John 3 Devotional

Life from Above

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”John 3:16 (BSB)

Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night with a respectful opinion: Jesus must be a teacher sent from God (3:2). Jesus answers with something no teacher could supply. No one can even see God's kingdom without a new birth from above, a birth brought about by the Spirit (3:3-5). Like the wind, the Spirit moves as he chooses (3:8). You did not cause your first birth, and you cannot cause this one either.

Then Jesus points to an old story. In the wilderness, people bitten by snakes lived when they looked at the bronze snake Moses lifted on a pole (Numbers 21:8-9). In the same way, the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that all who trust him receive eternal life (3:14-15). Behind it all is the love of the Father, who sent his only Son into the world not to condemn it but to save it (3:16-17). New life is not a self-improvement project. It is a gift from above, received by looking to the one God lifted up.

To think about: Are you trying to fix yourself into new life, or looking to the Son whom God lifted up?