For the Christian, being born again is not just a ritual or temporary experience - it is the supernatural receiving of eternal, everlasting life through faith in Jesus Christ. While our fellowship with God can be disrupted by sin, the Bible makes it clear that the new birth itself results in a permanent spiritual life that can never be lost or forfeited for those who are genuinely born of God.
In John 3:3, Jesus said "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Being born again means being "born of the Spirit" (v.6) - regenerated and made forever alive spiritually. It is the permanent transition from death to eternal life (1 John 3:14).
Importantly, this new life is explicitly called "eternal life" (John 3:16, 10:28, 17:3 etc.). The Greek words zoe aionios mean life that is endless, perpetual, immutable. If it could expire or be lost, it would contradict being truly "eternal."
This is affirmed in 1 John 5:11-13 - "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 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." Once we receive this eternal life by grace through spiritual rebirth, we are permanently united with the unstoppable life of Christ Himself (Colossians 3:3-4). As Jesus promised, His sheep "shall never perish" (John 10:28).
Just as a human father can potentially lose close fellowship with his son due to disobedience and strain the relationship, he can never undo or terminate the fact that he is permanently his son's father. The family relationship is immutable, though the closeness may vary. Similarly, being born again means becoming children of God in an irreversible way. Even when our fellowship with Him is disrupted, our status as His children remains constant.
Similarly, while sin disrupts our communion with God as His born-again children, it cannot undo the permanent spiritual-birth relationship He has established with us. We are eternally His sons and daughters, born of His imperishable seed into His everlasting family (John 1:12-13, 1 Peter 1:23).
Our sonship does not depend on our flawless performance any more than a human son can change who his father is through poor behavior. Our perseverance and inheritance are predetermined and sustained by God's preserving power and grace, not our inconsistent obedience (1 Peter 1:5).
While sin disrupts our fellowship and communion with God, it does not nullify the eternal life and salvation we have been given. There is a critical difference between our relationship being strained by disobedience, and the permanent spiritual rebirth being revoked entirely.
We can lose the joy of fellowship and experience God's discipline as believer-children (Hebrews 12:5-11). But we cannot lose the eternal life-union we have through the new birth, as this is not dependent on our perfection but Christ's. Our perseverance is kept by God's power (1 Peter 1:5), not our imperfect performance.
This is why passages like Hebrews 6:4-6, while warning against willfully rejecting Christ after experiencing salvation, do not nullify eternal security. Such a "falling away" cannot cause a regenerated believer to need to be "renewed again to repentance" (v.6) - as that would require "crucifying the Son of God afresh." It is an impossibility that underscores the permanence of the eternal life received. A willful unbelief is ultimately impossible for those genuinely regenerated by the Spirit.
Other difficult passages simply warn against the danger of false professions of faith that were never genuine spiritual rebirths to begin with (Matthew 7:21-23, 1 John 2:19).
For those united to Christ through spiritual rebirth, eternal life is permanently assured - not because of our perfection, but because of the once-for-all perfecting work of our resurrected Savior. Our perseverance is grounded in His promise that we "shall never perish" (John 10:28) and are forever sealed by the indwelling Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13-14). Nothing can separate us from His preserving love (Romans 8:38-39).
So while failures may jeopardize our intimacy with God as our perfect Father, they do not jeopardize our permanent, irreversible citizenship and eternal life in His kingdom secured through the new birth. We can rest confidently in the permanence of our spiritual regeneration - even when our flawed performance merits anything but assurance apart from His promises.
So for the true believer united to Christ, being born again results in an eternal spiritual life that can never be severed, regardless of sin (Romans 8:38-39). Our fellowship may waver, but not our permanently remade spiritual nature and eternal life received through regeneration. While we are called to live obediently with Christ, even our failures cannot jeopardize the eternal life-union we have through the new birth. Our spiritual rebirth has inducted us into an endless, unbreakable life guaranteed by the promises of our unfailing God and Savior.
We can therefore live confidently, not in complacency, but in the assurance that the eternal life we have been given through spiritual regeneration is permanent and irreversible - no matter how greatly our human performance may falter. Eternal security is ours through being made a new creation in Christ.
Written by Zach Anderson (zmanderson@gmail.com) and placed in public domain at ultrafree.org. All quoted scripture is from the King James Version of the Bible. Feel free to repost it elsewhere (free of charge).