Born Again

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him." In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." "How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.  Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”  Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (John 3:1-15).

The Holy Spirit reveals important truth about a central doctrine of the Christian faith here through the record of the apostle John. Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council came to Jesus one night seeking truth about the kingdom of God that was being revealed through the work of “The Word (that) became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Nicodemus was among those who saw Jesus turn water into wine and cleanse the temple. The words and works of Christ prompted an earnest desire in his heart to learn more about the kingdom of God. He was the teacher of Israel yet this learned man was stumped by Jesus’ declaration that “no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again”.

Do you remember when you first believed in Christ? Did you understand what it means to be born again? Someone probably told you how to become a Christian. You probably followed their instruction to pray a sinner’s prayer where you admitted that you were a sinner, believed that Jesus Christ paid for your sin in His death on the cross, and confessed Him as your Savior and Lord. Did you pray this prayer because you fully understood all of its truth? If you did not fully grasp the truth of the gospel when you prayed, perhaps it was at your baptism or at some other time when you were challenged to publicly declare or take a stand for what you believed about Christ. The Spirit of Truth teaches today that your belief in the spiritual truth about Christ is evidence that you are born again.

In sharing gospel truth with the learned teacher Nicodemus, Jesus used the earthly term born again to communicate the heavenly truth about seeing and entering the kingdom of God. Why couldn’t this teacher of Israel recognize the kingdom of God after learning and teaching Biblical truth all of his life? Why must we be born again to see and respond to gospel truth? The Spirit of Truth teaches that because of sin we are all spiritually dead… “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world” (Ephesians 2:1-2). A dead person cannot see, hear, or respond to anything, including gospel truth. Jesus taught Nicodemus that God’s grace gives life to those who look to Christ in the same way that God’s grace gave life to the snake-bitten Israelites that looked to the serpent Moses lifted up in the wilderness… And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life (Read about it here… Numbers 21:9) The Teacher echoes this truth through the pen of the apostle Paul… “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Ephesians 2:4-5).

As we grow up into Christ we appreciate the grace of God that gave us life so we could understand and believe the truth of His gospel and know that we have been…

Born Again.