Born Again

Born Again: BA

Moses 6:59

Nicodemus’ Question                         John 3: 3-5

What happens when we are Born Again:

Become new creatures                       Mosiah 27:25-26

No disposition to do evil                     Mosiah 5:2

Doeth Righteousness                         1 John 2:28-29

Love one another                                1 John 4:7

Change of Heart                                  Alma 5:7

Newness of life                                     Romans 6:4

How to do it

Baptism and Confirmation                 D&C 5:16

Covenants                                            Mosiah 5:7

Put off natural man                              Mosiah 3:19

Ask questions                                       Alma 5:14-15; 26-27

Through atonement of Christ             D&C 76:69

Proper preparing and cleaning are the first basic steps in the process of being born again. . . Total immersion in and saturation with the Savior’s gospel are essential steps in the process of being born again. . . Purifying and sealing by the Holy Spirit of Promise constitute the culminating steps in the process of being born again.

                David A. Bednar; April 2007, General Conference

Spiritual rebirth originates with faith in Jesus Christ, by whose grace we are changed. . .

You may ask, Why doesn’t this mighty change happen more quickly with me? You should remember that the remarkable examples of King Benjamin’s people, Alma, and some others in scripture are just that—remarkable and not typical. For most of us, the changes are more gradual and occur over time. Being born again, unlike our physical birth, is more a process than an event. And engaging in that process is the central purpose of mortality.

At the same time, let us not justify ourselves in a casual effort. Let us not be content to retain some disposition to do evil. Let us worthily partake of the sacrament each week and continue to draw upon the Holy Spirit to root out the last vestiges of impurity within us. I testify that as you continue in the path of spiritual rebirth, the atoning grace of Jesus Christ will take away your sins and the stain of those sins in you, temptations will lose their appeal, and through Christ you will become holy, as He and our Father are holy.

                D. Todd Christofferson; April 2008, General Conf.

When you choose to follow Christ, you choose to be changed.

“No man,” said President David O. McKay, “can sincerely resolve to apply in his daily life the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth without sensing a change in his own nature. The phrase ‘born again’ has a deeper significance than many people attach to it. This changed feeling may be indescribable, but it is real.” (In Conference Report, Apr. 1962, p. 7.)

Can human hearts be changed? Why, of course! . . . If it hasn’t happened to you—it should.

                Ezra Taft Benson; October 1985, General Conference

A heart transplant can prolong life for years for people who would otherwise die from heart failure. But it is not “the ultimate operation,” as Time magazine called it in 1967.  The ultimate operation is not a physical but a spiritual “mighty change” of heart.

Through the Atonement of Christ and by obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel, we undergo this ultimate operation, this spiritual change of heart. As a result of our transgressions, our spiritual hearts have become diseased and hardened, making us subject to spiritual death and separation from our Heavenly Father. The Lord explained the operation that we all need: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.”

Just as with heart transplant patients, however, this mighty change of our spiritual hearts is just the beginning. Repentance, baptism, and confirmation are necessary but not sufficient. Indeed, equal, if not greater, care must be taken with a spiritually changed heart than with a physically transplanted heart if we are to endure to the end. Only by doing so can we be held guiltless at the time of judgment.

Enduring to the end can be challenging because the tendency of the natural man is to reject the spiritually changed heart and allow it to harden. No wonder the Lord cautioned to “even let those who are sanctified take heed.”

                Dale G. Renlund, October 2009, General Conference

Brother Carmen Bria, a neighbor of ours converted from another church, was assisting prisoners as a social worker. A certain young prisoner became interested in the gospel. His father, a minister from another church, visited the boy and was very upset that his son was studying Mormon doctrine, even more than he was by the fact that his son was in prison.

Brother Bria approached the father and asked why he was so distressed. The father replied, “You are not saved.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Brother Bria.

“Well,” said the father, “you have not taken Christ as your personal Savior. You have not been born again in Christ.”

Brother Bria responded, “Sir, let me explain it to you. We may not say it just the way you do, but we most certainly do believe in a literal salvation through Jesus Christ. We have accepted him as our personal Savior, have taken upon us his name, and we have been born again in Christ.”

Members of the Church should know that they are born again—“redeemed of God,” as the Prophet Alma said, “[to] be numbered with those of the first resurrection, that ye may have eternal life” (Mosiah 18:9).

If, then, we understand that we are born again, having taken upon us the name of Christ, the big question is: Do we act like it?               Wm. Grant Bangerter; April 1987, General Conf.

I witness that we cannot be fully converted until we “walk in newness of life” and are at heart a new person, “purged from [our] old sins.” This can only come about by being born again of the water and of the Spirit through baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. In this way we receive divine forgiveness, by which we can know in our hearts that our sins are remitted.

James E. Faust, April 2001, General Conference