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Grace When We Don’t Get It

Scripture:

How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked. Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? I assure you, we tell you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe our testimony. But if you don’t believe me when I tell you about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven.” John 3:9-13 NLT

Today, we are continuing in the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Let’s look through this Scripture and notice a few things together!

Observation:

Here, we watch Jesus, the Son of God, breaking down spiritual truths into really simple pictures for Nicodemus to follow. Jesus talked through our need for a second birth by the Spirit if we want to see the Kingdom of heaven and compared it to the wind. When people experience this second birth, they are changed, led by the Spirit, and able to sense the movement of God in their lives. But Nicodemus just isn't getting it.

What we have to realize is that Nicodemus not understanding what Jesus is saying is not because he lacks intelligence. Nicodemus is a teacher of religious law, and Jesus even calls him a respected leader of the Jewish people. Basically, Nic knows what’s up. But still, Jesus says this about him, “We tell you everything. Everything we know, everything we see, but you will still not believe us.” Okay, Jesus…shots fired! What is He getting at? It’s not that Nicodemus and his fellow Jewish leaders were uninformed, it’s that they were unfaithful. Faith is complete trust and confidence in something, so saying these religious leaders lacked faith, means that maybe they thought Jesus had some good things to say, but they didn’t truly trust Him. And because they were unwilling to trust in who Jesus is, the Son of God who came to save the world, they failed to see that the Kingdom of God was coming on earth, just like the prophets in the Old Testament had predicted.

What Jesus is asking Nicodemus is: How can you understand what I am saying if you don’t trust me, the person saying it? We can’t trust Jesus’ teachings if we doubt His identity. Nicodemus saw Jesus’ miraculous signs but just like Nicodemus, our faith can’t stop at acknowledging that Jesus existed. We have to put our faith in Jesus, then we can receive the Holy Spirit and be born again.

Application:

Are you trying to trust the teachings of Jesus without actually trusting Him? What we are learning through this conversation is that it just doesn’t work like that. We have to trust the person of Jesus before we can rightly apply the teachings of Jesus. So think about your life: What kinds of things hold you back from fully trusting who Jesus is and who He wants to be in your life?

Prayer:

Jesus, thank you for meeting me with grace every time I come to you. I pray that you would enter the parts of my heart that hold me back from fully trusting you. Shine your light on those places. I want to see them so I can see you more clearly and trust you more completely. Amen.