“Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?” Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life”.
John 3:3-6 NLT
Nicodemus just didn’t get what Jesus was saying. The concept of spiritual birth was beyond his comprehension. So he made the contemptuous and sarcastic statement about repeating his physical birth in all its natural ways. But Jesus responded with two interesting facts about God’s Kingdom – the entrance qualifications are that someone has to be born both physically and spiritually. If either requirement is missing then membership of the Kingdom of God is not possible. Jesus said that a person has to be born by the natural process created by God – “Now Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. When she gave birth to Cain, she said, “With the Lord’s help, I have produced a man!”“ (Genesis 4:1). But then Jesus said there was another birth through the Holy Spirit that gives birth to a spiritual person. This process happens as described by Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it“. Paul also told the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!“
We humans are both spiritual and natural beings. To be a citizen of the Kingdom of God, we have to fulfil both the entrance qualifications, and this is only possible while we are alive. A person who hasn’t yet been born can’t apply to be a member of God’s Kingdom and neither can someone who has died. We have a relatively short opportunity to be obedient to God’s call in our natural lives. Once they have passed it is too late to apply. The Apostle Peter succinctly set out the application process in Acts 2:38-39, verses that are heavily underlined in my Bible. “Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away—all who have been called by the Lord our God”.
We pilgrims heard the “call”. We received the “gift of the Holy Spirit” when we were saved, when we made that momentous decision to follow Jesus for the rest of our lives. And through that Gift we were born again, spiritually, into God’s Kingdom. A simple process on the face of it, but so profound. And so important because, unlike our natural citizenship to our countries into which we were born or adopted, the Kingdom of God is an everlasting Kingdom that will never end. And so when our natural bodies die we live on spiritually. John 3:36, “And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment“.
The people in this world have a stark choice, and doing nothing, deferring a decision, is not an option. We can choose to be born spiritually in God’s Kingdom or we can turn our backs on the most important choice we will ever make in this life. We need to propagate that message at every opportunity. It’s very serious!
Dear Father God. You created us in Your image, and we have a “hole” within us that only You can fill. Thank You that You care for us. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 