Jesus answered and said unto him [Nicodemus], “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, ‘Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:3)
Marvel not that I said
unto thee, “Ye must be born again.” (John 3:7)
In the
context of these two passages, Jesus is confronted by a Pharisee named
Nicodemus, who approaches Him secretly at night. Jesus immediately tells Nicodemus that, to be
right with God, he “must be born again.”
This then leads to a discussion where Jesus is contrasting physical things and spiritual things. However, Nicodemus just doesn’t seem to get
it and he stays stuck in the “physical” mindset (3:4), while Jesus’ point
about being born again is about the spiritual
realm (3:8). Thus, the
statement, “You must be born again” is a spiritual concept.
The word
“must” is a strong word, especially when used by Jesus Christ. The implication here is, you MUST be
born again IF you want to go to Heaven.
And who doesn’t? It seems that
everyone (at least outside the atheist camp) wants to go to Heaven.
But the
question is how? How is one born again? What does it really mean? I know that Protestants use the term all the
time. But why is it that when witnessing
to Catholics, it happens very often that they have no idea what Protestants are
talking about? You can see that, amongst
many Catholics, there is confusion and there are misconceptions about what
“born again” means. As an example, see the
first five minutes of this video:
It seems
that Catholics very seldom use the term “born again,” but Catholic apologists
will insist that it is just referring to water baptism. But whatever it means, we have to recognize
that these words are coming from Jesus Christ, and we have to recognize His emphasis
on the term – and that whatever it is, it is a must and not a suggestion!
The Fathers
Ok, so how
can we find out what Jesus really meant when He said “born again” in John
3:3 and 3:7? The Catholic
Church stresses that the early church fathers were unanimous in the belief that “born again” means that one is
forgiven/saved/regenerated by the very act of being baptized in water.
Personally,
I am very limited when it comes to the beliefs of the early church fathers, so
I will leave this topic to those who are much more qualified. But for those who think that the fathers were
indeed “unanimous” on the concept of baptismal regeneration (as the great
majority of Catholic apologists claim), see this article:
Catholics
seem to believe that no one can argue with the early church fathers because a
few of them lived at the time of the apostles’ students and their students’
students. They’ll say that if anyone knew what Jesus or the apostles
taught, it had to be these guys.
But my
question is why stop there? The church
fathers were not infallible, so they
are not the final word! Why not go all the way back to the words of Jesus,
Himself, and His apostles – the words we find in Scripture? If what the
fathers said does not line up with the Scriptures, or gives a perverted view of
them, then we need to reject their views.
If there was
a bank robbery in your town and the police needed the facts, whose word would
be more trusted, first-hand witnesses
(the ones who were actually there at that exact time) or some third- or
fourth-hand account?
Furthermore,
IF it is found that the early church fathers happen to be wrong, does any
Catholic think that he can simply blame THEM on Judgment Day?: “Lord, I didn’t
know! The Church told me to trust in
what THEY said, since they were close to the time of the apostles, so it’s
THEIR fault for telling us the wrong things!”
Yes, these
so-called church fathers will indeed be accountable for any wrong teachings
they may have spread. But it is each
person’s responsibility to search the Scriptures, not the fathers, to see what
God wants from us (Acts 17:11). I’m not
saying that the fathers were wrong on everything they taught, but I am saying
that they were fallible in everything
they taught. But the Scriptures are
indeed infallible in everything they
teach (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
God Looks At the Heart (Not the
Ritual)
According to
the apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 11:27-31), a person must have the right
disposition (attitude, temperament, frame of mind) when receiving
communion. And we believe the same
mindset applies to water baptism, as well.
These church ordinances must not be trivialized.
The Catholic
Church will agree with this. According
to the Catechism of the Catholic Church,
a person partaking of the sacraments (including baptism) must have the correct
disposition beforehand (See CCC #1131 and CCC #1388).
So, both
Protestants and Catholics agree that a person’s heart has to be right before he is baptized. Therefore, without the right state of the heart,
the ritual is useless! Catholics will say that both the disposition
and the ritual are necessary for salvation. Ok, but what if a person has the right heart
and is on his way to be baptized, but is run over by a Mack truck before he can
get to the church?
Catholics
will say, “But he had the ‘baptism of desire’ and he intended to get baptized (CCC #1259), so God will be merciful to
him.” Well, we Protestants would agree! But again, this just proves that water
baptism is actually not mandatory.
More proof
of that is demonstrated by the Catechism where it will point out that God is
not bound by sacraments/rituals (CCC #1257).
Well, (most) Protestants would agree, yet in this very same paragraph of the Catechism it states again that baptism
IS necessary for salvation! Ok, so which
is it? Is the ritual of water baptism
necessary for a person to be saved or not?
