Are you sure that you will be with the Lord if you were to die today? So many Christians express to me that they don’t know what their position will be for eternity and this is the very question that Nicodemus, the premier teacher in first century Israel, didn’t know the answer for (See John 3).
Jesus told Nicodemus that the secret to future assurance was that he must be born again. Nicodemus should have known what this meant but he didn’t. His understanding of being born again was limited to rabbinical teaching that a person who became a proselyte had become a new person.
Nicodemus was a genuine seeker of truth and politely accepted that Jesus came from God but Jesus pressed the point further that Nicodemus had to be born again. Nicodemus baulked at this, saying that this was humanly impossible. Besides, his belief in rabbinical interpretations and living a moral life, hadn’t delivered an assurance of salvation.
Jesus explained what being born again entailed by referring to being born of the water and the Spirit. Jesus had freshly come from the Jordan where people had been baptised by John the Baptist for the repentance of their sins. Water signified repentance, and John the Baptist taught that repentance necessitated a change of heart, a seeking to live a life for God, and being responsive to the needs of others.
To explain what is meant by being born of the Spirit, Jesus described how we can feel the Spirit’s impact but we can’t control the Holy Spirit (John 3:8). No doubt this confused Nicodemus so Jesus gently pointed out to Nicodemus that his contemporaries didn’t understand earthly matters so how could they understand heavenly matters.
Jesus then came to the critical point – the Son of Man had to be lifted up, humiliated and suffer so that He could bear our sin. Everyone who looks to Jesus for their salvation and surrenders to Him will have their sins forgiven and will experience being a new creation now as a foretaste of that which is to come.
This has to be true for this was the whole goal of Jesus coming, that we may be born again to a new life with eternal security (John 3:16-18). Why not pray now and have eternal security?
Dear Lord, I am sorry for all the wrong things I have done. Please forgive me and come in and make me a new creation. Help me to die to myself and bear fruit for you. In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.