“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
The Truth
Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night with careful, respectful questions, and Jesus answers with something that cannot be managed by careful respect at all. You must be born again. Not improved, not educated, not morally upgraded through effort. Born again, a category of change so total that the only honest word for it is a second birth.
This is the Spirit’s specific work in salvation, and it is worth distinguishing from mere self- improvement. Flesh can only produce flesh. No amount of trying harder in your own strength produces spiritual life, the same way no amount of effort produces your own first birth. Spiritual life has to be given, from outside you, by the Spirit himself.
This should be freeing rather than discouraging. If new spiritual life depended on your effort to generate it, you would rightly despair, because flesh cannot birth spirit no matter how hard it strains. But it does not depend on that. It depends on the Spirit, who does for you internally what you could never accomplish by trying harder externally.
If you belong to Christ, this has already happened in you. You were born of the Spirit. Live today from that reality, not from the exhausting project of trying to spiritually improve your way into a life the Spirit already gave you.
Live This Truth
- Name one area where you have been trying to self-improve into spiritual life.
- Remember today that this new life was born in you by the Spirit, not achieved.
- Thank him for a birth you did not and could not produce yourself.
Prayer
Spirit of God, you gave me life I could never generate on my own. Let me stop straining to earn what you already birthed in me, and live today from that new life. Amen.
Carry this today
Flesh can only produce flesh. This life was born in me by him.