to look up at the brass serpent on the pole again, and be made safe. It took diligence and perseverance to keep their eyes up there. We are called to do that as well. Moses didn't ask them to look up once, then quit looking. Scripture says, " It shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live."

Like the Israelites, we are to keep on looking! It's not a one-time event but for all time - the remainder of our days. That means change. We quit looking at sin in the world and being of the flesh, and look at the Spirit of Jesus up above. He keeps us safe but we have a responsibility to keep on looking. That is enduring faith, and that's what makes us safe until in the end, when we are saved!