Humans Can Reproduce Only Human Life

Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” John 3:5-8

NICODEMUS, a respected religious leader, came to Jesus hoping to have a theological conversation. Specifically, he came to investigate Jesus’ miracles. But Jesus ignored the question implied in Nicodemus’s initial comment to turn the conversation toward a far more urgent issue —Nicodemus’s need to be born a second time. Jesus told him that if he did not experience a supernatural transformation, his religiosity would ultimately prove empty and useless. Nicodemus’s present condition was hopelessly unresponsive —like a corpse on the gurney that has no life or ability to breathe life into itself. There was no way Nicodemus could improve himself or study his way into God’s good graces. He did not need “five steps to becoming a godly person.” He needed a miracle.

This is the transformation we want for our children. But clearly it is not something we can make happen. Only the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life. And there is no standard-issue, one-size-fits-all experience by which to assess ourselves or our children. Some people can point to a specific date when they knew that they were born a second time —changed by God from a spiritually dead person into a spiritually alive person. Others, who grow gradually in their understanding of the gospel, may have a hard time nailing down a particular moment when they were reborn. But even if we can’t identify exactly when this transformation occurred, that instantaneous event has to happen —when God the Holy Spirit, in an unseen, invisible way, calls a person to new spiritual life.

Lord, we need this miracle of new life. We simply can’t make this second birth happen on our own. Only your Spirit can make what is dead come alive to you. We long for your Spirit to blow through our home and through the lives of our children, bringing us all from death to life.