Should You Be a Newborn Babe?

 Have you ever tried to wrap your mind around the concept of eternity? That God has always existed and always will? Heb. 7:3 describes Melchizedek, the form of Jesus Christ who appeared to Abraham, this way: “without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God….”

For me personally, it’s mind-boggling to think that someone had no beginning, that He always existed. Though I know it’s true, I can’t wrap my brain around it. Everything we see came into being at some point, but God didn’t. He was always there.

And can you imagine never growing older? Never getting tired, hungry, or thirsty?

Or what about possessing all power and wisdom? Not being bound by any physical laws, but able to walk through walls, read everyone’s thoughts at once, hear everything anyone says anywhere in the world, and process it all instantly?

The spiritual realm is hard for us human beings to comprehend. Though we’re aware of it, it’s as unfamiliar as the deepest depths of the ocean. It’s a foreign world to us. As the apostle Paul wrote, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face” (1 Cor. 13:9-10, 12).

And so God uses analogies to help us understand what we need to understand. He compares the unfamiliar to the familiar. How many times did Yeshua/Jesus begin a parable with the words “the kingdom of heaven is like…”? He carefully chose His parables and analogies, like a code, to help some understand and to obscure the meaning from others (Mat. 13:10-17).

Christ likened the kingdom of heaven to, among other things,

• A man sowing seed

• A mustard seed

• Leaven within three measures of meal

• Treasure buried in a field

• A pearl of great price

• A fishing net

• A king settling accounts with servants who owed him money

• A landowner hiring workers for his vineyard

• A king arranging a marriage for his son

Each analogy gives us a different view of the picture from a different angle. Likewise, God’s Word uses many analogies for His people, too, including,

• Clay pots

• Trees

• Grape vines

• Grain

• A bride

• Children awaiting an inheritance

• Sheep

• Lions

• Baby chicks

But there’s one specific analogy that this post will focus on: newborn babes.

Newborn Babes

In 1 Pet. 2:2, the apostle Peter exhorted, “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”

But this isn’t the only place God’s Word compares His people to newborn babes or small children. In Mat. 18:3, Jesus said, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Before being converted, we were all spiritually dead. We had not yet received life. As the apostle Paul wrote, we “were dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1), “but God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph. 2:4-5).

When we become converted, repent, and get baptized, we die to our old way of life and receive new life. “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4).

At this point, at the moment we receive new life, we become the little children that Yeshua/Jesus commanded us to become. We become spiritual babes, the newborn babes who “desire the pure milk of the word.” We begin our walk with God.

Nevertheless, we cannot remain spiritual babes. The whole purpose of consuming the milk of the word is for us to “grow thereby.” Paul exhorted the Corinthians, “Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature” (1 Cor. 14:20). If we don’t grow, it’s because we aren’t consuming and living by God’s Word. And if we aren’t consuming God’s Word, then we’re spiritually starving to death.

Earlier in this very epistle, Paul had chided the Corinthians for their failure to grow and mature: “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal” (1 Cor. 3:1-3).

The Book of Hebrews, in Heb. 5:12-14, is even more pointed:

12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.

14 But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Once again, it’s plain that a new convert begins his spiritual walk as a baby. He must grow out of that stage and become mature, but that’s where he begins.

Now, it logically follows that, if we begin our spiritual journey as babies, then we are also born again. I know this is a controversial statement, but it shouldn’t be. It’s simply the analogy we find in Scripture.

One cannot be a spiritual newborn babe without being born again. One cannot walk in newness of life without being born again. One cannot drink the milk of the word without being born again. Nor can one grow into a little child or into spiritual adulthood without being born again! These are just basic facts.

And yet many insist that we haven’t yet been born again, but are still babes in the womb. They argue that one is born again only upon being changed into a spirit being.

But the problem is, God’s Word nowhere compares His people to babes in the womb! Nowhere does God speak of His people spiritually growing in a womb or being fed through an umbilical cord. Nowhere. Not from Genesis to Revelation. Search for yourself, please, and see if you can find any such analogy. If you can find one, I will be more than happy to issue a retraction.

No, God compares newly-baptized converts to newborn babes. We start out by drinking the milk of His Word so we can grow and walk in newness of life. And as we grow and mature, we don’t keep drinking milk alone, needing someone to teach us “again the first principles of the oracles of God,” but rather begin eating the solid food of His Word.

So why, then, is there a controversy over whether we’re born again or still in the womb?

Born vs. Begotten

Let’s turn to John 3, one of the key passages in this controversy, where we find a dialog between Jesus Christ and Nicodemus, who was a Pharisee and a Jewish ruler. Let’s read vv. 3-8:

3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

8 “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Obviously, we aren’t spirit beings yet, and we can’t move like the wind. Therefore, many have concluded that we cannot yet be born again. Instead, they say, we’re still in the womb, awaiting a rebirth into the Kingdom of God.

