Released in the UK October 2009
Released in the US March 2009
Large trade paperback | 208 Pages
9781845504212 • £9.99 $15.99
BISAC – REL067100
When Jesus said to Nicodemus, ‘You must be born again’, the devout and learned religious leader was unsure what Jesus meant. It would seem nothing has changed. Today ‘born again Christians’ fill churches that are seen as ineffectual at best, and even characterised by the ‘mosaic’ generation as ‘unchristian’. The term ‘born again’ has been devalued both in society and in the church. Those claiming to be ‘born again’ live lives that are indistinguishable from those who don’t; they sin the same, embrace injustice the same, covet the same, do almost everything the same. Being ‘born again’ is now defined by what people say they believe. The New Testament however defines Christians very differently.
John Piper
John Piper served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota for 33 years. He is the founder of desiringGod.org, a chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary, and he has written more than 50 books including Desiring God and Don’t Waste Your Life.
9781527109698 |
9781857929942 |
9781527100442 |
9781527101050 |
Finally Alive: What Happens When We Are Born Again by John Piper is a marvellous description of what the Bible says it means to be born again and the life which flows from this new birth. This book is worth reading for the first chapter alone. Piper shows us how far apart the world-view of being born again and actual biblical truth has drifted in recent years. He writes: 'The term born again is very precious and very crucial in the Bible. So our main concern is to know what God intends when the Bible uses this language, so that by his grace we may experience it and help others to do the same...The beauty and glory of Christ and the gospel shine out of every page. Finally Alive is dense yet readable, challenging, encouraging and refreshing."
That prolific author John Piper has done it again. We dare not allow the new birth to be lost in the mists of our activity and emphasis. Often we hear sports commentators say that a certain mature sportsman has been 'born again' meaning that he is having another season of success following a dark period. The new birth should never be regarded as merely 'having another go'.
John Piper, with consummate skill, sets forth the Biblical doctrine of the new birth in all its magnificence and radical impact on lives that were formerly without form and void.
Terry Virgo
Founder of Newfrontiers and well-known Bible Teacher, London
"When I was a boy my grandmother asked me, ‘Have you been born again?' Though I didn't understand what she meant at the time, that question led to my conversion to Christ. In this wonderful book, Pastor John Piper rescues the term ‘born again' from the abuse and overuse to which it is subject in our culture today. This is a fresh presentation of the evangelical doctrine of the new birth, a work filled with theological insight and pastoral wisdom."
Timothy George
Founding Dean of Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama
"Nothing could be more eternally important than Christian people knowing what the Bible teaches about the new birth and knowing that they have experienced it. One wonders why it's taken so long for a book on the new birth to be written! But now it has and I pray every reader rejoices in God for the rich beauties of Christ Jesus so compellingly shared in its pages."
Thabiti Anyabwile
Pastor, Anacostia River Church, Washington, D.C.