That’s a full title. But it’s all true. You must be born again. Redemption. Hope. Forgiveness. What does all this mean? Here are the verses that teach new birth.

Here are longer posts:

Regeneration: What Is It and How Does It Work?

13 Regeneration

First, people are born into this world and are not neutral. When they hear the message and do not believe it, God’s wrath or judgment remains on them (v. 36). They need a rebirth, to be born a second time. Only the Spirit can produce the new life in those who believe in Jesus, the Son of Man. The result is that the believer, now born again, can enter the kingdom of God. Therefore, one enters the kingdom of God at the new birth.

Pray the prayer out loud at the end.

Here are verses that speak of rebirth or new birth or being born of God (all from the NIV):

Recall John 1:12-13:

¹² But to all who received him, to the ones who believe in his name, he gave the authority to become children of God, ¹³ not the ones born from blood, neither by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of a husband, but from God. (John 1:12-13)

Peter must have heard Jesus teach on rebirth:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Pet. 1:3, emphasis added)

Peter again:

For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. (1 Pet. 1:23)

Paul picks up the image of rebirth, so it must have circulated in the earliest Christian communities:

⁴ But when the kindness and love of God our Savior  appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior… (Titus 3:4-6, emphasis added)

John picks up the theme again:

If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. (1 John 2:29)

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. (1 John 3:9)

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7)

¹ Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. … ⁴ or everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. … ¹⁸ We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. (1 John 5:1, 4, 18)

It seems, then, that the image of rebirth was strong and early in the Christian communities. Paul in his epistle to Titus connects washing with rebirth, similar to what Jesus does in the verses in John’s Gospel. This lends credence to my interpretation that water is symbolic,  which must not be over-read. It’s the new birth that is salvific, not water in itself, even water that is prayed over and sanctified into a sacrament. The Spirit causes new birth or regeneration.

Basic Biblical Regeneration: What Is It and How Does It Work?

The Spirit causes new birth in you.

Pray this prayer out loud and in your heart:

Heavenly and loving Father,

I repent of all my sins. I renounce any involvement in new age practices. Impure sex. Other religions. I relinquish them to you, God. Thank you for accepting my sincere and genuine repentance. Thank you for forgiving my sins. I put my full faith and trust in your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I declare with my mouth that he is Lord and believe in my heart you raised him from the dead. I surrender my entire being to his Lordship. I surrender my spirit, soul, and body to him. He is now my Lord. I renounce all attachments to other religions and beliefs. I ask that you send the Spirit to make me born again. Cause new birth in me. Fill me with your Spirit. Empower me to start over and live in the Spirit. To live righteously. I cannot do this on my own. Give me your grace. I depend on you.

In Jesus’s name, Amen. Let it be so.