When John Wesley began a series of evangelistic meetings, he preached from John Chapter 3, You Must be Born Again. As the meetings went on people realized he was preaching that same message over and over. Someone asked him, when are you going to move on to something different? His answer, as soon as you are born again.
There is no use moving on to the “deeper truths” until you have experienced the most essential teaching in the Bible. That essential teaching is the new birth in Christ. There will be a lot of things demanding your attention, but this, being born again, you cannot afford to neglect.
If you neglect, or reject, the spiritual birth you will regret it. Not a regret just for the rest of your life, but for eternity. This life passes all too quickly. The spiritual birth is simple, but deeply profound. It is of utmost importance and urgency.
The phrase “Born Again” was spoke often in the 1970’s. One person who made the term well known was Chuck Colson who had a spiritual experience with Christ and then pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for his role in the Watergate scandal. He went to prison and wrote the book, Born Again in 1974.
On the heels of Colson’s book there was another high-profile focus on the phrase “born again” when Jimmy Carter described himself as a born-again Christian in his 1976 US presidential election campaign.
John Wesley did not originate the term “born again” nor did Chuck Colson. The term “born again” originated with Jesus and his fascinating conversation with one of the high-ranking religious leaders of his day, Nicodemus.
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” 4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are 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.’ (John 3:1-7)
Jesus’ teaching on the new birth takes place in the context of a conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. There was a contrast in who these two were. Jesus was a man with humble beginnings. Think of the Christmas story. No room in the inn for him, born in a stable among the animals. Yet in all these humble circumstances we know Jesus was Emmanuel, God with us. There was the angel’s announcement from heaven that a savior was born. There was the star in the sky that brought magi bringing gifts including gifts of gold to Jesus.
Jesus was not joining the establishment but starting something different. He gathered disciples, preached to crowds, performed miracles, and healed the sick. Jesus claimed to be the unique Son of God, equal with God. The Jews were waiting for the Messiah and Jesus claimed to be that Messiah.
With Jesus he did not leave a lot of room for neutrality. If you believed Jesus was the Son of God, you loved him. You would give up all to follow him. If you did not believe he was the son of God, you hated him. You might like many pick up stones to stone him because, if you thought he was a mere man that made himself out to be God, that is offensive.
The religious leaders of the day could not accept Jesus’ claim. He claimed to be the Son of God. He claimed to have power from God. He seemed to work miracles that proved his claims. But the religious leaders had an answer for that.
They said his miraculous power came from the devil. Jesus confronted and condemned the religious leaders. He called them snakes and whitewashed tombs. These are harsh words of denunciation in that time, in this time, in any time.
Now contrast Nicodemus. He is called a man of the Pharisees. These were the religious leaders that had important positions and they loved to publicly receive the praise of men. Nicodemus was among them.
Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews and a teacher of Israel. This term ruler of the Jews was another term for the “Sanhedrin”. This was the ruling council of 70 members. Nicodemus was at the top of the Jewish social ladder in terms of power and position.
There was something different about Nicodemus view of Jesus than the rest of his ruling colleagues. Nicodemus could not so easily attribute Jesus’ miracles to the devil. Nicodemus needed to know more. He went at night not fully ready to make known his true stance that he was favorable toward Jesus.
Nicodemus says to Jesus, we know you are a teacher that has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” There you have it. They knew deep down Jesus was not doing his miracles based on the power of the devil. Jesus is from God. Nicodemus knows much truth. He needs to come at night, to save his reputation.
Jesus then gives Nicodemus the greatest teaching he had ever heard. You cannot see the kingdom of God unless you are born again. Keep in mind that Jesus is talking to one of the foremost religious leaders of the day. Nicodemus had devoted his life to become a teacher of religion.
All the self-effort of religious activity will not be enough to reach God. The problem for us is our sin. God is holy. God is like the pure snow on the top of the highest mountains. God created us in his own image for fellowship. Adam and Eve had a relationship with God until they disobeyed God and just one small sin separated them from God. Me, you and Nicodemus all inherited the sin nature from Adam.
When we sin, we are like the mud in the mud puddle. You cannot mix the pure with the mud. I am sure Nicodemus was not as mucky as some people were, but he still was dirty mud, and he was talking to Jesus who never sinned. Jesus was from God. Jesus is God in the flesh.
