You Must Be Born Again

Jn 3:1-16 September 24, 2015

“I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.” Micah 7:9

Every journey begins with a first step. The first step in The Journey to Brideship and an intimate and purer walk with God begins with being born into the Kingdom of God – being born again. Jesus coined the phrase himself in the following exchange with one of the religious leaders of His day.

“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
    The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
    Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
    Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
    That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
    Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
    The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
    Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
    Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
    Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
    If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
    And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
    And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
    That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
    For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:1-16.

The operative words are you must, to see and to enter. There can be no equivocating about entrance into the kingdom of God. You cannot see or enter the kingdom of God if you are not born supernaturally into the spiritual realm by some miraculous act of the Spirit of God. Obviously, no one can begin the journey within the kingdom of God if they can neither see, nor enter it. This was simply and forthrightly stated by Jesus, but Man and the Church have been guilty of disregarding this most fundamental truth, or arguing spuriously against it. Elements in the Church have often been guilty of manufacturing some false and carnal way of entering the kingdom of God, by sacraments or vows or some such humanistic or legalistic way.

These are the usual religious geriatrics which is unable to revive and heal the patient because we must enter into salvation by the Spirit in the spirit. We must simply believe and be willing to confess that Jesus is our personal Savior and the Lord of all things. Jesus even showed his amazement at the ignorance of one of the prime spiritual leaders of God’s people (Nicodemus) on this decisive matter of salvation. Nicodemus showed his carnality as a literalist by asking if he should crawl back into his mother’s womb to be born-again. Jesus showed His amazing grace by not laughing Nicodemus out of town, or ‘outing’ him as an ignorant boob to the common people. Nicodemus had come to Jesus under the cover of night because he was afraid to be seen with the prophet, though he knew Jesus had the true answer for all the questions in his fuzzy mind.

At any rate, a person must break through into the spiritual realm by being born anew and being made a new creature in Christ. “Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.” 2 Cor 5:17 This is just another way of saying that a bona-fide true believer is one that is born-again. This is only the first step toward having salvation (meaning health: from Greek word Sozio) permeate us through and through. Salvation permeates by experience, by continuing faith, by walking with the Spirit and by being separated from the World.

The first step is one giant step for a man, but still, it is only one small step along one’s journey in the kingdom of God. You must be born-again… any way you slice it … we must be born again if we are to see and enter the kingdom of God.