1There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee.2After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus. “cRabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”
3Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are dborn again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
4“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
5Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.6eHumans can reproduce only ehuman life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.7So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be fborn again.’8The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
Jesus answers the question Nicodemus didn’t ask. Nicodemus couldn’t ask it, because he didn’t even know what to ask. That is what Jesus does with us all over and over and over. You see, we are so confused and lost without him, we don’t know what we need or want. We haven’t a clue really. But when we seek him out, as Nicodemus did, Jesus is the answer the all the questions we didn’t know we even had.
Now just what does this “born again” mean? Jesus really does do a masterful job of explaining this if you read the entire chapter over and over. Being born again isn’t something we do. We can’t do it. It is something the Holy Spirit does, and we can’t explain it, but when it happens, you are never the same. Like births of the flesh, some are fast, some slow, some horribly painful, and some almost effortless, but all bring a new person into the world. Being born again is truly becoming a new person by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And just as I can’t explain or control the wind, I really can’t explain adequately this birth by the Holy Spirit, but if you want it, just come to Jesus like Nicodemus.
Lord, make me new again. And if I am still a Spiritual baby, mature me. But never, never stop changing me Lord. *obbs*
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