"Most assuredly, I say to you unless one is born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God." John 3:5
Upon first reading this verse one may come to the conclusion that only people who are baptised will go to heaven. But Jesus words are a response to someone else's words, Nicodemus. Nicodemus understands birth how you and I understand birth, a baby comes out of the womb and is born, quite literally there is a breaking of water and birth occurs. Jesus takes what Nicodemus already understands about birth and expands it. A person must be born of water (i.e. a natural physical birth) and be born of Spirit (i.e. becoming born again). In other words a person must be both physical and spiritual, only whole people get into the kingdom.
This is not to say baptism is unimportant, I would argue that it is, but it is to say that baptism is only an outward sign of an inward belief, an inward change. The water is not supernatural, being baptised by a pastor or a priest or someone of holy importance to you does not fit you with a placard by Jesus's side, choosing to walk with Jesus does.
And so, we are all born of water at the moment we take our first breath of fresh air. Yet we still are called to a new birth, a birth that reawakens a part of us that has laid dormant inside of us since that first breath. As we looked at a while ago, Jesus mentions that the kingdom of God is within us, but we fail to notice it until we are rebirthed by the Spirit.
+ How do you view the importance of baptism?
+ Going off of the last two posts, what have you noticed about the kingdom post spiritual birth that you missed prior to it?
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