Devotional By Pastor John Flint
Religion Doesn't Give Life
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus looked like the kind of man who should have been spiritually secure. As a Pharisee, he represented the best of religious Israel, biblically educated, morally disciplined, and widely respected. Jesus even called him “the teacher of Israel” (John 3:10). Yet when Nicodemus came to Jesus, Jesus didn't congratulate him for being religious. Jesus told him he needed to be born again.
That must have been staggering. Nicodemus had spent his life learning about God. Yet Jesus was telling him that knowing about God is different from knowing God. That danger is just as real today. You can know Bible stories without knowing Jesus. You can attend church without knowing Jesus. You can believe God exists without knowing Jesus. You can live a good, respectable life without knowing Jesus.
This is the very man Jesus told plainly, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). The word translated “again” can also mean “from above.” Jesus was describing something Nicodemus could never accomplish through all his religious zeal and effort. “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Only the Spirit of God can give new life. We cannot produce it; we can only receive it.
God offers the gift of eternal life freely. John 3:16 records what Jesus tells Nicodemus. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Eternal life comes only from God, through faith in Jesus Christ.
Nicodemus's story doesn't end after that conversation with Jesus. Later he defends Jesus before the religious leaders (John 7:50-51), and after Jesus is crucified, he helps bury the body of the One he once questioned (John 19:39). Nicodemus came to Jesus in the dark, but it doesn’t appear that he stayed there. The Gospel of John doesn’t explicitly tell us whether Nicodemus came to saving faith in Jesus. Therefore, we need to be careful not to declare something that Scripture doesn’t declare. That being said, it does appear Nicodemus was a man who was moving closer toward faith in Jesus.
Reflect
Have you been trying to become acceptable to God through something you do, or are you trusting completely in what Christ has done? Come to Him, not with your record or accomplishments, but come humbly in repentant faith in Jesus. He gives new life to all who repent and believe.