The Gospel of John - Outline Part 6 - Born of the Spirit

TITLE

John 3:1-21 – Born of the Spirit

EXPLANATION

This is one of the classic passages on salvation in all of Scripture.  It is the nocturnal conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a Pharisee member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious ruling council.  Nicodemus, clearly intrigued by Jesus, came to Him by night and began to converse with Him.  Jesus, however, in a delightful dispensing of formality and banter, cut right to the heart of the issue by telling Nicodemus that he must be born again to see the kingdom of God.  Nicodemus was understandably confused by this.  He took Jesus literally and could not comprehend how a man could enter into his mother’s womb and be born again.

Jesus was of course speaking metaphorically.  He explained this to Nicodemus, along with a slice of rebuke for his failure to understand.  Jesus revealed that it was a spiritual birth He was referring to.  He said that this is not something that can be seen.  It is an inward witness of the heart in which a human being comes to believe in the Son of Man.  The effect of this belief is eternal life.  The effect of an opposing unbelief is the continuation of the judgment of God that man is already under.  In fact, Jesus said, God’s judgment is observable in the fact that many people reject the light of Jesus that has come into the world.  They instead prefer the darkness of their own wickedness.

APPLICATION

This portion of Scripture both calls us and instructs us.  It calls us in the sense that belief in Christ is the essence, if not the totality, of the gospel message.  Anyone who reads the text of chapter three is immediately placed into a responsive role wherein they must determine a course of action; either that of belief or that of unbelief in Christ.  This text calls out and forces its readers to consider their eternal future.

Yet, it also instructs us in the following way.  Just as physical birth is an event that the one being born has no part in, so the spiritual birth that Jesus speaks of is an event whose origin is not dependent on the one being born.  Yet, paradoxically, Jesus clearly expects a volitional act of belief on the part of the one being born again.  It is in this tension, this theological paradox, that all of the great doctrines of Scripture stand.  And although we may struggle to fully understand how such things can be, as Nicodemus did, we are obligated to affirm them because Scripture affirms them.

At the end of the day, every Christian must come to the place where they acknowledge that they cannot understand the mind of God short of the instruction of the Holy Spirit.  And they must submit themselves to His instruction and rest in His timing.  This applies not only to the doctrine of salvation, but to every single aspect of a life lived in the footsteps of Christ.