John 3: Born Again
All Scripture is God-breathed and useful, but there are some Scriptures that we can consider the Himalayan mountaintops of the Bible. In the next few months, we will be looking at a series of great texts that inspire and move us - the "Himalayan Heights" of God's Word.
Today's Reading: John 3:4-8
It is one of the strangest and most powerful confrontations in Jesus' life. A Pharisee named Nicodemus comes to him by night to discuss his teachings and Jesus blows his mind by telling him he must be born again. There is som much power and theological importance in these verses. We will spend the entire week looking at this encounter. Each day, read the entire 21 verses and then come back to meditate on the highlighted section.
There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”9 “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. 11 “Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven —the Son of Man.14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
Through the Bible Readings: 2 Chronicles 31-32, Acts 9:1–25, Psalm 79:1–8, Proverbs16:30–31
If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings.
Devotional: Ignorant Religion
This story does not occur in a vacuum. In John 2-4, there are 5 stories in which Jesus confronts the deadness and spiritual paucity of the religion of the Pharisees, who were gradually formalizing their opposition to him. Jesus turned water into wine, bringing life and joy where there was none. Also in chapter 2, Jesus cleanses the Temple, confronting the impure motives and materialism driving Temple worship. Later in chapter 3, during an interchange between John's disciples and a Jewish leader, coupled with John's teachings, reveals the lack of understanding of the religionists about the things of God. The things Jesus said in his dealings with the Samaritan woman furthered that.
But his conversation with Nicodemus shows a huge problem with empty religion - religion that does not root in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Here is a learned man, a religious leader, a man who is honored and respected in his culture. But when Jesus explains the most basic concept of the faith, "You must be born again," he simply cannot grasp it.
Have you ever wondered why people who go to church, who claim to be religious, who say they are religious, even Christian behave so badly, have ungodly attitudes, and seem to evidence no understanding of the things of God?
Paul explains in 1 Corinthians 2 that the things of God cannot be discerned by intellect or human reason alone, but must be revealed by the Spirit to the redeemed and regenerated soul. Here, a religious leader cannot understand fundamental truth.
Jesus responds with a crucial teaching, that we must be born of water and of the Spirit. There are many interpretations of what "born of water" means. Some say it refers to the saving power of water baptism, which is contrary to other Scriptures. It seems best to see it as a reference to physical birth - we are surrounded by water in the womb. We are all born of water, but the question is whether we have been born of the Spirit, born from above, born again.
Nicodemus couldn't understand this because the Spirit had not yet opened his mind to the things of God. It is generally believed he eventually came to faith in Christ, as he participated in the burial of Christ.
Religion by itself can never bring us into a right relationship with God. Nicodemus' faith brought him the respect of other people but it could not gain him favor with God. Only the work of the Spirit of God within, bringing new birth, can do that.
Father, we thank you for the new birth that does in us what all the empty religion in this world cannot.
Think and Pray:
What does this verse say about your Christian life?
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