Tag Archives: Nicodemus

Jesus Did Not Say That We Must Be Born Again

Apologetics, , ,

JESUS DID NOT SAY THAT WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN

Here’s another misunderstanding that has been turned into a doctrine. In fact it has become more than a doctrine. It has become a category – as though it were one of three categories of Christians. You get Christians; then you get “born-again” Christians; and then you get “born-again, Spirit-filled” Christians. Have you ever heard people using these distinctions? Of course it all depends on the stream of the faith to which you belong.

I wonder what Jesus would think about this!

From where does the expression “born again” come? “From Jesus, of course!” you retort. Yes, He did use it once, on a specific occasion to a specific person, but I wonder whether He meant it to be used as a category for believers or did He have something else in mind?

Let’s examine the circumstances of His use of the words, “born again”.

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one can perform the signs you are doing if God were not with Him.’

Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.’ (John 3: 1-3)

“There you have it. Jesus did say that we must be born again,” you declare. Ah, but once again we must examine the context.

First of all, who was Nicodemus? He was a Pharisee, a strictly religious Jew who was a stickler for obeying, not so much the letter of Torah, as the letter of the myriad interpretations added to Torah by the ancient rabbis who had sh’mikah. They were acknowledged to have authority to make pronouncements about the meaning and application of the Law, which were not necessarily an expression of God’s original intention.

Like all the religious leaders of the Jews, Nicodemus believed that his adherence to the Law, which included all the additions, qualified him to be “righteous” before God. However, when he was confronted by Jesus, he realised that there was something missing both in his belief system and in his life. He was honest enough to admit, unlike his fellow Pharisees, that Jesus was more than a man because of His works. No one could do the miracles Jesus did unless His power came from God. He was not foolish enough to attribute Jesus’ power to the devil.

Jesus cut him short. No explanations. Just a bald statement of fact. As a member of the human race, not just the privileged class of Pharisees, Nicodemus was under divine judgment for his sin like everyone else. No amount of rule-keeping qualified him for exemption. If he wanted to experience life in the kingdom of God – the life Jesus exemplified by His words and works, he would have to have a brand new start.

This was not about being “born again” as a new status. This was about “seeing” the kingdom of God. The Jews of Jesus’ day, including Nicodemus, misunderstood what Jesus meant by “the kingdom of God”. They were obsessed with the passion to get rid of the Romans and to re-establish the glorious kingdom of David. Many thought that Jesus would do this – overthrow the Roman occupation and set up their own kingdom once again.

But Nicodemus had to understand that God’s kingdom was not about the restoration of David’s kingdom, but the restoration of God’s rule in his heart. That would take much more than a new ruler in Israel. It demanded a brand new start through the power of the Holy Spirit. To “see” the kingdom of God was to have insight into what it was and how it worked. This was not possible while he, Nicodemus was still in the “flesh”.

Being “born again” was not a title or a status – it was a qualification for new life under the rule of God in the heart. It demanded a divine intervention through the Holy Spirit. It required a change of heart and nature to have the ”eyes” of the Spirit and to understand and walk in God’s ways. No amount of religious status or rigmarole could awaken him out of the death of sin.

But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 3: 4-6)

To describe people as “born again” is meaningless unless they are born again into an understanding and experience of life in the kingdom of God. Far too many who claim the title know nothing about living under God’s rule or even being true disciples of Jesus. A disciple is one who follows Jesus so closely that he becomes a replica of his Master, not just a casual adherent to a church or denomination. He is one who submits to Jesus as Lord and lives in obedience to His word.

To the Jews who believed in Him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. . . (John 8: 31)

No, being born again is neither a title not a category of religious persuasion, but a drastic and dramatic work of the Holy Spirit. In response to faith in Jesus, He raises the dead spirit to life, transfers the believer in Jesus from Satan’s dominion of darkness to the kingdom of God, changes the heart and nature from selfishness and greed to unselfishness and generosity, and patiently refines the character until the believer begins to resemble his Master by becoming the true son of God which he is.

