John 3:4-8
The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus concluded, after seeing the signs Jesus performed, that Jesus must be a teacher from God. He came to Christ seeking the higher teachings of God.
Indeed, what Jesus pointed out about Nicodemus’ spiritual needs totally shook his worldview. Even with all his training and knowledge, he couldn’t comprehend what Jesus meant by “being born again.” Because as a Jew, Nicodemus believed that he, being a blood-descendant of Abraham and circumcised member of the holy people, was assured entry into heaven. Hence his question of a person entering his mother’s womb a second time. The scope of his thinking was limited to physical birth, a symptom that his faith also remained at the cognitive and outward level.
Jesus’ reply clues him into the spiritual reality that religion is not related to being born in the right family or doing the right things. Unless a person is transformed both inwardly and outwardly, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Jesus illustrates this truth by comparing being born of the Spirit to the wind, which cannot be mastered or controlled by human efforts or knowledge. New birth from God is inward, spiritual, and supernatural, and its effects must be experienced first hand.
Regardless of when we came into the church (having been born into a Christian family or coming as a first-generation convert), all believers must have a first-hand experience of God—his love, his grace, and his transformation. This inward change is what convinces us that God is real and the salvation he offers is true. This is when our hearts are made new and we are born again, not of the flesh, but of God’s Spirit. It is that inward transformation that fuels the outward godly life.
Perhaps some of us have been coming to church, even reading the Bible and praying but haven’t yet experienced God for ourselves. Perhaps for others of us, it’s been a long time since we’ve had such a real encounter with the living God, so much so that we’re feeling the drudgery of the “Christianly” activities. So we’re just going through the motions and don’t see the point in all of it. Our faith cannot remain in the realm of physical activities or outward expressions only. The way for our faith to be sustained is to be continually renewed inwardly.
If you so desire, ask the Lord to meet with you today that you may experience the grace of inward transformation. Ask him for a fresh encounter and renewed reminder of his love and grace, to fill you with his Spirit that you may live each moment of every day through the power that God gives.
Prayer:
Father, even as we meditate on your word today, meet with us through your Spirit, so that each of us can experience your power working in us to convince and drive us to live each day in your grace and strength. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
Nicodemus concluded, after seeing the signs Jesus performed, that Jesus must be a teacher from God. He came to Christ seeking the higher teachings of God.
Indeed, what Jesus pointed out about Nicodemus’ spiritual needs totally shook his worldview. Even with all his training and knowledge, he couldn’t comprehend what Jesus meant by “being born again.” Because as a Jew, Nicodemus believed that he, being a blood-descendant of Abraham and circumcised member of the holy people, was assured entry into heaven. Hence his question of a person entering his mother’s womb a second time. The scope of his thinking was limited to physical birth, a symptom that his faith also remained at the cognitive and outward level.
Jesus’ reply clues him into the spiritual reality that religion is not related to being born in the right family or doing the right things. Unless a person is transformed both inwardly and outwardly, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Jesus illustrates this truth by comparing being born of the Spirit to the wind, which cannot be mastered or controlled by human efforts or knowledge. New birth from God is inward, spiritual, and supernatural, and its effects must be experienced first hand.
Regardless of when we came into the church (having been born into a Christian family or coming as a first-generation convert), all believers must have a first-hand experience of God—his love, his grace, and his transformation. This inward change is what convinces us that God is real and the salvation he offers is true. This is when our hearts are made new and we are born again, not of the flesh, but of God’s Spirit. It is that inward transformation that fuels the outward godly life.
Perhaps some of us have been coming to church, even reading the Bible and praying but haven’t yet experienced God for ourselves. Perhaps for others of us, it’s been a long time since we’ve had such a real encounter with the living God, so much so that we’re feeling the drudgery of the “Christianly” activities. So we’re just going through the motions and don’t see the point in all of it. Our faith cannot remain in the realm of physical activities or outward expressions only. The way for our faith to be sustained is to be continually renewed inwardly.
If you so desire, ask the Lord to meet with you today that you may experience the grace of inward transformation. Ask him for a fresh encounter and renewed reminder of his love and grace, to fill you with his Spirit that you may live each moment of every day through the power that God gives.
Prayer:
Father, even as we meditate on your word today, meet with us through your Spirit, so that each of us can experience your power working in us to convince and drive us to live each day in your grace and strength. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.