Introduction
Does anyone know what kind of car this is?
How do you know that?
If you know what to look for, you can see it.
But to the average non-car enthusiast, it looks like scrap metal.
This is the same car. Between these two pictures, nearly everything got replaced. New engine. New transmission. New interior.
Sections of the body cut out and new metal welded in. New paint, new chrome, new glass.
If you could inventory every part, you’d find that most of what you see in this second picture wasn’t there in the first.
So here’s my question: What makes it the same car?
It’s not the parts. Most of those are new. It’s not even most of the metal. Yet somehow we know it’s not a different car.
What makes it the same car is its design.
The owner saw the heap of scrap metal and he knew the potential. He wanted it restored to its original beauty. In the end, it is a car that resembles its original design.
The owner didn’t build a new Mustang. He brought this one back to life because that’s the one he loved.
And that’s exactly the mystery Nicodemus encounters when Jesus tells him, “You must be born again.”
Read John 3.
What is the New Life?
The phrase in John chapter 3 that causes Nicodemus to stumble is “born again.”
It’s an interesting idea. The word “again” is particularly complex. Of all the different words that the Greek could have been translated as, the word “again” is probably the best one. But other words or phrases could be used as well.
The word “anew” is a bit of an older word that we probably don’t use anymore. But it’s an equally good word. To be “born anew” gives the idea of restoration.
In other places, the same Greek word is translated as “from above” or “from the beginning.”
If you take the whole of the meaning of that word, you get the idea that, in order to enter God’s kingdom, you have to take on a new nature.
It is the nature that we were meant to have at the beginning. It’s our original design.
Like rust working its way through an old car, we have become corrupted by sin.
Not only our bodies, but our minds, our desires, our loves, and our passions are all in need of renewal.
And, God’s plan is not to start over with an entirely new model, but to restore the current one.
If you’re a classic car enthusiast, you know that a remake of a classic model is never the same. All the car companies are doing this.
You have the classic Camaro, the classic Challenger, the classic Mustang, and you have the new version. Same name, but different car.
The new one may not be bad, but it’s not the same design as the original.
God’s plan is not to make a new model, but to restore the current one to its original design.
He’s doing this with all of creation. The Earth, the universe, our relationship with creation, animals, plants, natural resources. And of course, the climax of God’s creation, humanity itself, is being restored.
Acts 3:21 says that the time will come for God to restore everything, when the Messiah returns.
This restoration encompasses all creation. Romans 8:19–23 says that creation will be “liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God,” while humanity experiences “the redemption of our bodies.”
Colossians 1:19–20 “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
Ephesians 1:9–10 says that God’s purpose is “to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”
The animal kingdom finds restoration too: Isaiah 11:6–9 “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
Humanity stands at the centre of this renewal. The corruption of creation began with humanity’s fall, and the renewal of creation begins with the restoration of God’s human creatures.
Just as God originally called Adam and Eve to work with him in creation, he now restores human beings to that task again.
Revelation 21 provides the fitting culmination of God’s created intention and purpose in Genesis 1, demonstrating that God’s vision for creation’s future mirrors his vision for its beginning.
In short, God likes what he made. He likes the original design.
The beauty of his creation reflects his character and image. He wants to see it all restored to that original beauty.
And that is why Jesus came. The famous verse, John 3:16, tells us this. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
The word kosmos is translated as world here. It also means “order” or “ornament”—something beautiful and harmonious.
1 Peter 3:3 “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes.”
The word adornment is the same word, kosmos.
We also get the word cosmetic from that word. You get the picture?
It refers to the created order of things, beautifully constructed with intention. God’s original design.
When John says the world was made through Christ, or that Christ is the light of the world, this is the meaning in view: the whole ordered creation.
When Christ came into the world he made, that world rejected and crucified him.
John uses “world” in this darker sense to describe humanity organized against God.
Yet here’s the tension John holds: though the world hated Christ when he came, he loves the world. Christ came not to condemn this fallen world but to save it from destruction and restore it.
It is through him that all things were made, and it is through him that all things will be restored. How to Get the New Life
So, how does this happen?
How do we get the new life?
I don’t know how the science works. But we are given a small glimpse of the process here in this passage.
Nicodemus asks, “How can anyone be born when they are old?”
Jesus said that we need to be “born of water and the Spirit.
Throughout the Old Testament, especially in the prophets, water symbolizes cleansing and renewal, while spirit represents God’s life-giving power.
These two images often appear together when prophets talk about God’s future restoration of his people.
Perhaps the most helpful passage is Ezekiel 36:25–27 “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
God promises to sprinkle clean water on people (cleansing them from sin) and give them a new spirit/heart (transforming them from the inside so they can actually follow God).
This is the “new covenant” promise, God fundamentally remaking people, not just tweaking their behaviour.
