In this chapter, we will continue the answer to the question of Chapter 1, What happens in the new birth? Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:7, "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again."" In verse 3, he told Nicodemus--and us-- that our eternal lives depend on being born again: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." So we are not dealing with something marginal or optional or cosmetic in the Christian life. The new birth is not like the make-up that morticians use to try to make corpses look more like they are alive. The new birth is the creation of spiritual life, not the imitation of life.
We began to answer the question What happens in the new birth? with two statements: 1) What happens in the new birth is not getting new religion but getting new life, and 2) What happens in the new birth is not merely affirming the supernatural in Jesus but experiencing the supernatural in yourself.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee and had lots of religion. But he had no spiritual life. And he saw the supernatural work of God in Jesus, but he didn't experience the supernatural work of God in himself. So putting our two points together from Chapter 1, what Nicodemus needed was a new spiritual life imparted supernaturally through the Holy Spirit. What makes the new life spiritual and what makes it supernatural is that it is the work of God the Spirit. It is something above the natural life of our physical hearts and brains.
In John 3:6, Jesus says, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which born of the Spirit is spirit." The flesh does have a kind of life. Every human being is living flesh. But not every human being is living spirit. To be a living spirit, or to have spiritual life, Jesus says, we must be "born of the Spirit." Flesh gives rise to one kind of life. The Spirit gives rise to another kind of life. If we don't have this second kind, we will not see the kingdom of God.
(page 35-36)
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