Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:3.
In our day and age many people are entangled in bad habits and addiction. Great efforts are made to help them, and rightly so. Many a Christian sees it as his duty to help addicts to get free. The Bible leaves us in no doubt that sin is bondage. The Lord Jesus Christ said, “Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” This applies to us all. Then he added: “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:34 & 36).
It is in fact Satan who is behind such problems. Therefore true and total liberation for one’s body and spirit can be granted only through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Nobody is able to defeat Satan in his own strength. But Christ gained this victory in His death on the cross. That makes it so important to present the message of the gospel, which gives freedom, to those seeking help, so that through faith in the Son of God they are born again.
Many a failure can be explained by the fact that merely an outward improvement, no inner renewal, occurred. Addicts have recognized through their ruined state that things could not continue as they were. But the strength was lacking, because the necessary inner renewal had not taken place. So there was no real freedom.
Man without God is in essence depraved by sin and incapable of improving himself. Therefore the Word of God strongly emphasizes the need to be “born again”.
Image: By Alexander Bida – WCG, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2567653