Part 3 – John 3
John Chapter 3 is one of the most widely recognized chapters in the NT because of John 3:3 and John 3:16.
John 3:3 - Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again from above, he cannot see (perceive) the kingdom of God."
John 3:16 - 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.
Christian doctrine points to these 2 Scriptures, perhaps more than any others, to "prove" that unless a man repents of his sin, and chooses to believe in Jesus, he will suffer in hell forever. Not surprisingly, these texts support no such "truths."
Jesus spoke John 3:3 in conversation with a Rabbi named Nicodemus. Nicodemus's response was one of bewilderment represented by his question, "Can a man enter the womb a second time when he is old?" To which Jesus replied, "Most assuredly, I say to you unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Nicodemus responded by asking, "How can these things be?" He had no idea what Jesus was talking about, and neither do the Christian and Catholic teachers of our day.
Now, before I explain further, let's identify the other texts in the Scriptures that use the analogy of birth and what the Spirit is teaching us within them.
James 1: 18 - Of His own will He chose to give us birth through the Word of truth.
John 1:10-13 - He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
1 Peter 1:3 -Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again (born again) to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
1 Peter 1:23 - Having been born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever.
So, how is a person born again? Are we - as our Christian/Catholic leaders insist - required to confess our sins, repent, choose to receive Him, and believe in His name BEFORE we’re born again? Do you see anything remotely resembling such language in the above texts? Doesn't God clearly and repeatedly state being born again is the result of His will, not ours, and through what He's done, not what we do?
The analogy of birth is the critical insight required to understand how a person is born again, wherein we know no one chooses to be born. (Imagine being tasked with explaining how a person must choose birth before they can be born.) Did you decide to be born? Has anyone ever been given a choice to accept or reject their birth? Likewise, no one initiates being born again; it's not a decision we're responsible for making. The command of Jesus, “You must be born again,” is God's way of making us aware of our sinful, corrupted, separated state, and our absolute impotence to do anything about it. (Chapter 1) "You must be born again" is not speaking to "something we must do" no more than being born is something we must do.
Therefore, just as no one chooses to be born, no one chooses to be born again. (God wisely left us out of the causal equation of receiving His life. You Had Nothing To Do With It.) That’s why He uses the analogy of birth, and that's the message Jesus gives to Nicodemus ahead of John 3:16. We must understand John 3:16 in this context.
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
The phrase Christians focus on is, "whosoever believes in Him," which they interpret to mean 'whosoever chooses to believe in Him,' falsely assuming human causality in being born again/given eternal life. But, the verse doesn't say, "whosoever chooses to believe in Him." The word choose, is not in the text. Jesus just told Nicodemus no one chooses to be born again, therefore, John 3:16 can't mean we have to choose to believe in Him to be born again, that would be an open contradiction.
The current (false) understanding of John 3:16 assumes human causality regarding faith, while the correct understanding assumes Divine causality. "Whosoever believes," or "whosoever believing," refers to the work of God, not an act of human "free will."
For God so loved the world (Divine causality), that He gave His only begotten Son (Divine causality) so that whosoever believes in Him (Divine causality) shall not perish (Divine causality) but have everlasting life (Divine causality.)
You Had Nothing To Do With It.