Devotion:
Read John 3:1-8,16.
Opposition to Jesus by the Pharisees, priests, and other leaders of the Jewish people was beginning to intensify. No wonder when Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council, came to see Jesus, he would come at night. He did not want his peers to know that he had come to see and learn from the one they now feared and despised. Some have said that Nicodemus came to trick Jesus as so many others did, but most scholars see Nicodemus’ visit to Jesus as stemming from a sincere desire to understand the Kingdom of God through this teacher. This view is borne out by Nicodemus’ helping to prepare the crucified Jesus for burial in John 19:39.
Jesus’ statement that in order to enter the kingdom we must be born “again” literally means born “from above,” a spiritual rebirth, entering a way of life that starts now and lasts forever. The news media has a way of referring to the most evangelical among us believers as “born again” Christians. Surely, according to our Lord, all Christians are born again into a new life. There is no obstacle course to run, no test to take, and nothing to prove ourselves worthy. We are born again when we accept the gift of salvation, offered in love, that we might “not perish but have everlasting life.”
Personal Worship Option:
Close your devotional time today in thanksgiving. Christ our Lord rose and is still Risen! Life is so drastically different because Christ lives. Thank God for the love we know as grace. Celebrate your new birth and give thanks for the hope of eternal life through Christ!
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