Jesus Was Born So You Can Be Reborn
Matthew and Luke give us the historical accounts of Jesus' birth, but in the first eighteen verses of John's gospel, we see the cosmic perspective of the incarnation.
In the first post of this series we discovered that Jesus was there in the beginning of all things—with God and as God—serving as the agent of creation through whom everything was made. In the second post, we saw that in Jesus was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. This was no ordinary baby. He was ordinary in His humanity—fully human as you and I are—but He was also Emmanuel, God with us: fully God and fully man.
As John continues his cosmic narrative, we learn that Jesus was born into this world so that you could be reborn (born of God) into who you were truly created to be!
The True Light Comes Into the World
"The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world." (Jn 1:9)
The "true light" is Jesus. As the One who exists outside the bounds of time, space, and matter, He was coming into this dark world to bring light to everyone living in it.
As the true Light, Jesus reveals who God is. He also exposes the darkness we're in, revealing our sin nature and how it separates us from God, leaving us in spiritual darkness and lacking abundant life. Yet even as He exposes that darkness, He simultaneously reveals that He is the way out—the path to real change and the abundant life we were created to experience.
A World That Didn't Recognize Him
"He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him." (John 1:10)
When John says "He was in the world," the Greek verb tense indicates a continuous state. As the eternal Son of God, Jesus has always been here, but now He was coming in a more direct way through the incarnation—entering the world as the God-man, fully God and fully man. He was coming into the world He had made.
But not everyone recognized Him. The Greek word "ginosko" means not only to recognize or perceive, but to acknowledge as one's own. John is saying that people didn't acknowledge Jesus as the True Light. They didn't come to know Him in a relational or experiential way. The people of the world continued to walk in darkness rather than welcome the light into their lives.
Unfortunately, many people continue to do the same today.
Rejected by His Own
"He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him." (Jn 1:11)
Who was "His own"? The Jewish people—the nation of Israel. God had made Israel His people, the nation through whom He would reveal Himself to the world. They knew God. They knew the prophecies about the Messiah, the Rescuer and Redeemer foretold by the prophets.
But John says even they didn't receive Him. The word "received" here means "to take to oneself" or "to receive as being a part of your life." They made a conscious decision to reject Jesus as their Messiah. They had formed their own ideas of what the Messiah would be, and rather than be open to where His Light was shining, they rejected Him as the way, the truth, and the life.
This was a tragedy that deeply affected Jesus. In Matthew 23:37, He laments:
"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing."
God had walked with the Jewish people for centuries—leading them out of slavery, into the promised land, bringing them back from captivity, providing for them, caring for them, giving them instruction, and promising that one day a light would shine on those living in darkness. That light was here, and they were not willing to come to Him and receive Him.
The Gift of Becoming God's Children
"Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." (John 1:12)
But John doesn't leave us in tragedy. Even though His own people largely didn't receive Him and the world didn't know Him, some did—and that changed everything.
The word "right" here speaks of authority and power. John is saying these people have been given full authority to the exalted title of children of God. To be a child of the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-wise, holy and magnificent God of the universe—to have Him as Father, to be in His family and have rights to the family inheritance—this is no small statement.
Notice that John says "become." To become children of God means they were not His children before. Many of us assume all people are children of God. While God is the creator of all people, that doesn't mean all are His children—part of His family with authority to the family's inheritance. Sin separates us from a holy and perfect God. We are removed from the family because of sin.
Yet some were able to become children of God despite being sinners. How?
It Was a Gift
Look at how John says, "He gave." It was a gift, not something they earned. They didn't achieve "Child of God" status through performance. But like any gift, they had to receive it.
The gift, of course, was Jesus—the gift of Christmas.
They Received Through Belief
"They believed in His name." In ancient times, a person's name expressed their whole being—who they were. To believe in His name means to put your trust in who Jesus is and what He did.
First, to believe in His name is to believe that Jesus is God—the Word, the True Light and Life of the world.
Second, it means believing in what He accomplished. As Jesus hung on the cross, He declared "It is finished." All the work necessary to pay the penalty for sin had been accomplished through His death and resurrection three days later.
When people believed in His name, they were believing He was God, the Messiah sent to rescue them from their sins, and that He accomplished what was necessary to do so. Through believing, they received the gift God was offering: the right to become children of God and share in the family inheritance.
Born of God
"children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God." (John 1:13)
How did they become God's children? They were born of God.
Theologians call this regeneration—the act of God imparting spiritual life. This is necessary because we are all spiritually dead due to our sinful nature. But the moment you believe in Jesus' name for salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in you and unites with your spirit, making you spiritually alive again.
You are born of God. You are a new creation in Christ. You are not who you once were. You have been changed into someone different. You now have His spiritual DNA running through you.
Rankin Wilbourne uses Spider-Man in his book Union with Christ to illustrate this change. Batman has external gadgets that make him Batman, but Spider-Man is different. Peter Parker was bitten by a radioactive spider, and his nature was changed. He had new power within him as part of him. He was no longer just a man—he was changed into Spider-Man.
The moment someone believes in Jesus' name, the Holy Spirit from outside enters and changes your nature at the core of your being.
Your New Nature in Christ
These people who believed in Jesus weren't just legally adopted into God's family—some heavenly form stamped to grant legal family status. No, they were changed at the core of their being so that they were by nature now part of God's family.
That is exactly what happens the moment you believe in Jesus' name and receive His free gift of salvation. If you have put your faith in Jesus and His finished work on the cross to rescue you from your sins, you are by nature now part of God's family. You have been changed. You are not who you once were. You no longer have a sin nature. You have been made holy and righteous. You are accepted and blameless before Him.
This new nature is filled with the spiritual fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You don't have to walk around trying to change yourself into someone loving, joyful, patient, and kind with self-control. You just need to believe that what God says about you is true—that you've been born of God, that you have His spiritual DNA running through you. You are loving in Christ, patient in Christ, and have self-control in Christ. Now you're simply learning how to exercise the patience and self-control that are already part of your new nature.
An Invitation
If you have trusted in Jesus, cling to that phrase in John 1:13—you have been "born of God." As someone born of God, you've been changed into a child of God with your Heavenly Father's DNA as your new nature, flowing out in your actions, speech, and behavior.
If you haven't ever believed in Jesus' name—if you haven't received Him as John described—would you do so today?
John says the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He came into His world for you, to bring you out of your spiritual darkness and into His wonderful light. If you'll believe in His name today and in His finished work on the cross to forgive your sins, you too will be born of God in that moment and made into His child, belonging to His family.
