Read John 3:1-8

“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.”

It will be tempting for anyone reading Jesus’ teachings for the first time to simply compare his words to the wisdom, philosophies or advice of other renowned thinkers, teachers and leaders of history. However, Jesus shows us right from the beginning of his season of teaching that he wasn’t sent from heaven just to add a few nuggets of wisdom to the growing collection.

In John 3, Nicodemus, a respected teacher in his own right, seeks to bring Jesus down to the level of “teacher”, like we are also tempted to do. See, if Jesus is simply the latest enlightened teacher to come to our attention, then we are merely upgrading our lives with the new knowledge he has for us. However, Jesus makes it clear that he didn’t come to merely improve our life, enlighten our minds or offer a better religion. Rather, Jesus says he is offering us a whole new life given to us by God. Jesus describes entry into this new life as being “born again”.

I’ve been present with my wife for seven (so far!) unique, incredible births. Not only is the physical process incredible to watch but I witnessed a child seeing for the first time a world they have previously only sensed. In the womb, we know babies can sense touch, sound and even light from the world outside their mother. However, it’s not until the mother’s body expands, contracts and breathes their child from their cocoon that they fully experience and see this new world.

Once born, babies begin to breathe, move, see and “live” in a completely new way. A whole new set of previously dormant instincts take over. If placed on a mother’s belly moments after birth it’s common for a newborn who has only been fed from the umbilical cord to instinctively crawl up to their breast and latch on for a feed as though they’d been doing it every day for nine months!

Similarly, before we have put our faith in Jesus we can sense faith, hope, life, love, beauty, courage and purpose. And yet God invites us not just to an expanded view of all that life offers, but to a completely new way of seeing. Just like a baby signals to his mother that they are ready to be born, our signal is simple – Jesus calls it faith. Upon that signal he promises to expand, contract and breathe us into not just a new life, but a whole new way of living. It’s simultaneously a complete contrast to your old life as well as being the life that you instinctively knew you were always meant to be living. As you begin this journey, I would encourage you to be ready, willing and courageous to give God the signal of faith as soon as you are ready to be born again by God’s Holy Spirit.