How Can This Be?

Thursday, September 28, 2023

There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader who was a Pharisee.  After dark one evening, he came to speak with Jesus.  “Rabbi,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us.  Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.”  Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”  “What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”  Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.  Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.  So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows wherever it wants.  Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”  “How are these things possible?” Nicodemus asked.  John 3:1-9

How can it be?  I would imagine if you told someone unfamiliar with American history that a back-woods, self-educated country boy in 1860 would be elected President of the United States, that visitor would wonder How can this be?  If you told a man two hundred years ago that in the future people would get in a big silver colored coach in New York and sail through the air at 500 miles an hour, landing safely in Los Angeles just six hours later, he’d say How can this be?  And if you told anyone living in Paris a hundred years ago that jingling, vibrating in that person’s back pocket would be Grandma calling him from Idaho in the States, and by pressing a button you’d see her, talk to her, and make plans to meet the next day for lunch in New Mexico, they would not only ask How can this be…they’d also arrange for you to meet the gatekeeper at the psych-ward.

That was the question of the evening for Jesus.  Nicodemus asked him how can a man go through the birth canal a second time?  I can imagine Jesus smiling and chuckling over that one.  But then it got serious.  Jesus was talking to a man of age, not a schoolboy, a man of great learning, you didn’t get to be a Pharisee, and a leader of Israel without intense study…and he was talking to a man of enormous influence, a respected teacher of Scripture.  Jesus told him to take all his age and life experience, all his study and certificates, and all his leadership awards honorary degrees and….dump ‘em…begin again…start over![1] 

As a person mid-way through the eighth-decade of life, I groaned when I heard those words in my mind and heart, just as assuredly as Nicodemus must have looked for the nearest exit.  How can you spend your life studying about God, teaching about God, serving God, and loving God….and then just dump all that life experience to start over?  And what does that even mean?

Then it clicked-in.

When you count on all you’ve seen…all you’ve experienced…all you’ve done, written, and the way people have said Good Job, man…that’s what you’ve got; you’ve got YOU in the center of the stage in Congratulatory Hall accepting awards and stars on your crown.  Suddenly God’s not in focus…you are!  That’s what Jesus was telling Nicodemus.  Or me.  Or you.

For You Today 

Today, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve lived the most perfectly acceptable successful life, done everything right, or if you’ve wasted every second and breath you’ve been given.  What matters is who is being worshipped right this moment.  In what Kingdom do you live, breathe, and have your being?  Who sits on the throne of your heart?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Title Image(s) courtesy of The Chosen via Wikimedia                      

Images without citation are in public domain.  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] This thought comes from Dr. John MacArthur’s Grace to You broadcast, September 27, 2023