The Life-Renewing Words of Jesus by Adam RamseySample

“You must be born again”

When you think about it, your birthday is kind of weird. Each year, you have an entire day dedicated to being celebrated, sung to, stuffed with cake, and congratulated by everyone around you for something you contributed absolutely nothing. You got born. Your contribution to the day of your birth was not exactly something you can boast about.

No one wills themself into existence. We are given existence. If physical life is something that comes from outside of us, how much more so is spiritual life?

Nicodemus is a good man. He loves God, he loves the Scriptures, he is a devoted theologian, he is moral and upright, and he is a respected leader in Israel. And Jesus basically says to him, It’s not enough.

The one thing Nicodemus needs is the one thing he cannot produce from within himself. He needs to be born again.

No one enters life with God by resolving to do better, turning over a new leaf, and trying their hardest. Instead, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace, you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5). If salvation is by grace alone, then being a Christian is not merely the result of a good decision you made once; it’s a miracle.

As with your birthday, there is nothing for you to boast about, but there are ten thousand upon ten thousand reasons for you to rejoice in the gift you’ve been given.

Remember today that your Christian faith is a miracle. Your faith was supernatural in its origin, is supernatural in its outworking, and will be supernatural in its outcome.

Quote for Reflection:

“Our first birth makes us sons of Adam; our second birth makes us sons of God. Born of the flesh, we inherit corruption—we must be born of the Spirit to inherit incorruption. We come into this world heirs of sorrow because we are sons of the fallen man. Our new life comes into the new world an heir of glory, because it is descended from the second man, the Lord from heaven.”

Charles Spurgeon, “Every Man’s Necessity,” Sermon 1455