Frequently Asked Questions
What is the New Birth? - Part 4
The meaning of the 'new birth' is a very comprehensive subject, for it so easily leads to other related subjects. My position is that 'seeing' the kingdom is synonymous with understanding or perceiving the kingdom. Unless one has received the seed of the woman, the King of Kings, one cannot partake of all that the kingdom is. In other words, unless one has received the King, one cannot receive the kingdom.
The use of the seed principle continues in Yochanan 3:8:
"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."
Trees proliferate by their seeds dropping to the ground and then are scattered by the wind. The following is a most provocative quote from the World Book Encyclopedia.
"Seeds are the most important part of the plant. The roots, the leaves, the flowers, the fruit, all exist so there can be seed ... If the seeds fell straight to the ground beneath the plant (or tree) that bore them, they would be too crowded to thrive. The seeds must be scattered or dispersed ... most seeds are scattered by the wind."
This is most interesting, and is inserted right in the midst of a discussion of a birth that takes a seed to accomplish. Messiah reveals to us that the Word of God is carried by His Spirit. He goes where He wants to. The Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) is a term that always reflects the active, demonstrative presence of God. It has always been the Word of God that saves us. Nikdamon comes from a religious system, much like all religious systems, that teaches that salvation and holiness can only come from their religious system. The whole idea that reconciliation or redemption back to God comes from a place that one cannot tell or blows where it will has Nikdamon in confusion. It is not the nature of 'deity' of Messiah that is at issue here, but rather a revelation of the nature of the Word of God. In verse 12, Y'shua reveals to Nikdamon that He is using 'earthly' pictures to speak of eternal, spiritural truths.
Yochanan 3:12
"If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?"
The Word of God is like a seed, a seed that produces fruit. The evidence of this new birth is found in the fruit that the seed produces. The evidence that one has truly come unto the 'light' of God, is made manifest in our deeds (fruit), and that they are wrought in God (vs 21). In Hebrew thought, the light is Torah and the darkness is the absence of Torah. Messiah, having been raised in this truth, comments prophetically in Yochanan verse 19, that men in general will love the darkness rather than light. Once our customs, our sabbaths, our festivals, our dietary and health laws are exposed by this light, we run to the darkness. We do this because our ways are evil, and the true light of God's word exposes that evil.
I close with one simple request. Is the seed of the woman that which was brought forth from the beginning, in you? Are you doing the works of Avraham?
Yochanan 8:39
"... If ye were Avraham's children, ye would do the works of Avraham."
Shalom Alecheim!