The Second Most Important Birth

He was a man most people would say “had it all,” and yet something was missing from his life, an emptiness was within his heart that would just not go away. Nicodemus was a wealthy man who possessed political power and religious influence because he was also a Pharisee. And yet this Jewish aristocrat came to this homeless prophet, who had been a carpenter in Nazareth, so that he might talk to Jesus about the condition of his soul. Up to this moment, all that Nicodemus was and all that he had was not enough to satisfy his hungry spirit. So Nicodemus came to Jesus for spiritual insight, so that somehow in the darkness of the night he might find light.

John 3:3, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus was struggling with the age-old problem of the man who wants to be changed but cannot change himself by himself. Steve Bartkowski was an excellent quarterback for the

Steve Bartkowski was an excellent quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons. He confessed there was a time during his playing days in which he did not care whether the team won or lost. Bartkowski admitted he focused on his personal statistics – how many passes, how many completions, how many yards gained from passing, etc.

“But then I was spiritually 'born again',” Bartkowski said, “and suddenly it mattered very much to me how the team was doing and if we won or lost. My personal statistics became secondary to the good of the team and my teammates.” That is “born-again” change as only God can do.

What Nicodemus was searching for and Steve Bartkowski found nearly two thousand years later is a power and a life which are beyond human power and human life. Singer and songwriter, Bruce Carroll, wrote and sang a song concerning this divine power and life that is available to all who will sincerely search for it like Nicodemus did so very long ago:

My best friend just told me

about a lie that is going 'round.

I could not believe my ears

How someone could cut me down.

Lord, if I could find them now

I'd really set them straight.

But without your love inside me

It would be a big mistake.

I can't love without You

I can't rely on me.

It takes a greater heart than I have

To love my enemies.

So fill me with Your power

To love them as You do.

'Cause Lord, I can't love without You.

Can a person love others in the best and brightest sense of the word and not love God? Generally speaking, I have my doubts. Personally speaking, no. I was never able to love others unselfishly until I became a “born again” Christian. As a non-Christian, my love for others was always based on what the person was able to give to me in return for my love, my devotion. I knew my wife when she was a teenager, but because of selfishness and self-centeredness on my part I was never able to commit to a serious relationship. When we married many years later, it was only because I had become a “born-again” Christian and developed a genuine faith in Jesus as my Savior and Lord of my life. Just like Nicodemus, I was unable to change my heart on my own.

II Corinthians 5:17, If anyone is in Christ (bornagain), he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Next week: More about the “new creation,” in the conclusion to the Christmas Special: “The Second Most Important Birth.”

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Chris Voss is a pastor at First Christian Church, 317 S. Main, Donna.