Those who are not yet Born Again, believe they can hold God accountable and in debt to their righteous works. They may not be saying it directly, but their actions and beliefs imply that. Because they try to do good deeds, expecting God to notice that and honor them for it with His blessing and eventually salvation. If He didn’t do that, He would be unfair in their view. So they expect a good wages and reward for their works. This means you hold God as a debtor. Let me tell you something: that’s never gonna happen.
What if, a person of any religion , read the Bible and fully understand what JESUS meant by being “born again” and believe the gospel then do what HE commands as a way of life, but did not get baptized by anybody, can he/be considered born again?