"You must be born again"

John 3:1-21 From the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; ² this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” ³ Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

⁴ Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?” ⁵ Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? ¹¹ Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. ¹² If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. ¹⁴ As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; ¹⁵ so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

¹⁶ “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. ¹⁸ He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹ This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. ²¹ But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

We see today that there is value in reading and understanding scripture in the context in which it is written or spoken. Even John 3:16, one of the most well known and prominent salvation verses:   “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life”, is spoken by Jesus in the context of the need to be born again and the need to choose Jesus, the Light over darkness and evil. Whoever believes also will come to the Light and practice truth. None of us, regardless of our standing in the church or outside of the church, none of us even those who “believe in Him”, will live completely free from sin. It is an ongoing struggle we all have. In today’s text though there is a key, Jesus says: “everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But he who practices the truth comes to the Light” 

Practice is important. There is a saying that practice makes perfect. Again none of us will ever be totally perfect in our flesh. But, what do we practice? Do we practice truth? Do we intentionally practice walking in the Spirit rather than in the flesh? Or do we do evil? Do we practice and intentionally continue in and love darkness rather than Light.  In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus says:  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; “Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.” It is more than just believing, it’s not even what we do, it’s what we practice, what we choose to repeat, as one would practice to perfect a skill. Do we choose to practice truth or lawlessness?

Prior to John 3:16, Jesus quotes an Old Testament reference for comparison, He says:   As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;  so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.    Jesus is referencing the account recorded in Numbers 21 when the Israelites rebelled and complained against God, desiring to return to the bondage of Egypt for the sake of their lust for the food they had known there. The Lord had sent a curse of fiery serpents among the people so that many people of Israel died. Moses interceded for the people and God commanded that a bronze serpent be raised up on a standard and if anyone who was bitten looked up at it they would live and not die.  Romans 6:23 says: The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.     The rebellion of the Israelites was that they sought to return to the bondage of Egypt to satisfy their lust. We too rebel against God is we choose to return and satisfy our lust and our desires for the things of the world rather than practicing walking in truth. We need to look to Jesus, seeing Him on the cross, where He paid the price for our sin. We need to believe in Him, to believe that He died for our sin. Just as God did not deliver the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt so that they would return, Jesus has not set free from to sin, but rather He set us free from sin.

“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”  Jesus came to bring salvation, not judgment. There is though a judgment for unbelievers. Jesus says:  “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.  For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But he who practices the truth comes to the Light,”      We are not perfected by the things we do. We are perfected in Christ, by the finished work of the cross. From the moment we believe Christ died for our sins we are justified, judged as righteous by God in Christ. We though can rebel against God in what we do. We still must choose every day, every moment of every day whether we will practice truth or lawlessness. If we believe in Jesus, if we believe that He died for our sins we will choose Light over darkness. We will choose to practice truth rather than lawlessness.

Thank You Lord Jesus Christ for the finished work of the cross by which I am justified, judged as righteous in God’s sight in Christ. Through You I am born again. Holy Spirit I pray that You would continue the work of sanctification in me. That You would guide me in truth, that I would practice truth and not lawlessness. My desire is to practice truth and continually come to the Light, so that my deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.    Amen