It is ironic that most of the messages I have heard from this passage deal with the "born of water" portion. Was Jesus talking about baptism or physical birth? I've heard both argued and have my opinion; however, I don't think that was the point of the conversation.
The conversation was about following the Christ through spiritual rebirth. How hard that must have been for a Pharisee. How hard it still is for us. When this entire Christian thing gets boiled down to its basic ingredients, it is still simply submitting my human experience to the leadership of Jesus. It is a spiritual decision to follow the God-man Jesus.
I don't know what Nicodemus anticipated hearing from the lips of Jesus that night, but I doubt he anticipated a statement of faith ("we know you are from God") to be met with a challenge ("You must be born again"). Apparently Jesus makes a clear distinction between verbal assent and followership. Unfortunately many Christians don't seem to make the distinction while much of society does. While most Christians seem content with hearing another say, "I am a Christian", most of society wants to see followership in action. Verbal assent and kingdom living are not the same; in fact, Jesus says that if all you have is verbal assent, you have not even seen the kingdom yet.
Jesus concludes with the statement, "But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God." To rephrase it, "It will be obvious when someone is a true follower."
May today be spent in obvious followership and not simple verbal assent.
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