How can a person achieve rebirth?

A person achieves rebirth by being grafted into God's true lineage. While spiritual rebirth occurs through faith in Jesus and the Holy Spirit, complete restoration requires receiving the Holy Marriage Blessing from the True Parents. Believers must fulfill their responsibility through faith, practical love, and indemnity to overcome inherited sin.

Humanity across centuries has wrestled with the profound meaning of starting life anew. When Jesus spoke to a prominent religious leader about being born again, he introduced a concept that baffled the worldly mind. Many still wonder what it truly means to experience rebirth, whether it is simply a psychological reorientation, an emotional conversion, or a literal, ontological transformation of human existence. To understand how one achieves rebirth, we must understand why the original human birth was corrupted, what was lost through the human fall, and how God works through His providential laws to restore us into His eternal lineage.

The Biblical Foundation

The necessity of being born anew lies at the very heart of the Gospel. When Nicodemus came by night to inquire about salvation, the Lord stated with absolute clarity, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Scripture reveals that this regeneration is not merely an intellectual renewal, but an entrance into an entirely new creation. As the Apostle Paul declared, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Moreover, this experience is fundamentally a transition from death unto life. Jesus affirmed, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life" (John 5:24). Rebirth is thus described across Scripture as a decisive resurrection out of darkness, freeing the human spirit from bondage and granting adoption into the family of God.

The Nature of the Fall and Spiritual Death

To grasp why rebirth is indispensable, we must examine the nature of the first birth. God created Adam and Eve to grow to maturity, unite in pure love under God’s direct blessing, and become the sinless True Parents of humanity. Had they done so, their descendants would have been born naturally into God's lineage, inheriting divine life both spiritually and physically.

However, humanity rebelled against the divine commandment during their growing period. In Genesis, God warned our first ancestors that eating the fruit would result in their immediate demise. While their physical bodies survived for hundreds of years, they immediately suffered spiritual death, which is the total severance of the human heart from the love and sovereignty of God. As the Apostle Paul explained, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:23). Through this illicit union, humanity left the protection of heaven and formed a foundation centered upon Satan. Consequently, human beings inherited original sin and became the false lineage of Satan. Because parents who are tainted with sin cannot give birth to children free of sin, fallen human beings cannot save themselves through sheer willpower. We require sinless parents who descend directly from heaven to give us new life.

The Principle of Spiritual Rebirth

God sent Jesus Christ into the world as the second Adam, untainted by the fall, possessing God’s unbroken lineage. Jesus arrived on earth as a sinless father to reclaim humanity. However, just as an earthly father cannot produce children alone, spiritual birth requires both a father and a mother working in perfect harmony.

Because Jesus was rejected and walked the path of the cross, he was unable to establish a physical family on earth. Following his resurrection and ascension, the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost to fulfill the providential role of the True Mother. Jesus stood in the position of the True Father, while the Holy Spirit came as the feminine comforter, manifesting the nurturing heart of heaven. Together with God, they established a spiritual Trinity.

When a believer responds to the Holy Spirit with repentance and faith, receiving the divine Word, a spiritual give-and-receive action takes place. This union between Christ and the Holy Spirit generates new life within the believer, granting spiritual rebirth. As Paul observed, "Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all" (Galatians 4:26). Through this spiritual cleansing, believers have their spirits elevated from the form spirit stage to the life spirit stage, entering Paradise and obtaining spiritual salvation.

Substantial Rebirth and the Holy Marriage Blessing

While spiritual salvation offers deep peace and forgiveness, the fall took place both spiritually and physically. The body as well as the spirit fell under the dominion of darkness. For complete redemption to occur, God’s original ideal must be manifested fully on earth as it is in heaven. The return of Christ as the Lord of the Second Advent is therefore destined to complete what was initiated at the First Coming.

The returning Lord must establish a substantial, earthly foundation with his chosen bride, forming a physical and spiritual Trinity centered on God. As substantial True Parents, they are empowered by heaven to cleanse original sin completely. This ultimate transformation is achieved through the Holy Marriage Blessing. In this sacred rite, individuals and couples are grafted out of the wild olive tree of fallen ancestry and grafted into the cultivated olive tree of God's true lineage. This divine lineage change restores the family as the holy sanctuary of God, fulfilling the purpose of creation that Adam and Eve abandoned.

The Human Responsibility: Foundations of Faith and Substance

Salvation is never an automatic imposition by God; it requires humanity to fulfill its portion of responsibility. Because human beings fell by failing their responsibility, we must now establish appropriate conditions of indemnity to separate from Satan and return to God’s presence.

To prepare the way for rebirth, humanity must first restore the foundation of faith. This requires choosing a central figure called by God, offering an acceptable conditional object, and enduring a providential period of time. Throughout history, figures like Noah, Abraham, and Moses established this foundation through unwavering trust in God’s word and through sacrificial offerings.

Next, humanity must restore the foundation of substance, which requires the reversal of the original fall. Just as Cain was meant to love, respect, and obey his younger brother Abel, fallen human beings must overcome pride and resentment by humbling themselves to love their brother with God’s heart. When the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance are united, the foundation for the Messiah is established, opening the gates for humanity to receive the True Parents and attain complete rebirth.

Living the Principle

Achieving rebirth is not a solitary moment of confession, but an ongoing life of practical restoration. We must walk daily upon the path of indemnity by denying selfish inclinations, practicing sacrificial love, and aligning our thoughts with God’s truth. By cultivating a heart of filial piety toward our Heavenly Parent and participating faithfully in the Holy Marriage Blessing, we cut off the roots of inherited sin. As we fulfill our personal responsibility each day, building families centered on God's true love, we participate in the glorious work of resurrecting our lives, stepping permanently out of death into the eternal light of His kingdom.

These answers explain the Bible in the light of the Divine Principle, the teachings of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. .

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