February 15, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us as we take a quick break in Ezekiel for a few chapters of John? Here’s today’s reading:
John 3 (NIV)
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus
1 Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”.......Continue Reading
A beautiful chapter on the new life we receive in Christ. To be born again to a new creation holy and righteous in His sight not because of anything we do but because of the work Jesus is telling them here that He will do foreshadowing His crucifixion.
But our human flesh knows that new life and that change come with putting away old things that have been hidden in the darkness. Our inclination to sin and the sin that so easily besets us now must be exposed by the light of Christ and dealt with. We must give up those ways, which can be much easier when we trust God and allow Him to fill us with His spirit but we make it hard when we hold tight to those sins and things that bring us temporary fulfillment.
Amen that He has done the work for us but to truly follow is to be reborn and put away all of our sin and shame for a better purpose, an eternal impact and know that the things of this world can never provide for us what our Father has already given us!
Amen, Kelly!
John 3
Bottom line…so simple….accept and be born into Christ and our eternal home is with Him. And if not…expect His eternal wrath and condemnation. By no means will we be perfect, but we must choose to live in the light rather than darkness. And in our acceptance of Him, we must do our best to prove we are His!
John 3
What a great picture born again is to describe the radical transformation that Jesus and the Spirt bring to human life. In Christ, we are a completely new person. No longer do we need to be defined by our ways of the flesh or our past, but the ways of the Spirit and our present and future with Jesus. And being born of water does not refer to baptism, but to the way humans are normally born. He uses it to distinguish our human birth from our spiritual birth. And it was the Father’s love for us that caused Him to send His Son to make a way for us to gain eternal life. And with such a wonderful, powerful work done at the cross, there is only one thing that we can add: faith. So when we believe in Jesus, we are granted eternal life. And that offer is made available to all and was the very reason why Jesus came to the earth.
And if being born again describes the work Jesus does for us, John’s words at the end of the chapter describe best our response to Him. He must increase and I/we must decrease. This was John’s frame of mine from the beginning and so there is no concern on his part of Jesus baptizing near Him. May it be our frame of mind as well. That the more we become like Jesus, the better off we will be. Jesus’ mind, character, words and power should be increasing in us and our ways decreasing. That others would see Him in us…..
God says he did not send his son to condemn the world but to save the world…Everyone who hates light as there deeds are evil. God sent Jesus who speaks the words of God’s. GIves the spirit without limit.Who ever believes in the son Jesus has eternal life. THANK YOU Jesus!
John 3:36 sums up the truth about where we stand in relation to God. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.