Born in the Spirit

  As I was reading John 3 this morning, I was reminded of a silly rhyme a Sunday School teacher taught our class.  It was something like this.

                         Happy Birthday to you,

                         Happy Birthday to you,

                         I've been born again,

                         So I have two.

                         How about you?

I know.  It is corny.  But, at age nine, we loved singing the rhyme and were sincere since we understood what it meant to have two birthdays.  Today, I know there are many people who will ask the same question that Nicodemus asked Jesus, "How can a man be born when he is old?  Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" (4)

     Of coarse, we all know that we can't be physically born again.  No, it isn't one of those near death experiences where a person's heart stops beating then is revived.  Yes, in these circumstances, one may feel like they are getting a second chance at life, but the second birth Jesus is speaking of is not a physical birth but a spiritual birth.  Jesus answered Nicodemus.

     "Truly, truly, I said to you, 'Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That born of the flesh is flesh and that born of the Spirit is spirit.'  Don't be shocked at what I say to you.  You must be born again.  When the wind blows, you hear the sounds of the wind, but can't tell from where it comes or goes; so this is like one born of the Spirit." (5-8)

     Did Nicodemus understand?  He did ask questions as we all should as questions.

     In Paul's letter to the Romans, he wrote about the difference between the physical and spiritual.  Paul wrote, "For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.  So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." Romans 7:22-25 & 8:1

    We can't defeat sin with the flesh.  Yes, we can know the laws and work at obeying the laws and living a good life, but the temptation is always there.  An example is an alcoholic; the desire is always there.  The body wants it, and the mind has to be strong enough to stay away from it.  As Paul explains, the battle with sin will be there, but we can defeat sin, because the "law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." (8:2)  This freedom comes only after being born again.

     Jesus did explain to Nicodemus how to be born again.  "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up." (John 3:14)  In Numbers 21, a plague of serpents were sent to punish the Israelites.  God commanded them to make a bronze serpent and if they look up to it and believe that God will heal them, they would be healed.  So, as Jesus must be lifted up, we must look up to him and believe; and "whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (15,16)  And, this is how we are born in the Spirit.

"But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you."  Romans 8:11