Title: Born Again
Passage: John 3:1-15
I just read John 3:1-15 and i am so excited over this passage of scripture that i am going to share it with you guys, in hopes that you will be as joyful over it as i am.
OK well i should first post what the passage is.
John 3:1-15:
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 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.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he can not see the kingdom of God.” 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?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Ok well it is a long passage but this is just amazing and so much is here, yet i think it will be easy to follow if i go verse by verse with little jumping ahead.
So what we have first in verse one is Nicodemus. He is a ruler of the Jews. In verse 2, we find that he came to Jesus by night. Why did he come at night? Because he is afraid of associating with Jesus in public. No doubt to be a Pharisee who goes to Jesus for answers would make you hated by all the Pharisees, for they despised Jesus, and to look to him for help would have been shameful. Now what is more is that with this verse we have the Pharisees view of Christ. He calls him “Rabbi” and “a teacher come from God”. He acknowledges the legitimacy of Christ. This is huge, for we rarely see anyone believe our lord is truly divine, yet this pharisee sees clearly enough and not satirically calls him Rabbi. His belief in Christ is further proved by the fact that he came out at all to meet with him.
Now what does the believing pharisee ask in verse 2? Nothing. Notice he says nothing except that Jesus is truly from God, and that his authenticity is proclaimed by the miracles he performs. Yet look at verse 3. Jesus answered him, but he never asked a question. Jesus knows the hearts of man, and to everyone who believes Christ is of God there is only one thought on their mind: “How do i get to heaven?”. We know this was on Nicodemus’ mind because that was the question Jesus answered. With such a serious question on Nicodemus’ mind, it is no wonder he desired to see Christ, who came from Heaven himself.
Jesus’ answer in verse 3 is that you must be born again to enter Heaven. Nicodemus did not see this answer coming. He was wondering most likely what else he must do, as in what kind of deeds must he perform, in order to enter, and what Jesus says does not seem like a deed he can perform. So he asks him, and probably with a little sarcasm in his voice: “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”. Nicodemus sarcastically asks how he can perform this rebirth. For his mind is focused upon doing things to enter heaven. So when Jesus tells him something he cant do he replies with sarcasm. Yet there is a truth to his sarcasm. How do you become born again? How can he perform this “rebirth”?For Jesus answers Nicodemus in verse 5.
Jesus says first, “truly, truly”, which means “take heed to THIS”. Jesus is about to say something completely relevant and life changing. And we must remember that this answer is in response to the question, “How can you be born again?” which is the question behind the sarcasm of Nicodemus. Jesus says “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus repeats himself again to emphatically state that he did not mix up words, and that he was truly serious that Nicodemus, if he were to enter heaven, would need to be reborn. Yet he explains how this is “done” in the next verses. And what we will find is that Nicodemus’ sarcasm which was to insult Jesus’ answer is exactly right. You can not perform your own rebirth.
Verse 6 says, “That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is spirit.” Ok guys, Remember what this is supposed to explain. This is to explain how one is reborn, for Jesus did not take back his first statement but said it again, except elaborated on the kind of rebirth. A birth of water and Spirit. But notice that Jesus does not says anything more about water for the rest of the passage. So i believe that water was representative of the cleansing power of the Spirit. Kind of like how John the baptist said Jesus would baptize us with the Spirit and with fire. Jesus obviously is not baptizing us with physical fire. So neither do i think that Jesus meant we were to be literally born again from water. I also do not believe that this water represents the baptism and thus support baptismal regeneration and baptismal salvation.
So What does Jesus mean by verse 6? Jesus simply is breaking things down into small bits. What is born of flesh is flesh. This is common sense. Nicodemus eagerly awaiting Jesus’ response at this point is nodding his head frantically awaiting the deep truth he so desires to hear of how he will accomplish his own rebirth. But then he gets to the end of verse 6 and Jesus says, “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. At this point we must see the parallel. That which is born of flesh is flesh. Flesh gives birth to flesh. We see this in creation. We came from our parents. Flesh makes flesh. Now Jesus’ parallels this kind of “coming into being” or birth with spiritual birth. The Spirit gives birth to spirit. The Spirit of God is what causes our spiritual birth. We must be born again. The adverb in verse 3, ἄνωθεν, used to describe the “born” which is typically translated “again” can also be translated “from above”. Just as only a animal of the flesh can make another animal born of the flesh. Our birth is not of our self. We do not make ourselves born again. Our new birth of the spirit is by the Spirit of God, as only the Spirit of God can make us spiritually born again.
