Recognizing Our Need

How is a person supposed to be born again? Nicodemus asks the overly obvious question, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? The question demonstrates that Nicodemus is flatly not understanding the Biblical truth (OT and NT) that the new birth is required to enter the kingdom of heaven. And Christ rebukes him for thinking so simply and not knowing the Scriptures as he should.

So, if the new birth is not a physical birth, as Christ makes it clear it is not, then what is it? When someone is born again the first see light. They were once in darkness but are born into the light. This is when we can see and know. Firstly, when we are in darkness our filthiness is invisible to our eyes. We cannot see our own sinfullness and are merely comparing ourselves to our own standards or other people. This is a sure fire way to feel good about ourself. This is not what happens in the new birth.

When we are introduced to the light in the new birth. We are supernaturally shown light. Paul describes it this way, "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." The new birth is a supernatural shining of God's light on our heart, for the purpose of showing us the knowledge of God. This knowledge shows us that instead of being holy as we think we should be holy, or be holier than so and so is holy; we are shown God's holiness and recognize it as the standard to which we must measure. This is obviously impossible since God is perfect and anyone who is being honest already knows that they have failed at perfection. Therefore, we look to Christ and his work on the Cross. This work is shown to be the only work that is able to reconcile the relationship that has been ruined by sin, the relationship between us and God. Until this point it should be obvious that we deserve nothing but God's wrath because we haved sinned against him. When we see the face of Jesus Christ, we can see that his work on the Cross was sufficient to make us holy as the perfect life of Christ is perfect. Therefore, with the face of Christ and His Cross, and only through him, we can be holy as God is holy! With this we can have hope that we can know God and live with him forever.

Praise the eternal God who has saved sinners and causes His children to be born again. Praise Him! Amen.

Importance of the New Birth

1Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2This man came to Jesus^[a] 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." 3Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again^[b] he cannot see the kingdom of God." 4Nicodemus 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?" 5Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, 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.^[c] 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You^[d] must be born again.' 8 The wind^[e] 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."


Christ here tells us an extraordinary truth. He says, "unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." This truth makes it necessary for a person to be born again in order to see God's kingdom. Being born again then is of the utmost importance. The question is then how can we be born again? Christ answer seems vague. He claims first that the new birth must be spiritual and that the Spirit blows where it will. What does this mean. Christ seems to be saying that we are not in control of the Spirit's moving but God is. The new birth is a supernatural and spiritual event that we cannot control.

The question then is whether or not the fact that we are not in control of our birth is comforting or disconcerting. Are we free to trust that God is in control of our salvation or do we feel the need to do something to take matters into your own hand and cause our own birth?