religion or regeneration

THERE’S  A  WORLD OF DIFFERENCE  between religion and regeneration. Correction: there’s an eternity’s difference. Religion says, “By  an  external  system of deeds, you can gain God’s favor.”
Regeneration  says,  “No—by  an  internal  gift of grace, God gives you His life through Jesus Christ.” Religion says, “I can achieve God’s favor by what I do.  When the Judgment Day comes, God will see that my good outweighs my evil.” Regeneration says,  “All my righteous actions are like filthy rags. I have no good in myself. I can only rely on Christ’s death on my behalf.”
It’s in this context that we need to look at Nicodemus. Nicodemus was part of the religious ruling class in Jesus’ day. He was a Pharisee, a member of a small but influential brotherhood known for meticulously following in Jerusalem .
Nicodemus : OCCUPATION Religious leader > CONTEMPORARIES  Jesus, Annas, Caiaphas,  Pilate,  Joseph of  Arimathea KEY LESSONS > God is able to change those we might consider unreachable. > God is patient and persistent.

Nicodemus’s story is told in John 3:1-21; 7:50-51; and 19:38-42. the Old Testament law and, honestly, splitting religious hairs. He was a prominent member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish high council. This was a man who carried a lot of influence. It’s no wonder, then, that he would approach Jesus after dark (John 3:2). Nicodemus knew that people around the city would see him if he came during the day. Furthermore, the night hours afforded him a chance for conversation about a crucial issue with which he was wrestling. I believe he came to Jesus in all sincerity, not knowing the conversation would take a dramatic turn from the subject of religion to the concept of regeneration. Note that Nicodemus acknowledged right up front that Jesus was a teacher sent from God and was uniquely gifted (see John 3:2). He laid a bit of flattery on Jesus to break the ice.  What did Jesus think of that approach? He went straight to the issue:  “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3).  What did Jesus’ response have to do with what Nicodemus had just said? Zero! But Jesus knew exactly what Nicodemus needed. Nicodemus was surprised by Jesus’ reference to being born again.

The Lord clarified that regeneration is something God prompts, not humans. Religion, on the other hand, is something humans push, not God.
With his spiritually blind eyes wedged in the natural, Nicodemus couldn’t get his mind around the concept of spiritual rebirth. Jesus knew that only a work of grace through the power of the Holy Spirit could open Nicodemus’s spiritual eyes. In essence, Jesus said to him,  “This new birth is not that complicated. There must be an inward cleansing that God will make possible through His Spirit” (see John 3:5-8). To bring His point home, Jesus used a story that was near to Nicodemus’s heart. The ancient account of the bronze snake in the desert (Num. 21:4-9) perfectly illustrates the diametric opposition of religion and regeneration. These ancient Israelites who had been bitten by venomous snakes found themselves completely helpless, dependent on God’s mercy. They thought the best strategy would be to implore God to take away the snakes, to come up with some extermination process that would eliminate the problem. Yet God prompted Moses to do something a human never would have thought of: make a bronze snake, attach it to a pole, and ask everyone to simply look at it to be healed.
Having reminded Nicodemus of that awesome scene, Jesus outlined for him the same basic plan for eternal salvation from the venom of sin and death:  “The Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life” (John 3:14-15). How can simple belief from the heart create new birth and such incredible transformation? It’s the same basic plan today as it was when Jesus spoke these words to Nicodemus.  We are urged to believe    it—and live.
 by chuck swindoll

to save not to condemn

John 3:17-18 (NIV)
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

THIS DIALOGUE  between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus is very revealing. This Pharisee was concerned about the message from this radical teacher, Jesus. The Lord put away all the unnecessary preliminaries and went right to the heart of the issue. He said to Nicodemus,  “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.”
 Nicodemus exclaimed with concern and confusion,  “What do you mean?” (John  3:3-4). He wondered how in the world he could literally be born again. Jesus responded that His statement was spiritual, not physical. Furthermore, it was not something one could analyze to understand.

