Counsel #3 — New Birth

Picture: Counsel #3 — New BirthCSL 29.1

Daily Bible study leads us to the new birth experience, a prerequisite to entering heaven (see John 3:1-10). When the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin and guilt and we respond by asking Jesus to forgive us and clean up our hearts, submitting our whole selves to Him, the Spirit renews and transforms us. We then begin reflecting the image of God, as He originally created us to do. This infilling of the Spirit is called the new birth.^{[25]https://www.eldersdigest.org/en/2015/1/born-again}CSL 29.2

“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.” 1 Peter 1:22, 23 NKJVCSL 29.3

“The change of heart represented by the new birth can be brought about only by the effectual working of the Holy Spirit…. As we receive divine light, and cooperate with the heavenly intelligences, we are ‘born again,’ freed from the defilement of sin by the power of Christ. The mighty power of the Holy Spirit works an entire transformation in the character of the human agent, making him a new creature in Christ Jesus.” Ellen White in Our Father Cares, p. 84CSL 29.4

Reflect: What does it mean to be “born again?”CSL 29.5