The Jesus Mission

Believers often ask me how they can know if they have been born again. Again we will rely on the words of Jesus, who answered this in general terms in His talk with Nicodemus. He said, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). In other words, even though you may not be able to pinpoint exactly when or how your new birth came about, if it has happened, there will be evidence (just as hearing the wind is evidence that there is a wind). Also, your life choices will be directed by God’s Spirit rather than your own desires. You will gain a growing hunger for God’s Word. You will gain a growing desire to know God more intimately. You will gain a growing desire to follow Christ by learning what He said and striving to do it. These qualities are produced and sustained only by the new nature that is birthed when you are born again.

Does this mean you will overcome your self-centeredness and will no longer be attracted to sin? Absolutely not! But it does mean that the direction of your will and life has changed. You have done the about-face of repentance, and your faith and trust in the Lord Jesus and His guidance will continue to grow.

Jesus also compared people who had been born again to the branches of a vine. He said, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, nkjv). The person who is born again experiences an intimate relationship with Christ—one in which he or she is “in Christ” and Christ is in the person. The result is that the person “bears much fruit.” It can be the fruit of obedience or the fruit that comes from yielding to the leading and promptings of the Holy Spirit. It can mean the “fruit of the Spirit,” which Paul defines as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22–23). It would include the fruits of extraordinary forgiveness, mercy, and generosity. It would include a heart of gratefulness and a desire to serve others. And of course, it would include the fruit of sharing your testimony of Christ and the good news of the gospel with the people God brings across your path.

This brings up the question, what about a person who appeared to be born again—who was on fire for Christ for a number of years—and then cooled off and no longer bears fruit? Is that person born again? My answer is this: only God knows. And none of us should play God. I would direct such a person to Matthew 7:19–27 and John 15 and 1 John 2. Then I would leave the rest to the Holy Spirit.

Last but not least, the apostle John mentions one way that you can know beyond any shadow of doubt that you have been born again. In 1 John 2:3–6, we read, “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, ‘I have come to know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked” (nasb).

A person who is wondering if he or she is truly born again can know that he or she has trusted Christ. The ultimate proof is that a person is keeping the commands of Christ. This would include not only Jesus’ commands that are recorded in the New Testament but also promptings that a person receives from the Holy Spirit to do God’s will in any given situation. John wrote, “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:6–7).

John is not saying that the people who have come to know Christ will be free of sin. To the contrary, he tells us that we will continue to struggle with sin during the remainder of our earthly lives (see 1 John 1:8). But while we will struggle with sin, the direction of our Christian lives has changed. We do an about-face, from ignoring Jesus’ commands to following them more and more consistently. A person who is born again will follow Christ, embracing the truth and values of Christ and walking in the light of those truths rather than in darkness.

When I have preached on Matthew 7:21–27, people have asked me, “If these people who called Jesus ‘Lord’ and worked miracles weren’t born again, how can I ever know if I’m truly born again? I have never worked any miracles like they did.” The answer is found in Christ’s declaration. He used the word lawlessness (nkjv) to characterize their lives. In other words, though they performed miracles through the power of faith, their lives and behavior were defined by lawlessness and sin rather than by righteousness and a lifestyle of following Jesus’ teachings.

—Steven K. Scott

Excerpted from The Jesus Mission by Steven K. Scott by permission of WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.