Basic HTML Version
Nicodemus Comes to Jesus at Night
97
Raising His hand with quiet dignity, the Saviour pressed the truth
home with greater assurance, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God.” Nicodemus knew that Christ here referred to the
water baptism and the renewing of the heart by the Spirit of God. He
was convinced that he was in the presence of the One whom John
the Baptist had foretold.
The Mystery of the New Birth Explained
Jesus continued: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” By nature the heart is evil.
See
Job 14:4
. No human invention can find a remedy for the sinning
soul. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” “Out of the heart
proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false
witness, blasphemies.”
Romans 8:7
;
Matthew 15:19
. The fountain
of the heart must be purified before the stream can become pure. He
who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is
attempting an impossibility. The Christian’s life is not a modification
of the old, but a transformation of nature, a death to self and sin, and
a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the
[108]
Holy Spirit.
Nicodemus was still perplexed, and Jesus used the wind to il-
lustrate His meaning: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou
hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or
whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”
The wind is heard rustling the leaves and flowers, yet it is in-
visible. So with the work of the Holy Spirit on the heart. A person
may not be able to tell the exact time or place or trace the process
of conversion, but this does not prove him to be unconverted. By
an agency as unseen as the wind, Christ is constantly working on
the heart. Little by little, impressions are made that tend to draw the
soul to Christ. These may be received through reading the Scrip-
tures or hearing the Word from the living preacher. Suddenly, as the
Spirit comes with more direct appeal, the soul gladly surrenders to
Jesus. Many call this “sudden conversion,” but it is the result of long
wooing by the Spirit of God—a patient, protracted process.