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Yes, you have to be born again in order to be saved. Unless you are saved, you are not Christian, regardless of which denomination you belong to or whatever you happen to call yourself.

What is being born again? The Bible tells us that there was a member of the Sanhedrin named Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night. He said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God.” What he was really saying us, “Teach me how I can find God.” Jesus cut through the discussion and said, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus did not understand that and asked, what is this “born again”? Do you want me to go back into my mother’s womb and be born all over again? Jesus responded by saying, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Then Jesus referred to the wind. He said, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit…. Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things” (John 3:1-18)?

Jesus was telling Nicodemus that he had to be born from above, by the Spirit of God, and by water, which I presume is the water of baptism (although there are others who think it may be the bursting of the waters at initial birth, or the Word as referred to in Ephesians 5:26: “the washing of water by the word”). There is a transformation by the Spirit of God of our lives that is tantamount to a second birth.

God said through the prophet Jeremiah that He was going to write His laws on the hearts of His people (see Jeremiah 31:33). This is one result of being born again. Suddenly the law of God is no longer something on tablets of stone, but is something written upon the heart. One is motivated from within as the Spirit of God begins to lead in obedience to the righteousness of God.

First, God says, “You are righteous by faith,” then He gives you the Holy Spirit so you can live righteously. Once you have been born again, you live the righteous demands of the law by the leading of the Holy Spirit. This is the process of regeneration that turns a sinner into a saint, fit for God’s kingdom: “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

In the book of Hebrews, the Bible defines faith as “the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things (we) hope for, being the proof of things (we) do not see and the conviction of their reality” (Hebrews 11:1, Amplified). We are hoping to reach heaven, a world we cannot see, and faith gives substance to our expectations.

Faith can be a title deed to things we cannot see. For example, suppose there is a lot in a Florida resort, which you have never seen. A salesman comes to you and says, “I have a lot in this plat, and if you will give me $10,000, I will give you a deed to it.” So you give him the money, and he gives you the deed. The moment the deed transfers, you own the property. You might not see it for many years, but you know it is yours, because the title deed has conferred all ownership privileges upon you. From that moment on, you can begin to enjoy it.

That is faith. It is the title deed to things we cannot see. Faith is an attribute given by the Spirit of God that enables us to reach into God’s invisible world and take possession of that which we cannot see.

Faith is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and this means that it grows naturally for those who belong to God (see Galatians 5:22). The Bible says the testing of faith produces patience, which means we can develop a stronger faith by working on it (see James 1:3). If we exercise faith, just as we would exercise a muscle, it will grow. The more we walk in faith and appropriate things by faith, the more our faith grows. We get to a point where we say, “If God can do what I have experienced, then surely He can do something more.” Our faith will grow as we use it, whether it is faith for healing or for family unity or for finances or even for the conduct of national affairs.

There is also what is called a manifestation, or a gift of faith (see I Corinthians 12:7-9). This is a supernatural enablement of faith that God gives when it is especially needed. This supernatural faith is the kind of faith that can move mountains, provide divine protection from danger, or provide for an unusual financial need. Faith can be something that is continuously growing through use, or it can be something that comes instantaneously as a gift from God.

He saves us by His death from all our sins: Past, present, and future. We all have broken God’s law, and the wages of sin is death (see Romans 6:23). Jesus Christ never sinned, so as a sinless “second Adam,” He was able to die as a substitute for all human sinners. Therefore God was able to preserve His righteous law and government by punishing the breaking of the law while offering a pardon to those who had broken it.

The apostle Paul said that Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law (see Galatians 3:13). The word redeemed means to buy back a slave in the marketplace. Mankind was in bondage to the curse of the law, which is death. Under this analogy, the death of Jesus was the “ransom” needed to set us free from the bondage of the law, sin, and death.

So in one sense, Jesus is our substitute; in another, our ransom. In yet another, His is our hilasterion (translated “propitiation”) or mercy seat, a reference to the lid or covering over the ark of the covenant. When the mercy seat was covered with the blood of a sacrifice, the law’s condemnation against the people was shut out before God. Jesus Christ is our complete and only covering.

Our salvation has three parts. First, at the moment we receive Christ in faith, His death cancels completely all of our sins. This is called “justification by faith” (see Romans 3:24-30, Galatians 2:15-21). In Christ our position before God is sinless. We are totally absolved from all past sins, just as if we had never sinned. This is salvation of our spirit.

Then as we walk with Jesus day after day, we have present salvation, and we grow in holiness. We enter into the state of sanctification, where we become freer from sin and more like Jesus. Paul said that we change from one degree of glory into another, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (see II Corinthians 3:18). The goal of the Christian is to grow up into Christ. This is our ongoing salvation.

The third part of salvation is future, where we will lose these bodies which are always being pulled by sin, and we will get brand new bodies (see I Corinthians 15:42-44). This salvation is also called glorification. So salvation is total. It is a matter of the past, present, and future.