“What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must all be born from above.’…..Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”…..The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects the Son will not see life, but God’s wrath remains on him.” John 3:6-7, 14-15, 36 NET https://bible.com/bible/107/jhn.3.6-14.NET
Many claim to be Christians because they believe in God and the Son Who lived among us as one of us, but are they born again? To be a child of God, we must be born again by God. How do we know if we are born again? The life we live will demonstrate our nature, whether flesh or Spirit. If we are fleshly, we will live as all people live. We will be selfish, lustful, vengeful, self-seeking, self-gratifying, disobedient to God, ignoring Him in His word, and failing to do His will. If born of the Spirit, we will increasingly gravitate to obedience to God in Jesus the Savior. We will increasingly seek to make Jesus known to the world, for the Spirit comes to reveal to us Jesus so that Jesus can be increasingly revealed through us for others to come to repentance and be born again. The world must be reconciled to God to live forever with God. Reconciliation occurs through Jesus. Jesus commands we become born again, born of the Spirit to live forever with Father God, Who is Spirit, and requires us to worship Him in Spirit and Truth. If making Jesus known so that others can know Jesus is growing in our words, works, and will, we can be assured we are born from above, but if identifying with Jesus in public and making Him known to the people in our lives for their salvation is not a concern to us then perhaps we are mere believers and not true children of God.