Greetings!
There is no greater question to ask than that which you have asked. It
was asked by a great leader of Jesus long ago:
John 3:1 There was a Jewish leader named
Nicodemus, who belonged to the party of the Pharisees.
Joh 3:2 One night he went to Jesus and said to
him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher sent by God. No one could
perform the miracles you are doing unless God were with him."
John 3:3 Jesus answered, "I am
telling you the truth: no one can see the Kingdom of God without being
born again."
John 3:4 "How can a grown man be
born again?" Nicodemus asked. "He certainly cannot enter his
mother's womb and be born a second time!"
Joh 3:5 "I am telling you the truth,"
replied Jesus, "that no one can enter the Kingdom of God without
being born of water and the Spirit.
Joh 3:6 A person is born physically of human
parents, but is born spiritually of the Spirit.
Joh 3:7 Do not be surprised because I tell you
that you must all be born again.
Joh 3:8 The wind blows wherever it wishes; you
hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where
it is going. It is like that with everyone who is born of the
Spirit."
Joh 3:9 "How can this be?" asked
Nicodemus.
Joh 3:10 Jesus answered, "You are a great
teacher in Israel, and you don't know this?
Joh 3:11 I am telling you the truth: we speak of
what we know and report what we have seen, yet none of you is willing to
accept our message.
Joh 3:12 You do not believe me when I tell you
about the things of this world; how will you ever believe me, then, when I
tell you about the things of heaven?
Joh 3:13 And no one has ever gone up to heaven
except the Son of Man, who came down from heaven."
Joh 3:14 As Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a
pole in the desert, in the same way the Son of Man must be lifted up,
Joh 3:15 so that everyone who believes in him may
have eternal life.
Joh 3:16 For God loved the world so much that he
gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but
have eternal life.
Joh 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the
world to be its judge, but to be its savior.
Joh 3:18 Those who believe in the Son are not
judged; but those who do not believe have already been judged, because
they have not believed in God's only Son.
Joh 3:19 This is how the judgment works: the
light has come into the world, but people love the darkness rather than
the light, because their deeds are evil.
Joh 3:20 Those who do evil things hate the light
and will not come to the light, because they do not want their evil deeds
to be shown up.
Joh 3:21 But those who do what is true come to
the light in order that the light may show that what they did was in
obedience to God.
So what is Jesus saying?
He is saying that you must have a spiritual birth to enter heaven.
How do you do this?
By looking to Jesus like the Israelites did in the wilderness when they
gazed upon the serpent upon the pole and were healed of their snake bites.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We all have been
bitten by the serpent, so to speak, just as Adam and Eve were in the sense
that they listened to his lies and spiritual died. Later they physically
died too. For God had warned that, "In the day that ye eat thereof you
shall surely die!"
And so we see this symbolic picture before us of a snake upon a pole in
the wilderness.
Jesus said that He Himself is like that snake on the pole!
What pole?
Jesus was referring to the cross. Jesus would die upon a cross as if He
were accursed like that snake.
Why did He die?
He died in our place. He took the venom of the snake upon Himself when He
died on that cross! He died in our place, the spotless lamb of God!
What must we do to be cured of our snake bite? That is,
What must we do to be cured of our sins with its penalty of death?
Jesus has done it all for you already! All that remains for you to do is
to look upon Jesus by faith for your cure just as the ancient Israelites
looked upon that snake to be cured of their snake bites!
Whoever looked up at that bronze snake upon the pole in the days of Moses
were healed. All that did not look because of their unbelief and disobedience
perished.
It is the same way today between us and Jesus!
All that look to Him in faith and believe that He died for your on
that cross will be saved --- healed of their sin and the curse of sin.
Whoever is healed and saved from their sins by believing this message is
also born-again. For salvation by faith in Jesus, (apart from works), is how
one becomes born-again. They are forgiven, and the Holy Spirit of God comes
and changes them from the inside out. They are born-again, though outwardly
they appear the same, yet inwardly a new sense of cleanness and joy takes
over. That person has been born-again!
Whoever is born-again loves Jesus, and whoever loves Him follows Him!
This is how to be born-again!
And he that is born-again is passed from death to life. He will live
forever.