Jesus said to Nicodemus:
"You must be born from above."
Being born from above means being born of the Spirit [see v8]. This rebirth comes through the Sacrament of Baptism. Unless we are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we shall never experience this rebirth, the state of being born again.
We are born first through our human mothers. This first birth gives us our humanity. This is the condition by which we share in the corporeality of everything else in the world: the animals, plants and minerals. Being corporeal or having physical bodies, we are subject to corruption, to decay, to death. We live for a limited time and then we die. We may experience happiness for a while but then our end comes and then we are forgotten.
But then through the Holy Spirit we experience spiritual rebirth and now we share in the Lord's divinity. This has happened because God made man, the Word made flesh, shared in our humanity, being born of a woman too, so that He may lift us up to the level of the spiritual, the divine [see vv14-15]. Through the incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, He sanctified the state of humanity, through His resurrection He prepared the body to be raised from the dead, and through our rebirth in the Holy Spirit, made our bodies as temples of the same Holy Spirit, and are assured of everlasting life and eternal joy [see v5].
The significance and necessity of being born from above, of the Sacrament of Baptism, has been emphasized through the great commission:
It was actually instituted by the Lord through His own baptism when He approached John the Baptizer who was hesitant at first but performed the act when He said that it was necessary to do all that righteousness demands [see Matthew 3: 13-17].
The following are some of the many other instances by which Baptism has been made an essential requirement to be reconciled to God and for membership into the Church: during Pentecost after Peter spoke and people asked as to what they should do and he told them they must repent and be baptized which resulted to about three thousand being baptized that day [see Acts 2: 38-41]; the baptisms conducted by the deacon Philip the Evangelist, first among the Samaritans including Simon Magus or Simon the Magician [see Acts 8: 5-17] and then the Ethiopian eunuch [see Acts 8: 26-39]; the baptism of Paul after his conversion [see Acts 9, particularly v19]; and more.
We must take note however that faith is required in order for baptism to be conferred upon an individual. In case of infants, this faith is supplied by the parents and godparents for as in our humanity we are generated by human parents, so in our spirituality we also receive through spiritual parents, first through our human parents and then by our godparents. For without faith it is impossible to please God [see Hebrews 11:6].
So being born from above - or born again - means to be baptized and become a new man through the Lord Jesus Christ. By this a person becomes a child of God [see John 1:12; Galatians 3:26; Romans 8:19], an heir of the Father's kingdom [see Galatians 4:7; Romans 8:17; 1 Peter 1:4], a sharer in the Lord's divinity and divine life [see Ephesians 4:13; 1 John 3:2; 2 Peter 1:4], a member of the Church [see Ephesians 5:30; 1 Corinthians 12: 12, 27; Romans 12:5]. And as such, one leaves behind the life of sin, renounces evil and the empty promises of the Devil, and acquires the name of Christian and totally conforms into the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But then through the Holy Spirit we experience spiritual rebirth and now we share in the Lord's divinity. This has happened because God made man, the Word made flesh, shared in our humanity, being born of a woman too, so that He may lift us up to the level of the spiritual, the divine [see vv14-15]. Through the incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, He sanctified the state of humanity, through His resurrection He prepared the body to be raised from the dead, and through our rebirth in the Holy Spirit, made our bodies as temples of the same Holy Spirit, and are assured of everlasting life and eternal joy [see v5].
The significance and necessity of being born from above, of the Sacrament of Baptism, has been emphasized through the great commission:
"Go to the ends of the earth
and make disciples of all nations
baptizing them
in the name of the Father
and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit"
[Matthew 28: 19].
The following are some of the many other instances by which Baptism has been made an essential requirement to be reconciled to God and for membership into the Church: during Pentecost after Peter spoke and people asked as to what they should do and he told them they must repent and be baptized which resulted to about three thousand being baptized that day [see Acts 2: 38-41]; the baptisms conducted by the deacon Philip the Evangelist, first among the Samaritans including Simon Magus or Simon the Magician [see Acts 8: 5-17] and then the Ethiopian eunuch [see Acts 8: 26-39]; the baptism of Paul after his conversion [see Acts 9, particularly v19]; and more.
We must take note however that faith is required in order for baptism to be conferred upon an individual. In case of infants, this faith is supplied by the parents and godparents for as in our humanity we are generated by human parents, so in our spirituality we also receive through spiritual parents, first through our human parents and then by our godparents. For without faith it is impossible to please God [see Hebrews 11:6].
So being born from above - or born again - means to be baptized and become a new man through the Lord Jesus Christ. By this a person becomes a child of God [see John 1:12; Galatians 3:26; Romans 8:19], an heir of the Father's kingdom [see Galatians 4:7; Romans 8:17; 1 Peter 1:4], a sharer in the Lord's divinity and divine life [see Ephesians 4:13; 1 John 3:2; 2 Peter 1:4], a member of the Church [see Ephesians 5:30; 1 Corinthians 12: 12, 27; Romans 12:5]. And as such, one leaves behind the life of sin, renounces evil and the empty promises of the Devil, and acquires the name of Christian and totally conforms into the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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