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I asked a man if he had the assurance that he would get to heaven. His response was, "I have been
baptized and joined a church. I have attended church regularly, and paid my dues. I have always
treated others fairly and if that does not get me into heaven than nobody will get there."
This man, like Nicodemus, needs to know the only way you can get into Heaven is that you must be
born again. It is very difficult for people with different backgrounds and religions, having been
brainwashed, to understand what it means to be born again.
What do we know about Nicodemus? John 3:1, "There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a
ruler of the Jews" He was a Pharisee. They were considered the best people in the whole country.
They pledged their lives to observing every detail of the scribal law.
Nicodemus was also a member of the Sanhedrin. This was a court of seventy members, and the supreme
court of the Jews. The Sanhedrin had religious jurisdiction over every Jew in the world.
Nicodemus did the right thing; he came to Jesus by night and said, "Rabbi, we know You are a
teacher come from GodZ." (John 3:2) He was deeply sincere in his quest for truth. He was of high
moral character, had a deep religious hunger, yet profoundly blind, spiritually. In John 3:3, Jesus
declared, "I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Nicodemus replied, "I cannot understand how it happens, how it works."
Jesus explained that though all have experienced natural birth on earth, if they expect to go to
Heaven they must experience a supernatural, spiritual birth from above. When a sinner believes, the
Spirit of God takes the Word of God and imparts the life of God. The evidence of salvation is the
witness of the Spirit within. The Spirit enters your life when you believe. The child inherits the
nature of the parents and so does the child of God. We become partakers of the divine nature.
Nicodemus was a man with all the honours and yet with something lacking in his life. He came in the
darkness of the night, he might find light. There is no substitute for the new birth. To fail to be
born again is to be lost. John 1:12 "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to
become children of God, even to those who believe in His name."
Frank Eidse
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