The expression, “born again” is used only twice in Scripture, by Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3, and by Peter in his first letter. Look at the context.

Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduing word of God. (1 Peter 1: 22-23)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

It can be ordered directly from www.partridgepublishing.com or from your local branch of the publishing company. Details of where you can buy the book will be posted in due course.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

 

 

 

Watch This Space!

Bible Study, , ,

WATCH THIS SPACE! 

“Later, Jospeh of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.” John 19:38-40 NIV.

The wind tugged at a wisp of hair, coated with blood and sweat, that strayed from the matted tangle on the head of the bloodied corpse. A few soldiers stood guard around the crosses in the eerie twilight that had settled prematurely over the landscape, waiting for the order to take down the bodies and deposit them in the smouldering fire in the Valley of Hinnom.

Two men appeared out of the gloom, accompanied by an official from Pilate. A quiet word from the Roman officer and the soldiers heaved the centre cross from its hole in the rock and lowered it to the ground. The body was removed from the wooden torture stake and wrapped in a linen shroud.

Joseph and Nicodemus lifted Jesus and carried His heavy weight to a rocky cave in the nearby hillside. In silence they completed their burial ritual, packing the body with the spices Nicodemus had brought with him and rewrapping the body in the linen cloth and lowering into the raised platform carved out of the rock. The sun was just beginning to set behind the clouds when they had completed their task and said farewell to the Master they had followed in secret.

According to Matthew, their handiwork was closely supervised by Roman soldiers who rolled the huge circular stone across the entrance and sealed it with PIlate’s official seal because the Jewish religious leaders were afraid. Afraid of what? They had heard a runour that Jesus had threatened to come back again. Just in case His disciples schemed to steal His body and hide it elsewhere, to fuel the runour and stir up more trouble, they had demanded a Roman military guard to make sure that it didn’t happen.

Joseph and Nicodemus walked slowly back to the city in silence, heads bowed, each lost in his own thoughts. They were out in the open; they had burnt their bridges. Everyone now knew where their allegiance lay, but it was too late. Jesus was dead. Had they not just laid Him out, covered His body with spices, bound His face with a burial cloth and wrapped Him in a shroud and said their last goodbye?

The Jewish leaders were satisfied. Their tormentor was dead. No more would they hear His accusing voice, pounding on their awakened consciences, keeping them out of sleep at night. As much as they believed they were right and He was wrong, they could not silence the sound of His voice, the sight of His tenderness towards the ones they despised. He was dead and buried and that was that!

And what of the soldiers? They were just doing their job — but  were they? Was it their job to bully the accused? Were they expected to beat Him in the face with their fists? Was it their duty to mock Him and spit on Him? Were they detailed to crown Him with thorns? What they did was above and beyond the call of duty. How did they handle that when they lay in bed at night, especially because they could not get a rise out of Him, not matter how hard they tried! He was gone and they couldn’t change what they had done!

But was He? Before He left them, many times over in spite of their unbelief He had told His disciples, “Watch this space!”

History Or His Story?

Bible Study, , , ,

HISTORY OR HIS STORY? 

“‘How can this be?’ Nicodemus asked. ‘You are Israel’s teacher,’ said Jesus, ‘and do you not understand these things?’

“‘Very truly I say to you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.

“I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in Him.'” John 3:9-15 (NIV).

Such familiar words that we can almost recite them from memory! But what do they mean?

Although Nicodemus was a prominent teacher in the ranks of the religion scholars and was familiar with the Word of God, it was obvious to Jesus that he did not understand the truths he was teaching. It had been so long since God has spoken and actively intervened in the affairs of His people that Nicodemus was essentially teaching history.

Jesus must have startled him by saying that, although He was also a rabbi, He wasn’t teaching history; He was teaching truth from experience. He was speaking about reality because He had been in the heavenly realm; He had come from there and was relating what He knew, hence He could speak with authority.

How does one move from history to experience? Once again John brings his readers back to the main theme of his gospel — believing in Jesus. Nicodemus had nothing more than sterile religion to pass on to his learners. He needed something much more than that to have access to the “heavenly things” of which Jesus spoke.

