John 3:5-21

JOHN 3:5-8: “Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit’” (John 3:5-8).

JOHN 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that so everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

Comment:

This is too long and dense a passage to cover completely in one response. Let’s look at two parts of it, which together allow us to understand the important—indeed, essential—spiritual truth that Jesus is teaching.

JOHN 3:5-8: “Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit’” (John 3:5-8).

COMMENT: Jesus is speaking here to Nicodemus, who is confused about what Jesus means when he talks about being ‘born again.’ Jesus explains that it isn’t a literal rebirth, but a reawakening to spiritual Source. “What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). In other words, the ‘rebirth’ is a surrender of human demands and limitations and a return to the Oneness with Spirit that is our true source and identity. This surrender can’t be defined or justified to our mortal mind, any more than people at that time could define the wind, except by feeling its effects as it passed. When we are ‘born of the Spirit,’ we express as the wind expresses, in the loving guidance and flow of Holy Spirit. This may seem to mortal mind like a loss of power and identity; in Truth, however, it represents a new dimension of freedom and empowerment.

PASSAGE: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that so everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).

COMMENT: Traditionalists believe that the “Son” referred to is Jesus Christ, and this is one of the passages they use to support their contention that belief in Jesus as the “only-begotten” Son of God is essential for salvation. In Unity, we understand that it is not belief in Jesus that is essential, but belief in the universal spiritual Truth of the Christ—the Presence of God in each of us that Jesus taught and demonstrated throughout his ministry.

Metaphysically, we understand the “Son” to be equivalent to the “Word” in John 1:1. It describes the Christ—the creative energy of divine omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence that is the Presence of God in each individual. It is the Christ, the Word, the creative empowerment that our divine Source sends into the world—as us—to continue the great creative process.

Each of us is the Christ in potential; Jesus became the Christ in expression, and calls each of us to become the Christ in expression as well, so that we can continue to be about his work of healing, loving, forgiving, and empowering, thus bringing into expression the new consciousness that Jesus calls ‘the kingdom of heaven.’

This is our work to do; it’s our truth to find, believe, and express. We must believe this about ourselves—we must allow the example of Jesus to release our own Christ energy—in order to accomplish our spiritual purpose. If we don’t, we are ‘condemned’ to continue living in lack and ignorance, waiting vainly for a salvation from without that won’t come until we realize the power we have within ourselves—the power that we truly are.

Blessings!

Rev. Ed