Is it conception or a (new)birth at the beginning of our Christian life?

I would like to shed light on a serious misunderstanding concerning rebirth. We know that our earthly life does not begin at birth but at conception. After conception comes the period of pregnancy, then labor, and finally the child is born into this world. Many forget this when talking about the beginning of the life of faith, and new believers are often told right from the start that they have been born again, even though they are only at the stage of conception.

The great danger in this is that someone who starts their spiritual life this way will have a very hard time ever being truly born again — if they ever reach that point at all. They simply will not look for it, because they do not even know that something is still missing from their life.

Nicodemus, though an old man and a teacher of God’s people, had lived almost his whole life without knowing that he needed to be born again. The same can happen to anyone who was told at the beginning that they have already been born again — for they will not even consider that this has not yet happened to them and that they still need it.

Let’s look at two important questions:

  1. When were the apostles born again?
  2. When did the apostles become children of God?

As for the first question, since we are only at the beginning and have not yet defined what rebirth means, it will be hard to answer. I do not want to go into that deeply right now. Without trying to prove it here, let me simply say in advance that their rebirth took place after the resurrection of Jesus.

Now, let’s turn to the second question, which is more interesting for us at this point and will highlight something very important. When did they become children of God?

It is difficult to pinpoint the exact moment, but one thing is certain. When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray in the Sermon on the Mount, He told them to address God in their prayers like this:

“Our Father who art in heaven…” (Matthew 6:9)

If God had not already been their Father at that time, when Jesus told them this, then Jesus would have been teaching them to lie — because only those who are truly His children can call Him Father truthfully. Of course, Jesus did not teach them to lie.

This means that from the very beginning, when they started to follow Jesus, they must already have been children of God.

Why is this important? Because it shows that — just as a baby in the mother’s womb is already the child of its parents, even though it has not yet been born into the world.

The beginning of our life of faith can likewise be compared to conception, not to birth.

We must understand that becoming a child of God and being born again are not the same thing. There is a process that leads from one to the other. Just as physical birth is preceded by a period of pregnancy, there is also a transitional period between becoming a child of God and being born again.

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