About the year A.D. 33 there lived in the city of Jerusalem a man by the name of Nicodemus. He was a ruler of the Jewish nation and a member of a respectable denomination called the Pharisees, a people extremely careful of keeping the law and meticulous in observing all its fasts, feasts and ceremonies.
During Passover week, when a great number of strangers from all over the civilized world were in the city, there was much excitement about one Jesus of Nazareth who was at that time in Jerusalem. He had been healing sick people and feeding the multitudes who followed Him. Now it was reported that He had turned out of the temple a number of men who had been making a market of it. This caused a sensation among the people, especially among the denomination to which Nicodemus belonged.
Nicodemus, however, was troubled in his mind. He would not be led by public opinion, but was determined to go and hear for himself. So after dark one night he set off alone to have an interview with Jesus.
Before Nicodemus had been long in the company of Jesus, he was told that, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
This startled Nicodemus; it was something entirely new to him. He believed in being religious and keeping the ordinances, but of being "born again" he knew nothing.
He had not long to puzzle over the new doctrine before Jesus told him something else more startling still: "Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye must be born again."
Not only wicked men like murderers and thieves need to be born again, but YOU—your own self.
This cuts at the root of all human religion. It doesn't matter how "good" people are, or "what church" they belong to; Jesus says they must be born again or they can never enter God's kingdom. They may "say their prayers," "read their Bibles," and "do the best they can," yet if they are not born again they "cannot see the kingdom of God." It is a "must," you see.
It is not because you are worse than your neighbors or because you sometimes lose your temper. It is not even if you are a very wicked person, but because you are a child of Adam—a sinner by birth, and with a sinner's nature.
"Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one." Job 14:44Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. (Job 14:4). "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?" No.
So with man. He cannot be reformed so as to please God; he cannot be improved so as to gain heaven. He needs to be made a "new creature." It is not a little counseling that he needs to make him all right; it is not a "good religious education"—it is a new life. And this new life must come from somewhere outside himself. He cannot find it within himself; he cannot earn it by his good works. He must be born again.
Now, if any man could have gone to heaven by virtue of his respectability, that man was Nicodemus. And yet to him the Savior said, "Ye must be born again."