Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again. The 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.”
“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
- John 3:1-18
The Boilerplate
My wife took a Bible Study in 2009. She had become a Christian in 2000, and about the time that she took this class during the week at night, she developed night blindness, or at least the start of it. I would drive her to a friend’s house, and then the friend would drive her home afterwards. The focus on the Bible Study was weight loss from a biblical perspective. I don’t know if any weight was lost by anyone in the Bible Study, but a few members of that group became very good friends.
My wife passed away in March and I found her study guide as I was cleaning up. I actually found two study guides. The other study guide was from a Bible study long before committing herself to Jesus. Her answers were usually copying Scripture or turning the Scripture into her own words. This Bible Study in 2009 showed signs of how God was working in her life. It showed Christian growth.
So, instead of writing about a topic at random, I decided to write on the topics in the Study Guide, but instead of using the words of the Study Guide, I thought I would fashion the answers of her questions into a thread to discuss the topic. And I will not use any comment about other members of the group study (few, and usually prayer requests). That would be confidential. Thus, I am writing about these topics “with a little help” from my wife’s answers to study guide questions.
“[Without being born again] we can’t see God’s kingdom, let alone live with God eternally. We must be born of the Spirit. Spirit gives birth to Spirit.”
- My wife’s ideas about the need to be born again
As for the title, being born-again means that you have Jesus in your heart. You have accepted God’s Will. Sacrificing your own in process. You have basically accepted the free gift of salvation, and the spiritual part of you does not have a home here on earth. Instead, you are preparing yourself for the life that will live forever. So, being born-again “with a little help” requires a lot of God doing things. But my “with a little help” series means that these are my wife’s thoughts on this bit of Scripture.
My wife was trying to get her head around this one. She was always a nice person. She always had a servant’s heart. She was “second Mom” to the last few children among the nine children in her family. I have written about how the new creation looked a lot like the old creation, just differently motivated, doing it for God’s glory as opposed to doing it because it felt like the right thing to do.
But to fully examine the work of God, especially the Holy Spirit, within you, you need to figure out how He got there, that is, the Holy Spirit within each believer. And then, with the Holy Spirit within us, we know we have an advocate that can give us strength to conquer a wide range of challenges in our lives. Since the Bible study was about weight control, the biblical way, the Holy Spirit can give you strength when that extra slice of pie in the refrigerator starts getting too loud as it beckons you to give it one more glance. Then from glance to removing from the fridge. Then from removal to taking a bite. Then from taking one little bite to eating the entire piece. Come on! If you did not hear the Holy Spirit’s voice at some point along that path, you weren’t listening.
The first thing though is to believe…
“We must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and only through Him can we get eternal life. … You believe in Jesus, Son of God. You’ll also believe in His father and believe that everything said [in the Bible] is the truth.”
- My wife’s ideas on believing in Jesus
But can we trust Jesus? That is an inherent part of the concept of belief. As C. S. Lewis wrote, it is one thing to ‘believe’ that a cord will hold when tying it around a box, but it is another thing to believe the rope will hold when dangling from the rope over the edge of a cliff. With Jesus, it is a life or death proposition. So can we believe what Jesus said?
“Jesus doesn’t lie. God is not a liar.”
- My wife’s inner thoughts
Indeed, the very nature of God is that He cannot break His own Commandments. He is not like so many people that I know… “Do as I say, not as I do.” That line is one I have heard countless times, and it never works very well, but with God and His Word, the Bible, we can trust God and His Word.
“We are to be whole – everything has to be in sync with one another (balance).”
- My wife’s inner thoughts
Belief and trust in God may save our souls, but to live the Christian life with the Holy Spirit empowering us, it requires us to keep everything in balance. As we learn more from God’s Word, applying it to our lives, we can get each aspect of our lives and bodies in sync with everything else. In so doing, we become a little more like Jesus every day and we hear the Holy Spirit speaking to us a little clearer each day.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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