Christianity Is Not a Discussion Group
"How can a man be born when he is old?..." "Do not marvel that I say to you, 'you must be born anew.' The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can this be?" John 3:4-9, RSV.
But how do I move from being a "water" Christian to being a genuine part of the family of God, a Spirit Christian? What is the process? How does it happen?
Those are the same questions that Nicodemus had. He also was perplexed. And he should have been. Here we stand face-to-face with one of the great mysteries of the faith, that of the new birth from above, the process through which people become Spirit-filled believers.
We could wish that Jesus' answer would have been more straightforward. But using the Greek word pneuma, He provides a play on words that still gets the point across. Pneuma means both "spirit" and "wind." The new birth, Jesus tells Nicodemus, is like the wind. You can hear and see the wind but you can't tell where it came from or where it is going. The wind has a mystery about it. And while there are many things about the wind that you do not understand, its effect is visible to all. The Spirit, Jesus continues, works in the same way. You may not understand how He does so, but you see the effects of it in human lives.
In short, Jesus tells us that we really cannot comprehend the way the Spirit works, but we can understand the results. William Barclay tells the story of a converted drunk. His fellow workers did their best to ridicule the man's new faith. " 'Surely,' they said to him, 'you can't believe in miracles and things like that. Surely, for instance, you don't believe that Jesus turned water into wine.' 'I don't know,' the man answered, 'whether He turned water into wine when He was in Palestine, but I do know that in my own house He has turned beer into furniture.' "
Jesus has made it plain that we cannot really understand conversion. And here is a point on which many church members get hung up. They think Christianity is an endless discussion group in which perpetual debating is what it's all about.
Not so, says Jesus. Christianity in the end is something that must be experienced. It is, in part, the Spirit filling our lives, transforming them, and using them for God's glory.
"How can a man be born when he is old?..." "Do not marvel that I say to you, 'you must be born anew.' The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to him, "How can this be?" John 3:4-9, RSV.
But how do I move from being a "water" Christian to being a genuine part of the family of God, a Spirit Christian? What is the process? How does it happen?
Those are the same questions that Nicodemus had. He also was perplexed. And he should have been. Here we stand face-to-face with one of the great mysteries of the faith, that of the new birth from above, the process through which people become Spirit-filled believers.
We could wish that Jesus' answer would have been more straightforward. But using the Greek word pneuma, He provides a play on words that still gets the point across. Pneuma means both "spirit" and "wind." The new birth, Jesus tells Nicodemus, is like the wind. You can hear and see the wind but you can't tell where it came from or where it is going. The wind has a mystery about it. And while there are many things about the wind that you do not understand, its effect is visible to all. The Spirit, Jesus continues, works in the same way. You may not understand how He does so, but you see the effects of it in human lives.
In short, Jesus tells us that we really cannot comprehend the way the Spirit works, but we can understand the results. William Barclay tells the story of a converted drunk. His fellow workers did their best to ridicule the man's new faith. " 'Surely,' they said to him, 'you can't believe in miracles and things like that. Surely, for instance, you don't believe that Jesus turned water into wine.' 'I don't know,' the man answered, 'whether He turned water into wine when He was in Palestine, but I do know that in my own house He has turned beer into furniture.' "
Jesus has made it plain that we cannot really understand conversion. And here is a point on which many church members get hung up. They think Christianity is an endless discussion group in which perpetual debating is what it's all about.
Not so, says Jesus. Christianity in the end is something that must be experienced. It is, in part, the Spirit filling our lives, transforming them, and using them for God's glory.
RSS Feed
