NUMBERS / WORDS
John 3:3
“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
John 3:3
“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
What kind of person are you—a numbers person or a word person? Do numerals and equations ring your bell, or do you relate best to language and vocabulary? What kind of person do you think the Pharisee, Nicodemus, was?
Nicodemus meticulously obeyed the Law of the Lord, as a teacher of Israel, 2,000 years ago. He was moral and upright in every way. He fully expected to be in God’s kingdom when his life on earth ended.
Then Jesus rocked his world.
Nicodemus said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you’re a teacher straight from God. No one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus replied, “You’re absolutely right. Take it from me: No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”
“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time in his mother’s womb!”
Jesus answered, “I’m telling you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”
“What?”
Jesus lectured Nicodemus about being a teacher, and yet not understanding spiritual things. (John 3:2-21). Nicodemus acknowledged that Jesus came from God, yet he couldn’t get what He was saying.
Nicodemus’ cheat sheet: “Born again” means believing in Jesus, the Son of God. A person does not get into Heaven by works alone. Nicodemus was secure in his goodness, and he thought that eternal life was guaranteed. The human equation is: good works+ upright living= Heaven. This wrong thinking is the root of confusion. Everyone is born a sinner. Though physically alive, we are born spiritually dead.
No amount of adding good works and subtracting bad from the human equation will ever equal being alive to God. In John 3:15, Jesus says, “…that everyone who believes in Him [Son of Man] may have eternal life.” Believing in Jesus makes a person born again, and is welcomed into God’s family. “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” Romans 6:11.
Do you believe in Jesus?
Take Home Nugget
Jesus is the single numerator in the equation that reconciles sinful man to the Father.
Believing in Jesus=Eternal life. The indwelling Holy Spirit is the deposit believers receive that assures us of eternal life in Heaven. (Ephesians 1:14).
See more about Nicodemus in John 7:50-52, and 19:38-42.
Heaven’s door swings open wide the instant a person places faith in Jesus.
J.D. Griffith
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