Bob Cassell, Messenger
Salvation from God means more than deliverance from the power of darkness, redemption from the penalty of the law, and reconciliation of the believer unto Himself. As great as HIS deliverance is, it only restores to humanity that which was lost by Adam’s sin. In addition to this God wrought undertaking, God makes for human kind a new and infinitely higher being that Adam ever was. This stupendous act of God is accomplished by regeneration, or by being born again.
You are familiar with Nicodemus who was a man of the Pharisees who came to Jesus at night and made statements acknowledging that he knew Jesus was more than a common Pharisee. He addressed him as “Rabbi” and stated…
“We know that you are a teacher from God: for no man can do these miracles that you have done, except God be with Him” (John3:2).
What kind of person was Nicodemus? He was acknowledged as a man who was descendent from Adam. As every other man, he possessed Adam’s fallen human nature. In addition, he was a Jew and as such was one of God’s chosen people. He was a Pharisee, one of the strictest religious sects of the Jews who were separated and dedicated to legal self-righteousness. He has a ruler of the Jews and a member of the Sanhedrin council. He was a recognized teacher of Israel and was embraced as a guide and instructor in all spiritual matters.
Nicodemus earnestly endeavored to fulfill the requirements of the greatest moral code the world has ever known, the Ten Commandants, and the Mosaic ordinances which contained strict civil and ceremonial essentials.
Nicodemus aspired to the best of human behavior that was required under the Mosaic Law. He was required to live in accord with the light, truth, and understanding that he had diligently embraced. This most sincere religious man wanted to learn from someone he admired, and one who could instruct him regarding how to live a life that would be even more pleasing to God.
It was no accident that he came to Jesus by night, believing he could learn more than he presently knew. Nicodemus saw in Jesus a teacher on assignment directly from God, and he wanted to draw on his treasure chest of miraculous knowledge and truth.
To more clearly understand the motivation and attitude of Nicodemus toward Jesus, we must first consider just what any teacher can accomplish for someone who comes to him for information. The most any teacher can do for the student is to communicate and instruct. The actual learning must be accomplished solely by the student.
The progression of learning and improvement in the life of any student must come from the awakening and development of their own God given latent talents, skills, and abilities. These rudimentary and dormant resources are within the student and can be stimulated, but none can be contributed or transferred to the student by the teacher. All that is possessed that can be encouraged and stimulated has already been graciously given by God.
The student is an untapped reservoir of potential just waiting to embrace all that God has placed on the unique pathway of his life. The student is the lock, and God sends teachers with correct keys that fit into the students latent potentialities. God is without any doubt the initial giver of the vast arsenal that lies within gifted human beings.
Each student is just waiting to be awakened by a wise teacher who will teach them how to learn, and ultimately bring Glory to God. At this critical juncture far too many students simply are not aware of the vast deposits God has already made within their fertile souls.
Because of an awakened awareness of their unlocked potential students will begin to realize the need to know what to do, how to do it, and then must want to do it. They will develop habits and skills about more and different things and will accept new challenges and expand to new mental horizons. They will know more and will develop the capacity to do more. They will develop knowledge, skills, and desires regarding the necessary tools that will take them from where they are to their lifetime goals and objectives.
They will be in constant flux because new words, new information, and new ideas will open many horizons that were not earlier realized. Even a rubber band once stretched never regains its original dimensions. Even so, man’s mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.
Those who struggle, hesitate, and doubt their God given and latent resources can discover how amazing it is to be the very one who no one expected anything of who accomplishes the things no one else could even imagine.
The wise student who develops knowledge, skills and desires, will know what to do, how to do, and then the magic key that will release them is the passionate will to want to do and then to DO IT!
I am persuaded that one person who is fully armed and persuaded with unalterable conviction can rout and army of ninety-nine who only have an interest.
These wise students will not be the ones who are content with sitting in the grandstands of life watching others strive to accomplish their goals and objectives. They will march into the arena and advance because they find it impossible to be content with mediocrity, as mediocrity doesn’t require much and is only satisfying to those who are not interested in growth, development, and achievement.
True learners have no choice! They must be a voluntary and active participant on the battlefield of life wielding the sword of preparation, advancement, and achievement undeterred by doubt, criticism, or opposition. These learners are mission minded and cannot be deterred by anyone or anything from the path that leads to the opportunity to achieve their place within God’s plan for their lives.
To whatever degree the soul of the student can be developed, it must of necessity remain consistent with the God ordained essence that HE has imputed within the soul. In coming to Jesus as his teacher, Nicodemus expected to learn how to develop and improve his life so that it would be more pleasing to God. This mature student, who stood before Jesus, was to learn much more than he already knew. For his entire life he had read and understood that the law would be his guide to righteous living.
