26. that first real breath (John 3:4-8)
Posted by:
SeLahGirl on
November 30, 2007 at
2:14PM EST
that first real breath
(John 3:4-8)
4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he
cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
All too often we take things too literally in Scripture, so much so
that we forget that there is almost always a spiritual or symbolic
meaning to everything that God speaks. He is so multifaceted,
addressing so many dimensions at once, that our little brains get
easily fried. And so here is Nicodemus, not being that icon in
scripture that we read about, but being a man, human, just like the
rest of us. His thoughts became a little knotted at trying to follow
the thoughts of God. And so Jesus, leads him along as a Good Shepherd,
wise and gentle. Not coddling him or handing him all the answers in an
instant, but challenging him to think it through and giving him
direction in how to do it. There is truly no other god like our God
<3
5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one
can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.
6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
There is a physical birth, and there is a spiritual birth. The physical
birth is into a body on the earth, a cursed and fallen realm. But the
spiritual birth is into a realm inclusive yet far beyond all that is
seen with your physical eyes. It is another realm that cannot be seen
or touched or tasted unless you are first born into it, you must enter
into it. And Jesus is the only door.
It is His Spirit, the
Spirit of God, that draws you and it is that connection to Christ that
jolts your deadness and causes LIFE to wake the core of your being. He
is the center, the source, the electric excitement that is true Life
that causes us to live and move and have our being.
In the
hospital room, the doctor and nurses and family scream with delight and
joy at the new arrival. In the spiritual realm that engulfs the
physical, all of heaven, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the
very angels and creatures of his creation scream and shout with delight
at the birth/arrival/new life that is suddenly aware of a God that
loves them beyond their understanding.
7You should not
be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' 8The 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."
Being born of the Spirit, suddenly aware and
alive and joined in relationship/family to God, you are made aware of
so much. So many things that a person cannot sense as an unbeliever.
Only after that step of faith thru that doorway, are your senses alive
and awake and firmly convinced of the reality that is Christ. But God
is still God, and still far beyond our understanding. Though he draws
near to us and is with us, he will never lose his mystery or
fascinating awe. He is so deep and so wide and so far from our ever
being able to contain him in the small box that is our mind. And that
is a good thing.
But being born again, and being able to
actually experience the savor of the sweetness of his presence is LIFE
to the fullest. There is no explanation or description of that. It is
something that each person much choose to experience. It is a personal
relationship that becomes a block in the building of community that is
the Kingdom. It must be personal before it can be Kingdom.
Being dead, removes the right or ability to understand LIFE, to experience LOVE, to know TRUTH, to embrace GOD.
We can live a physical life, and walk around so very dead inside. We
can laugh and live for self, or we can work and serve and live for the
people we value. But either way, we remain dead inside. It amounts to
nothing. We will physically die, and eternity will be an eternal second
death with no chance of hope or life or love. It will be darkness
without peace, without the presence of God, and without end. That is
the second death according to Scripture. It is not your life on this
earth that will remain, it will all return to dust. It is that second
birth, that being born again, that entering into the
life-giving-sustaining-abundantly-fulfilling LIFE through Christ Jesus.
Just as the water broke and spilled over all to mark your physical birth into this world...
the water of His Spirit spills out over you and your spirit enters into
an existence that will remain forever, LIFE without end.
That scream,
that heart-cry,
that declaration,
that sudden and blinding light,
that leap of faith and fear that moves you,
propels you forward
and empties you
freeing you from the staleness that once filled your lungs
so that you can take that first real breath that is LIFE.
He becomes the very air that you breathe
and you become born again.
Here with Nicodemus,
just as we discussed at the opening of the book of John...
that is the beginning of all things.
And that is where Christ takes him here in John 3,
to the beginning
to the choice set before each of us
to believe God
to be born again.