Eternal life is not just unending life somewhere out there when we die. It begins here and now with a transfer from the dimension of existence in a purely self-dominated and soulish way to a dimension of living in union with God, experiencing His presence and His power to live unselfishly for other people and to submit lovingly to His will and purpose.

How can this transfer happen? Jesus put it in a nutshell and in the imagery of what was familiar to Jewish readers — Moses and the snake. This was familiar history to the Jews and to the Gentiles who had embraced the Jewish religion. They knew about Moses and the snake.

During their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, the children of Israel were familiar with the inhabitants of the desert — the “nasties” of that kind of terrain. But God protected them from their deadly neighbours until they infuriated Him so much with their complaining and rebellion that He withdrew His protection and let the fiery serpents loose on them. Many of them perished from the poisonous bites until the people cried out in desperation.

God instructed Moses to fashion a model of a snake out of bronze and lift it up on a pole. Whoever looked at the snake and trusted God for healing would be saved from the effects of the snake’s venom.

‘This, Nicodemus, is the key to understanding what I am telling you.’ The key to their healing lay in the condition and the promise — if they looked at the snake and believed what God had said, the miracle happened. They were rescued from death and given back their life.

Jesus would also be “lifted up” on a wooden stake for everyone to see, but not everyone would experience the life He promised. Only those who gazed at Him with faith in His promise would make that transfer from death to life. Something supernatural would take place in their spirits. They would literally “come alive” to God; they would have a spiritual awakening to a dimension of living they have never “seen”, a new life thrumming with God, everywhere.

That’s what changes history to His story, and our story.

Journey To Wholeness

Bible Study, , ,

JOURNEY TO WHOLENESS 

“Jesus answered, ‘Flesh give birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 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.'”  John 3: 5-8 (NIV).

That’s it! It’s a mystery — a secret finally revealed.

Every other religion has a set of beliefs and a set of rules to which its devotees subscribe. Their origin is in the mind of man and the outcome is the best or worst that man can produce. The only authority religion has is force applied from the outside or persuasion based on lies. It cannot produce life or change a human being’s basic nature.

But Jesus, the Son of God, was sent from the Father to remove the barrier between Himself and His human offspring and to return the Holy Spirit to those who believe in Him and receive Him to restore what He intended us to be from the beginning.

This interaction between God and human beings through the Holy Spirit is very different from even the best of what religion or philosophy offers. Self-help is useless because it cannot provide the energy to effect anything but frustration and disappointment, or self-satisfaction if you think you’ve arrived!

Jesus explained to Nicodemus that the best that flesh can do is reproduce itself. What is “flesh”? It’s the nature we were born with — self-centred, selfish and self-seeking. I am the centre of my universe and everything revolves around me and is about me and for me. This attitude is the antithesis of everything that God is. It blocks my fellowship with Him and my understanding of Him and His ways.

I am caught up and locked into a way of thinking and a way of living that shuts me out of His felt presence and keeps me a prisoner to a life of greed, selfishness and self-destruction, and doomed to face God’s justice as a firstborn son “in Adam”. ‘If you want to be free of that mind-set,’ said Jesus, ‘you need a power outside of yourself to release you and give you a new nature so that you can begin again.’

It takes something far greater that “Seven Easy Steps to a New Life”. You can change your ways for a few days, or even weeks, but you will inevitably slip back into who you really are because you still have your unchanged, inborn, selfish nature that holds you in a vice-grip.

It was God’s original intention for human beings to live in union with Him so that they would experience the love, joy and peace that are the essence of who He is. Adam lost that when he chose to go his own way, and dragged all his offspring into lives of misery and chaos. As long as the flesh rules, that can never change.

Nicodemus recognized that there was something so radically different about Jesus that he had to find out what it was. ‘It’s the Holy Spirit,’ Jesus told him. When the Holy Spirit is welcomed by handing the reins back to God, He becomes fused to our spirit, bringing God into the picture once again. The old nature is still there but it is overshadowed by a new disposition, the very nature of God.

