John 3:1-9
Jesus Teaches Nicodemus About Being Reborn
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.”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
When I read Jesus teaching Nicodemus about being born again it seems confusing for Nicodemus, and it is very confusing for me...C. S. Lewis writes about Jesus and I think his comments help somewhat...But I do believe being reborn or born again requires change, great change...
Lewis says that Christ says, "Give Me all...I don't want so much of your money and so much of your work - I want you...I have not come to torment your natural self but to kill it...No half-measures are any good...I don't want to cut off a branch here and a branch there...I want to have the whole tree down...I don't want to drill the tooth or crown it or stop it, but to have it out...Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked...the whole outfit...I will give you a new self instead...In fact, I will give you Myself...My Own will shall become yours."...
Jesus wants us to hand over our natural self and be like Him, and not just a little bit...And as we handover our whole self, all of our natural desires that we cling to for security and other reasons start to leave us...And as all those desires leave us, we become more real, and get this new self...The new self replaces our old self...And when that happens, life seems more purposeful...C. S. Lewis continues and writes, “Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it...It will come when you are looking for Him...Does that sound strange?...The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters...Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making...Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it...The principle runs through all life from top to bottom, Give up yourself, and you will find your real self...Lose your life and you will save it...Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life...Keep back nothing...Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours...Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead...Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay...But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”...
When we are searching and find Jesus, we see that we fall short of our own expectations...For those who believe in Him, can see that He has these higher expectations for us, even though He never came out and said or told us to do better or I will make you a better man...We often just inherently become aware of our shortcomings over time, and seek for something or Someone, knowing we lack something...We lack Jesus...That Someone we need is Jesus...He is who can make us feel aware, purposeful, alive, and like our real self...He makes us and helps us be reborn...With Him we can be born again...He touches our hearts, our souls, as well as our minds...And when He does touch us and our lives change, then we are this new self that Lewis writes about...But He wants us all not just a part or a bit of us...
Only by following Him can we change and be reborn...Who we are and what we do matters...The things we do and say each and everyday matters...What we believe matters...What we do each day matters...Who we are with matters...Children, friends, people see how we act and what we do and what we have...The desire to buy things and have things speak of us...Even what we watch and listen to at the movies, TV, and radio speaks of us...How we speak of God, and to God, and about God matters and speaks of us...How we live our life speaks much about us...When we look at how Jesus lived His life we learn much...Jesus, somehow and quite unusually lived His life in such a way, that it was divine, yet of the flesh...He somehow mixed the Spiritual with the flesh of the body and went about a day to day living on earth -and in the best of ways...And this for me is another miracle that He did, because I find to do what He did day to day impossible (for me to do)...How He went about teaching about God, talking about the Kingdom of God, and helping others each and everyday was miraculous...In Jesus, the Spiritual and the physical became One with Him...The Spiritual and physical of Him became inseparable...He was a Man, who showed us how mankind can live...