ASK TO BE BORN (AGAIN)
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Opening Prayer
Gracious God, thank you for your great plan of redemption carried out for me and being fulfilled throughout the world.
Read JOHN 3:1–15
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
3 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit[b] gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.[e] 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,[f] 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”[g]
Footnotes
- John 3:3 The Greek for again also means from above; also in verse 7.
- John 3:6 Or but spirit
- John 3:7 The Greek is plural.
- John 3:8 The Greek for Spirit is the same as that for wind.
- John 3:13 Some manuscripts Man, who is in heaven
- John 3:14 The Greek for lifted up also means exalted.
- John 3:15 Some interpreters end the quotation with verse 21.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What is the most important choice you ever made? Why was this decision so significant?
If you are (or have been) a parent of a teen, you might have heard an indignant, ‘Well, I didn’t ask to be born!’ That’s true, of course—no child has a choice in the matter of their birth. Here, however, Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be ‘born again’ if he wanted to enter God’s kingdom (v. 3).
At birth, we receive the gift of life and enter this world, but life in God and in his kingdom does not accrue to anyone as a birthright. It requires a choice: ‘to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.’1 Preconditions are intertwined in this choice—we must ‘receive’ and ‘believe’ in Jesus in order to be ‘born of God’2 and become his children. Just as physical birth makes us members of an earthly family and citizens of a country, this spiritual birth not only includes us in God’s family but also makes us citizens of his kingdom. This was the life-giving truth that Jesus wanted Nicodemus to appreciate when he emphasized the necessity of being ‘born again’ (v. 3) and ‘born of water and the Spirit’ (v. 5). ‘Water’ probably denotes repentance—a 180 degree turnabout, representing a complete reorientation of our lives. The ‘Spirit’ signifies relationship, since ‘the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship’ and it is by this Spirit that “we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’”3
None of us asked to be born. But all of us can ask to be born from above. Yet, many refuse to do so. Jesus lamented, ‘you people do not accept our testimony’ (v. 11). The Message puts it like this: ‘Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions.’
Apply
Where can you share with someone what your adoption by God, being born again, means to you?
Closing prayer
Holy Spirit, help those who are grappling with questions about God, that they may be convinced by the ever-mounting evidence of his love, power, and grace.
1 John 1:12 2 John 1:13 3 Rom 8:15
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