How You Know You’re Born Again — Tim Keller

“The way you know you’re born again is both your mind is illumined and your heart is moved and spiritual truth you might have heard before but didn’t make sense to your mind or didn't touch you heart now does.”

[Tokeokarma]

I was born as a Roman Catholic. My parents divorced when I was 10 and I never seen the inside of a church again. Not for any good reason. I became an IV Opiate addict for 20 years. I had a good Job. A daughter and wife. But i was so sad all the time I just wanted to be numb. I lost everything and everyone to me. I ended up in prison. My first day there I was a wreck. You wouldnt be able to tell. I was standing in the prison yard waiting to get my head shaved. Everyone was called inside for count but me. I was the last one in line. Here I am standing out in the middle of nowhere in Florida. Not a tree or person in sight. All the sudden it hits me. How am I going to do this time? What does my family even think of me, do they even care? What about my poor daughter? Look at this place. All the sudden I look up at the Sky and cry out to God "How am I going to do It got so bright I couldn't see anything. I felt a warm relaxing feeling like God was holding me in his arms, then Jesus Christ simply said "with me". God was with me through the hardest time of my life. Im still no one. Im different. Im a new creature in Christ Jesus and I thank Jesus for his grace daily. ❤🕊️👑✝️🙏🪽

[palmbranchministry]

Repent and believe. Turn from sin and seek the Lord Jesus for forgiveness.

[karollisa]

Wow he just described me! It's like a light bulb has been turned on. I used to hate reading my Bible because I couldn't understand it and found it boring. Now I can't wait to open it to see what will be revealed to me each day. I know people around me probably think I've went off the deep end lol. It's been a supernatural thing though. Jesus has become the love of my life, not by anything I've done... all the Holy Spirits doing. I've never had more peace. It's wild.

[ianbooth]

You know you're born again if you have put your trust in Christ.

[stefanlabuschagne]

For many years I was thinking I was born again because I asked Jesus into my heart. Years later God got hold of me and changed my heart from the inside. Now I KNOW I am born again because I am changed by God. Only the work of God.

[jamesgeshel]

Yeah I said the prayer when I was 6 and went to church and all and forgot about eternity but at 17 I realized nothing in life would satisfy but Christ and I became born again. It’s evidence in itself that our faith is real and so is Jesus. All of a sudden I started seeing sin in lots more places and I began to hate sin more and make less excuses for it and began loving God more. Once you’re born again, you won’t be reluctant towards God and righteousness. He gives you a desire for Him and righteousness and a heart to fight sin much easier because he’s fighting it with you. He’ll strip you of your idols and your addictions and show you how much more valuable He is. And you get you to live forever and ever with Him in his kingdom and avoid eternal torment. Not a bad deal

[sakariasingolfsson]

What Keller proposes is pretty much what I believed for the first 30 years of my life. I searched for the assurance of my salvation within my own progress in sanctification. But I could find no assurance there, because my sin has always been apparent to me. There were good days, of course, but bad days as well. Sanctification is not a one way street with linear progress. The best of Christians fall into sin, because even if they are fully forgiven and regenerated according to their new man, they are still completely sinful according to their old man. St. Paul himself testifies to this fact in Romans 7:18-19: "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. "

But then, sanctification has always been the wrong place to look. Salvation could never be found in my heart -- only in Christ. In order to find assurance, I had to look away from myself, and look to Christ alone, and listen to his word and promise. It is he who has forgiven and washed away my sins. It is he who has given me a new birth through the waters of baptism. It is he who speaks to me through the words of absolution. It is he who gives me his holy body and blood for the forgiveness of my sins in the Holy supper. It is all about Christ, what could I ever add to that?

In other words, the assurance of my salvation was found in Christ alone, and not in my progress in sanctification.

[cmoses]

As a pastor's son, I always thought I was a Christian but was not truly saved. By God's grace, He saved me when I was 20 years old as I was reading through the book of Hebrews. As Tim Keller said, it was the moment of my screen changed from ritualistic beliefs to true faith and love of Christ. Even though this is a short video, Tim laid out a great illustration to understand what it's like to be born again and what changes we experience as born again Christians. Not everyone has same experiences but the principle Tim mentioned can apply to all who are born again.

[joshhall]

We live by faith not by sight. Faith in the promises of God, not a feeling or something we can see or hear, is where our assurance comes from.

“These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.” 1 John 5:13 KJV

Once you trust in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection you know you’re born again based on God’s words not a feeling.

And for good measure, this verse proves that once your saved your always saved. If you could lose your salvation then God is lying in this verse when he says you can know you have eternal by simply believing ( trusting ) in the Son of God.

[PrinceJes]

I became born again at the age of 16. His love is immeasurable.

[albinsiby]

I've been seeking the Lord for my Salvation for about 7 months.

PLEASE  pray to Lord Jesus for my Salvation! To save my SOUL. Please ask HIM to remove everything hindering my Salvation and that I may be truly born again by His Grace. That He may make me Truly Born Again of His Holy Spirit, by His Holy Spirit.

To strip off all my pride and self righteousness and idols and all my sins and hidden Sins and To take away my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh
( Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26 ; Hebrews 8:10 )

To remove all my unbelief and give me true saving faith on Christ alone (Hebrews 12:2) and genuine repentance. I may seek HIM with All my heart and find Him.
Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart"

Please pray to HIM that I may truly submit and surrender All of myself to HIM completely and forever and To let me trust in HIM alone To Save me and wholly cast myself upon HIM and be truly born again.

[michaelspitz]

I've also said that some people believe with their minds and others believe with their hearts. Mentally, you can know what God did for you and how much He loves you; but when you FEEL His love and understand His love in a spiritual sense, everything changes.
I used to obsess about money, never having enough, and inner peace. When I became saved, money wasn't my obsession nor a stress about not having enough. I felt huge burdens were lifted off my shoulders for the first time ever in my life.
Keller and Greear helped me turn my life over and understand God's awesome love for me! :)

[dv]

Thank you so much for reaffirming this for me! I’m a new Christian and you have said what I have just come to know!

[waynemeredith]

Wow!!! You just described what I knew God did in me in 2000. I told a Christian friend that when it came to my faith and I looked at other Christians, I was on the outside looking in and that bothered me. Then in 2000 God connected the dots. He connected my mind to my heart and my life has never been the same! Praise God! Particularly noticeable to me was a hobby that had been my passion since I was a child became boring to me. And I don’t care.

[mrawesomecool]

Thank you pastor Keller. You are truly a great pastor. God bless you.

[LawrenceB]

True! For me i had to listen to a sermon on being born again before i began to understand what had happened to me

[kimberleerivera]

Glory To GOD!!!
I am overwhelmed to hear you say this - because this is exactly what happened to me! Also my "world view" changed!

[jamesdennis]

You are born again when you have a supernatural overhaul of who you are in accordance with God's will. It is a huge thing. You will know it. It happens to those that invite God into thier lives through his Son Jesus.

[vivekoriel]

This for me! In was listening to this while working :D

[execution]

" God the Father God the Holy Spirit and God the Son rest in what God the Son has done and are satisfied in it, will you rest in what God the Son has done and be satisfied in it?"
- Some Pastor on YouTube