Learning to Hear by Faith and Walk in the Spirit
2 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.”
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Nicodemus, who by profession and orthodoxy would be skeptical of Jesus, admitted right off the bat that Jesus must have been sent by God. From that starting point, he was trying to understand the things that Jesus taught. From that starting point, he was sincerely trying to gain some understanding about Jesus and which side he should be on.
The teaching of Jesus here reveals that His way of life and the life He calls us to live is way beyond following a bunch of rules.
For a Pharisee like Nicodemus, following God was about getting your life right. I don’t mean some general act of don’t cuss or chew and don’t go with girls that do. These guys were experts at “doing things right.” They dedicated their lives to it. For them, upholding God’s Law on a day to day basis was a matter of life and death. They believed that if everyone in Israel obeyed God’s law for one day, the next day the Messiah would return.
That meant that every morning they woke up and the Messiah wasn’t there, somebody blew it! Was it that sinful woman down the street? Probably. Was it that descendant of Levi that changed his name to Matthew and became a tax collector for the Romans? Probably. Or was it me? Yesterday in the market did I brush up against an unclean Gentile and bring that uncleanliness into my own house!
You can see how fast they could get wrapped around the axle with their Law.
Jesus was explaining that it was about belief, faith, and something spiritual deep in your personhood. There is something unseen that happens deep inside of you that turns you from doing a bunch of things right (or wrong) toward walking by faith in Jesus. It’s more like the wind blowing than it is like knowing where to plant the trees.
This transformation comes by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and watching our actions follow from that. That is why Paul would talk about receiving the Spirit not by works of the Law but by hearing with faith.
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