DESTINATION GOD

YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN

He was likely wealthy. From John 19:39 we know he bought expensive spices for burying Jesus. He was a Pharisee. This is significant because of what will happen later. The Pharisees were easily the "best" people in the whole country. Best in terms of knowing and keeping every part of the law. They spent countless hours extracting from the Law every regulation to live by. And they were bound by oath to keep each one. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. This was a 70-member ruling council. They had religious jurisdiction over every Jew in the world. One of their duties was to examine those thought to be "a false prophet". He may also have been a very powerful aristocrat. There was a Nicodemus who had been an ambassador to Roman leader Pompey almost 100 years before. And the son of a Nicodemus would be the one to surrender to the Romans 40 or so years after this.

Maybe out of caution. With all the above being true, Nicodemus could have had some prejudices against this itinerate Rabbi, with a carpenter's background, from Nazareth. Remember what Nathaniel said (1:46), "Can any good thing come from Nazareth"? Maybe because he was a Pharisee. It had been declared that the best time to study the Law was at night, when one was less likely to be disturbed. Nicodemus may have had that in mind, having a private and undisturbed conversation with Jesus.

To Nicodemus' inquiry, Jesus responds in verse 3, "You must be born again". So, what does that mean?

It can mean: From the beginning, for a second time, or from above. It would appear that Nicodemus, from his response in verse 4, How can a man be born when he is old. Surely he can not enter a second time into his mother?s womb to be born, that he interprets the phrase "born again" by the second definition, for a second time. But that really doesn't make a lot of sense. After all, Nicodemus was a Pharisee. That meant he knew more than anyone else about God?s Word. This concept of a new birth would be quite well known. That is what the Jews believed when someone converted to Judaism. Additionally, the Greeks also knew and embraced the idea of new birth.

So Nicodemus, at least theoretically, knew what Jesus was talking about. It is very probable that his question was more one of "I know this is a good thing, but I don't know how". Nicodemus was a man who wanted to be changed, but couldn't change himself.

In the New Testament, especially in the Gospel of John, the concept of the new birth encompasses four ideas.

1.  The Kingdom of Heaven. John 3:3 -- I tell you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born again. Look at this phrase from the Lord?s Prayer. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in Heaven. Written in the Jewish style of parallelism, the second part of this phrase amplifies the first. The new birth is the only way into the Kingdom of Heaven. And, to be in the Kingdom of Heaven is to willingly live a life fully submitted to the perfect will of God. So, the new birth is expressed by completely accepting the will of God.

2.  Sonship. With the new birth comes a new family. One aspect of this is found in John 1:12--Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. That is privilege. We are given the "right" (or "power") to become children of God. But not only privilege. Inherent in the idea of being God's family would be obedience. Look at John 14:21-- The one who loves Me is the one who has My teaching and obeys it. My Father will love whoever loves Me. I will love him and will show Myself to him.  It would really be hard to say you love someone, and truly mean it, but then do things that hurt and grieve that person.

3.  Eternal Life. Not just everlasting life. Not just the idea of extremely long life. The word eternal has an indication of some quality, not just duration. It is the life God lives. To have new birth is to have new life, eternal life. John 3:16--For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

All three of these are the product of perfectly and completely accepting the will of God in your life. But it would be impossible to do that without being:

4.  Reborn. John 3:5-6-- Jesus answered: I tell you for certain that before you can get into God's kingdom, you must be born not only by water, but by the Spirit. Humans give life to their children. Yet only God's Spirit can change you into a child of God. When we are washed with water, we are cleansed, cleansed from our sin. But, if we went on our way after that, under our own power, we would very likely make the same " or similar " mess of things as before. That is why we are not only "born of water", or cleansed from our sins, but we are also "born of the Spirit". The Spirit symbolizes power. The new birth brings a new life, which is characterized by a new Power. The power to do what we could never do on our own: completely and perfectly live out God's will in our life.

Jesus asserted that the entrance into the kingdom of God that Nicodemus desired could not be achieved by legalism or outward conformity. It requires an inner change. Membership in the kingdom of God is not a prerogative of any particular race or culture, nor is it hereditary. It is given only by the direct act of God.

