Food For Your Soul
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You Must Be Born Again – (John 3:1-16)
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3). [KJV]
Thus spoke Jesus to a man who was looking for an answer to the question: “What shall I do to enter the kingdom of God?” This man was no ordinary man in Jerusalem. It is actually his high social standing that prompted him to slip, under cover of darkness, in the humble abode where Jesus was given hospitality during the Passover feast. He was one of the Jewish notables, and a teacher of the law and a Pharisee, therefore an eminent member of the Jewish intelligentsia and of the religious party the strictest and the most faithful to the Law of Moses. The words of the apostle Paul, who, before he was converted, was also a Pharisee, could suit him well: “for legalistic righteousness, faultless.” (Phil. 3:6) One could think that such a man was super-qualified to enter the kingdom of God. But when we consider the words Jesus spoke to him, we see that he was lacking in the most essential thing: he needed to be born again. Without this critical experience it was impossible for him to become a citizen of the heavenly city.
We are told, in the account, of Nicodemus’ surprise: “You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:7) The parable of the Pharisee and the Publican (Luke 18: 8-14) helps us get to a Pharisee’s mind to understand Nicodemus’ astonishment: “I, Nicodemus, would need to be born again to enter the kingdom of God? That applies to the publicans and the prostitutes, but not to a respectable man such as me.”
We must admire here the wisdom of the Holy Spirit who chose Nicodemus to illustrate this shocking statement of Scripture: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). All, without exception, from the very virtuous, very religious Nicodemus to the most contemptible publicans and the most disreputable people like the Samaritan woman that Jesus met at Jacob’s well in Sychar!
“You must be born again.” By these words, Jesus asserts the absolute necessity of the new birth. It is the sine qua non (the necessary condition) to enter the kingdom of God. The words “verily, verily” in verse 3 (repeated in verses 5 and 11) and the “Ye must” in verse 7 (KJV) had finally convinced the teacher of the law of the inescapable character of the question of the new birth. He was like a sick man who has come to know about the only medicine that can heal him, and who has no other desire than to know how he can obtain it. “How can this be?” he asked Jesus anxiously.
Jesus’ answer comes down to this: you must believe in me as in the one who bore in his body, on the cross, the curse that rested on you. You must look upon me with the same faith the Israelites looked upon the serpent of brass in the desert: “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:14)
Jesus is here referring Nicodemus to an experience the people of Israel had during its peregrination in the desert (Numbers 21: 4-9). The people sinned against the Lord who, to chasten them, sent among them fiery serpents. The Israelites were dying by the thousands. But God, in his compassion, offered them a way out of their predicament. He ordered Moses to make a serpent of brass and to set it upon a pole, so that whoever was bitten by the serpents and looked upon the serpent of brass would live. The answer to Nicodemus’ question “How can this be?” lies in this experience of the people of Israel. Jesus taught him that in order for him to receive the new life he seemed to long for, he had to acknowledge three things: 1) That he also was bitten by the serpent, that is, he is also a man on which rests God’s curse, being a sinner as all the others; 2) That Jesus became a curse for him (Gal. 3:13), that is, he suffered the punishment that he, Nicodemus, deserved; and 3) That he must put his faith in the sacrifice of Calvary and receive Jesus as his personal Savior.
All that is summed up in the single expression “believe in his name” found in John 3: 12: “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” To become children of God is to be born again. Believing is not knowing. Knowing that Jesus Christ died on the cross is not enough, because the Devil knows it as well, however he is not saved. To believe in Christ corresponds to the look full of faith the Israelite cast over the serpent on the pole. Dear friend, this is the look I invite you to cast on the cross where Jesus died for you.
There is life for a look at the crucified One
There is life at this moment for thee
Then look, sinner, look unto Him and be saved,
Unto Him who was nailed on the tree.
Pastor Hubermann Larose
Associate Pastor
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