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Jesus’ Conversation with Nicodemus, Part IV, John 3:3-8
Here in Chapter three of John’s Gospel, God has given us an ear into a private conversation between His Son, Jesus Christ and Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This conversation is between God’s provided Savior and a religious man who is lost, a man who has no power to see the kingdom of God.
I think that all of us could see ourselves in the place of Nicodemus.
God could have written this part of scripture with blank spaces in the place where the name of Nicodemus is and said to insert your name for this passage is meant to be said to all men, all men who cannot see the kingdom of God.
For the passage “Ye must be born again” is a personal message to all men for all men need this conversation with Jesus Christ.
Now Jesus’ imperative to Nicodemus that he must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God establishes as an absolute that only creatures born of the Spirit of God will be allowed to stand in God’s presence.
That which took place between Satan and Adam in the Garden of Eden has brought all men into enmity with God and only by divine intervention can anyone be fitted for His kingdom.
It is an absolute decree of God that a man has nothing within himself or outside of himself that will move him into a state acceptable to God and therefore only by intervention on the part of Man’s Creator can this breach be closed.
And this divine intervention takes place by God’s Spirit who births men, woman, boys and girls into new creations.
The Apostle Paul expressed this truth in 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
The new birth, a birth which brings you into the family of God, is exactly that, NEW!
Brand new! Resulting in a brand new creature!
Old things pass away, all things become new!
God is a Spirit and they which worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth.
Again we are faced with a must of God, a decree of God and that decree of God tells me I must worship Him in spirit and this can only be done by being born of His Spirit for the spirit of the natural man is dead and without any ability to worship.
For since the Garden of Eden, man, as far as God is concerned is dead, for as God told Adam, in the day that thou eatest of the tree of good and evil thou shalt surely die. So that which brings life again to the man must be a new birth, a birth with a living spirit.
And in this the Spirit of God begets in us a spiritual nature: as we read in II Peter 1:4, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature.
The Spirit of God begets his own kind.
In God’s realm this is the established order of things.
That which comes from vegetables are vegetables, that which is born of animal is animal, that which is born of sinful man, is sinful man.
That which is born of flesh is flesh.
It may be beautiful, cultured, refined, well behaved, religious flesh, but it is still flesh.
But, and thank God for the Spirit of God, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
That which is born of God is divine and will reveal the same characteristics as the Father and have the ability to worship the Father.
The new birth then is the creation of a new man, it is a birth of the Spirit, it is being made a new creation, it is becoming a partaker of the divine nature, it is being born into God's family.
Without it you cannot see the kingdom of God for without it God declares you to be dead!
Jesus then notices the startled look of Nicodemus and his marveling at such a thought.
For he says in John 3:7, Marvel not that I say unto you, Ye must be born again.
Nicodemus is startled because he has invested his whole life in a way that seemed right to him but according to this man Jesus, it is the way of death.
But the best rule of investment is to get out as soon as you realize that it is a losing investment.
Take your losses and get out.
Don't hang on to a certain loss because of pride and a false hope that things will turn out right.
So Jesus says, Marvel not!
This is a self-evident truth.
God declared Nicodemus to be dead before Israel and the law was given.
The sinful nature of man makes him blind to the things of God and he cannot see anything or understand his own blindness.
No amount of education or religious cultivation can change the basic nature of man.
Jesus is saying to Nicodemus that God must intervene in his life if he is to see the kingdom of God.
Jesus is telling Nicodemus that the natural man is devoid of understanding spiritual things because he must have a spiritual nature to understand. Jesus is saying, Quit trying to understand spiritual things without the nature to understand!
If you lack a musical nature can you gain one?
If you lack an artistic nature can you learn one.
No, those natures are given to some people but not all.
Likewise if you are to understand the kingdom of God, then Ye must be born again.
God has to do a work of grace in you, a work of unmerited favor in you in order for you to be fit for the kingdom of God.
So there is no reason to wait, there is no reason to hesitate!
Admit that which God says is true and that what you say in false.
Humble yourself in the sight of God and He will lift you up.
When I was a little boy and couldn't see at a parade I would admit that I had a problem and call out to my Dad to lift me up.
He easily took me in his arms and put me on his shoulders and I was high and lifted up, way above the crowd and I could see better than most of the crowd.
Down at my level, without the lifting of my Father, it was hopeless for me to even try to see.
I could pretend that I could see.
Perhaps I got a glimpse of the marching band, the baton twirlers, and the drill team through the legs of the onlookers but certainly not anything near to a clear view or an understanding of the parade.
Just the shadows of movement. Enough to pique my interest.
I needed someone outside myself to help me see the parade.
In this child's example, pride does not get in the way.
There was a need and the child knows that the Father will provide for that need.
He cries out to the Father in trust and the Father responds, lifts him up to the right height and supports him so he may see.
Sinners are in the same position as the little child at a parade.
They are helpless and must call upon someone bigger than they in order to see the Kingdom of God.
They must have a Father that can lift them up.
But pride can get in the way.
Jesus said that the sinner must come to him as a little child.
A trusting child who realizes his helplessness and must have help to see the things God wants him to see.
That helper is God alone.
God has made his creation with fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.
This is how we are to see ourselves related to God.
We are his children, he is our father.
As a child trusts his father we are to trust our father in heaven.
It is not a matter of intelligence but it is a matter of trust, a matter of faith in one’s father.
Only our father in heaven can boost you high enough to see the Kingdom of God, the everlasting Kingdom prepared for a prepared people.
That is why Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus, Ye must be born again!
So seeing the startled face of Nicodemus Jesus adds to his instruction in:
John 3:8, The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou heareth the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that it born of the Spirit. |