Born again?

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

The captain’s voice over the intercom informed us that the aircraft was reaching its cruising altitude and advised us that we should keep our seatbelts fastened due to turbulence. I adjusted my seat, leaned back and closed my eyes, hoping to catch a little sleep at the outset of another long flight.

My seatmate had initiated a bit of small talk prior to take-off and had remained quiet since then. I appreciated his sensitivity, because the last thing I need on any flight is a chatty seatmate. Quite suddenly, my seatmate cleared his throat the way some men do when they are about to say something serious. It seemed he wanted my attention. I slowly opened my eyes and glanced at him, hoping this was not the case. Looking straight at me, his expression pursed like a question mark, he asked me, “Are you born again?”

I was taken aback, as much by his question as by his intrusion. “I am a follower of Jesus,” I replied with an earnestness that I hoped would suffice. Somehow I knew he was the type of person who would press on toward defining my spiritual state in terms that satisfied him, so I also affirmed him for his faith and thanked him for his personal concern. I was on the final leg of a long, tiring trip and in no mood for any further discussion. However, he persisted. My seatmate could not help sharing the story of his life. So I listened.

Closing my eyes again after our conversation, I began thinking about his question. How is it that the term “born again” has risen to such defining prominence among some groups of Christians? In the Gospels, Jesus used the term “born again” on just one occasion, during a conversation with Nicodemus (John 3). It was a very provocative image describing how a person gains entry to the kingdom of God. To this day it remains a profoundly provocative image and a sometimes perplexing metaphor of salvation.

My seatmate’s experience of being “born again” was the decisively dramatic experience of conversion during a time when he was a down-on-his-luck, alcoholic, drug-using, divorced, suicidal businessman who had come to a dead end. He was one of those, like the apostle Paul, the Philippian jailer, St. Augustine, St. Patrick, John Newton, Malcolm Muggeridge and Chuck Colson, who come to a watershed moment in their lives, a decisive turning point, at which they let go of life as they know it in order to embrace Christ and the new life He offers. There is no doubt that my seatmate was a “new man”, totally transformed, passionately alive and in love with Christ.

I had felt put off by his initially intrusive question about my being “born again” because the term is so misused and misunderstood both by those who claim it and those who refrain from using it. But as my seatmate shared his story, I found myself praising the Lord for the miracle of Christ’s redemptive grace and transforming power. His was truly the story of a man on the brink of moral and spiritual death who was raised to new life in Christ. I’ve worked among many prisoners and people in crisis who have had just such experiences.

I’ve also worked among people who have come to faith in Christ unobtrusively, quietly, without drama and without crisis. For some, it’s been a surprising discovery, an awakening, to realize the presence of God in their lives; for others, it has been a logical progression in their search for meaning; for others, it has been the growing conviction of truth they can depend on; for still others, it has been a slow reawakening to the knowledge of God which they learned as children from their parents or their community of faith. These people are also “born again” in that, against the tide of sinful pride, their lives are being reshaped, renewed, reformed, rekindled and revived by the transforming power of the resurrected Christ. Like Andrew and Peter, they have heard the call of Jesus and turned to follow Him.

Ronald W. Nikkel is President of Prison Fellowship International based in Washington, D.C.