Believe and Receive to be Born Again!

John 3:1-21

1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."

3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."

4 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"

5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?"

10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18 "He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

The Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, came secretly to Jesus in the night to avoid being ostracized from the religious community for daring to sincerely approach Jesus and confess that He was a teacher sent by God with the testimony that no one could do those signs that Jesus did unless God was with him.  Jesus answered with a seemingly confusing statement of fact to answer the real burning unspoken question of how someone can enter God’s kingdom.  He made it clear that nobody can enter unless they are completely changed by God which was described as being born again, a phrase often overused and not grasped even today by many who say it.  Nicodemus reacted as many do today when they hear this condition to be saved from sin’s consequence of eternal punishment and enter that kingdom of God through God’s work in Christ.  The religious man used rational reasoning to declare such a thing was impossible.  How could a man be born a second time?  Could he reenter the womb and come back out?  How could he even fit!  Jesus explained that this was a matter of spiritual regeneration that made a man as new as if he was born all over again minus the sin that caused him to be rejected from the heavenly kingdom.  He made it clear that this rebirth  was an act of God’s work of power and grace because it was done inwardly as unseen by man looking for the change to happen.  This work of God Spirit was like the unseen wind (Job 9:11) that is heard but not observed in action.  Those born of God’s Spirit are reborn in such an internal act by the change God makes in the moving action of His unseen Spirit in a man or woman to change them inside as if a new creation (Galatians 2:20).  This rebirth is accomplished by His word (1 Peter 1:23) working by His Spirit’s awakening of the dead soul (Ephesians 2:5-6) to a new life as a baby coming into the world of the unseen out of the darkness this present evil age (Galatians 1:4, 1 John 5:18-19) into such wondrous light (1 Peter 2:9-10, Acts 26:18) of the kingdom of God come within us.  Nicodemus responded as many still would as he asked how this was even possible.  Jesus pointed him to search the scriptures which told of Him (John 5:39, Luke 24:26-27, 1 Peter 1:10-11) and this transformation of the hear and soul (Ezekiel 11:19-20, 36:26, 2 Corinthians 3:3).  He had come down from that heaven to bear witness that all who look on Him with trust in His word and work will be saved from punishment and granted free access into the kingdom.  Jesus came down into the lower parts of creation which is the earth which we live and breathe and have our existence in and ascended back there once the work was finished.  Those who act in faith to believe the word of the gospel and His work on the cross as proven by the resurrection from death to life are saved from death just as the rebellious and unbelieving people of God did in the desert (Numbers 21:8-9) until they looked upon a snake set on a pole in obedience and lived.  This symbolism pointed to the Lord lifted up on a cross (1 Peter 2:24) of a cursed tree (Deuteronomy 21:22-23, Galatians 3:13) in our place which begs us to believe that work saves us from the bite of that serpent of old, the devil (Revelation 12:9, 20:2), by trust in receiving God’s work (John 5:24) who suffered the bite of sin for us on that pole, which bite brings us all eternal death and suffering from the poison of sin in our souls.  The only cure is faith in the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and the resulting rebirth according to His Word, living and powerful (John 1:1, Hebrews 4:12).  For God loved the world of His creation enough to send His Son that we might believe and receive Him to obtain eternal life by faith.  Not all will hear and believe, however, as this is no magic formula whose words are simply mouthed without conviction or recited in front of a congregation as a sinner’s prayer but by the blowing wind of His Spirit able to convict and change a person to be born again.  Those not being drawn by Him are condemned because they reject Him and refuse repentance as they continue to pursue darkness without desiring the light.  Only those so moved to honor God to be able to do what is right inside are changed by God in this way.  Only such an act of repentance and faith is the proof of God’s work in us and results in a new person (Galatians 2:20) being born.  Believe and receive to be born again!