Lessons from John 3: New Birth

Let’s continue with our look at Jesus’ encounter with Nicodemus.

Jesus gently rebuked Nicodemus in John 3:7, telling him that he should not be surprised at what Jesus was saying. Nicodemus was a religious teacher and had committed much of the Old Testament to memory. If he truly understood that which was in his head, it should have been easy to wrap his mind around.

Several times in the Old Testament, God referred to this new birth. In Ezekiel 36:26 God had told the people that He would give them a new heart and put a new spirit in them.

In Ezekiel 37:14 He said, “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live.”And in Jeremiah 31:33 He said, “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.”

So this was not a new thought from God. But what hindered Nicodemus and the others was that it was not what they thought or the way they expected it to happen. They, like we, had their preconceived ideas, which are not always in alignment with His.

God tells us in Isaiah 55:8-9, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

But again Nicodemus missed the point, and so he asked, “How can this be?” You begin to get the feeling that Nicodemus didn’t want to accept the truth. But Jesus didn’t give up.

He patiently persisted and pointed Nicodemus to what he knew to be true. It was the fact that he, Nicodemus, was a teacher to the nation of Israel and though he and these Jewish men of the religious council refused to believe, it would not change the facts.

Though God had spoken to Nicodemus in plain terms (earthly things), he did not believe. How then would he believe if Jesus spoke of heavenly things?

And because Jesus wanted Nicodemus to understand who He was, in verse 13 Jesus pointed to His authority by saying He was the only one who had come from heaven, therefore He was the true expert on heavenly things.

New life comes to those who are born again (born from above) through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jesus then used the incident of the bronze snake back in Numbers 21. He did this to point Nicodemus to Jesus’ coming death on a cross. This death would pay for sin and make a way for new life to be possible.

When the people of Israel traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea to go around Edom as God instructed them, the people began to grumble and complain. They spoke out against God and Moses.

And as a result of their sinful attitude, God sent venomous snakes among them and they bit the people and many died. Yet others came to Moses and confessed their sin against the Lord and asked Moses to pray for them. And he did.

God told Moses to make a snake out of bronze and put it on a pole and lift it up. Anyone who was bitten could look up at the image and they would be healed.

Now this took faith to believe it and actually do it, but those who did lived.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. Everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life.

Jesus was pointing Nicodemus to the fact that we all have been bitten by sin. We will die in our sin, unsaved, unless we look to the sinless Son of God, high and lifted up on the cross at Calvary. We must believe that He became our substitutionary payment, providing atonement for our sin before a holy God.

Those who do this are offered new life!

Terri Hamman

Faith & Fitness Coach