How to See the Kingdom of God

Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.”

John 3:3-NRSV

What a statement! Other versions of the Bible translate “born from above” as “born again. The question that Nicodemus asks in response to this bombshell statement is “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” (John 3:4b-NRSV) This seems like a logical follow up question, doesn’t it? Born, as defined by the Strongs Exhaustive concordance, is “γεννάω gennaō: to procreate (properly, of the father, but by extension of the mother); figuratively, to regenerate: — bear, beget, be born, bring forth, conceive, be delivered of, gender, make, spring.” So, it looks as though Nicodemus, a teacher of the law, was taking the term literally, to be born by human parents. However, the usage that Jesus is referring to is the more general sense of the word, to “be delivered of” (or by) above, or God.

Now that we’ve had our theological lesson, let’s look at the more practical side of this conversation. Nicodemus was an educated man, being a teacher of the law, but still had questions as to who Jesus really was (was he the prophesied Messiah?), though he did understand Jesus to be “a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs (he was) doing if God were not with him.”(John 3:2b-NRSV) Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, apparently wanting to be in secret, probably because of his stature as a Pharisee. What this learned man heard was an apparently simplistic statement “you must be born from above.” (John 3:7b, NRSV)

Something that is so amazing here is that Jesus is showing that “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” (1 Corinthians 1:27, NRSV) A simple statement being said to an educated man really threw him off, Nicodemus was not expecting this. That is the problem that people have been facing since the beginning starting with Adam and Eve. The instruction was simple, “you shall not eat,” (Genesis 2:17) but the original pair allowed themselves to be deceived by complex argument and did eat. It really is the simple that confounds the complex.

Humans are still searching for that which will satisfy. We see abuse (drugs, people, self) to try and find satisfaction. Sex, things, activities, etc. are all tried and all fail to satisfy. Academics is offered, “if we could only learn enough we will be satisfied.” Wealth is offered, “if we could only make enough money we would be satisfied.” These statements go on and on and the more they are made, the more complex the answers, the less satisfied we are because of them.

However, there is a very simple solution, one so simple that a child can understand, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NRSV)

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

John 3:16, NRSV