Being born again is a mystery, the result of God’s inner work in a life. To explain His meaning, Jesus drew upon Nicodemus’s knowledge of the Law and the history of Israel. No one would have been a student of Moses and the Law like a Pharisee. Nicodemus knew the Law intimately, so he immediately connected with what Jesus said.

Jesus referred to the story in Numbers 21:4-9, where the Israelites in the wilderness had brought God to the end of His tether with their constant complaining. The Lord decided it was time to discipline them, so He sent poisonous snakes among them. The snakes bit, and the venom killed, and the people finally got it.  “We have sinned!” they cried out. So Moses prayed, and God said,  “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole.  All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!”
Moses made a bronze snake, and He put it on a pole.  Anyone bitten by a snake could look at it, and they would be healed. It was a look of faith to God’s provision. Then Jesus explained the analogy for Nicodemus:  “As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life” (John 3:14-15).
Do you see the analogy? It’s the Cross, of course! The bronze snake was a picture of the Cross, where Jesus was going to be lifted up and where He would pay the complete penalty for the sin of the world for all time. Jesus was saying that when He was lifted up, everyone who believed in Him would have eternal life.
 This, too, was a look of faith to God’s provision. I believe by now Nicodemus was standing, staring, and churning. I don’t think he was born again yet. But by John 7:50-51, he will have started to come out of hiding, and he will make a statement in defense of Jesus in front of his colleagues in the Sanhedrin. Then by the time of the Crucifixion, Nicodemus will be standing alongside Joseph of  Arimathea as they wrap the body of Jesus and prepare it for burial (John 19:38-42). Somewhere between here and there, Nicodemus will come to believe in Christ.
Are you still trying to figure out what it means to be born again? Don’t make it complicated. No need to add to the story. It only takes a look of faith.  Why not look to Jesus and find out if He is who He says? If you do, you won’t be sorry

the WORD become human

John 1:9-10 (NIV)
9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
by Chuck Swindoll

THE SON OF GOD,  as  “very God” (to quote the Nicene Creed), arrived on this earth as a man. He came to the mountains He created. He faced the rivers with their rushing currents. He crossed the valleys. He gazed upon the sea. He walked beneath the skies and the stars and the moon and the sun.

But the tragedy of all tragedies is this: “He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him” (John 1:10). The world didn’t recognize the One who had created it. In other words,  “He came to his own people, and even they rejected him” (John 1:11). In our world, people look at the beauty of creation but refuse to acknowledge the Creator.
 Imagine  Walt Disney coming to Disneyland on its opening day in 1955—  but nobody even acknowledging him or acknowledging the fact that everything in the park had come from his imagination and creativity. Imagine them all saying,  “Oh, it just  happened.” Such an illustration can’t really do justice to this magnificent passage of Scripture, but you get the picture.
 We all know the Christmas story: The Creator came to our planet as a baby, but there was no room at the inn for the One who had created the rocks from which that inn was made. There was no welcome mat for Christ.
 Isn’t it remarkable that the One who is coequal, coeternal, and coexistent with the Father and the    Spirit—  the One who divinely decreed the events that would run their course on this earth in perfect timing with His profound    plan—  could come to the earth and be beaten and spit upon, have spikes driven through His hands and feet, be hung on a cross, and be cursed until He died? Even after being raised from the dead, He is still denied, rejected, and refused some twenty centuries later.

 There is still no room for the Savior. What about you? Do you know what it means that God, who made everything, reduced Himself to take on skin, subject Himself to the very gravity that He put into effect, and limit Himself to a tiny space of    property—  for you? From the vanishing point of the past to the vanishing point of the future, Jesus Christ remains in His nature and His attributes  very God.  But Christ, in order that human beings might be able to see what God is like in tangible form, became a human for all eternity future.  This introduction to the Gospel of John concludes,  “No one has ever seen God. But  the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God  to  us” (John 1:18).

Do you wonder what the Father is like? Make a study of Christ.
Do you wonder how God could be a God of grace, at the same time both gentle and full of justice and purity? Look at Christ. He shares the Father’s divine nature, and He explains it and models it in perfect terms so that we can grasp the person of the Father. The world didn’t recognize the One who created it. Do we?