According to the Pew Research Center, “About nine-in-ten U.S. adults believe in God or another higher power, including 54% who say they believe in “God as described in the Bible” and 34% who say they don’t believe in the biblical depiction of God but do believe there is “some other higher power or spiritual force in the universe.”* It’s quite an interesting fact, isn’t it? Nearly ninety percent of Americans believe there is some kind of God out there. But it is an insignificant statistic really.
Nicodemus believed in God. He was a very religious man, a Pharisee and ruler of the Jews. He visited Jesus one night (when no one was watching), and told Jesus he believed that he was “a teacher come from God.”1 And then he added in admiration, “No one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”1 Jesus, unaffected by the compliment, picked up on that word unless and said: “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”2 Nicodemus probably paused, looked at him with his head cocked, and laughed or chuckled because being “born again” sounded so ridiculous, and he told Jesus it was!
And Nicodemus was right! It is ridiculous! For although Nicodemus—and nearly 90% of Americans—believe in God, they are clueless as to what this really means. Which is why Jesus explained that it is a spiritual birth. It is a metaphor to be “born again.” But it is also an actual event, a spiritual exchange that takes place. We give up our old self and it is replaced with a new one!
Even with that explanation, however, Nicodemus didn’t get it. He said, “How can these things be?”3 And Nicodemus is right again! What Jesus was describing was impossible! Jesus must have smiled at this point and said, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?”4 In other words, I thought you were a religious man, an educated man! And you don’t get this? And Jesus probably chucked and cocked his head a bit.
But then Jesus explains. He discusses earthly things and heavenly things because Nicodemus (and 90% of Americans) believe there exists a spiritual world. In his explanation he reveals the “work” that everyone must do because that is Nicodemus’ language—doing good works for God. And the work is this: to believe that Jesus was not just a “teacher come from God”4 who could do signs, but that he was God’s “only Son” who was sent “in order that the world might be saved through him.”5
However, it was more than Nicodemus could grasp because the story ends with no further discussion. I wish that 90% of Americans would ask Nicodemus’ questions about God but even more so, ask God himself! For merely believing in God (as Nicodemus did) is truly truly irrelevant. I love that Jesus emphasized things as well. He says, “Truly, truly . . . unless one is born again.”6 And then, “Truly, truly . . . unless one is born of water and the Spirit.”7 And lastly and to the point, “Truly, truly . . . you do not receive our testimony.”8
If you believe in God, well, good for you. It seems that most Americans do. But “even the demons believe—and shudder!”9 I suggest studying Nicodemus’ conversation with Jesus and asking yourself this question: Have you been born again? For that answer is truly, truly, the most important thing. And by the way, Nicodemus shows up to defend Jesus at his trial, so I am hopeful that he pondered Jesus’ remarks and was truly truly born again!
1John 3:2 2John 3:3 3John 3:9 4John 3:10 5John 3:16 6John 3:3 7John 3:5 8John 3:11 9James 2:19 *Becka A. Alper, Michael Rotolo. “2. Spiritual Beliefs.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 7 Dec. 2023, www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/12/07/spiritual-beliefs.
