John 3:3,4 - Unless they are born again

3:3

There are several “very truly”’s in this section. Nicodemus had approached Jesus wanting to know more, but probably wanting to see how Jesus would fit into his existing framework of understanding, but it was Nicodemus who needed to have a complete change of heart. And this was not a mere tweaking of how he thought, not the correction of one or inadequate ideas, he needed to be born again. This is true of all of us. It is futile to try and fit Jesus into our agenda. We need to learn from Jesus, we need a complete overhaul. We do not set the criteria by which we judge Jesus. He sets the criteria by which He judges us. This is also part of the reason why the “all religions are the same” trope so misses the point. It assumes that we human beings are the judges, it assumes that we can work out how to see and know God. The truth is that we are so utterly lost. In terms of the Calvinist tulip, we are totally depraved (this does not mean that everything we do is depraved, but that our being is so corrupted that left to our own devices there is no hope for us). We need to be Christ centred, we need to submit to Christ completely. None of us is qualified for the kingdom of God on our own merits, whether we think of that “merit” as our own goodness or our own wisdom. Our whole nature needs to be renewed, transformed.

3:4

Nicodemus has no idea what Jesus is talking about. It can come as a shock to most of us that we need to be completely transformed, that there is no aspect of us that meets up to God’s standards. Nicodemus then makes a quip about it being impossible for an old person to enter his mother’s womb again. This could be Nicodemus asking how an old man can possibly change, but it is more likely that he just does not get what Jesus is talking about and is ridiculing Jesus’ suggestion.