This is an obvious contradiction in the same paragraph.
Now, I’m not
saying that water baptism is a bad thing.
As I said earlier, it should not be trivialized. It is something that God expects us to do, and
we should indeed honor Him in doing it, because it is a way of expressing our
commitment to Him. But baptism is for
those who are already saved.
Grace vs. Merit
According to
the Catholic Church, water baptism is a “sacrament,” which is described as
something that “merits” grace (Canon
XXXII, Council of Trent). But
according to Scripture, grace, by
definition, is something that CANNOT be merited:
“And if by grace, then
is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more
grace: otherwise work is no more work.” (Romans 11:6)
Again, there
is no such thing as “meriting grace.”
Therefore, none of those seven things that Catholics call “sacraments”
are meritorious toward salvation.
So how does one actually receive grace? Is it through sacraments, rituals, or good
works – or is it some other way?
“Surely He scorneth the
scorners: but He giveth grace unto the lowly.” (Proverbs 3:34)
“… God resisteth the
proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” (James 4:6)
“… for God resisteth
the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” (1 Peter 5:5)
Starting to
see a pattern here? The Bible tells us
that we receive grace through true humility,
not by earning it or by some sort of “meriting.” It is exactly the opposite. Grace is given to the humble, not to the one who performs sacraments
or any other kind of works in order to try to merit his way to Heaven, giving him reason to boast.
The Catholic
Church loves to re-define words like “merit,” and loves to play these semantic
games that turn scriptural concepts on their head! And they will indeed have to answer to God
for that.
The Hard Lesson of the Galatians
But let’s
say for just a moment that we concede that water baptism actually saves a person. Ok, so what happens when this baptized person
sins after baptism (and he certainly
will)? Since it is baptism itself that saves (in the mind of the Catholic), then must
he be re-baptized after every sin?
Catholics
will say no, and that he must do something else. He must now go to confession, receive
communion, do penance, etc., and then these
things will cause him to stay in God’s favor through merit.
Apparently, in
Catholic teaching, one thing (baptism) saves you, then other things (rituals like confession to a priest, communion, and
penance) will keep you saved.
But the
Bible tells us that there is ONE thing that both saves us and keeps us,
and that thing is our faith in the
person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross:
“O foolish Galatians,
who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes
Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, received ye
the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish, having begun in the
Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3)
Note here
that the term “made perfect by the flesh” refers to man’s attempts to earn
Heaven through his good works, and the term “by the hearing of faith”
of course refers to one’s faith/believing/trusting in Jesus.
Furthermore,
Paul forcefully rebuked the Galatians because Jesus Christ was preached to them
and plainly set forth before their eyes as the One who suffered for all sins
and the One who paid the full penalty for all men. So Paul is emphatic: there is no room for
works that are salvific (including baptism)!
Paul calls
the Galatians foolish because they
gave in to the ungodly Judaizers (Acts 15:1; Galatians 2:4) who
thought they could add their works to the suffering and work of Christ on the
cross. In this way, the Galatians
rejected the original gospel that Paul preached to them, incurring a curse on
themselves! (Galatians 1:8-9)
Conclusion
So according
to the Catholic Church, it seems that Jesus SHOULD HAVE SAID in John
3:3, “You must partake of the sacraments to be saved.” But that’s not at all what He said or
implied. There are no sacraments in the
Bible because there are no works or rituals that can merit salvation.
Wouldn’t it
make more sense for Jesus to simply address the
heart of man, thus pointing to the meaning of “born again”? Being born again is not a sacrament or
ritual, but it is your heart being honest with God, recognizing your sin and
corruption, and allowing Him to deal with your heart. It is an ultimate surrender towards Him. And it is given by God’s grace and activated
by simple faith!
There’s
certainly nothing wrong with being baptized or receiving communion, etc., but
these are simply for us to identify
with Jesus Christ – which is a statement to the rest of the world of your
allegiance to Him (for example, Matthew 10:37; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:62).
I can
understand how that many Catholics see water baptism as getting saved, since
baptism seems to be so closely tied in with repentance and salvation, but common
sense and a closer look at Scripture will clarify the matter.
Being born
again biblically is of the utmost importance.
If a person has not been born again, he will one day wish that he was
never born at all!
For a fuller
treatment of the meaning, role and effect of baptism, see this three-part
series:
https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2015/05/on-baptism-part-1-few-basics.html
https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2015/06/on-baptism-part-2-bible-verses.html
https://answeringcatholicclaims.blogspot.com/2015/07/on-baptism-part-3-more-verses.html