Nick_A wrote: ↑Thu Jul 09, 2020 3:39 am
New eyes and ears must refer to more than responding to nice people.
Of course. "Ears to hear" refers to the willingness to take in the claims of God AS the claims of God. But "eyes" are not mentioned in this passage, though they are in another. I'm thinking of John 9:41-42.
"Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains."
Here, "seeing" refers to the claim to know enough to make a judgment. Actually, in English we use the word "see" in just about the same way, when we say, "I see," for "I understand," or "I get it." Or we say, "Seeing is believing," and "I'll believe it when I see it." That's the idea here, I think.
And again, we see that somebody who was not willing to use his God-given organs of hearing and sight to do what they were designed to do (to hear the words of God, and to perceive knowledge of God, respectively), then those people would get nothing out of the experience, even if God's words were spoken to them or a divine miracle was performed right before their eyes.
What does being born again mean to you? When a person experiences Christian rebirth, do they automatically experience new eyes to see and ears to hear?
Yes. But both are a product of a change of attitude in the heart, which allows things like the hearing of the word of God AS the word of God, or the willingness to recognize the evidence of God that is right before one's eyes. And there's more to it than that, but that's the start.
Is Christian rebirth rather than indoctrinated morality the essential message of Christianity? How do you understand Christian rebirth? How does it differ from emotional fantasy?
Very much so.
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.[a]”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You[c] must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”[d]
To be born of woman is being born from below. Being born of the spirit is being born from above. Was making it possible for Man on earth Jesus mission?
Right. Another term for regular birth in Scripture is being "born of the flesh," and another is "being born of the will of man." Being born from above, or as some translations prefer, "born again," is exactly what puzzled Nicodemus. How can a person do that?
But you notice that Jesus does not indulge in some precise, detailed analysis of what "born again" means. Instead, he essentially says, "Nicodemus, there's something you're going to have to believe here, before you can see it fully. There's something you're going to have to trust. And it's Me. If you trust me, I can walk you through this experience; but if you will not trust me at all, then you will never see it, and no explanation will make you understand it, because it's something that only those who experience it can know."
And this is not actually an unusual requirement. There are many human circumstances in which the axiom, "I believe
in order to know," (originally the Latin "
Credo ut intellegam," which I think came from Anselm) applies. For instance, if one wants to know if a girl loves him, he will not know if she does unless he asks her out. But he will not know in advance what her answer will be, so he must first guess whether or not she is likely to accept him or slam the door in his face, and act in trust on that belief. He must invest some trust in her character and attitude, but without absolute certainty beforehand. And if he does, maybe he learns that he was right. If he does not, he never knows whether he would have been right or not.
So Jesus is only asking a simple thing: He says, essentially, have faith in Me, and I will show you what you don't know. Have no faith in Me, and you cannot have that experience, since that experience is only had in relation to Me. That's why Jesus goes on to say,
" If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."
And that's how it actually works.
Then see what's left?
What I (and others who've done similarly) have experienced as a result appears to be more freedom and love and ability and joy than conventional/traditional expectations and patterns -- because there's less limitation and more flexibility. I think that's a potential anyone can experience and do.