Born Again: A Meditation on John 3 for the 2nd Sunday in Lent

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.

 

Jesus’ engagement with Nicodemus in the third chapter of John’s Gospel began with a teacher of the Jews coming to Jesus by night to escape public notice.  The Pharisees were greatly offended by Jesus and His teaching, but they could not explain away the miracles He wrought, so Nicodemus tried to unwind that mental dichotomy by talking to Jesus privately and directly.  Jesus challenged him further by revealing that no one, including those who thought themselves most religiously observant and holding positions of power or authority, could see the Kingdom of God without having been born again by Water and Spirit.  Not only did this preclude Nicodemus from finding a path he could walk by his own power, but it put him into a position of passivity in which he could only receive rather than take the salvation he knew he needed.  What Nicodemus needed in that moment was not necessarily to understand all the complexities and intricacies of how Jesus fulfilled the Prophets as the Messiah long promised to Israel, but to believe in the Word made Flesh who dwelt among them for the express purpose of saving them.  As Jesus revealed, no one born simply of man could inherit His Kingdom, because the faithless, fallen world could not receive the holy things of God.  Only God could come to save the world, and the world could only be saved through Him—a principle which made the good news of the Gospel one of grace alone, received by faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

 

Such faith which leads to true repentance and everlasting life, is the second birth Jesus spoke of.  That birth couldn’t be produced by those being born, any more than a person born of their parents could effect their own existence.  People don’t choose to be born, nor do they seek to be born, or work to be born.  Anyone who exists, is given their existence by a work of divine grace mediated through a mother and a father—there is no human being who came into the world any other way.  Even if scientists fiddle with the elements of human DNA and try to weave together strands of genetic material into a new life, any resulting child is still born of a mother and a father, no matter how occult the methodology.  People don’t make themselves, and they have no choice in the matter of being born.  Likewise, when Jesus instructed Nicodemus that a person must be born again of Water and Spirit in order to receive the spiritual blessings of God’s eternal Kingdom, no person would be in a position to give it to themselves.  The means of such birth are in God’s will alone, far beyond any macabre technologist who might want to tinker with it.  It is God alone who gives the second birth, so that a person might be made a fully restored child of God, destined to eternal life with Him, and saved from the condemnation justice demands of a dark and fallen world.  The second birth of the Spirit, where faith clings to Jesus and receives His grace as the forgiveness of sins, eternal life, salvation from hell, and victory over the evil one, is no more a choice of those who are born than their own individual existence is their choice.

 

Likewise, the Means of such Grace are entirely in the power of God to establish, and not for men to change.  St. Paul would note the same principle in his epistle to the church at Rome, when he told them that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.  Jesus, as the Word made Flesh, is the Author and Finisher not only of the written Word in the Holy Scriptures, but also of the faith which grants eternal life in all who follow Him.  Jesus alone could speak the New Covenant of grace by faith, because Jesus alone could accomplish that Word through His life, death, and resurrection.  He is the Word by which we are saved, just as He is the Word spoken to us through His Prophets and Apostles in the whole of Scripture.  It is Jesus who promised to send His Holy Spirit to His people after His ascension, so that they would be empowered to believe and live in His saving Word.  Thus the Word has always been the Means of Grace which gives life to the world, from the Creation until the very end of all things, with the power of the Holy Spirit to make certain whatever He has spoken.  The Word of the Lord never returns void of the purpose for which it is sent—to those who receive it in faith, it brings life, and to those who reject it unbelief, it brings perdition.  But always and everywhere, it is the Word and Spirit of the Living God which brings forth life, and it is the Word and Spirit of God alone which causes His people to be born again unto eternal life.

 

Properly understood, this brings profound focus to the mission of God’s people, and clears away the confusion of the modern age.  No place is found for men to build utopia on earth, or to build their stairways to heaven.  There is no plan or method or device of men which will earn satisfaction before God, just as there is no ceremony or ritual or liturgy which will make one holy.  The new birth from above by Water and Spirit is a work of God alone, moving through His Word alone, and centered in Jesus alone.  For the people of God, their work is not in the salvation of themselves nor of others, but to believe, trust, and live in the Word which has already given them life, and which is the only Means of Grace which can enliven the whole world.  The Church of Jesus Christ is founded upon Jesus alone as her Chief Cornerstone, whose Word alone brings life through the power of His Holy Spirit so that all who trust in Him are reconciled to the Father, living together in the blessed communion of the Holy Trinity forever.  Therefor the Church has no greater treasure than the Word of God, and no greater charge than to live in His Word by grace through faith, so that life might flow through them and to all who will repent and believe that same saving Word.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

 

Be of good cheer, whoever you are, to whom the Word of the Lord has come!  For the Lord of Glory has come to you with all the power of His Holy Spirit, to give you faith to believe all that He has spoken to His people through His Prophets and Apostles, and to center your faith on the saving work of Jesus Christ so that grace upon grace might be multiplied unto you.  For Jesus has come to save you, not by your own weak powers, but by His Almighty power working in love for you.  Hear Him, be born from above by Water and Spirit, and behold the Kingdom of God come down to men by the immutable majesty of His Eternal Word.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.