The New Birth is in Jesus. Nicodemus is totally perplexed by what Jesus tells him. He responds by questioning the literal meaning of what Jesus says. How can I climb into the womb and be born a second time, is Nicodemus’ question.
Nicodemus has been referred to as “Nicco the Thicko”. He is a thick or a thicko because he is not getting the spiritual application. Here is the great religious leader. He is one of the most theologically trained men on the planet. He was an intellect and had enormous head knowledge.
There were times, many times actually, that Jesus disciples did not understand the spiritual application for something Jesus said. But the disciples were uneducated men. They were fisherman, like James, Peter, John and Andrew or Matthew was a tax collector. None of the other disciples were trained experts in the law like Nicodemus was.
We know what intellectual quotient is, we call the someone’s IQ. We also have the term emotional quotient EQ the ability to understand your own emotions and in short keep from doing dumb things.
We could say that Nicodemus was low on his SQ, spiritual quotient. He was slow to understand the spiritual meaning behind the literal analogy. To Nicodemus credit he was in the upper percentile of SQ among his Sanhedrin peers. He was way ahead of the group and only one other member, Joseph of Arimathea (Mark 15:43, Matthew 27:57) was even close to the spiritual understanding Nicodemus had of Jesus.
Some of the most intellectually elite to this day reject what Jesus was saying here. There are some very simple people who grasp and accept what Jesus is saying here. When it comes to spiritual understanding we could say, the times they are not changing. People accept or deny Jesus much the same today as they did at the time Jesus was born, when he taught, when he died and even when he rose again.
Jesus is talking about a spiritual birth. You must come to grips with the fact that no matter how good you are, no matter how much religion you practice, that your sin separates you from God. Anyone Nicodemus or whoever are lost and headed for eternal damnation without the new birth in Christ.
The New birth that Jesus was talking about is more than believing facts about Jesus. The new birth is more than joining a church. Being born again is a spiritual experience of faith in Jesus Christ that gives you a relationship with God. You must confess that you are helpless to reach God on your own and you need the savior Jesus Christ.
You need to realize you cannot make it, in a personal relationship with God, without the spiritual birth. All of us have sinned and our sin separates us from God. Jesus came to die the just for the unjust to bring us back to God. The wages of sin is death. Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin, but we must put our faith in Jesus. We must ask God that Jesus death on the cross be counted as the payment for our sin.
Accept Jesus as your savior. Place your faith in Jesus and be born again. There is nothing more wonderful that can ever happen to you. When you are born again you are redeemed. You will be in heaven when you die. Your have a pardon granted for your sins. You are found not guilty in the eyes of God.
Jesus used birth as an illustration of the new birth. This time you are not born from a womb but born spiritually from above. Place your faith and trust in Jesus.
I was very surprised when a young man from my Sunday school class in seminary, preparing for high level theological studies said he had never truly been born again. His father was a pastor and still he had not put his faith in Christ. He had something in common with Nicodemus. He was a teacher yet did not understand the spiritual truth. He said up to that point everything he had done was from a sense of duty and now he was ready to put his faith in Christ and experience the spiritual birth. That day this young man was born again.
It is misguided for so many people who think they will go to heaven because according to them they have tried to be a good person. I would say you will never be as good as Nicodemus. You must be born again. Like Nicodemus anyone who thinks they will go to heaven by being a good person has missed the point. Unless you are born again you have missed the point. Only when you experience spiritual birth, and the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ counts for you, then will you experience salvation.
Nicodemus took Jesus’ message to heart. Later he was born again. He became such a born-again disciple of Jesus that he anointed and buried Jesus body after his death on the cross. There are to many stories of people who dismiss the spiritual birth to run their own life. They have lived a wasted life when they do not experience the spiritual birth in Christ.
Do you believe the Bible is God’s truth?
Do you believe Jesus is God’s son?
Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins?
Do you desire to be born again?
Come to faith in Jesus Christ. Here is a prayer you can pray now to have the spiritual birth:
Dear God, I thank you that you loved me and desire a relationship with me. I acknowledge that I have sinned and broken my relationship with you. I ask that Jesus Christ death on the cross count for my sins. I ask Jesus to come into my heart and make me a new person. I want to follow Jesus with my whole heart. I thank you God that our relationship is restored through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Did you sincerely pray this prayer of faith? If yes, you have been born again. Welcome to the family of God!
You should write in your Bible the day you put your faith in Christ and experienced the new birth. This will be your spiritual birth certificate.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Corinthians 5:17)
