Category: The Words of Jesus

John 3:3 (NKJV) 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

This scripture is one of the most well-known verses when it comes to sharing the Biblical truth of being “born again”. In fact, it’s safe to say that this single verse alone is responsible for the term “born-again Christian”.

But let’s take a look at this in a little deeper way.

Nicodemus came to Jesus in the night, to ask Him some questions. He had obviously observed Jesus doing some things and had probably also heard a lot about Him.

Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a Jewish ruler. He explained to Jesus that he had concluded that He was “from God”, based on the things He had done. Nicodemus said that no one could do the things Jesus had done unless God was with Him.

Instead of replying to the indirect question of Nicodemus and telling him who He was, Jesus responded with a statement, saying; “unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God“.

So many times, we just skim right over this and just simply proclaim that “we must be born again!”.

But think about being in the shoes of Nicodemus! This was such a new and unusual statement from Jesus that he just couldn’t grasp it. This was an extremely deep, profound statement. Nobody had ever said anything like this before!

Nicodemus was floored. His head spun as he tried to process what he had just heard.

The first thought he had was that Jesus was somehow implicating that one would need to literally climb back into their mother’s womb, which we all know is 100% impossible. Nicodemus also knew this, so he was completely puzzled by Jesus’ statement.

But Jesus continued on and explained to Nicodemus that in order to be born again, we need to be born of the Spirit. Now this helps us to understand things a bit better!

What Jesus was saying is that we must pursue God in a way that goes beyond simple head knowledge. We need to develop a relationship with Him that defies our own intellect and understanding, relying instead on the Holy Spirit to lead us and teach us.

Think about that for a moment. If we were to step outside of the things we’ve been taught about salvation, and someone was to walk up to us and tell us that we need to be born again, we would probably also hurt our heads trying to figure it out!

But this is who Jesus was and what He did. He turned the religious world upside down, teaching things that people had never heard and doing things people had never seen.

His words were extremely deep, profound and powerful in ways that are probably still not fully comprehended or recognized today, even by experienced, educated Bible scholars.

But the beauty of all this is that God sent the Holy Spirit, our Helper, to lead us into truth and reveal things to us that are beyond our normal thinking.

John 16:13 (NKJV) 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.

He helps us to follow God’s leading, even when we may not fully understand why God is leading us in a specific direction.

And as we grow in our walk with Him, we will begin to learn to look beyond the earthly way of understanding, and allow the Holy Spirit to show us those things that only He can show us.

Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie

Seven Seas Ministries
P.O. Box 272
Bradford, RI 02808

401-315-0902

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