Understanding New Birth - Part Seven

Posted 9/9/14 by Donald Barnhouse
SCRIPTURE
John 3:1-15
 
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
 
Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel yand yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And 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.
LESSON
 
Here is the place where Nicodemus showed that a flash of spiritual truth had reached his heart, and that he was being awakened by the Spirit of God to true understanding. Thousands of people today, if they were told that they must be born again, would answer, "Well, why must I be born again? What is wrong with me as I am? Did I not come into this world without my consent, and have I not made a pretty good job of my life? Why should God require anything supernatural of me? I have lived a good life. I pay my debts. I am faithful to the duties imposed upon me by family, society and state. Why should a man have to be born again?"
 
But Nicodemus was not so thick headed. There was a flash of real spiritual vision that shows the presence of the enlightening Spirit of God. The answer of Nicodemus was "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Nicodemus would certainly have challenged the Lord's statement unless he had understood the necessity of the new birth. The fact that he asked as to the method carries with it a belief in the need for such a work.
 
A great many leaders in the religious world would answer Christ differently, if they had an opportunity to speak with Him. Many theological professors would attempt to argue the matter out with God and would seek to convince Him that He was quite mistaken. The retired president of one of the most influential theological seminaries of the country wrote about the need for new birth. He said, "the doctrine of divine imminence, which is now generally accepted among liberals, ascribes divinity to man, since it is supposed that man's nature is one with God's and he needs simply to awake to that fact. This means, of course," this theologian concluded, "a revolution in the old conception of salvation. What a man requires is not regeneration in the old sense, or a change of nature, but simply an awakening to what he really is."
 
Many denials of Christ's claim that man must be regenerated, do not alter the facts. Man is today, what he always has been. If man does not understand the necessity of the new birth, it is because he has failed to understand the holiness of God and the real nature of man in his sinful condition.

STUDY QUESTIONS

  • Why would people object to the idea of being “born again”?
  • If the church gives up the doctrine of regeneration, what other doctrines do we loose with it?
  • What place does Christ hold the “new birth” here in the John 3?