Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:3, ESV)
You know there are words that any respectable golfer does not say. Foremost among those is a word naming the act of striking the ball off the hosel of the club and sending it on a severe angle left or right of the target, depending on which side of the ball you play from. See how I carefully used 35 words rather than that one? You’re welcome.
When it comes to the way we speak of our faith, we also tend to keep certain words and phrases under wraps. “Carrying your cross,” “the wrath of God,” “circumcision”—these I understand. They are uncomfortable both literally and literarily. But there is another phrase we may be avoiding because it can be, well, embarrassing: “born again.”
The kind of preachers who emphasize being “born again” in our time are frequently those with too much volume, too much air time, and too much hair product. If they were golfers, they’d be the guys wearing the loudest plaids. Not my type. Yours?
The Jewish teacher Nicodemus, who had come to Jesus under the cover of night, asked, “How can a man be born when he is old?”But here’s where we have to be careful, because the first man of God to talk of being born again was Jesus. Actually, he’s the only one in Scripture who uses the phrase, so we might say its origin and copyright rest with the Son of God. That should be plenty to cause us to notice.
Now it may come as good news to you that even the first hearer of these words was uncomfortable with them. The Jewish teacher Nicodemus, who had come to Jesus under the cover of night, asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” The whole idea confused the man, smart as he was.
Jesus’ teachings were often simultaneously simple and searching. Of course we can understand the meanings of plain words like born and again. But put them together in the mind of a person contemplating how to stand rightly with God and they suggest something very demanding: a complete do-over. “How about if we just whittle off a few unnecessaries, Lord? Should be good, right?” But Jesus comes back with a picture of wholesale newness: “No,” he says. “What you need is to be born again.” Talk about a change in identity! And yet, when we are made new in Christ, we can sing with conviction, “I am my Beloved’s and he is mine.”
—
Jeff Hopper
October 18, 2019
Copyright 2019 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
Other devotions in this series:
1 Who Am I? Created by God
2 Who Am I? Children of God
3 Who Am I? Crucified with Christ
4 Who Am I? Resurrected with Christ
6 Who Am I? A Witness for Christ
7 Who Am I? A Citizen of Heaven
8 Who Am I? A Fearless One
9 Who Am I? Free in Christ
10 Who Am I? A Victor
11 Who Am I? Gifted for Good
12 Who Am I? God’s Friend
13 Who Am I? Complete in Christ