I have to admit I was more than mystified when I first heard the term, Born Again. I’m not alone in that. There’s this guy in the Bible, Nicodemus, who essentially asked, “What you talkin’ ‘bout, Jesus?”
Check out John, Chapter 3, for the full story, but in essence Jesus said nobody can even SEE the Kingdom of God unless he’s born of the spirit. It’s the part of the Bible where Jesus said that God loved the world sooooo much He sent His Son to save folks from everlasting destruction - Hell. Yeah. THAT John 3:16. Keep in mind there’s John 3:17 right after that: NOT TO CONDEMN.
That’s right, Jesus came to save, not to provide condemnation. The Law of Moses covered that part already. Jesus came to save by providing a spiritual rebirth to people who were already lost.
There’s a parable told by Jesus, one of His most famous ones, about the Prodigal Son. A man’s younger son demands his cut of the dad’s estate, gets it, and runs off to the big city to live a life of excess. Eventually the cash runs out and he has to take a job so menial it’s difficult for someone in America to comprehend. Look at as if a fast food manager hired him to clean out dumpsters - by hand. With a toothbrush. His own toothbrush. And his pay was to eat anything he found in the dumpster.
That son eventually realizes he had it pretty good with his dad, so he decides he’ll head home and take a job on the family farm. He’ll make some cash and pay his dad back for being such a moron. But Dad was having none of that. “No way, kid. You’re my son. I ain’t gonna make you work to get back in the family.”
But there’s another son - the older one. It was HIS job to keep the family together, but did he look for his kid brother? No. The younger had, in the culture of the day, told Dad, “I want you dead so I can get your stuff.” The older one figured, “I don’t want a brother like that.” So when the deadbeat brother comes back, and Dad throws a party for that deadbeat, the suck-up brother gets ticked.
Seems like I’ve written something like this before. But it pertains to what I started with: Born Again.
Anyway, the older brother won’t come in to celebrate with the younger one. Dad comes out and says, “Yo! Kid! C’mon in and have some of the steak I’ve been grilling.” The older kid says, in essence, “Bite me, old man. Deadbeat already took off with his share of your stuff, so anything you use up for this party is supposed to be mine!”
So there’s two prodigals. The rebellious one, and the self-righteous one. Back when Jesus told this, the crowd consisted of rebellious sinners and Pharisees. There’s no doubt the Pharisees knew what Jesus was saying and didn’t like it.
Nicodemus, now, was a Pharisee. He’d heard about Jesus and wanted to find out what the big deal was. He went out at night, which is something most people didn’t do. Maybe it was because he was busy with official duties during the day, or maybe it was so his buddies wouldn’t see him talking to the guy. They all hated Jesus, so that’s understandable.
“Nick,” Jesus said, “you have to be born of the spirit.” I think the point Jesus was making is that a baby in the womb doesn’t really DO anything to get born. To be born of the spirit is the same thing - you can’t do anything yourself to be born again. You have to depend on God.
The fact that Nicodemus was asking with sincerity was probably a good indicator that he was already in the process of being born again. God was working in his life, and a few years later Nicodemus helped Joseph of Arimathea bury Jesus after the crucifixion.
Everybody who gets to Heaven - the Kingdom of God (I won’t get into hairsplitting) - has to be born again. Born spiritually. A physical body isn’t really alive unless the person’s spirit is born of God.
As an aside (Oh, no! Not another one!), when Jesus turned water into wine at that wedding celebration in Cana, there’s a huge significance going on there. You see, people in a lot of cultures back then practiced baptism. Jesus took water - the symbol of death - which was used to baptize, and changed it to wine - a symbol of the new covenant in His blood.
Jesus did all the work to get you to where you could be born again. You can either turn toward Him (the narrow path), or turn away from Him (the broad path).
Chose life, or choose destruction. Either way, you pick. The consequences are eternal.
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