Born Again

John 3:3 - Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus had a lot to lose. He was in a position of great influence in the Jewish society. He knew that publicly endorsing Jesus might cost him his social standing. Yet, he also knew there was something different about Jesus. He had seen Jesus work miracles he knew could not happen apart from God, so he came to him at night to try to determine who Jesus really was and what that meant for him.

Jesus immediately shocked Nicodemus with what he took to be an outlandish statement: “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The Greek word translated again in most of our bibles has a range of meanings. While it literally means “from above,” it can convey that idea literally, temporally, or spatially. It can also identify a connection with or a separation from the source or compared item. What that means here is that Jesus could be focusing on a second birth in time contrasted to the first birth or a birth from above contrasted with that from below. It seems like Nicodemus is focused on the first meaning while Jesus is stressing the second.

Nicodemus asks, “How can a man… enter his mother’s womb a second time?” (vs 4) He is focused on the “again” without realizing the “different” that Jesus intended by the birth “from above.” It takes both the normal human birth of the infant accompanied with lots of water for the first, but the second, new birth that makes us spiritually alive is completely different from that physical birth:

1) It is spiritual, not physical (vs 6)

2) It is mysterious and not fully understood (vs 8)

3) It leads to life eternal (vv. 15-16)

4) It sets us free from the judgment we deserve (vv 17-20)

5) It leads to a dramatic life change that is obvious to all (vs 21)

Charles Colson was President Nixon’s hatchet man, willing by his own admission to “run over his grandmother to get the president reelected.” He sabotaged the careers of many to make himself and his president look good but found himself caught in the Watergate Scandal. Although not directly involved in Watergate himself, he was placed on trial and convicted to serve time in federal prisons. Before those trials began, though, he was introduced to a friend who told him about Jesus Christ. Colson made a commitment of faith that radically changed his life. He shared that faith with many who were in prison with him, and he saw the miraculous life changing power Jesus promised. As a result, he founded Prison Fellowship and many other ministries, impacting millions around the world. He wrote an autobiography just after his release from prison and named it after this passage: Born Again.

What Colson experienced, what Nicodemus experienced, what I have experienced, and what hundreds of millions of others have experienced is best described by these two words: born again. Life can be new. Life can better. Life can be eternal. The key to this new birth is believing in Jesus (John 3:16). He invites you to experience this new life today.