Your Best Is Not Good Enough

Note from Jesus

Dear Beloved,

What do you do when you recognize that your best isn’t good enough to get you to God?

That’s the essential question that every religion has to answer. The resolution is also what separates being My disciple from being part of just another religious group. This response is also what Nicodemus — the best of the best by Jewish standards — had to learn. Getting to God is about being re-born by God’s power and not about being better at practicing religion.

New birth into God’s family is about grace — the Father loving you so much that He sent “Heaven’s Best” to pay the price for your worst to adopt you into Our family through the power and the work of the Holy Spirit — I called it “water and Spirit birth.” You can’t make that new birth happen. That birth is the work of the Holy Spirit to make you fresh and new. The Holy Spirit changes everything! You are cleansed. You are forgiven. You are re-born. You are adopted. You are part of the Father’s family! You couldn’t earn it. You couldn’t work hard enough to deserve it. You couldn’t get enough things right to reach it. You aren’t consistent enough to achieve it. You are made new by the Holy Spirit!

Verses to Live

Yes, Nicodemus was right: To be re-born physically is impossible — you can’t crawl back into the womb and be born again! That’s why I came. By trusting in what I did when I was “lifted up” and by being born from above in the “water and Spirit birth,” you can start a new life.

Nicodemus was one of the Pharisees, a man with some clout among his people. He came to Jesus under the cloak of darkness to question Him.

Nicodemus:

Teacher, some of us have been talking. You are obviously a teacher Who has come from God. The signs You are doing are proof that God is with You.

Jesus:

I tell you the truth: Only someone who experiences birth for a second time can hope to see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus:

I am a grown man. How can someone be born again when he is old like me? Am I to crawl back into my mother’s womb for a second birth? That’s impossible!

Jesus:

I tell you the truth, if someone does not experience water and Spirit birth, there’s no chance he will make it into God’s kingdom. Like from like. Whatever is born from flesh is flesh; whatever is born from Spirit is spirit. Don’t be shocked by My words, but I tell you the truth. Even you, an educated and respected man among your people, must be reborn by the Spirit to enter the kingdom of God. The wind blows all around us as if it has a will of its own; we feel and hear it, but we do not understand where it has come from or where it will end up. Life in the Spirit is as if it were the wind of God.

Nicodemus:

I still do not understand how this can be.

Jesus:

Your responsibility is to instruct Israel in matters of faith, but you do not comprehend the necessity of life in the Spirit? I tell you the truth: We speak about the things we know, and we give evidence about the things we have seen, and you choose to reject the truth of our witness. If you do not believe when I talk to you about ordinary, earthly realities, then heavenly realities will certainly elude you. No one has ever journeyed to heaven above except the One Who has come down from heaven — the Son of Man, Who is of heaven. Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. In the same way, the Son of Man must be lifted up; then all those who believe in Him will experience everlasting life.

For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life. Here’s the point. God didn’t send His Son into the world to judge it; instead, He is here to rescue a world headed toward certain destruction.

No one who believes in Him has to fear condemnation, yet condemnation is already the reality for everyone who refuses to believe because they reject the name of the only Son of God. Why does God allow for judgment and condemnation? Because the Light, sent from God, pierced through the world’s darkness to expose ill motives, hatred, gossip, greed, violence, and the like. Still some people preferred the darkness over the light because their actions were dark. Some of humankind hated the light. They scampered hurriedly back into the darkness where vices thrive and wickedness flourishes. Those who abandon deceit and embrace what is true, they will enter into the light where it will be clear that all their deeds come from God.

(John 3:1-21)

Response in Prayer

O Father, thank You for giving me new birth into Your family. Thank You for saving me through My faith in Your Son. Thank You for making me new and giving me new birth through the work of the Holy Spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ, my Lord, I pray. Amen.

‘A Year with Jesus’ is written by Phil Ware.

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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Voice™. © 2008 by Ecclesia Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved.