Finally Alive: What Happens When We Are Born Again?

It's a phrase that has been widely misunderstood for two thousand years, since the first time it was spoken: "You must be born again." The new birth, or what theologians call regeneration, is one of the most stunning and crucial realities of the universe, one which every child of God should thoroughlly understand and rejoice in. But that's not how it is. Most church goers have vague, incomplete answers to such basic questions as: What is the new birth? Why must we be born again? How does the new birth come about? What are the effects of the new birth? How can we help others become born again? Those are the five questions answered by Finally Alive, a book by pastor John Piper that takes a comprehensive look at what it means to be born again. He lays out his goals for the reader: "When you are truly born again and grow in the grace and knowledge of what the Lord has done for you, your fellowship with God will be sweet, and your assurance that he is your Father will be deep. I want that for you. If you know what really happened to you in your new birth, you will treasure God and his Spirit and his Son and his word more highly than you ever have. In this, Christ will be glorified. In the process of believers discovering what really happened to them, the seriousness and the supernatural nature of conversion will rise and that, I pray, will serve a more general awakening of authenticity in the Christian church so that religious hypocrisy will diminish and the world will see real love and sacrifice and courage in the service of Christ." If you want Bible-saturated, passion-filled answers to what really happened when you became born again, this is your book. It will both inform your mind and ignite your heart in greater love for Jesus and greater desire to see others come to Christ.

"Have I been born again?" is not a question to be answered hastily. In John Piper's new book, Finally Alive, expect to be challenged. Piper strips away our complacency, arguing that many people falsely believe they are Christians. He begins by arguing that many who claim to be "born again" today are actually not, and that statistics demonstrating that so-called born again Christians are morally indistinguishable from unbelievers only demonstrate that many who think they have been regenerated actually are still on their way to hell. Have you carefully examined yourself lately to see if YOU are truly saved? Being wrong about this issue will have eternal consequences and Jesus warned us that there will be those in that day who will have thought they were his followers but actually were not: Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, `I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'" By examining the Bible's teaching on the new birth, John Piper shows us how to be certain our faith is genuine. Because no issue could be more critical, I believe this is the most important book Piper has written. It could be the most important book outside of the Bible that you or your loved one will ever read. I was privileged to have the opportunity to read this prior to launch and it moved me profoundly, challenging me once more to be sure of my own salvation and to appreciate more fully what God has done for me.

This is, in my opinion, Piper's best and most important work yet. Don't take my word for it. Read it yourself. Christians simply cannot afford to get the doctrine of regeneration wrong. That's why Piper's book is so important. That being said, I do wish to comment on "JJ"'s earlier, one-star review which is posted below. It is based on a complete misunderstanding of the fundamental, but critically important issues at stake in regard to our understanding of the gospel. For the first twenty years of my Christian life, I rejected such doctrines as Piper advances because of the same reasons "JJ" does... I had totally false misconceptions about them. Although "JJ" would probably argue that point, it is abundantly evidenced that he has no idea what he's talking about when he uses such phrases and statements as: 1) "hyper 5 point-ism" 2) "you really CAN'T believe, unless you are chosen anyway, so don't sweat the inability to believe." 3) "Oh, by the way, all those verses that call you to believe or to repent or to do anything after salvation, they are just so much appeasement to our human frailty. We don't even chose whether we are going to overcome, if elect, we will." 4) "Unfortunately so many have bought into this Cross-less Gospel, that it is a wonder that people care about their lost brother's and sisters anyway (oops, excuse me. I didn't mean to say lost. Piper says they are DEAD and UNABLE to respond to the Love of God. oops, I am sorry, the Love of God, according to Piper doesn't extend to those corpses anyway, unless he chooses to resurrect them)." 5) "But, this idea that Election can only be election if we have no say in the matter, would be like saying History is merely fate, we had no choices on the way to making (excuse me, "experiencing") that history." 6) "One fundamental truth that Piper and the band of merry players miss, is how abundant is the grace of God. Even bestowed upon Judas, though most all agree he is not elect." Yes, I realize that I've just cut and pasted 90% to 95% of his statements, and might as well have just inserted his entire review (or perhaps better, "rant"?). It is an odd thing under the sun, that on this particular issue in general, and especially on the critically important doctrine of regeneration, it seems that one need not first be able to understand and accurately articulate the other side's position before attacking it. I have no doubt that "JJ" means well. I'm sure he is just attempting to defend "his" version of the gospel. But it is strictly zeal NOT according to knowledge.

