one
New Birth
I
n the 1976 presidential race, Jimmy Carter described himself as a born-again Christian. At the time, this was not yet a widely known term, but it resonated with believers everywhere. President Carter was saying that he wasn’t just a “cultural Christian.” He didn’t merely belong to a denomination. Rather, he was claiming to be truly committed to Christ, the sort of Christian who had really experienced a spiritual rebirth. The phrase born again is common today. Many believers call themselves born-again Christians. But sometimes phrases like these become so familiar we don’t stop to think about them. We fail to ask what 9
