Born Again

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

BORN AGAIN

John 3:1-15

3:1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 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." 3 In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."  4 "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!" 5 Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8 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."  9 "How can this be?" Nicodemus asked. 10 "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? 11 I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man.   14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.  

NIV

There is so much in this conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus we have to take it a little at a time, in fact, there is actually more, including that great verse, John 3:16. So, for now, let us consider the first truth Jesus spoke to Nicodemus. What we first notice is that Nicodemus never asked the question which Jesus answered. However, we also know Jesus knew what was in the heart of Nicodemus and took the opportunity to speak directly to the question of his heart. Although there were many different views regarding the resurrection of a man’s soul, the Pharisees did believe in the resurrection and thus some form of an afterlife and being a Jew, worshipping YHWH, or how we spell it, Jehovah, had to have some idea of where that afterlife would be in relationship to YHWH. Jesus told Nicodemus that this place was, in fact, the kingdom of God. But there again, the idea of the kingdom of God had different meanings to different sects of the Jews. Some thought the Messiah would set up His kingdom on earth, overturning any oppressive foreign rule over the Jewish people and would rule the world from Jerusalem. We know that is not what Jesus had in mind when he referenced the kingdom of God, for the proof is in history. The kingdom of God is spiritual and yet a physical place and Jesus made sure we know that in order to see this place, we have to be born again. Nicodemus was just seeing with his physical mind, not with his spiritual mind. This truth bears out in so many scriptures, but especially in the fact that we were dead in our sin, but alive in Christ. The fact we were dead in our sin does not speak of our physical bodies, which were and can only be born once, but it speaks regarding our spirit which was born once, but through sin, it died and is in need of being born again in Christ. Spiritual death is horrible for it opposes eternal life. The question begs to be asked. What happens to a dead spirit when the body which houses it dies? That is one question that must be left unanswered due to denominational interpretations and bias. Most of them would say that dead spirits would go to hell or eternal punishment. The point is that is one place we do not want to experience and that is the reason God sent his Son, to be our sacrifice and give us the opportunity for our spirit to be born again. Now, there also seems to be some controversy as to how a person is a Christian or gets to go to heaven. We have known people who confess their faith in Jesus, but say they just grew up believing or evolved into believing as they grew up. They cannot point to a moment in time of their spiritual rebirth, or that moment they confessed their sin and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But the fact remains Jesus said that in order for us to see the kingdom of God we have to be born again. Physical birth is a moment, the first instant we leave the womb and take our first breath, although we come into this world with a dead spirit because of what is referred to as original sin because we are all descendants of Adam. So in order for us to see this kingdom of God, our spirit must experience another moment in time when it is born again, this time born of God, not of man. We are so thankful we, our true nature, our spirit has been born again.