What did HE say? (continued)
BORN AGAIN ? (continued)
The Whole Story?
We are coming to the close of this theme on being born again which is of the utmost importance to much of the Christian world but which is, as we have earlier said, sorely misunderstood. Being born again or born anew is a change that can only take place through the ‘birth of the Christ in the cave of the heart’ and while this may be the result of a baptism for some or the result of an affirmative prayer for others, it is more likely that it will be the result of an inner longing to bring one’s life closer to God. The reports of the euphoric feeling that comes with the church’s born again are generally not long lived and they don’t generally result in a persons complete change in heart which happens with one’s focus on the Kingdom and on His Presence. Don’t misunderstand this; there are many well meaning people who in good conscience say or do what they, in their place and time, believe is going to bring them to being ‘saved’. And ‘saved’ they probably are for in this world, surrounded by God’s Love, few if any are truly lost.
Born again however is a different matter. Jesus tells us that “… narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13) which should give us the idea that there is more than just a simple ‘exercise’ (baptism or saying an affirmative prayer) to perform to accomplish it. There are those for whom this ‘exercise’ can be the ‘switch’ that finally turns on their ardent desire to be in His Presence and, for these, once being turned on they continue in the way, doing the word of the Lord. For them that do an ‘exercise’ there is a teaching from the Master in the Parable of the Sower. Let us look at the ‘exercise’ as being the same as hearing His word for essentially this is what it is. Explaining this parable to His disciples who apparently did not quite understand it, the Master says: “The sower soweth the word. And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended. And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirty fold, some sixty, and some an hundred” (Mark 4:14-20).
The message here in being born again is the same as the message of the parable; to think oneself born again without ‘bringing forth fruit’ is not truly being born again and perhaps this is one of the problems with the church today. Millions think that they have done what has to be done and fall into life in the world without ever going the extra step of actually doing His word. Remember there is a class of people that He speaks to when He says: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Matthew 7:22-23). These are people who think that they have done what is required but they have not done the “will of my Father which is in heaven” which is the reality of being born anew.
Continuing now with our text: “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have eternal life” (John 3:13-15). The reference to Moses being as an foretelling of the crucifixion may not be so as this is early in Jesus ministry and the crucifixion was not yet spoken of; it may have been of a much deeper nature that that. It is, in any event, a comment to Nicodemus who has not anymore replied after saying “how can these things be” a bit earlier. For us, over 2000 years later and knowing of the crucifixion, we can make that relationship but we know there is much more that this as well. The Greek word here is hupsoo which is generally taken to mean; to lift up on high, to exalt; metaph. to raise to the very summit of opulence and prosperity, to exalt, to raise to dignity, honour and happiness from the lexicon** and Strong’s says that it means to lift up, elevate, exalt***. Vincent says, is used by John in relation to the crucifixion and to Christ’s glorification.****. So it remains unclear what the Master was saying to Nicodemus but we should remember the vein of this conversation is regarding earthly things and heavenly things and perhaps we can take this as a crossover point in the words of Jesus; Moses on the earthly side and Himself lifted up or glorified on the heavenly side.
Taking it to the heavenly for us is easy. The story of Moses is this: A plague of ‘fiery’ serpents, which is to say poisonous serpents, is afflicting the people and Moses prays for relief from this plague. Then “the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten , when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived” (Exodus 21:8-9). Without getting into this any deeper we should see that the serpent on the pole was a great healing energy from God for the people who, by looking at it, were healed of the poison. Jesus here is telling Nicodemus that He is also a healing energy from God which will be lifted up (or glorified of exalted) to heal us all thereby telling Nicodemus that He is much more than a teacher come from God.
The next verse is one that causes much Christian confusion as it is one of those that is used to say that only through believing in Christ can one be saved. This is not what this says however as there is no preclusion in it. Still, these are difficult verses to discuss in the Light of our reality of entering into the Presence of God and into His Kingdom. It reads: “That whosoever believeth in him should not perish , but have eternal life” in the King James Version (KJV) and as “that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life” in the American Standard Version (ASV). The phrase should not perish is omitted in many translations and Vincent says of this that ‘the best texts omit’**** which usually means that they are not present in all manuscripts. This is likely here as Vincent would certainly not be saying that the KJV is not a best text. Nonetheless, using the ASV as our text we get the idea that whoever believes may, in Christ, have eternal life and in this understanding there is no magic bullet to believing. Now eternal life is a complex issue which we did discuss in some detail (In the Words of Jesus part 33); from our perspective this should be understood as the same as being in the Kingdom and in His Presence starting here and now.
The words from the ASV and from the Revised Version and others as well do not say that if you believe that you have eternal life and, again, we might add that the Master told us that it is not that easy. Remember His words say “… narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it“. If it were so easy as to just believe, His words here would not be true. The words say that if we believe that we “may in him have eternal life” and this certainly is true and it is not exclusionary.
The same thought is repeated in the next verse but there is no alternate wording in this: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” *(John 3:16). So we are here again at a statement that reflects the belief that just in believing in the Christ that we have eternal life. As discussed yesterday, many bible scholars (pre 1900) believe that the last verse ended the dialogue with Nicodemus and that the words in question now are John’s words and not the Master. That John recorded them all is true and for our purposes we can only say that this idea of just believing to gain the Kingdom may have been what John thought was true; we find this kind of language only in his gospel. Knowing all the other words of the Master and understanding our notion of eternal life we should still have the conviction of our belief. Still, the idea of attaining the Kingdom being as easy as believing is a detriment to the church at large because when one thinks this is enough, he may just stop trying anything else.
Since our theme has been born again and this is essentially ended whether or not we accept the idea of this next section is not the words of the Master, we will end this theme here. Before we leave off however let us look at another verse in John that has direct relationship to our verse earlier on His being lifted up as this may become the lead into our next discussion. I mention this now so that we can see and think on the idea above regarding the interpretations of John in his own text. In the midst of a dialogue with the people and the Thunderous Voice of the Father and after His claim that “…now shall the prince of this world be cast out” the Master says “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” after which John comments for us “this he said, signifying what death he should die” (John 12:31-33). Perhaps this is all that John saw in this but for us there is so much more.
Note on the Quote of the Day
This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.
Leaving this Quote of the Day from yesterday.
O Thou Who givest sustenance to the universe,
From Whom all things proceed,
To Whom all things return,
Unveil to us the face of the true Spiritual Sun
Hidden by a disc of golden Light
That we may know the Truth And do our whole duty
As we journey to Thy sacred feet.
The Gayatri is one of the oldest prayers known to man. It is a wonderful invocation and meditation. For more information please see the Prayers and Meditations section to the right of this post.
- ** from New Testament Greek Lexicon on BibleStudyTools.com
- *** Strongest Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible – 2001
- **** Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