Now, he comes to Jesus with the same attitude. It was from this particular attitude of self-improvement that Jesus answered Nicodemus and said;
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
This answer to Nicodemus is the identical response that will come from the Son of God to anyone who has the misplaced inclination to establish their own righteousness and by means of their self-efforts expect to gain entrance into heaven.
From this perfect answer, which was made to one of the most religious, educated, honored, and truth-seeking men of his generation, Jesus declared that the natural man, however refined, moral, and educated cannot gain entrance into Heaven.
There is nothing in humankind which can be developed into a life that will be sufficiently righteous to serve as an acceptable offering to God!
This one succinct statement from the mouth of the Son of God paralyzes forever all often-repeated, ill-advised, and incorrect legalistic teachings. These false teachers profess that Jesus was the greatest example of correct living the world has ever known, and that by following in His footsteps one can be saved.
It is one thing to dedicate your life to follow Jesus; it is quite another to realize that your pathway must lead to the placement of all your faith in the one who is creating the pathway. It is not in following Jesus that saves, it is believing in Him (his person) who has purchased and paid for your redemption with His blood.
While the believer should carefully be influenced by the teachings of Jesus, the unbeliever may strive for the whole of his life to follow these teachings and in the end find that the door to Heaven is tightly shut. Why? Because Jesus said,
“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
Jesus explained that to be born again is to “be born of water and of the Spirit” (John 3:5). This verse is expanded in Paul’s epistle to Titus.
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
To be born of water is the washing of regeneration. It is a cleansing of the individual from sin “with the washing of water by the word” (Eph. 5:26). Jesus said to his disciples, “Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you” (John 15:3).
To be born of the Spirit is to be born “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).
It is to be “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever” (1 Peter 1:23).
By means of the new birth God becomes the Father of those who are brought forth from above, and being so born they are called His children (1 John 3:1) but apart from regeneration there is no fatherhood of God for anyone!
With the new birth there is also a new nature. It is the new nature from God and is imputed by Him who is the exclusive one by whom life is given. The life of anyone born of the flesh is mortal because Adam was mortal. The imputed life of one born of God is eternal because God is eternal.
Eternal life is the present possession of all who are born again (John 5:24). Anyone who is born again cannot die and has no reason to fear death. Since being born of the flesh means having a sinful nature, so being born of God means having a divine and sinless nature (2 Peter 1:4).
“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:9).
The new life is not the development of a “divine spark” in the natural man; it is a new and entirely distinct life that comes from God, just as the old natural life comes from the earthly parent.
Jesus clearly declared to Nicodemus that the new birth and the old natural or physical birth are separate and distinct. He said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).
These two births have nothing in common; they are in conflict with each other. “For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other” (Galatians 5:17).
“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh: but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death: (physical and temporal, not spiritual) but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind (the mind of the natural man) is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:5-7).
“The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14).
From these scriptures it is evident that it is impossible by means of culture, reformation, or education to change the natural state of humans into a spiritual state that will permit entrance into heaven.
Jesus said to Nicodemus, entrance into heaven requires a new birth, which is God’s answer to the sin problem because it addresses the condemned nature of humanity. In salvation, God gives by means of regeneration a new and imputed righteousness which means to be perfected forever.
But what are we to think of the old sinful nature that remains in the body of those who are saved? What becomes of it? I am sure you quickly realized it did not go away, and continues to live on in your present mortal body.
The good news is that when death occurs, and the spirit of the believer departs from the body; then, the old nature dies. Thank God!
The bad news is the old sinful nature survives; therefore, those who have been born again can and do commit sin. There is a conflict between the carnal and spiritual nature. The carnal nature by committing sin controls the believer but then, we have a BUT GOD!!
This “but God” appeal is recorded in (Colossians 3:5), and shows what to do when you have sinned and are controlled by the sin nature.
“Mortify (Put to death) your members which are upon the earth” And “Reckon also yourself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11).
Nicodemus was looking at the one who by HIS obedience (not yours) will make many righteous (Romans 5:19). In every case of redemption, the nature of the redeemed depends upon the acts of the redeemer and not on the behavior of the redeemed.
Since our HEAD (Jesus) cannot be condemned (Romans 6:9,10), the members of HIS body cannot be condemned.
This so great salvation includes something much greater than a restoration of humanity to the original perfect condition in which he was when created. It includes a new eternal life that contains a divine nature. This new life becomes the immediate possession of the individual who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because of his personal conversion with Jesus Christ Nicodemus learned well, and now you may know well that all who are born again become an immediate (not an uncertain later date) part of the infinitely perfect and righteous new creation in Christ Jesus.
For you are (not trying to be but are) the children of God (How?) by faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26).
Thanks be unto God for His amazing grace wherein we glory in all that he has finished for us and not in any of what we have done or will do for Him.
