Alive to Religion, Dead to God

What occurs in the new birth isn't the getting of another religion, however the getting of another life. Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3:1–3)

The new birth is not about getting a new religion; it is about getting new life. Too many have found religion, but missed Jesus altogether.

 Wouldn’t you love to be like Jesus? This man makes a nice statement about Jesus, and Jesus just looks at him and says, “You’ve got to be born again.”

Now, John makes sure that we know Nicodemus is a Pharisee. He did not need to tell us that. This text would make perfectly good sense if he said, “A man came to Jesus by night and said, ‘I know you’ve been doing some great things from God,’” and Jesus says, “You need to be born again.” Perfect. No problem. Why does John tell us Nicodemus is a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews?

Answer: a new religion will do you no good at all. These are the most religious people on the planet. They’re the most religious Jewish people. So you may be a perfectly good Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Episcopal, Catholic — religious to the core — and lost. John wanted us to get this. Here are the Pharisees, the paragon of disciplines, the paragon of prayer, the paragon of moral uprightness and keeping his nose clean and showing up at all the meetings, and he’s lost — he’s dead.