Born again

One of my most cherished stories about Jesus is where He forcefully throws out all Jerusalem merchants from the temple complex. The cleansing of the temple is an important milestone because it shows us just how important our relationship is to God. God has always desired to be  the center of our lives. The Tabernacle, of the wilderness wanderings, was to be erected at the exact center of camp. Each individual tent was to be set up with its opening facing towards the Tabernacle. God wanted His glory to be the first thing that the Israelites saw as they exited their tents. He wanted them to remember He is their source, strength, their guiding light, and their Shekinah Glory.

God first set up animal sacrifice to be a way for people to be cleansed, to cover or atone for their sin. The blood of the sacrificed animal was a reminder, to the worshipper, of what is required when we disobey God. It didn’t take too long for religious leaders to take advantage of this mandatory command of God.  A very lucrative, sacrificial business grew in and around the temple complex. Many religious leaders profited as people brought their sacrifices to the temple to be examined by the priests.

All sacrifices were required to be free of spot or blemish. People stood in line for hours waiting for the priests to examine their animal only to have them be rejected. Once the animal was rejected the family had no choice but to purchase a “spot-blemish free” temple sacrifice from the religious merchants who had set up shop. To make matters worse, the merchants would only accept “temple currency” as payment which forced people to pay a high interest rate to exchange their particular monies for the official temple coin.

That’s why I love what Jesus did. He turned over the money changers tables. Read John 2:13-16 “Now the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And He found in the temple those who sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers doing business. ¹⁵ When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers' money and overturned the tables. ¹⁶ And He said to those who sold doves, "Take these things away! Do not make My Father's house a house of merchandise!"

I spent the time to develop this thought about cleansing the temple so that the next section of scripture would sink into and begin cleansing your heart. In John chapter 3 Nicodemus, a religious leader of the Pharisee sect, came to Jesus under the cover of night. He knew Jesus was special, a teacher who had come from God and wanted to ask Jesus some questions without being seen by any of his peers. Jesus in His infinite wisdom cuts to the central point. Jesus answered him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 

Nicodemus, like most people were struggling with Jesus. On one hand everything He said made sense but on the other hand He made Himself out to be the Son of God and even to the point of claiming to be God Himself. Jesus does not let Nicodemus off the hook and leads him to the ultimate question that all of us ask our Creator one day “What must a man do to be saved?”

Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, 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 the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

This is one of the most important sections of scripture in the bible. Here we have Jesus teaching Nicodemus that anyone who wants to live forever with God must be born again. Spiritual re-birth is a journey that begins with a single step of saying to God “I believe!” coming to Him in faith just the way you are. It’s always been our faith that saves us. Not endless rituals and acts of self-denial where the new convert continues to fail as he tries to live a life that is “good enough” to please God. Jesus just told us what we need to do to be saved “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Will you take your first step now?