Get your brains out of neutral and read what you just wrote. A second chance versus a new creation are not the same thing.
Hi Nick.
Being born again has to do with a process. It begins with our receiving the Holy Spirit which happens when we 'give our lives to our Lord Jesus' for he is the way we receive the Spirit in us. Once we have the Spirit in us here on earth we mortals are formed into the likeness of Christ. The Holy Spirit (Christ in us) forms us into the likeness of Christ by teaching us, guiding us, helping us through times of troubles ... equipping us ... holding us securely ....Until we are literally born a second time.
Our first birth was of the water of the womb (earthly water) The second birth is of the Spirit in us given by Christ our God and Savior.
If I were to try to give a worldly example to explain the process I perceive... I would say that the Spirit in us is like our conception. A stage of pre-natal development. A time believers go through while still in the womb of earth.
Now, when we go to be with Christ and are the 'saints' in robes of white' perhaps that would be our teenage years. Just like impatient teenagers the saints once asked our Risen Lord,
"How long must we wait?"
Wait for what? God to finish his work and put enemies under the feet of our Lord...
For there is another time coming in their future when the saints will even take off the saintly robes of white and will receive a new body.
I Corinthians 15 37-41
37 And that which thou (mortal mankind) sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but (it may rot and) bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or some other grain:
38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed (sown) his own (unique) body.
39 (Just like in this mortal world) All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.
40 There are also (in this world) celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.
41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It (the earthly body) is sown in corruption; (BUT) it is raised in incorruption:
43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:
44 It is sown a natural body;
it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and
there is a spiritual body.
45 And so it is written, The first man Adam (of the Garden) was made a living soul; the last Adam (our Lord Jesus) was made a quickening spirit.
First humans were born earthy ... but then after the example of Jesus who was begotten of Mary ... he was born earthly but then raise spiritually ... as an example for the WAY we would follow him into his kingdom.
So will we will follow his example ... first born earthly then born again spiritually. Christ was the WAY - the quickening Spirit to lead to our second birth.
Enough already ...