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It first of all means that the believing sinner must be born again, which speaks of a spiritual birth, and which work is carried out by the Holy Spirit (Jn. 3:3-6). Jesus further said to Nicodemus,
“Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born again (evidently addresses itself to the surprise, which must have been registered on the countenance of Nicodemus). “The wind blows where it listeth, and you hear the sound thereof, but cannot tell from where it comes, and whither it goes (presents the way in which Jesus explains the “born-again” experience; He likens it to the wind which comes and goes, but is impossible to tell exactly how): so is every one who is born of the Spirit (it is a spiritual birth, so it cannot be explained intellectually)” (Jn. 3:7-8).
For the sinner to be saved, the Holy Spirit has to first place such a person under conviction, which He does by the Word in some manner being given to them. The Scripture says:
“And when He (the Holy Spirit) is come, He will reprove (convict) the world of sin (the supreme sin of rejecting Christ), and of Righteousness, and of Judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on Me; Of Righteousness, because I go to My Father, and you see me no more; Of Judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged” (Jn. 16:8-11).
When the believing sinner is placed under conviction, the Holy Spirit then gives Faith to that individual. It says:
“According as God has dealt to every man the measure of Faith” (Rom. 12:3).
At this juncture, the believing sinner can say “yes” or “no” to Christ. The Lord will never violate the free moral agency of an individual. If the person says “yes” to Christ, at that moment, at least in the mind of God, the believing sinner is baptized into Christ by the Holy Spirit.
The Scripture says,
“Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ (plainly says that this Baptism is into Christ and not water [I Cor. 1:17; 12:13; Gal. 3:27; Eph. 4:5; Col. 2:11-13]) were baptized into His Death? (When Christ died on the Cross, in the Mind of God, we died with Him; in other words, He became our Substitute, and our identification with Him in His Death gives us all the benefits for which He died; the idea is that He did it all for us!)
Paul said:
“Therefore if any man be in Christ (saved by the Blood), he is a new creature (a new creation): old things are passed away (what we were before Salvation); behold, all things are become new. (The old is no longer useable, with everything given to us now by Christ as “new.”)” (II Cor. 5:17).
That is what it means to be born of the Spirit.
The answer above was condensed from a book by Jimmy Swaggart entitled "Straight Answers to Tough Questions."
