The man’s a famous Baptist minister, at a famous Baptist
church, in a famously Baptist city in the south. And until some well-placed
friends challenged my understanding of salvation I would have believed
everything he said. His understanding of salvation is summed up in the
following sermon illustration he gave years ago.
Imagine that everyone in the world
is a fast-moving river headed to destruction because of their sin. In that
river are people of every race, gender, and age who are being swept away toward
a giant waterfall. At the bottom of the falls are jagged rocks that will
destroy anyone who encounters them.
But our Holy God doesn’t abandon
us. He stations Jesus on the shoreline Who calls to everyone in the river to
grab ahold of a life preserver He has thrown into the river. Each life preserver
has a rope attached to it, and all a person must do is reach out and grab the
life preserver and He will pull them to safety.
Now that’s the story he told to a national audience. His
message was simple—we’re all in trouble. We’re all headed to destruction. But
rather than sitting idly by, God sends His Son into this world with the offer of
salvation. All we have to do is reach out and accept His offer, and we will be
saved. In other words, salvation is a cooperative effort.
That’s the message I had been taught as a kid. Like millions
of other Christians it was the lens through which I read the Bible. God did His
part in Christ, now we must do our part. And when I was 19 years old that lens
was shattered. I suddenly came to recognize that’s NOT AT ALL what the Bible
teaches.
Instead of standing on the shoreline tossing life preservers,
Jesus jumps into the river! He swims to those He chooses and hauls them back to
shore. They don’t cooperate; because they’re dead in the water. Then He pulls them
onto the shoreline where He resurrects them. He breathes new life into them,
and they are transformed from spiritual death to spiritual life. That’s the
message of the Gospel. And nowhere is that clearer than in John 3 where Jesus
encounters a man named Nicodemus.
When the Protestant Reformation raised the old question,
“What must I do to be saved?” Martin Luther and his younger admirer, John
Calvin, answered, “Nothing!” Salvation, they insisted, is entirely the result of God’s loving grace revealed to us in our
Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation does not depend on our acknowledgement of our sins
nor our desire to escape the consequences of them. While Americans love the
“can do” attitude of self-reliance, Jesus abhors it. And nowhere is He more
plain or pointed about it than in this engagement with Nicodemus.
We are going to examine John 3:1-21 this Sunday in a message
entitled, “The Second Time Around”. In preparation for our study you may wish
to consider the following:
1. Who is Nicodemus?
2. What does it mean that he’s “a ruler” of the Jews?
3. Why does he come to Jesus at night?
4. What signs is he referencing in verse 2?
5. Why does Jesus answer Nicodemus’ compliment as He does in
verse 3 if this is a non-sequitur?
6. Why does Jesus use the term “born again” or “born anew” to
describe salvation?
7. Why is Nicodemus marveling in verse 7?
8. What is Jesus saying about “the wind” in verse 8?
9. Why is Jesus biting in his criticism of Nicodemus in verse
10?
10. How do verses 1-15 inform us of the meaning of John 3:16?
See you Sunday as we celebrate our new life in Christ around
the Table.
