John 3:3 - Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
What does it mean to be born again? When Jesus said this, it was during a conversation with a man named, Nicodemus. Nicodemus was as confused as he could be. He was a Jewish religious leader and teacher, but upon hearing these words, he was dumbfounded. Even as a spiritual leader, his mind went immediately to how physically impossible it was for a person to be born a second time.
Nicodemus was waiting for the messiah to come, longing for the day when the kingdom of God would be established. And yet, it seems that Nicodemus was looking at the kingdom as an earthly one, where the messiah would rule and reign as the Jewish king. If Nicodemus was going to see this kind of kingdom, being born a second time seemed pointless and illogical. The problem that Nicodemus had was that he was looking to the material world to make sense of the spiritual reality that Jesus had in mind.
Think of all the problems that this world has, from suffering to sickness to wars and everything in between. We see these as great problems, and they are, but they are merely the symptoms of a greater need that all of us share. We are born into this world spiritually dead. A spiritually dead person isn’t a whole person and in being spiritually dead, can’t see or experience God’s spiritual kingdom. This is the problem. We need life, and no kingdom or ruler or power in this world can give it to us. We need a home, but there is no place in this world that we can call home forever.
So here we see Jesus, the truth giver, reminding us to look at our spiritual state and telling us that there is a solution to our problem, and that is to be born again through him. Jesus isn’t only the truth giver, but the life giver as well, and the new life that he gives promises us that there is a great and glorious and vast and marvelous kingdom for us to call home.
Think of how amazing it is to know that you have life in Christ through faith. You are not dead, but truly alive, full of the lifeblood of the grace of God. This new life is yours today and everyday. Live in it. Enjoy it. Walk in it. Hold fast to it. Thank God for it. No matter what happens this day, if you have been born again in Christ, nothing can take that life away, and nothing will ever be able to strip from you the glorious kingdom of God that is yours now and forevermore.