Change happens, not self-help change that lasts for a little while, but real, radical change because God, by His Spirit, is now in residence. ‘It’s as mysterious as the wind,’ Jesus said. ‘You can’t see the Holy Spirit, but you can see what He does.’ He changes the heart, the attitude, the disposition and the outcome is evident by the way we think and the way we treat people.

It happened wherever people responded to Jesus. Zaccheus is a good example. From a self-seeking and greedy tax-collector he became an honest and generous believer who put his money where his mouth was — literally! Jesus response was, ‘Today salvation has come to this house. Zaccheus has begun his journey to wholeness.’

Now that’s real change! Have you started your journey?

Justice Or Mercy?

Bible Study, , ,

JUSTICE OR MERCY? 

“Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one can perform the signs you are doing if God were not with Him.’ Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’

‘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!'” John 3:1-4 (NIV).

Now here’s an honest Pharisee, if ever there was one! At least he admitted, on behalf of his fellow Pharisees, that Jesus had come from God. I wonder what the others would have said had they heard him. Would they have flatly denied ever saying that, or even thinking it? Or was Nicodemus using the royal “we”?

Nicodemus was honest enough to show Jesus that he had weighed up the evidence and come to the conclusion that Jesus was demonstrating something far beyond the capabilities of ordinary people. Unlike his colleagues, however, he didn’t attribute Jesus’ power to Beelzebub; He connected the dots and came up with the conclusion that Jesus and God were doing this together.

What was Nicodemus getting at? In a roundabout way he was asking, ‘Jesus, we are both teachers. What have you got that I haven’t got?’ Perhaps he didn’t get an opportunity to ask his question. Perhaps Jesus cut him short to stop him rambling and get him on the right track.

Jesus’ response was surprising — no explanation, just a bold statement. ‘You’ll never get it, Nicodemus, unless you are born again.’ What did He mean? What is this ‘born again’ idea that Christians bandy about so freely without understanding its meaning?

Throughout the Bible we read that there was special significance in being the firstborn in a family. Firstborn sons, first of all, belonged to God and had to be redeemed by the payment of a sum of money to the high priest. Firstborn animals were sacrificed. Firstborns carried the responsibility for the rest of the family. They received justice for any of their siblings’ wrongdoing while the sibling received mercy.

We see this illustrated in the story of Joseph. It was Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn who refused to kill Joseph but suggested they throw him in a pit… He planned to rescue him from the pit and return him to his father because he would have had to bear the punishment had they killed Joseph.

Firstborn sons also received a double portion of their father’s inheritance. This was to compensate for their responsibility, for example, of marrying a brother’s widow to produce offspring for his dead brother.

The Bible makes it clear that Adam was God’s firstborn and got justice for his sin. Since we are all “in Adam” we also should receive justice for all our sin. However, Jesus is described as “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” Colossians 1:15 (NIV). Why is this so important? As God’s firstborn Son, Jesus received justice in order that we might receive mercy.

But I thought you said that in Adam we receive justice? True, but since we are “in Christ” we have received justice “in Him” because He died on our behalf. Now here’s the miracle. Jesus is also called “the last Adam” — second-born in God’s reckoning. Since we are “in Him” we received justice as firstborns but we also received mercy as second-borns! Isn’t that amazing? God is so precise and so just!

Jesus is saying to Nicodemus, ‘If you want to understand what is happening in the realm of the unseen — the kingdom of God — you need a spiritual rebirth from justice into mercy.’ No one can understand or receive God’s mercy until he is transferred from the realm of justice to the realm of mercy on which what God’s way of dealing with people is based. Because God’s justice has been satisfied once and for all through the cross, He deals with us all as second borns — mercy, mercy, mercy!

‘Nicodemus, do you understand that? If you want to experience God’s mercy, you need to be transferred from “in Adam” to “in Christ” and that takes a supernatural act of God. It will never make sense to you until that happens and it won’t happen until you believe that I am the Son of God and that my sacrifice paid your debt and offers you mercy.’

Wow! Isn’t that something! And it’s freely available for all!