And this is not just a nice theory Jesus is espousing. We can see the evidence when someone has been "born of the Spirit". The story has been told of a man who had been a drunken reprobate. Then he was saved. His co-workers did their best to make him feel foolish. They asked him how he could possibly believe in miracles and things like Jesus turning water into wine. The man answered, "I don't know about whether he turned water into wine in Palestine, but in my house he has turned beer and wine into furniture and groceries". That is the power of the new birth.

If you are like me, this story of the snake in the desert has probably puzzled you too. At first glance it seems like God is telling the people of Israel to worship a snake on a pole, a graven image. Let's review the story. Israel was busy circling around in the desert because they had listened to the 10 spies who said conquering Canaan would be impossible. Along the way they continued to gripe about what God was doing, "Why have you brought us out here to die in the desert"? Now, that is quite odd. Had they listened to Joshua and Caleb they would be living comfortably in the land God had promised. They were only out in the desert because they wanted to be. They were out there, and they were complaining. So God allowed snakes to attack them and make them sick. They get the picture pretty fast and beg God to heal them. So He does. He commands Moses to put this snake up on a pole. Anyone who looks up will be healed. It wasn't the brass snake that healed them. It was responding to God's Word that healed them.

Now John comes along and uses this story as a kind of parable of Jesus. In the desert all the people had to do was turn their trust to God, and they would be healed. In a similar fashion when Jesus is lifted up, whoever looks to Him and believes will receive eternal life, an ultimate healing. Jesus was "lifted up" twice: once on the cross and again at His ascension. This same word is used in both places.

The phrase "believes in Him" refers to several things. It is believing with all our hearts that God is who Jesus says He is. That He loves us, cares for us, and wants to forgive us. The Jews concept of God was one of a harsh judge who imposed laws and punished people. We must believe that Jesus is the Son of God. In chapter one we talked about Jesus being the logos, the mind of God. We must believe not only that God is who Jesus portrays Him to be, but also that Jesus was so close to God that He could tell us the absolute truth about God. We believe that God is a loving Father because we believe Jesus is His Son and therefore tells us the truth about Him. If so, we must then be obedient to what He says.

We believe in Him in order to have "eternal life". This eternal life gives us peace. Peace with God. No longer do we cower in fear from a cold, distant judge. We get to be at home with a loving Father. Peace with men. Being forgiven makes us into one big, happy family. We must then see others as God sees them, not as we want to see them to suit our purposes. Peace with life. If God is a loving Father, then we know, "that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). We might not understand life better, but we should not resent it any more. Peace with ourselves. It is true that we are our own worst enemy. We know better than anyone else our weaknesses, our temptations, and the demands on our life. But through believing in Jesus we also know that we are facing it all with God. And, peace in the future. But, no matter how much peace we have on earth, the greatest peace will come in eternity. That is the ultimate goal.

So, what about John 3:16?

OK, the most well known verse in the Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

The verb "perish" is the opposite of salvation. It means that those without God are hopelessly confused in purpose, alienated from Him in their affections, and futile in their efforts to reach Him.

The presentation of the good news of God's love offers only two options: to have eternal life or to perish. Eternal life requires positive belief in Jesus. Eternal life is a gift of God. Eternal life brings with it the fullest blessings of God. All you have to do to perish is nothing. To perish is to fail completely at fulfilling God's purpose and to be excluded forever from His fellowship. To perish does not mean to cease to exist. To perish means to experience utter failure, futility, and loss of all that makes existence worthwhile.

In John 3:16 the whole Gospel is boiled down to 26 words, so I'll use even fewer words to explain it: God loved. God gave.

God is love. No power trip. No ego trip. No smashing us into submission. Nothing for His own sake. All because He loves us.

God gave His love for all. Not any one nation. Not just "good" people. Not just those who loved Him first. Not just the lovely. Not just the popular. As Augustine said, "God loves each one of us as if there was only one of us to love".