What, then, of passages such as 1 Pet. 1:23, where Peter writes of his readers as “having been born again”? Those who favor the “still in the womb” teaching argue that the Greek word gennao (Strong’s # G1080), which is translated “born,” should instead be translated “begotten.”

This is a valid point. Here’s how Thayer’s Greek Lexicon defines gennao: “to beget, to be begotten, to be born, to engender, cause to arise, excite.”

Jesus Christ, though He has returned to heaven and sat down at His Father’s right hand, is still called His Father’s “only begotten Son” (John 1:18; 3:16, 18; 1 John 4:9). Isaac, though he had long since been born, is called Abraham’s “only begotten son” (Heb. 11:17).

Neither the Greek gennao nor the English “beget” applies only to conception or to babes in the womb. In fact, those words are usually NOT used that way!

Only once in the New Testament does gennao indisputably refer to a baby in the womb: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived [gennao] in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Mat. 1:20).

At least seven times, gennao indisputably speaks of a baby who has already been born, such as this verse: “Now after Jesus was born [gennao] in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem” (Mat. 2:1). Here are the other six examples:

1. The place of Jesus’ birth (Mat. 2:4)

2. The birth of John the Baptist (Luke 1:57)

3. A man born blind (John 9:2, 19, 20, 32)

4. A woman giving birth (John 16:21)

5. The birth of Moses (Acts 7:20)

6. The birth of Moses (Heb. 11:23)

Furthermore, gennao appears throughout that passage in John 3 that we read! If gennao should be translated “begotten” rather than “born,” then here’s how John 3:8 will now be translated: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is begotten [gennao] of the Spirit.”

That's right, it’s the same word! So are we begotten of the Spirit or born of the Spirit? At this point, what difference does it make? It’s the same thing!

So the concept that we haven’t yet been born again, but are still in the womb, is simply untenable. There are at least five major problems with this concept.

Number one, it’s found nowhere in Scripture. God nowhere compares His people to babes in the womb.

Number two, God does compare His people to newborn babes growing from infancy into maturity.

Number three, it’s impossible to be a newborn babe without having been born.

Number four, both the Greek gennao and the English “begotten,” though they can refer to a babe in the womb, mostly refer to one that has already been born.

Number five, according to John 3:8, anyone who is begotten (gennao) of the Spirit is like the wind, which “blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.”

So, on one hand, we can see that, yes, we are born again. At our baptisms, we were symbolically buried and our old sinful way of life was put to death (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12). Then, we came forth out of the water and received the Holy Spirit. We received new life and became as newborn babes desiring the pure milk of the word. Now, we are growing and walking in God’s way of life.

But on the other hand, we still have this passage in John 3:8 comparing those born of the Spirit to the wind.

So what’s the answer? 

Three Births?

Let’s turn back to John 3:3-8 once more and take another look:

3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born [gennao] again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born [gennao] when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born [gennao]?”

5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born [gennao] of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

6 “That which is born [gennao] of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born [gennao] of the Spirit is spirit.

7 “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born [gennao] again.’

8 “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born [gennao] of the Spirit.”

Looking at this again, it appears that Jesus described three births: 1) flesh, 2) water and Spirit, and 3) Spirit.

When are we born of water and the Spirit? At baptism! And when are we born of the Spirit alone? When we’re changed into spirit being. As the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 15:50-52,

50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

It appears, then, that there are three births. And how fitting that is, for as we’ve seen previously, the number 3 represents man’s relationship with God.

We find a type of this very sequence of events in the Old Testament. Timothy Griffith alluded to this in his blog post about the story of Gideon.

Gideon’s men took up empty clay jars (Judg. 7:16). This represents God’s people; we are those clay jars and God is our potter (Isa. 64:8).

Then, Gideon’s men placed burning torches in those empty clay jars. Fire symbolizes the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4). When we get baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, we now “have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor. 4:7).

Finally, Gideon’s men broke the clay jars, leaving only the burning torches. They shouted and blew the trumpets, scattering the army of the Midianites (Judg. 7:19-22). At the First Resurrection, there will be trumpets and shouting, and “we shall be changed.” There will be no more clay jar, no more physical body. Only spirit.

But in order to get there, to that magnificent First Resurrection, one must first be born again of water and the Spirit. One must receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, become a newborn babe desiring the pure milk of the word, and grow thereby. We must walk in newness of life, growing and maturing along the way.

This is the analogy that God uses. An analogy of being born again, not an analogy of being a babe in the womb.