A thought by Charles R. Swindoll, from his book, Jesus: 09 (Great Lives Series) (p. 71). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)
Ok, let's hear what he says.
Charles says, "Certainly the mother plays a necessary role and the doctor helps, but let’s face facts: we call birth a miracle because God alone makes it happen. And what about the role of the baby? What does the baby contribute to his or her own birth? Nothing.
"Birth from above, as with physical birth, is not something that can be earned, deserved, or worked for. You can’t pray long and hard to receive it. You can’t clean up your life enough to make it possible. And you don’t join a church to be born from above. All of that is just as nonsensical as a baby saying that he decided to form himself within his mother’s womb."
Earlier he said, "Nicodemus, one of Israel’s great theological and philosophical minds, struggled to comprehend the kind of life Jesus offered. As a politician, Nicodemus cared about the crisis in Israel, for God’s kingdom had become a province of Rome. As a teacher of Scripture, he cared about truth. As a religious man, he cared about morality and conduct that pleases God. As a man, he cared about himself, his future, and his standing before God. And he was probably sure of most of those things until Jesus spun Nicodemus on his heels with the words, 'You must be born again' (John 3:7).
"The expression 'born again' has unfortunately become so overused that it has lost much of its meaning. It’s even become something of a joke in our culture. But in the Greek language in which John wrote this story, the words are charged with multiple layers of meaning, all of which reveal a simple yet profound truth. It’s an expression that invites us, as it did Nicodemus, to look deeper."
Later Charles says, "When Nicodemus heard Jesus use the odd phrase 'must be born,' he deliberately focused on the 'again' aspect of the word. Perhaps with tongue in cheek, he asked, 'How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?' John 3:4
"At first glance, Nicodemus’s challenge appears to be either completely obtuse or very sarcastic. But remember, this is no dullard sitting across from Jesus. This is a master teacher addressing someone he suspects to be an upstart. This was his way of suggesting, 'What a ludicrous proposition!' "
He continues, "Teachers in that day—including Nicodemus—called Gentile converts to Judaism 'newborn children.' It was a lovely way of affirming that a person had begun life anew by establishing a relationship with the God of Abraham. This process involved circumcision for men and whole-body baptism in water for both women and men. So the old teacher thought Jesus was referring to Gentile converts. His second mistake was in thinking of the 'kingdom' only as the earthly, physical kingdom of Israel under the future Jewish Messiah. In other words, Nicodemus interpreted Jesus to be saying, 'Only Gentile converts can take part in the coming earthly kingdom under the Messiah.'
"Of course, that’s not what Jesus was teaching. Though he was extremely intelligent, Nicodemus’s thinking was two-dimensional. He could only think in the horizontal plane. Nicodemus, like many today, thought that the world can be discovered only by physical evidence combined with human reasoning—that which can be touched, perceived by the senses, tested in a lab, proven mathematically, or weighed and decided upon in court. So his natural response was, in effect, Now I’m being told there’s a kingdom that I’m not a part of, and to be a part of that kingdom, I have to somehow go back and be born a Gentile. And besides, this kingdom sounds very different from the kingdom I’ve been looking forward to. What kind of abundance is this?"
And then later Charles says, "The abundance Jesus offers is a spiritual abundance that transcends circumstances, like income, health, living conditions, and even death. The abundant life is eternal."
Yes, that is the new birth that Jesus offers to us. So have you been or will you ask Him to be born again? Yes, yes! #continethought
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