75th Post Jesus Teaching on New Birth Con't. - John 3:3.

Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless one is born again he can not see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus then asked how is this possible, for he was an old man and could not enter his mother's womb again to be born. This will be a common problem that will plague Jesus through the rest of His earthly Ministry. Jesus was talking about Spiritual things, and Nicodemus was thinking in terms of physical things. There has been a lot of bad teaching with regard to being born again. Jesus was talking about Baptism. If you have been Baptized and you have made an effort to follow Jesus Christ, you are born again. To be called a Christian, and you are practicing, you are born again. This is the key. If you are a Christian in name only, and your walk does not match your talk, you are not born again. Baptism was a difficult thing for the Jews to do. In the Old Testament, only non-Jews were baptized. Jews believed that they were exempt, it was part of being the chosen people. They could not understand why they would have to submit to this. Baptism is a sign of the "new covenant" that Jesus was proclaiming. The religious leaders, believed that they were the only ones who knew the mind of God, so they should be exempt from baptism, just like in the Old Testament. You can imagine how this news hit Nicodemus. Nicodemus did not argue this point any further. We will meet Nicodemus again, and you will see which way he went in regards to Jesus and His new teaching. When we receive information different than what we were taught, will we react like Nicodemus? Or will we be more like the religious leaders that chose not to believe this new information. The choice is yours!