The Apostle John records for us a key exchange between a member of the educated religious elite and authority … and some poor carpenter from the armpit of the world who had never gone to one of their schools.
Realizing that Jesus was indeed someone of spiritual authority, Nicodemus came to him in the middle of the night. Jesus’ message was one of source and end.
Jesus realized, because of where he actually came from (not Nazareth), that source was important. Source determines end.
So he begins to teach Nicodemus this by basically saying, “In order see the Kingdom of God, you must change your source.”
Of course the recorded words are: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus reacts with an understandable amazement. What do you mean? So Jesus further explains.
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Jesus is clearly stating, and not even implying: there was something eternally inadequate in the first birth. So what must change is the source of things, not just to adjust the things themselves.
Nicodemus’ lack of understanding, despite his immense education and social position, serves to be an example of Jesus’ teaching. Jesus points this out.
“Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?”
Many Christians and Christian teaching proves how much we misunderstand this, as well. We use the term “born again” and the resulting testimony in the lives of those who claim it is so far from a “born again” life that the term is a byword and a mockery.
Let’s first understand exactly what Jesus is saying. Because without this understanding, we can’t really have revelation about the Kingdom of God at all. We are blind men who claim to see, which is a dangerous thing. Everything else rests in this one concept:
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
This understanding will change how you read the whole of the New Testament, and then in that reality, help you to properly appreciate the Old Testament as well.
Jesus is essentially telling Nicodemus that all that he is about is worthless. It is all by the flesh. He is, by flesh and blood, a Jew, but that does not enable someone to see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus is highly educated in the scriptures and theology. But that won’t help him see the Kingdom. Nicodemus is a person of some authority and position, and assuming he is also a person of wealth and stature, but these things don’t give you a better position to see the Kingdom.
The only solution is to count all such things as what they are, rubbish, and plead with God to be born a second time, to be given a life that so transcends such things as to make them worth nothing. Because without the ability to see the Kingdom of God, they have no worth in and of themselves.
The solution is to change the source from one of flesh to one of spirit. Then one can see spiritual things.
In the next chapter Jesus makes it clear that “God is spirit and must be worshiped in spirit-truth.” That the place of worship will not matter, this mountain or another one, but the source of the worship matters.
Why? Because of its end. Paul tells us that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God.” The things of the flesh, the things that are by nature temporary, will not inherit the Kingdom of God: nationality, personality, talents, personal achievements, all things that are temporary will end. The end of the flesh is destruction.
Paul further exemplifies this in Philippians by listing how many things could give him confidence “in the flesh”: his Jewish heritage, his circumcision, his religious education, his legalistic following of the Law. Paul of all people realized that those things meant nothing. He had them and was violently opposed to the Kingdom.
So he counted all those things as rubbish, as crap, as nothing, so that he could have Christ and Him alone and a life of true righteous living by faith in God.
The promise given to us is the Spirit. God did the necessary thing, the promised thing in a New Covenant, where he made available not just repentance and forgiveness, but an opportunity to be born from a different source, a spiritual one.
Jesus’ good confession before Pilate? “My Kingdom is not of this world.” It is made of different stuff.
Without understanding the difference between spiritual and fleshly foundations, there can be no revelation or participation in the Kingdom of God. A life of the Spirit will look drastically different and beyond the understanding of the world. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
That’s an absolutely all-inclusive statement. A truly “born again” life will be led and motivated and empowered by the One unseen. That will be the testimony of a truly “born again” person.
This is the foundation of the revelation of the Kingdom of God. No wonder so many misunderstand and misrepresent it.
Peace.