You Must be Born Again.

Dear Lord Jesus, search me and search my heart and please cleanse me from all thoughts of self-interest and desire to be glorified and help me focus on the dear words – “Blessed Redeemer, Glorious Saviour” and may they permeate my mind and my heart.

“It is good to start again by remembering the glorious fact that I sent my Son to die a substitutionary death for you and a multitude of others so that through that death you may be set free from the bondage of death you were strangled in due to your sinfulness and given life. A new and glorious life – a life which you are only just tasting the first fruits of it – the full glory will only be revealed when you finally come into my Presence and experience something which is impossible to describe in terms that you may be able to understand. So just enjoy my Presence and my friendship now and as the day unfolds.”

We come today to one of the best-known passages of the bible in John 3:1-21. As this is a devotion let us stand back and not get embroiled in the detail. We saw last time in John 2:23-25, the enigmatic statement that many people believed but Jesus would not put His trust in them. Obviously, their faith was deficient in some way. Chapter 3 then shows how real faith is the key to entry into the kingdom and into becoming a true disciple of Jesus.

John uses a story to illustrate this. Firstly, he uses as the central figure someone who would be expected as a respected member of the religious elite, to have the correct credentials to enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus represents every person who desires to enter the kingdom. Remember John had been showing us how Jesus came introducing the new kingdom through the New Covenant. So, the bottom line is that there is no-one who has sufficient credentials to enter the kingdom on his/her own merit. Something needs to happen. There is no such thing as drifting into the kingdom by doing things like going to church and praying or deciding to join as if you are joining a club.

Jesus uses the description of a complete rebirth. There has to be a drastic change, as if you were being born again, Yet this time not a natural water birth but a Spirit birth. The concept is strange to Nicodemus and to everyone else, so he questions it. The answer is as enigmatic as the process. It is a mystical process as hard to get hold of as it is to get hold of wind. You cannot see wind, yet you see the effects of wind, trees bend, dust blows, leaves skid across the ground.

In much the same way the experience of rebirth is unique for every person. For some it is a dramatic experience, turning their world upside down. For others it is a gradual awakening where the exact moment it happens is unsure. However, all have the same things in common. Ultimately like the effect of wind, the effect of rebirth shows in a changed life, hence v 21.

Firstly, it happens by faith. Real faith, not like the people who were following Jesus superficially. John uses the beautiful illustration of the bronze snake which God gave as a way of salvation in Numbers when the Israelites had sinned, and God sent a plague of snakes upon them. Num 21:8,9. Every time someone was bitten, they simply had to look up at the bronze snake, which was mounted on a pole and trust that they would be healed. In a similar way we have all been bitten by the snake of sin and the way of rescue is to look up at the figure of Jesus on the cross and trust in Him that he will give us salvation, through the new birth.

John repeats the word believe a number of times after the illustration to drive the point home. The summary statement is one which we all know in John 3:16.

To emphasize the seriousness of this teaching Jesus repeats in several ways the alternative to being born again in vv 16 -20. He uses the word condemnation and darkness in several ways. So, this is not a sort of optional kind of Christianity. One often hears in certain circles someone being describes as being a “born-again” Christian as if there are other types of Christian. If you are someone who calls themselves a Christian, you must have been born again, otherwise you fall short and are in darkness and under condemnation.

Ultimately the measure of whether you are truly born again lies in the change which has happened in your life, hence v 21. “Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God”. Two things prove whether you are a born-again Christian. A change in your life from how you lived before to how you live after rebirth and then a perseverance in that to the end.

Friends, this is an extremely important teaching. In some circles it is almost a no-no to speak about being born again as if it only belongs to the extreme fringe of Charismatics or other weirdos. It is central to the gospel message. Jesus says quite clearly, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.……….”

No one!

There are many other descriptions of this reality of conversion in the word, but they all have the same things in common. See you all next week.