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How Birth Helps Us Understand Salvation
If you spend any time in women’s ministry spaces, you’re bound to hear a birth story at some point. A new mom brings her baby to Bible study, and other moms share their birth experiences. Or a baby-shower conversation includes advice on birth plans and what to expect.
I don’t imagine however, that men’s ministry spaces often include such conversations. Birth isn’t a typical connection point for men in the same way it is for women.
So it seems odd that Jesus uses the metaphor of birth in John 3 when he’s speaking to a man, Nicodemus. But there’s an important similarity between physical birth and spiritual birth that Jesus connects for Nicodemus—and for us.
New Paradigm
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, which we’re accustomed to thinking of as a negative label. But in Jesus’s day, to be a Pharisee was to be the most religious guy in the room. The Pharisees were respected and trusted leaders in Jewish society. When we read that a “man from the Pharisees” (v. 1, CSB) comes to Jesus, we should think, An important man is coming to see Jesus. He was the guy you saw in the temple every Sabbath, the one who never missed a sacrifice, and the one who could recite the Torah front to back.
There’s an important similarity between physical birth and spiritual birth that Jesus connects for Nicodemus—and for us.
Nicodemus comes thinking his status and religious fervor put him and Jesus in the same category. So Jesus uses a metaphor that turns Nicodemus’s paradigm upside down: “You must be born again” (v. 7). Religious credentials and good works don’t make you a true follower, Jesus says. New birth does. “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asks him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” (v. 4, CSB).
Nicodemus comes to Jesus thinking they’re religious leaders talking man-to-man. He comes with great knowledge about God. But Jesus essentially says, “You need more than that to see me. You need something you can’t do for yourself.” That’s why the example of birth is so helpful.
Nonnegotiable and Impossible
While the practice of inducing labor now exists through modern medical developments, in ancient times, no one could make a baby be born. And even today, when a woman labors for her child’s arrival, no one knows the day or hour that labor will begin or end (unless there’s medical intervention). Our knowledge about the process doesn’t make it happen. Our strategies and best-laid birth plans cannot force the process.
The same is true for salvation, Jesus says to Nicodemus. The Spirit moves where he wishes (v. 8), and we never know the day or the hour of his movement in a person’s life. But to enter the kingdom of God, he must give you a new birth. That’s nonnegotiable.
And Nicodemus says—that’s impossible. Now we’re getting somewhere.
Nicodemus comes thinking he can align himself with Jesus without having to lose his position. He comes thinking that praising Jesus for his signs will put them on the same team. But Jesus wants Nicodemus to see how unattainable is any human attempt to enter the kingdom, see the kingdom, or even understand the kingdom, without a complete rebirth. Without the old Nicodemus dying and the new Nicodemus being born, he would remain blind to the path of belief.
Nicodemus is proof positive that knowing the Bible isn’t enough to open our eyes. Being born into a Christian family isn’t enough to make us a Christian. Going to a Christian college, or being in ministry, or even attending church won’t make anyone believe. We must be born again. We must walk through the impossible and supernatural process of dying to our old life and being reborn to new life in Christ.
Salvation and Beyond
But even for those of us who have been born again, the birth metaphor continues to serve us. A baby doesn’t will his life into existence, and a baby also doesn’t grow on his own. He needs someone to feed him, change him, take care of him, and show him the path of maturity.
We must walk through the impossible and supernatural process of dying to our old life and being reborn to new life in Christ.
Our good works don’t save us, and they don’t keep us either. The same grace that brought us into our spiritual new birth grows us into mature adults in Christ.
This doesn’t remove our responsibility to participate in our sanctification, but it does remind us who accomplishes our progress. For those of us tempted to rest in our good works and religious commitment (like Nicodemus), Jesus gives us the metaphor of rebirth to remind us of an important truth: You need something you can’t do for yourself.
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