Nicodemus and New Birth

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. - John 3:16

This verse, John 3:16, is arguably the most quoted and most popular verse for all Christians. It is here that summarizes everything from the Old Testament and the New that gives people a clear invitation to Christianity.

If someone is on the outside looking in, wondering, what do you believe in and why? This is why.

Nicodemus had questions. His heart wanted more from the life he was living. When he finally sees Jesus he surely wants to meet him. But being that he was a person with high ranking, he was wealthy, and he had a lot to lose. When does he come to him? At night.

Nicodemus, came at night because he troubled. He couldn’t commit. He was someone who knew Jesus had come from God because HE clearly saw the miracles and wonders Jesus did. He says it himself. But he hides. But why?

Jesus introduces baptism saying that unless one is born anew and born of the water and the spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.

He resorts to responding, “Do we have to go back to our mother’s wombs and be born that way?” I think Nicodemus knows exactly what Jesus means, but he chooses to be ignorant. It’s not that he doesn’t understand the concept. But he finds something hard to believe. What is it?

What Jesus means to be born anew is to begin a process of radical change that it can only be described as being born all over again. This is not of human achievement or accomplishment but by us cooperating with the grace and power of God.

Where Nicodemus is finding it difficult is that he knows this type of change is necessary but in his experience it is impossible.

It’s almost as if he’s saying there is nothing I would want more than to change like this.

How many of us want to stop our cycles of sin? How many of us want to forgive? How many of us want to stop our hate, our anger, our gossip, our anxious tendencies, our lust?

When you hear from Jesus, we might want to believe, we might want to be new, but in your experience you feel as if it’s impossible.

💡 Nicodemus is up against the problem of someone who wants to be changed but can’t.

What stood in the middle? For Nicodemus, it was his status. For St Augustine, in his pursuit of pleasure, he said “Lord, make me pure, but not yet.”

The questions remains, what is keeping you from your full, 100% commitment to this life lived committed Jesus?

When you arrive at that answer, you can finally say to yourself, this is the opponent Christ has for me and my soul. We are committed, feeding our time, our money, and our soul for this thing/sin/habit.

Unless you throw this thing out, by the grace and power of Jesus, you will always be torn, you will always be confused, you will always be with Jesus at a distance.

Jesus requires a choice. Love requires a choice. A commitment. To move towards Jesus, means you have to move away from certain things.

In all things, when you make this decision, do not be afraid. Amen.