Anchor My Faith

The Son of Man from Heaven

Scripture: John 3:13

In previous lessons we saw Nicodemus stand before Jesus and say, “How can these things be?” He simply did not understand the concept of being born from above and Jesus knows that further conversation will not help at this time. I find this to be a common stumbling point when sharing my faith with others. I try to carefully lead a person along the pathway of life, introducing the basics of the Christian faith. As the conversation continues we come to a fork in the road where it is time to introduce the concept of being born spiritually. This is a very critical point and is a time, like it was with Nicodemus and Jesus, that I will know if I can continue to develop the conversation or if it is time to wait. Jesus knew it was time to wait because the Spirit had not yet prepared the heart of Nicodemus to accept further understanding. Before we can believe the heart must be prepared.

Three years ago I began sharing my faith with a person, at his request. After several months of correspondence, we came to the concept of being born spiritually. The concept was carefully presented, but like with Nicodemus there was a lack of understanding. I continued to mentor this person, but to this day he is not born spiritually. He is religious, but does not yet understand the personal relationship with Jesus required for spiritual birth.

In verse 12, Jesus had just said to Nicodemus, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” Jesus then continues by saying, “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man” (John 3:13 ESV). Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he has the authority to tell him heavenly things because he has come from heaven where he has existed from the beginning with his Father. Jesus came down from the Father and he is going to tell us what he came to do. Jesus is going to tell us how we can be born from above.

Because of sin everyone is born spiritually dead, headed toward eternal destruction to experience the wrath of God forever. Jesus came and went to the cross and as a perfect sacrifice, he accepted the wrath of God in our place so that the power of the Spirit could be released to cause us to be born again. In John 3:36 we read, “The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects the Son will not see life, but God’s wrath remains on him” (NET). The Son of Man, Jesus Christ, came to remove the wrath of God from those who believe.

Prayer

Father, there is not a one of us that deserves eternal life and without your intervention there is no one who will understand and there is no one who will seek God for we have all turned away (Romans 3:11 – 12). Lord, thank you for coming to remove the wrath of God from those who will believe. Thank you for the spiritual gestation period that leads up to the moment of spiritual birth. Thank you for all that you have done in my life since that time. Lord, without you I would still be dead in my sin, headed toward eternal destruction to experience the wrath of God forever. Thank you for lifting me up with you.