The Holy Trinity

We live in the Age of Information. The answer to virtually any question is at your fingertips. But for all the collective knowledge of the human race, there’s one question that nobody on earth can answer, “What happens when you die? What exactly is heaven like?” Every few years someone claims to have gone to heaven and come back. They write a book and make a bunch of money. But Jesus says, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man” (Jn 3:13). Lots of people have opinions about heavenly things, but the only one who knows about heaven is Jesus. He actually has been to heaven, and he came down to earth to teach us about it. Yes, heaven is for real, but only Jesus can tell you how to get there.

If you want to master a subject, you find an expert; you sign up for his class; you read his textbook. If you want to learn about birds, you might travel to England and study under David Attenborough. If you want to learn chess, you take lessons from a chess master. But if you want to know about the kingdom of God, about heaven, what should you do? Listen to the only authority on the subject: Jesus. Go to the place where he has promised to be. Read his book. Learn his words. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:3). That’s it. That’s the only way to heaven. There is no other way.

Christians don’t make up their own ideas about salvation. Christians believe the words of Jesus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Jesus’ words are exclusive and narrow. There are no detours or alternate routes. If you want to see the kingdom of God, you must be born again. Nicodemus had his own idea of what it meant to be born again. “Can a man enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (Jn 3:4). From the first moment that Jesus said, “You must be born again,” many, many people have followed Nicodemus’ example. If there’s a sucker born every minute, the same seems to be true with wacky ideas about being born again. Ask a dozen Christians what it means to be born again and you’re likely to get a dozen different answers: Make a decision for Jesus, pray a four-step prayer, go on a mission trip, commit your life to God, tithe 10% of your income, be active in church, or, most depressing of all, stop sinning entirely. Pick your poison. Whatever being born again means to you, do that and you’ll go from being just a Christian to being a born-again Christian. And if you do some extra-credit work you might even become a born-again baptized Spirit-filled regenerated Christian. I’m being a bit silly, of course, heaping up words that all mean the same thing. Calling someone a born-again Christian is like calling your pet a feline cat or a canine poodle dog. Why do so many Christians talk this way? Why is there so much confusion over being “born again”? Because we have not listened to the words of Jesus, and instead, we’ve made up our own ideas about heavenly things. Want to know what it means to be born again? Listen to what Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5).

Jesus’ words are both very simple and very offensive. They are simple because being born of water and the Spirit is nothing other than baptism – and that seems too simple. Surely to be born again one must do something amazing, perform an elaborate ceremony, have a mountaintop experience, or make a solemn commitment to God. No, Jesus says. Simply apply water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And these words are offensive to our sinful flesh. Just like Nicodemus, we have our own ideas about what it means to be born again. We want to do something. We want to crawl back into our mother’s womb, or make some equally silly contribution to our salvation. But Jesus says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Jn 1:6). Nothing you do before you are born again has any true spiritual value because what is born of the flesh is flesh. Unless the Holy Spirit had come to you and changed you into a new person, you would have remained captive to death, a servant of the devil, and utterly incapable of doing anything good or God-pleasing. You must be born again because you are a lost sinner bound in sins from which you cannot set yourself free.

“Are you telling me that I stand condemned before the Law? That’s sounds like inflammatory language!” Well, yes, that’s exactly what Jesus is saying. It’s not just unbelievers, or Muslims, or Jews who stand condemned. Jesus is all about equality. Every single person conceived in iniquity stands equally condemned before the Law of God. Every single sinner justly deserves to spend eternity in hell. Every child of Adam and Eve is born a member of the kingdom of Satan. Unless one is reborn of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Here again Jesus is all about equality. His death on the cross is for every last person on earth – Athiest, Mormon, Pagan, Christian, whatever, and for you. Every child born into sinful flesh is commanded to “repent and believe the Gospel” (Mk 1:15). Every lost and condemned sinner is invited to receive the new birth of baptism for the forgiveness of sins. But many people respond, “That’s the dumbest thing I ever heard! How can plain water wash away sins?” Read the Bible and you’ll find that God has a habit of attaching the promise of salvation to dumb things. When snakes came and bit the Israelites, God told Moses to put a brass snake on a pole, and anyone who looked at the snake would be healed. “Well, that’s dumb. How can a snake on a stick cure poison?” God told Naaman the leper to go dip in the Jordan River. “That’s dumb. How can dirty old water cleanse leprosy?” God tells you that the water of baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe. How can water do such great things? Luther answers, “Certainly not just water, but the word of God in and with the water does these things, along with the faith which trusts this word of God in the water.”

“How can these things be,” Nicodemus asked (Jn 3:9). How exactly does being born again work? We have no idea. That’s God’s business. The Spirit of God blows where he wishes. We hear his voice, but we don’t know where he comes from or where he goes (Jn 3:8a). We can’t explain how he accomplishes his work of new birth within us. When you were born did you understand the birth process? Of course not. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit (Jn 3:8b). Faith is not understanding; faith is believing!

Jesus said, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (Jn 3:14-15). According to Jesus’ words, believing is looking. Just as the Israelites looked to the brass serpent and were saved from death, so we look to Jesus and are saved from the power of sin, death, and hell. We don’t look to ourselves and our own ideas about heaven. We don’t look to our fleshly efforts to help us enter the kingdom of God. Instead we look to the completed work of Christ upon the cross. Look to Jesus and remember your baptism, because that was the moment God gave you new birth in the Spirit. Don’t try to understand it, just believe it. Forgiveness is yours. New life is yours. Heaven is yours. How can you know this is true? Because Jesus told you, and he is the only authority on the subject. The man blind from birth said, “All I know is that I once was blind, but now I see” (Jn 9:25). You once were dead in sins, but now you have been washed clean. You once stood condemned before God, but now you stand clothed in the righteousness of Christ. You once were a member of the kingdom of Satan, but now you have been born again into the kingdom of God. Amen.