Not all that well written, I know -- but maybe it wll help. Jd
John 3:3 "... unless one is born again (from above) he cannot see the kingdom of God.
A statement of fact or a command statement --------------- could be either., but I think a statement of fact - not a command at all.
John 3:7,8 " you marvel that I said you must be born again (from above)? The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Christ tells his listeners that even as we are experiencing the blowing of the wind and hearing its sound, the wind does what it does without prediction. There remains a mystery to this very real phenomena. The same is true for this new birth in regards to the believer. Those of us who have been born of the Spirit experience a period of uncertainty.
John 3:21 " ...... he who does (is doing) the truth comes (eventually) to the light that his deeds (this "doing the truth) maybe clearly seen (aroist sujunctive, master Bill) that they have been (all) done in God.
This manifest reality -- that all that has been accomplished, even before coming to the light -- presents our activity in the truth, before and after coming to the light, as being IN GOD.
Jesus told Nicodemus that one cannot see -- SEE - the sovereign rule and authority (kingdom) of God without this birth from above or new birth. There comes a time, v 21, when we do "see clearly" that all our walk in the truth has been in God -------------- THE BIRTH FROM ABOVE IS THE "now I get it" EXPERIENCE that convinces us of God's involvement in our lives. Birth from above is the experience of surprise every time someone shares a God-story with us or when we wake up to the fact that God has not deserted us.
This realization, this first surprise in faith, could come at any moment. Like the wind, we know not the circumstance of its occurrence - only that it will happen. This is the birth from above. Praise the Lord !!
Jd