As I read the final page of Finally Alive I realized that I had found a new favorite book by John Piper. Those who have read my reviews of some of his previous titles know that while I greatly enjoy Piper's ministry and am indebted to him in many ways, I have not always found his books easy to read. Yet I read Finally Alive with relish, enjoying it from the first page to the last. It is an incisive examination of a topic of profound importance. I think it represents Piper at his very best as an author. This is a book about the new birth, about regeneration, about what it means to be born again. Born again is a term we hear often these days, both within the walls of the church and without. But it seems that the term is so often used in a different way than the doctrine as we find it in Scripture. It takes only a couple of pages for Piper to take issue with the term born again as used by people like pollster George Barna--people who desecrate it by taking it far outside of its biblical context. "In this research," says Piper, "the term born again refers to people who say things. They say, `I have a personal commitment to Jesus Christ. It's important to me.' They say, `I believe that I will go to Heaven when I die. I have confessed my sins and accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior.' Then the Barna Group takes them at their word, ascribes to them the infinitely important reality of the new birth, and then slanders that precious biblical reality by saying that regenerate hearts have no more victory over sin than unregenerate hearts." Piper doesn't hold back. Of course such research is not necessarily entirely wrong. It is undeniable that vast numbers of professing Christians live in ways that are completely at odds with the faith they profess. But the New Testament does not allow us to move from a profession of faith to the label born again. Instead, it "moves from the absolute certainty that the new birth radically changes people, to the observation that many professing Christians are indeed (as the Barna Group says) not radically changed, to the conclusion that they are not born again. The New Testament, unlike the Barna Group, does not defile the new birth with the worldliness of unregenerate, professing Christians." This is a term Christians need to understand and protect. Piper offers four reasons for writing this book on the new birth. First, so we can understand what God intends when the Bible uses this language of the new birth; second, to help followers of Christ know what happened to them when they were converted; and third, to serve as a possible means for those who do not yet believe to come to faith in Christ. "My aim is to explain the new birth as clearly as I can from the Bible so that readers can see it for themselves." And he does so in just the way we've come to expect from John Piper--with clear exposition of Scripture and with undeniable passion and integrity. Piper moves through the subject by asking five all-important questions.

So in one sitting today I read all the way through John Piper's new book, Finally Alive. Some have written that it's the best book he's written since Desiring God, so it was a must-read. It's essentially an argument that being saved is not what we typically think of. It's part of a chronological timeline where God does something before our belief, and we do something after our belief that verifies our belief was genuine. Piper kicks the book off with a pithy introduction, first giving the conversion testimonies of Augustine and C.S. Lewis, and then comparing how the Barna Group and the Bible use the term "born again" differently. This one-two punch is designed to reveal how the contemporary evangelical church has a radically different view of conversion then historic Christianity... not to mention the New Testament. Piper states three reasons he wrote a new book for Christians concerning salvation: "1 When you are truly born again and grow in the grace and knowledge of what the Lord has done for you, your fellowship with God will be sweet, and your assurance that he is your Father will be deep. I want that for you." "2 If you know what really happened to you in your new birth, you will treasure God and his Spirit and his Son and his word more highly than you ever have. In this, Christ will be glorified." "3 In the process of believers discovering what really happened to them, the seriousness and the supernatural nature of conversion will rise and that, I pray, will serve a more general awakening of authenticity in the Christian church so that religious hypocrisy will diminish and the world will see real love and sacrifice and courage in the service of Christ." As you can see, this is not a book written for the purpose of erudition, but as with all of Piper's writings, it is firmly targetted at the affections. John Piper wants to use this book to encourage you in your walk with Christ, specifically by causing you to wrap your joy and your love up in the person of Jesus Christ. More on this in a minute. Piper takes many diverse passages and breaks them down exegetically, pulling out the necessary implications and explications in order to carefully build an understanding of the new birth. He begins with the essence of the Gospel: those who believe will be saved. He moves backwards and forwards from this point, outlining what must follow belief, and also what must precede belief. In doing do, he comes to two grand conclusions. First, the faith of a believer must be preceded by regeneration, which is the work of the Holy Spirit. The Scripture doesn't use language of death to describe our spiritual life prior to salvation for no reason. It's not metaphorical; there's no like or as attached to the language of death. We were dead; God has made us alive through Christ. As Piper puts it: "His begetting causes our believing." Second, the born again believer will be holy in this life before they'll be holy in the next life. Someone won't be truly