What is the significance of this? Nicodemus at this point must have been furious. Jesus told him that he can’t be born again, at least in the sense that he can not do it himself. He cant fast enough or give enough or do enough to become born again and enter the kingdom of God, but God’s Spirit is the one who makes people spiritually alive and we have no part in this.
Jesus states this exactly in the next verse. Verse 8 says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Just like the wind, that we don’t control, and we cant tell how it moves or where it blows or comes from, and we can only see the wind and perceive it when it hits the trees. The Spirit is uncontrolled by us, and it doesn’t have any visible patterns of movement and we we don’t know who it is going to affect next. Yet we can perceive who has been affected by the spirit, we can see the changed lives, and thus we know the Spirit “blew”.
Verse 9. In light of this truth, Nicodemus states, “How can this be?”. He does not believe Jesus. He knows Jesus is from Heaven yet he can not accept this to be true. This does not fit in with his theology.
Verse 10. Jesus answers again “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.” Notice the definite article “the”. Nicodemus is a well known teacher of Israel. So much so that he is called “the” teacher, as in if there was only one teacher, he was it. And Jesus says he does not understand these things. He does not understand the point that Jesus just clearly made to him. His ability to perceive the things of God is dead. Jesus says in verse 11 that “we speak of what we know”. Jesus associates himself with the prophets of old and says that they all spoke of what they knew, and they all bore witness to what the had genuinely seen, but “you”, a plural you indicating not just Nicodemus but all of Israel, do not receive the message we spoke. So Israel as a whole has not received the message of the prophets. All of Israel’s perception of these things is dead.
Jesus in verse 13 says that they do not understand earthly things and thus they can not believe heavenly things. This simply further drives in Jesus’ point that Nicodemus and all of Israel do not believe his message even if they believe he is from God, as Nicodemus is. They simply can not comprehend it, even though it is put in the most simple of terms and spelled out by the master teacher himself.
The question now is why? Why is it Nicodemus could not get the message or accept the spiritual things? 1 Corinthians 2:14 says “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” This is exactly what is going on here. Nicodemus did not understand the point of the rebirth by the spirit, ironically, because he was not born again himself. For he was a natural man, as 1 Corinthians 2 states it, and thus is why neither Him not Israel understood the prophets or the message of Christ.
Now i am shifting gears, because Jesus shifts gears. He has moved on from talking about being born again. He has made the case you need to be born again to be saved. He has told them this and Nicodemus didn’t understand because he was not born again. And in this same reason why Israel did not understand the prophets and even Christ, because they, in the same manner, were not born again, for those who are born again are the only ones able to understand the message of Christ. For it is foolishness to those tho are not born again.
So in light of the fact that Jesus has told them that you must be born again and shown that they are spiritually blind which is why they do not understand him, he states in verse 13 his authority and that Nicodemus at least sought the answer from the right person. For anyone who desires to know how to get to heaven, should ask Christ, for “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended form heaven, the Son of Man.” Meaning if you want to know how to get to heaven look to him who came from heaven.
Then the glorious final verses 14-15: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
What does this mean? If you want to know how to enter heaven as Nicodemus did, look to Christ. Look to the one who in verse 13 says came from heaven for the answer. But in verse 14 we see even further and more profound. For Jesus references the event in Numbers when Moses lifts up the bronze serpent. The setting was that the people of Israel were plagued by poisonous snakes by God, and God told Moses to lift up the bronze fashioned snake that those who look to it would be saved and not die. In THIS way, the people are not simply to look to Christ to get to know what to do to enter the kingdom of God, but they are to look to him to be saved. They are to trust in the Son of God, sent from heaven to save them for those who believe in him are saved.
This ending is brilliant. Recognize that Christ is of God. If you want to enter heaven, look to Him, and as the people of Israel looked to the snake to be saved, look to Christ to be saved. Believe upon Him and you will have eternal life, for he has died for those who do.
This was very long, but yet this was simply something that was further revealed to me and i just wanted to share that my joy may be complete.
-Derek Harada
Once again any stones are welcome.