It says, “I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.”
Psalm 40:8 “I desire to do your will, my God; your law is within my heart.”
So when Jesus says someone must be “born of water and spirit,” he’s saying they need this complete spiritual transformation, cleansed from sin and given new spiritual life from God.
Nicodemus missed this because he was confident in his own religious obedience and didn’t think he needed such radical transformation.
As he continues to struggle with understanding, Jesus uses another illustration.
It is the image of Moses lifting up the snake in the wilderness, saying that the Son of Man also must be lifted up.
We find this story in Numbers 21, in which Moses lifted up a bronze serpent to heal Israelites from snake bites after they acknowledged their sin.
This was a moment of crisis requiring both confession and faith. John draws this parallel to show that Jesus’s lifting up on the cross represents both his physical death and his ascent to the Father, bringing salvation to humanity.
John uses the verb “lifted up” to describe both the crucifixion and exaltation simultaneously, collapsing death and glorification into one event.
The cross is simultaneously Jesus’ moment of deepest humiliation and his highest exaltation. The cross is where Jesus was lifted up to pay the penalty for sin, mirroring how the serpent’s elevation brought healing.
The comparison also involves transformation. While gazing at the serpent led to physical healing, seeing Jesus with faith leads to eternal life.
Whoever looks to Jesus and trusts him will experience the renewal needed to gain entry into God’s kingdom.
So, what does it mean to look at Jesus lifted up? To trust him for healing and transformation?
This brings us to an invitation.
Conclusion: An Invitation
The invitation involves several actions. Some of them are daily and some less frequently.
They all begin with wanting the new life offered by God through Jesus Christ and then by recognizing that you cannot restore yourself.
You cannot give yourself new life.
So, the first question is, do you want to be made new? Do you want the restoration?
If you don’t want it, then you won’t get it. But if you want it, it’s yours, unconditionally.
You don’t need to prove yourself, earn it, get in God’s favour, or even eliminate the corruption from your life.
The restoration process actually happens when you stop trying to restore yourself.
You are given new life when you surrender your old one. When you turn from that which corrupts as your source of satisfaction and identity, and turn toward the one who restores.
So, does this involve work on your part? This is a common and confusing question.
A more helpful question is, what do we need in order to enter into the kingdom of God? And, if so, how do we get it?
The answer is, yes, we need to be made new. We need the new life in Christ. How do we get it? Look at Jesus and believe that only he can give it to you.
That’s it. You’re in. When you die, or when Christ returns, you’ll be invited into God’s kingdom simply because you want to be there and you believe that Jesus is the only one who can get you in.
But, we need not wait for death in order to experience the process of restoration.
In John 3:30, John the Baptist makes the statement we all need to lean into. “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
And in verse 36, it says that whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. One commentator summarizes it this way:
“When people put their trust in Christ they are reborn from above, they enter a new life. The decisive thing has happened. They will in due course pass through the portal of death, but that does not alter the fact that abiding eternal life is theirs already. In the things that matter they are alive eternally.”1
With that said, there are practices we can incorporate into our lives that are a natural part of this new life in Christ. They are evidence that new life is happening.
They also help us live this new life. Sort of an uncovering of a deeper and more real experience of who we are meant to be.
Practices:
- Baptism
- Communion (The Lord’s Table and regular fellowship with other followers of Jesus)
Disciplines as a starting point:
- Prayer
- Scripture Reading
- Generosity
There are more disciplines you may want to explore as you mature in your faith, such as:
- Silence
- Solitude
- Fasting
My invitation to you today is dependant on where you are at.
If you have looked at Jesus and decided you want to trust him, you want to have the new life he has offered you, then the first action step is baptism.
Baptism is the threshold of the new life. So, there is no reason to wait for baptism.
My hope is that between now and the end of this series in John’s Gospel, that everyone who attends here regularly and trusts in Jesus is baptized.
If you have been baptized, then the regular practices of communion, fellowship, prayer, scripture reading, and generosity should be a part of your life.
If you lack understanding about any of these or other practices, please let me know.
Before we sing our closing song, I want to read a prayer written by theologian Stanley Hauerwas, from his book Prayers Plainly Spoken.
ARE WE YET ALIVE, LORD?
We feel pain, sorrow, happiness. We cry, wail, laugh. Are these signs that we are alive? Or are they but death-gurgles masquerading as signs of life?
We find it hard to believe, to understand, that we come to life through being baptized into your Son’s good death.
Yet you have made us your baptized, giving us life, life that makes our pain, sorrow and happiness real. Life that makes our crying, wailing and laughing service to one another.
Raise us, then, from our watery graves shouting, “Jesus Christ is Lord!” so that the world may see your liveliness, your love. AMEN.
- Leon Morris, The Gospel according to John, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 219. ↩︎
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