The Gift of Everlasting Life

​The Christmas season is here and it is a perfect time to be talking about Jesus Christ.  About 27 years after He was born into the Human Race, Jesus began His public ministry.  He was presenting Himself as the promised Messiah prior to His death by crucifixion that would resolve the issue of our sin.  And initially most of Israel’s leadership were thinking this man might be the One, the promised redeemer.  One man in particular, a Pharisee named Nicodemus, approached Jesus Christ seeking the answer to the big question.  Will I make into Heaven? 
 
If you have already read John 3 you know Nicodemus did not start with that question.  But the Lord knew what was on his mind so that was the question He answered.  “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”  Nicodemus had lived his entire life trying to be good enough to reach Heaven, the kingdom of God.  Jesus Christ just told him he had wasted his time.  Because his problem was he did not possess life, everlasting life.    Nicodemus was dead in the sense of not having the kind of life needed to enter the Kingdom. 
 
He may have been shocked by that but based on his response it’s clear he got it.  He just didn’t know how one could experience this second birth.  So, he asked “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”  The answer Jesus had for him is in verses 14-16 of John 3: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
 
You can read about the serpent in the wilderness in Numbers 21:4-9.  Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, being lifted up was referring to His as yet future crucifixion.  That is when He would die for the sin of the entire world.  In Numbers 21 the cure for snake bite was to look at the snake on the pole.  The way to be born again is similar.  Look to Jesus Christ by faith believing that Christ has the power to give everlasting life and that He will give it to anyone who will believe in Him for it.  I realize it seems there should be more to it than that, but I can only go with what Jesus Christ said.  He is God after all, so we should be able to trust what He said.  Do you still have questions?  You could use the comments tab to ask them.  I might be able to provide an answer.