Since it was impossible for Jesus to lie, then what he told the highly religious Pharisee, Nicodemus, was true, not only about him, but about every human being—with the exception of Jesus—who expects to “rest in peace,” once he meets his appointment with death.
“You must be born again!”
There are no exceptions. There are no alternatives. There will be no excuses.
If a person leaves this life without being born again, then that same person will never see the kingdom of God, much less “rest in peace.”
Only eternal torment awaits those born once.
“But,” some might say, as was in the case of Kobe Bryant, “I’m Catholic, which is the only true Christian church.
“I do my daily penance and offer the most pious prayers ever heard.
“I never lie, cheat, or steal, and I regularly mow and rake the rector’s lawn every Tuesday, in the name of Jesus, of course.
“I’m a veritable ‘legend’ and ‘king,’ according to my friends (if not in my own mind) and to a media that equally never lies.
“I’m a good person; my mother told me so.”
That is all nice and wonderful, but if you are relying upon those things, or something similar, which many people do, then you will die in your sins soon, one day, and never see the kingdom of God.
“You must be born again.”
Others, who are hostile to such a rigid imperative, might counter with, “Oh, so as long as I don’t believe what you believe, then that makes me a bad person?
“Just who died and left you to be a judge with the right interpretation?
“If what you are saying is true, then I would rather ‘reign in hell’ with the devil, than ‘serve in heaven’ with your god.”
First, it’s not what I believe that makes anything right, but what Jesus said that makes it right.
Jesus said, “You must be born again,” if you expect to see the kingdom of God.
Now, if Jesus was wrong, then that would mean that he lied and the whole of Christianity would crumble like a house of cards.
Moreover, if Jesus lied, then the whole point of him dying on a cross to atone for anyone’s sins would be an even bigger lie.
But, the granddaddy of all liars would be none other than God himself, who would have concocted a narrative so magnanimously absurd that He would cease to exist, along with all of creation, if indeed it proved to be true that no one needed to be born again to enter His presence.
And yet, all of creation subsists and Jesus made it emphatically clear that, “You must be born again.”
Second, Jesus died and left us all with a statement that does not take a PhD in theology, exegesis, or hermeneutics to understand it.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
The statement is so straight forward that only an attempt to circumvent it with a false interpretation would be obvious to the most naive.
A classic example of the worst kind of naivete would be to assume that ruling in hell would be better than serving God in heaven.
Such brazenness might make the blatantly ignorant and intractably haughty feel good about themselves, at least temporarily, but it does nothing to rebut what Jesus said, not only about residing in heaven, but suffering in hell.
Jesus’ imperative is clear, unquestionable, and applies to every human being, whether it is you, or I, or Kobe Bryant.
It is also why it is imperative to ask oneself, with some serious thought and introspection, “Am I born again? If I am, how would I know for certain? In fact, what does it even mean to be ‘born again’?”
Typically, the answers given by many, including Kobe Bryant, are either shallow, misguided, mistaken, or simply lacking in biblical verity.
So, let’s answer those questions in the next post.
