John 3:3-8 … To be Born Again (11/21/16)
“Very truly, I tell You, no one can See the Kingdom of God without being born anew … No one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water & of Spirit. What is born of flesh is flesh, and what is Born of the Spirit is Spirit … The Wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it — but you know not where it comes from nor where it goes. So it is with everyone who is Born of The Spirit.” ~ Jesus (John 3:3+6+8)
How many times have I heard (indeed, quite proudly) from Christians who profess to have been “Born Again,” and how many more times have I heard from those same Christians that being “Born Again” is required for anyone to be allowed into Heaven after death ? Indeed, far too many times on both counts …
For such believers, being “Born Again” means that one has mentally chosen to claim that Jesus is the one & only Son of God, and has publicly proclaimed his or her absolute allegiance to the same … And to this I say: Fair enough. For it is indeed possible that such a limited and capricious godhead is in charge from “on high”; just as it is possible that He will indeed throw all those who do not appropriately fawn over Him into an eternal pit of fiery torment. Of course, I want nothing at all to do with such an unjust & indeed diabolical deity if He does exists (no truly Moral Person would), and yet exist He very well might …
And yet, where these “Born Again Christians” utterly fail is in claiming that Jesus supports such immoral nonsense, for – as this passage quite clearly shows – he most certainly did NOT. Indeed, what Jesus says in these verses (the only passage in the entire Bible where Jesus speaks to the “Born Again” state of Being, by the way) is the following –
A) that we must indeed be “born anew” to “See” the “Kingdom of God” (not to enter it or reside in it at some point after our death, but to See it in our current life); a Kingdom that – for Jesus at least – existed internally within each of us (see Luke 17:20-21), and a Kingdom that could be accessed only via selfless acts of radical Caring & Kindness (see John 13:15-17 & Matthew 24:12-14 et al) … and —
B) that being “Born Again” is not some merit badge that we earn with a single epiphany or pin on with a single utterance. It is not at all a reward that we need earn but once and then carry with us for the rest of our lives. To the contrary, Jesus makes it quite clear in this passage that becoming “Born Again” is as flowing as the wind; that we must choose it to experience it in that moment – and then that we must ever choose it again & again & again & again; that we can enter the Kingdom of Heaven as often as we wish for the rest of our lives, and yet that we must ever renew our choice of selfless Love – our status of being thus “Born Anew” – in order to do so.
;