Born of God and begotten of God, are two different phases of becoming a Son of God. To be begotten of God is when we receive the earnest of the Spirit. To be born of God is when we are changed to Spirit at our resurrection.

Notice that it is God s Spirit which caused Mary to become pregnant, so that means that the seed of God is passed on by the Holy Spirit.

Mat 1:20  But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

Luk 1:32  He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David.

Luk 1:33  And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.

Luk 1:35  And the angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.

Unfortunately born (begat) and begotten, are the same Greek word and have become mixed up in the translations. The number for both is G1080 in Strong s Concordance, shown below.

1Jo 5:1 Whosoever³⁹⁵⁶ believeth⁴¹⁰⁰ that³⁷⁵⁴ Jesus²⁴²⁴ is²⁰⁷⁶ the³⁵⁸⁸ Christ⁵⁵⁴⁷ is born¹⁰⁸⁰ of¹⁵³⁷ God:²³¹⁶ and²⁵³² every one³⁹⁵⁶ that loveth²⁵ him that begat¹⁰⁸⁰ loveth²⁵ him also that is begotten^{1080, 2532} of¹⁵³⁷ him.⁸⁴⁶

When we first receive the earnest of the Holy Spirit, this is the down payment, it is the first phase of the Spirit. This phase of the Spirit enables us to come out of the world, but not yet have eternal life inherent.

2Co 1:22  who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Eph 1:13  In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

The second phase of the Spirit is the Spirit of power, which when we have this, it is eternal life inherent. This is the time that the seed of God enters us. The seed is eternal life. This is when we are begotten. We are not born of God until we are changed to spirit.

Act 11:15  And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, as upon us at the beginning.

Joh 14:26  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

Mic 3:8  But truly I am full of power by the Spirit of the LORD, And of justice and might, To declare to Jacob his transgression And to Israel his sin.

The following verse should read begotten.

1Jn 5:4  For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith.

Now we see the difference when we are born of God, we cannot sin.

1Jn 3:9  Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

1Jn 5:18  We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

To be born of God is when we are resurrected and changed to spirit. It will not happen when we are physical, because notice the above scriptures state that we cannot sin once we are born of God.

To be begotten is different, this happens once we receive the earnest of the Holy Spirit. We will be able to understand more and be led by God s Spirit.

Rom 8:14  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

We are a son of God at this point, just as a woman who is pregnant her child is her son or daughter, even though it is not born yet, it is still a child of that mother. It is the same with God, we are a begotten son of God once we have the earnest of the Spirit. We are a born son of God when we are changed to spirit.

1Pe 1:23  having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,

Even though we are begotten, we must not become complacent, because we can still fail at this point. We must strive every day to be like God, to overcome, grow, pray study and live our lives as God would want us to. We still have much to learn and change in our lives, we still have to grow and get close to God every day. We must endure until the end to be saved.

Mat 24:13  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.

Once we have God s Holy Spirit we are equipped to endure, to be saved, but God will expect much from us, because He has given us much. He has entrusted us with His Holy Spirit, He expects us to be led by the Spirit and to achieve a great deal with the help of the Spirit.

Luk 12:48  But he who did not know, yet committed things deserving of stripes, shall be beaten with few. For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more.

What a wonderful blessing it is to be begotten of God and to strive to be born of God. To be in the kingdom with God the Father, Jesus Christ, all the saints, helping rule for eternity with our loving God. This is indeed a fantastic future, something to strive for to give a great deal of effort to achieve.

We need to ask God for help to be the person He wants us to be to qualify for a position of rulership in His kingdom.