Who Initiates Birth?
© 2020 by Tom Boynton (editing by Kathy Boynton)
Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader, had made a night-time visit to speak with Jesus. Though most of this elite religious group hated Jesus, Nicodemus was moved to seek Him out. What moved him? Jesus’ own statement to Nicodemus may give us a clue. He told Nicodemus that, in order to be saved, a person needed to be born again. This surprised Nicodemus. Jesus explained that only God’s Holy Spirit, moving like the wind at His own discretion, could accomplish this rebirth. Everyone, who is born again, is born again in this manner.
“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8)
Just as human eyes can’t see wind blowing, neither can they directly see the Holy Spirit moving in a heart. What we can see, however, are the results of that moving. If we’d been there, we might have observed the night-time visit of Nicodemus. Could it be that the Holy Spirit was drawing him even then? I believe this explains Nicodemus’ willingness to risk his religious reputation.
Following this night visit, Scripture reports some additional interesting evidences of change in Nicodemus’ behavior. Prior to the actual crucifixion of Jesus, Nicodemus courageously defended Jesus to his angry fellow religious leaders.
“Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth? They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. And every man went unto his own house.” ……(John 7:50-53)
After Jesus’ death by crucifixion, Jesus’ followers were hiding in fear of the Jewish leaders (John 20:19). Yet Nicodemus was one of two men who approached Pilate to obtain permission to honor Him with a costly burial.
“And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.” (John 19:38-39)
Scripture never records Nicodemus praying what we, today, call “the sinners’s prayer.” However, it does record evidences of his rebirth by God’s Holy Spirit. Having been born again by God’s Holy Spirit, Nicodemus now loved Jesus, sought Him out, and became His disciple. He was now a follower of the crucified and risen Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, the Savior of Sinners!
Do your life and secret thoughts evidence such a rebirth?
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