1 Peter 1: 3-4 (a) — Born Again

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.

It was night. We presume it was dark. The year was somewhere around 33 or 34 AD. What passed for streetlights were torches or fire-pots, and now and then stray lamp light escaping from a window.

A man of advancing age wearing the robes of a professional educator makes his way down one alley after another. Finally, he reaches his goal, a door of rough wood in a seedy part of town. He knocks and after it opens exchanges a few words. He enters. His name is Nicodemus. The person he has come to see is a man named Jesus.

Nicodemus is a true man of God. He follows his heart. He has a good head, but he doesn’t let it rule him. He is humble. Unlike some of his brethren, he gets no pleasure from being a man of position.

He and Jesus study each other for a moment. Nicodemus wonders what kind of man Jesus is. Jesus does not wonder who Nicodemus is. He knows. As God knows the heart and the mind, so Jesus knows Nicodemus. He knows why he has come and he knows what he yearns to understand.

Nicodemus begins, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” (John 3:2)

How would you respond to a compliment like that? “Aww, it’s nothing.” Or maybe, “It’s about time you figured out who is boss around here!” No?

Jesus responds by answering the question that Nicodemus has not yet asked, but his heart is yearning to know. He says, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” (John 3:3)

In telling us this story, John introduces us to one of the most important things Jesus wants us to know. Even though we get up every morning and walk around every day, without Jesus we are just going through the motions. There is no life in us. And what is this new life? Revisit Genesis 2 and 3 and read the part about death. In Genesis 2:17 God says, “you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” A few verses later the serpent tells Eve “you will not certainly die.”

We know that God cannot lie (Titus 1:2). If he says when you eat of the forbidden fruit you will die, then you die. There are different views on this but to me, the plain reading of the text is straight forward. It appears that the serpent was right because Adam and Eve still live and breathe after eating the forbidden fruit. But if that is the case, why does Jesus tell us that we need to be “born again?” The reason is simple: Without Jesus we are dead. The death that God is referring to in Genesis 2: 17 is spiritual death. The serpent twisted the meaning to suggest God was talking about physical death, but that is not what God meant.

When Peter writes that Jesus, “…has given us new birth…” he is talking about spiritual birth. Without this birth, we cannot be with God when our bodies stop working. True life is found only in Jesus. (1 John 5: 20)

Application: Praise God! Through Jesus we are reborn. Literally “new birth” and the promise of eternal life in heaven.

Food for Thought: What is different between those who are “born again” and those who are not?