The only birth that leads to real life

​Obviously, we will not remember the date we went through the experience we call birth. It was by birth that we entered once and for all the human family with its awesome role in being the doorway to  the eternal joys of heaven or the eternal fires of hell. This is how Scripture presents the alternatives necessary involved in our human condition — triumph or tragedy. Granted, that sounds a bit dour, but it prepares the way for the explosive joys of stage two, and that is where we will let this discussion take us.
     Nicodemus was an impressive first century intellectual, a leader in the Jewish community that provided leadership in matters of spiritual importance. but with all his learning he revealed to Jesus an uneasiness about this new exposure to truth - “Master, we know . . .  because . . . BUT” (John 3:3). Jesus made - it all very simple, “To enter this world requires a physical birth; to enter the spiritual world requires a spiritual birth - it is called being “born again.”  Under normal circumstances this term should not be difficult to understand: “again" means another time, and “born” means to come alive. Then why did the learned clerics have trouble with the concept? And the answer is that it did not fit into to their ecclesiastical system. We always discard the unnecessary. Learning requires an openness and if what you have already have “learned”  in an area makes a new insight unreasonable and therefore not worth pursuing, you will have created your own intellectual graveyard.
       Now, back to spiritual birth. The term is metaphorical and can be used to describe entrance into a new phase of almost anything. While at birth we are not simply physical, the biblical text speaks about a spirituality in the area that God inhabits. To be born again spiritually means into that realm. So the Christian faith identifies every human being and having entered that divine relationship and is therefore bound for the eternal joys of Heaven or remaining in an eternal state of alienation and bearing. So when Jesus said that a person had to be born again he was speaking of something of incredible importance. It follows that in our ministry the Contemporary Christian concern for the welfare of the other should be of central importance. I ask, ” Have you been born again?"