First Baptist Church, Haleyville
Choices. We make them every day. Some of them are minor: what to eat for dinner, what to wear in the morning, what to do with our spare time. Other choices are really important: what will you do for a living, who will you marry and spend a lifetime with. The choices we make help to determine who we are. They shape our values and guide our actions.
There is one choice that matters more than any other. Many years ago Jesus challenged a rabbi named Nicodemus to make that choice. He said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Nicodemus tried hard to understand. How can you be born a second time?
Jesus explained it to him. Natural birth is never enough. The first time you are born you have arms and legs, eyes and ears, and all the things necessary to function in a material world.
What you lack is spiritual birth, a chance to know God and to be guided by His Spirit. Your sins aren’t forgiven and you cannot know spiritual things. Everything spiritual requires a second birth. How can that happen?
Jesus explained it clearly in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
“Whosoever believes” — that is the choice. When Jesus said those words, He was teaching us two things. First anybody can know the Lord. All of us fit into the category “Whosoever.” Never wonder if God has a place for you. The second thing is this — you have to personally believe. The only one who can make the choice for you is you. Belief is more than acknowledging Jesus; it is asking Him to be your Savior and Lord. It is critical, because Jesus continued by saying in verse 18, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
God wants you to be saved. He offers you the chance to be born again. All you have to do is choose. Will you believe in the only begotten Son of God?
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