Lent: Nicodemus

John 3:1-21

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Jesus insists on transforming lives. We cannot be His disciples and remain unchanged. The before and after pictures of our lives should be so different from each other that Jesus tells Nicodemus that we must be born a second time, spiritually, as we have been born the first time physically. This is not a concept tried and true that Nicodemus has encountered before, but one that Jesus speaks with authority on and fully convinces Nicodemus of the truth (Jn 7:50). In other words, this is new theology, yet it's clear to Nicodemus that Jesus is speaking about what He knows to be true from His experience and authority as the Son of God.
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Are you trying to hold onto your life? We cling so tightly to who we are, or who we think we are, that we resist the Lord's efforts to change us into who He wants us to become. We're afraid to lose ourselves. We're afraid to trust Him to give us something much better. Yet this is the only way. Do we want to be His disciples? Then, complete with all the challenges and the blessings and the promises of future rewards, we must allow Him to transform us completely. Only those who lose themselves to Him will find the gift of being remade in His image. Those who protect themselves from His work in their lives will lose everything in the end.