“Jesus replied, ‘Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.’” —JOHN 3:3

Nicodemus was a Pharisee which meant he kept a daily string of rigid rules, but he noticed something in Jesus he did not have in himself. Great crowds were gathering by the thousands to listen to Him, so quietly one night Nicodemus slipped out to meet with Jesus. In response to the above verse, he asked a genuine question. “How can someone be born when they are old? Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit… You must be born again” (John 3:4-7).

The term “born again” was not commonly in use until the mid 1970’s when Jimmy Carter was running for presidency of the United States. In an interview, he was asked about his Christian faith and he said, “I am a born again Christian.” As the term was not yet in the general domain, people began to wonder, “He’s not just an ordinary Christian, but a born again Christian. What in the world is a born again Christian?”

Every Christian is a born again Christian. To be born again does not mean we have made a fresh start or turned over a new leaf. It is to receive new life imparted to us by the Holy Spirit. In fact, it is the life of the Holy Spirit indwelling us, and this is what Nicodemus recognized in Jesus that he did not have in himself. Being born of water and flesh is the first birth, a natural birth, born physically of our mothers. Born of the Spirit is a supernatural birth, which leads to spiritual life and is the work of God.

When this takes place we begin to see and hear things in a way we never did before, and we begin to understand the things of God as the Spirit reveals them. We discover a whole new world, because we now have spiritual life with spiritual appetite and spiritual capacities. The Spirit, like the wind, Jesus says, blows where it will. We do not hear its sound or know where it is going or coming from, but we know the Spirit is drawing us when we become aware of our need for a Saviour, and we see the answer to that need in Christ. The Spirit then bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God. This is the second birth by the inception of the Holy Spirit in which we are indeed born again!

PRAYER: Dear God, forgive me, cleanse me and send your Holy Spirit to live within me so that I might be born again and discover I have new life in You. Amen.

TO REFLECT UPON: When I first became a Christian, did I sense the Holy Spirit drawing me in my need for a Saviour?