Title: Born of God, in Christ, by the Spirit

When members find themselves in really serious health situations, I will ask them if they are sure and certain that, if the worst happens and they die, that they have salvation and will go to be with the Lord. You might be surprised by the folks who give the wrong answer—folks, whom we know to be of good faith and practice. The answer gets the entire Christian faith turned around. The common wrong answer is this: "I hope I’ve done enough."

Depending on the person, his health, or my mood that day, I will ask things like these, "Done enough what? Gone to church enough? Lived the Golden Rule enough?" or, "I thought Jesus was the One who did enough," or, "Were you paying attention at all in church?"

One of the marks of our sinful nature is that we think that we have to make our way to God, that we have to please Him in order to be in His presence in heaven, that we have to earn it.

That’s all we know, of course. With most things in life, if we are going to have it, we have to earn it—grades in school, hired for a job, a raise in salary, the affection of a girl, you name it. Even across the Christian Church, so many church bodies turn around the Christian faith so as to put the onus on us. They weren’t called Puritans for nothing.

What we have in today’s three Scripture lessons in the truth that we need to know that salvation is the gift of the Lord, through Jesus Christ. What you need to do is grasp this truth so that you don’t worry about a thing when it comes to your salvation, so that you point to Jesus Christ as your Savior, and so that you give every last bit of your heart filled with praise and glory to the Father who gave Jesus for you, to Jesus who gave Himself for you, and the Holy Spirit who gave you faith in Jesus.

That salvation is the Lord’s gift is seen in the Old Testament lesson. Abram was a nobody. Oh, he was a successful land owner, wealthy in animals and material things, but those things didn’t make him deserving of the Lord’s favor. It was completely out of the Lord’s grace that He went to Abram, told him to leave home, and promised him that He would make him a great nation and a blessing to many generations.

In the lesson from Romans, the Holy Spirit had Paul write about the Lord’s call to Abram, whose name the Lord changed to Abraham, because he would be the father of many, and that’s what Abraham means.

Now, Abraham believed the Lord, and the Lord, being the generous God that He is, credited that faith to Abraham so that Abraham stood before the Lord in forgiveness, with no sins for which to defend himself. Again, the Lord: "And to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness."

Here’s the thing, and it is completely backwards to how you think. If you think that you have done enough to please the Lord and have eternal life, you will stand before the Lord condemned for your sins and damned for eternity, because you can’t do enough. But, when you trust in Jesus Christ, that He did enough by living and dying in your flesh, you stand, right now, and will remain standing before the Lord forgiven of your sins, cleansed from all unrighteousness, and justified in the sight of your heavenly Father.

Moving from the angle of hoping we’ve done enough, let’s shift to the prevailing notion that we have to give our heart to Jesus, we have to make Him Lord of our life in order to be a child of God. This is the teaching that you will hear from the many TV preachers, and encounter in so many books on Christian living, and in so many church bodies. It ain’t Lutheran, kids, and, most importantly, it is dead wrong and dangerous to your eternal lives.

As we modern Christians get the way of salvation turned around, so did the ancient Jews. When the Lord Jesus walked the earth, He faced the same errors that we still face, today.

Nicodemus was a member of the ruling religious class, the infamous Pharisees. He had been intrigued by Jesus. He was afraid of his fellow Pharisees, so he was careful in going about finding Jesus, to learn more from Him. He visited Jesus in the cover of darkness.

The Lord was pleased to meet with Nic at night, and got right to His plight: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."

Now, right there, if one is paying attention, he will see that eternal life does not come by any person "doing enough," or giving his heart to Jesus. "Unless one is born again." How does one get born, the first time? Is it of his doing? Of course not. Thus, if one is to be born again, will it be of his doing? Was Abraham’s salvation of his doing? Is God asking you to do enough, to give your heart to Him, to do a single thing? No, no, no, no, and no.

Nicodemus, being just like you, didn’t get it, so the Lord explained it. "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

Flesh gives birth to flesh. That’s what we’re looking at, as we see each other, in the flesh—that which came from each one of our dads and moms. We had nothing to do with it; it was entirely the work of those men and women who gave us physical life.

As it is with physical life, so it is with spiritual life, as the Lord said, "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Did you catch the prominence of Baptism to this process of being spiritually reborn? "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit." On the Day of Pentecost, in Peter’s first sermon, he declared the same thing, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."

The Lord Jesus points Nicodemus away from himself, away from his own efforts, away from any thinking that he might do enough to merit salvation or ask Jesus to be His Lord. Dear Christians, salvation isn’t something you do; it’s something the Holy Spirit does in you, because Jesus did enough on your behalf. And, that’s exactly where Jesus heads in the discussion, and why this Gospel lesson is set in the season of Lent.

Jesus gets Nicodemus ready for Good Friday: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." It is in your looking to Jesus upon the cross that you live in His eternal life.

It is by grace you have been saved, as Jesus now declares in the most familiar verse, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." Who loved whom? God loved the world; God loved you. He gave Jesus. You have eternal life in your loving the Father for giving the Son.

Not what you do, but what Jesus did, means that you are not and will not be condemned, which takes us to the next verse. As I told you, two weeks ago, because of my upbringing, this is my favorite verse: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him."

Sometimes, when I visit the bedside of very ill members, I am dazzled by the response that I get when I ask if they are sure and certain of their eternal life. Nearly nine years ago, it was our brother, Alvin Finkel, who answered this way: "I know that Jesus saved me, and that I am going to heaven because He died on the cross for me."

Wow. That’s it. That’s faith speaking, dear friends. It wasn’t Alvin who made that confession of faith, but the Holy Spirit who worked the faith in Alvin so that he could trust in Jesus. It’s the same faith which you have through the Gospel of Christ, washed over you in Baptism, and fed to you in the Lord’s Supper—it’s all Jesus’ work, and He did it all for you. Amen.