“Do not be surprised because I tell you that you must all be born again.” (John 3:7)
These are the words that Jesus told Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a Pharisee and part of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedrin had lots of power over all the courts in Jerusalem. They were the last word in questions about the law. They were the only ones who could try a king and extend the borders of the temple and Jerusalem. They were the highest ruling council made up of Pharisees, the high priest and other priests. This was the council that tried Jesus.
The Sanhedrin was very opposed to Jesus and His teachings. So, we can understand why Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. He recognized that Jesus was no ordinary person. He went to Jesus to personally find out if Jesus was the Messiah. He did it in secret.
And Jesus tells him that he must be born again. Nicodemus was stunned and asked if he had to return to his mother’s womb. (John 3:4) But Jesus tells him that He’s talking about being born of the Spirit. (John 3:5) What does that mean? This is salvation. And although I’ve explained it many times, I keep explaining it and will continue.
We are born sinners because we inherited the sinful nature of Adam. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so, death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:” (Romans 5:12) When Adam sinned, he placed all of humanity under the power of satan and in his kingdom of darkness. There was no escape. We couldn’t help ourselves. We couldn’t save ourselves because we were tainted by sin. And God requires the sacrifice of a perfect innocent sacrifice. In the Old Testament a sacrifice of a perfect lamb only covered the sin for one year. But Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, provided by God, could make that sacrifice, for all humanity and once and for all.
Now when Jesus died and resurrected from the dead, He conquered death which is the penalty for sin. And in the spiritual realm, everyone who has and ever will receive Jesus died on that cross, thousands of years ago. The sinful man died. And when Jesus arose from the dead, we arose also a new person, born of God, with a sinless spirit. “For since we have become one with Him in dying as he did, in the same way we shall be one with Him by being raised to life as He was. And we know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on His cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin. For when we die, we are set free from the power of sin. Since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that Christ has been raised from death and will never die again—death will no longer rule over him. And so, because he died, sin has no power over Him; and now He lives His life in fellowship with God. In the same way you are to think of yourselves as dead, so far as sin is concerned, but living in fellowship with God through Christ Jesus. Sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies, so that you obey the desires of your natural self. Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender your whole being to Him to be used for righteous purposes. Sin must not be your master; for you do not live under law but under God's grace.” (Romans 6:6-14) That’s a lot of Scripture, but one that needs to be read and reread. Baptism is a representation in this world of what happened in the spiritual. When we are born again, we are born a new person. Sin no longer had control over us. If we fall into sin, it’s not in our nature anymore and it makes us miserable. We don’t enjoy sin anymore.
Now we must get to basics. What are the steps we must take? First and foremost, we must repent, meaning turn away from our sin. It’s not something we can do on our own. But when we make that decision and tell God the Father we believe in Jesus, the only begotten Son of God, Who died for our sin and arose from the dead and sits in heaven at the right hand of the Father, immediately, we are translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of God and the Holy Spirit, indwells us. “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;” (Romans 10:9 KJV) In our difficulty leaving sin because remember only our spirit was saved, He will give us the power to overcome it. All our sin has been forgiven. But our flesh body in which we still live, fights the spirit. We must renew our minds with God’s Word which will influence our will and emotions to come in line and obey God’s Word. “Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to Him and is perfect.” (Romans 12:2) The Holy Spirit will teach us and help us grow closer to Jesus and make us more like Jesus.
Komentáře