The Cooling Stream

John 3:4-7

The mystery of the new birth is like that of a physical birth.

When Jesus said “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit”, He was talking about physical birth and spiritual birth.

He was saying that for a man to get to heaven he must have two births.

He must be born into the kingdom of men and he must be born into the kingdom of God!

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There are a few ways physical birth can be used to illustrate spiritual birth:

• Physical birth provides life. Likewise, spiritual birth provides a person with spiritual life.

• Physical birth only happens once. Likewise, spiritual birth is a one time event.

• Physical birth happens because of the suffering on another. A mother suffers to bring life into this world. Jesus suffered so that we might be born again.

• Physical birth gives the infant a brand new start. Our past is wiped away; our future lies in front of us!

The new birth is a mystery!

It is like our physical birth!

John 3: 4-8

When Jesus told Nicodemus that he had to be born again, Nicodemus could not grasp how that could be.

He imagined himself going back into his mother’s womb to be born a second time.

He wanted to know how this could happen.

So he asked Jesus about the “How?” of the new birth.

Nicodemus knew that he was in the presence of a mystery and he wanted the answers.

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The new birth is a mysterious thing.

None of us truly understands everything there is to know about it.

It is still a mystery even to those of us who have experienced it!

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But the fact that it is a mystery should not cause us to avoid it altogether!

There are many things in life that we do not understand, but we still believe in them.

So, we must not allow the mystery of the new birth keep us from being saved!