Lesson 3, part 2

Hey guys!  I know it hasn’t been that long since lesson three, but in that time I’ve learned something and I wanted to add to it!!

John 3:3 
Many protestants take this passage and say, “I’ve been born again by accepting Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior.”  Subsequently, they ask others “have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?!  Are you saved??”  Many catholics don’t know how to respond to that.  Well what we can say is: “yes, through my baptism.”

Jesus does not ask us to be born “again.”  He says, “You must be born ’anothen’(greek transliteration) ” which can mean again.  But it also can mean ‘from above.’  If your thinking worldly (like Nicodemus was in this passage), you would think ‘again’ like Nicodemus and say, “how can I crawl back into my mother’s womb.”  But if you’re thinking like Jesus, you’d look up, and realize that the spirit must descend from above in baptism.  Well, when did the spirit descend from above?  In the immediate preceding passage (John 1), when Jesus is baptized, the Spirit descends as a dove from above.  This is talking about baptism, not “accepting Christ as one’s personal Savior and Lord,” a phrase which is not found in John 3, though many Protestant Christians attribute that idea to this passage.  No, if we leave this verse in context, check out  3:22 where it says, “After this(the discussion with Nicodemus), Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing” (emphasis mine).  This is the only verse where it talks about Jesus Baptizing!  So, to re-cap: John 1:29-34---> Jesus gets baptized and the spirit comes down.  John 3:3 --->We must be born “from above” not “again.”  John 3:22 --->Jesus baptizes people in Judea.

Sorry for the late addition!
My love and Prayers go out to all who read this.
Luke