Born Again | Marvel, Mystery and Means

Jesus invites us to marvel at the cross, embrace its mystery, and recognize it as the means of our salvation—God’s unearned, life-giving grace.

This sermon explores Jesus’ nighttime conversation with Nicodemus, an insider among Israel’s religious elite. Though respected, educated, and morally upright, Nicodemus still lacks the one thing essential for entering God’s kingdom: new birth.

1. The Marvel of New Birth

Drawing from the wonder of witnessing a physical birth, the sermon emphasizes that spiritual birth is equally marvelous. Jesus insists that being “born again” or “born from above” is not just for the emotionally expressive or the morally broken—it is for everyone, insiders and outsiders alike.

2. The Mystery of the Spirit

Spiritual rebirth is mysterious. Like C.S. Lewis’ quiet conversion on the way to the zoo, many cannot pinpoint the exact moment the Spirit brought them to life. As with physical birth, we don’t remember our entry into the world; we simply know we are alive.

The Spirit regenerates spiritually dead people—people who, left to themselves, bend inward with self-interest rather than love.

3. The Offense and Gift of Grace

Nicodemus believed that heritage, status, or moral effort could qualify someone for God’s kingdom. Jesus dismantles this.
Just as a newborn does nothing to earn physical life, we do nothing to earn spiritual life. It is pure grace.
This grace offends the self-righteous; Jesus critiques not only “bad” deeds but even “damnable good deeds” done for self-promotion rather than love.

4. The Means of New Life: The Cross

The sermon draws a profound analogy between childbirth in the ancient world (often dangerous and life-threatening) and the cross.
In childbirth before modern medicine, the mother’s suffering—sometimes even her death—meant life for the child.
Likewise, Jesus undergoes suffering and death so that we might be born again.
His “hour,” a Johannine reference to the cross, mirrors the pain of labor leading to new life for others.

Lenten Invitation

Jesus invites us to marvel at the cross, embrace its mystery, and recognize it as the means of our salvation—God’s unearned, life-giving grace.