BIRTH!

 Photo by Janko Ferlic on Upsplash   

As you recall from my intro, prior to the 15^th century, people would refer to the natural world as a book to be read, ‘The Book of Nature’.  This book together with the word of God would help lead them to a knowledge of God.  Jesus was a master at reading and referring to this ‘Book of Nature’ to help Him teach the spiritual truths of the kingdom of God.  He referred to Himself as ‘the bread of life’, the light of the world’, the good shepherd’, the true vine, the bread of Heaven…  Each reference was a metaphor to help people understand the things of God!  In the book of John, Jesus referred to the natural world more than twenty-five times!  One such powerful metaphor was about birth.  Read the ‘Book of Nature’ carefully and it will help you  understand this critically important truth about the Kingdom of God spoken by the master of metaphor.  

God invented birth!  He designed humans to be born in a very specific way.  I believe that if we really think about the whole process of birth, we can ‘hear’ what God is telling us.

I believe that He is giving us a tangible example and warning regarding the need for spiritual birth.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”  Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  John 3:1-7 NKJV

If I were able to speak to you while you were in your mothers’ womb and ask you if you would like to be born?  What would you say?  Most people would say no thanks, even if I described all the benefits of being born!!!  Most would likely say that they have all their needs met, that they are safe and warm and don’t need to be born.  Oh what they would miss!!

And so it is with being ‘born again’.  How often do we share the gospel with someone only to have them say the same thing?  That they are alive, have all their needs met, after all, they have a house, a car, a job and a family and don’t need to be born again.  One person told me his uncle prayed for him and he was covered!  And oh how much they would miss.  

They don’t realize that we are all born spiritually dead and ‘flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.’  Read 1 Corinthians 15.

Everyone born into this world is born of the first Adam whose sin against God got him kicked out of the garden and separated from God his father.  God said that if Adam sinned against Him he would surely die.  He sinned against God anyway.  He didn’t die physically, he died spiritually.  We are all descendants of this ‘first’ Adam.  Because of him, we are all born spiritually dead, cut off from God.  

If you think about it, our separation from God is obvious!  Do you see him walking around in your yard?  Do you hear His voice in the cool of the day?  That is why the scriptures say that ‘God did not send His Son Jesus into the world to condemn the world, because the world is condemned already (condemned to remain separated from God), but that the world through Him might be saved’. John 3:17. Jesus came to reconnect us to God His father! 

Jesus is the 2^nd Adam, ‘a life-giving Spirit’.  We all need to be ‘born again’.  To be born of the Spirit as descendants of Jesus, ‘in order to see and enter the kingdom of God’.    

‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (in Heaven).’  John 3:16. 

If we believe in Jesus, we are born all over again.  This time we are not born of flesh, but of the spirit.  Jesus reconnects us to God.  We become ‘the children of God’. John 1:11-13.  He came to that which was his own, (the Jewish people), but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.  As a child of God and descendent of Jesus you ‘enter into the kingdom of God’ which is already here and spend eternity with God your father. 

It is also interesting to note the similarities between physical and spiritual birth.

When we are born or when we are born again, we are set free, the baby is set free from the confines of the womb, and a Christian from the bondage of sin and death.

Jesus said to them, ‘If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed’. John 8:36 NKJV

When we are born, we come out of the darkness of the womb. When we are born again, we are called out of the spiritual darkness that surrounds those who are not ‘born again’ and are unable to ‘see’ the kingdom of God.

‘You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light!’ I Peter 2:9 NKJV.

Another interesting fact.  When you are born, your umbilical cord is cut, this is a physical example of your spiritual condition at birth!  You are cut off from God.   God wants to reconnect you to Him, spiritually.  ‘For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus’. I Timothy 2:5 NKJV. Jesus is your umbilical cord to God!  

Can you see the amazing parallels!

Will you heed his warning and be born again?