Blake Allen
Dunbar Cave Campus Pastor
John 3:5
“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.”
My wife and I bought our home in September of 2021. During the house hunting process, we came across another home that we had our eyes set on. It was in a good neighborhood. It was quiet. It actually had some yard space and wasn’t cramped up against another home. And the outside was very pretty. There was only one problem. The inside of the house was not so pretty. It looked like we traveled back to the Flintstone Days. Everything was dated. But we knew we could remodel it. We could change some stuff around. We could fix some stuff up. It would only take more time, money, and effort than we wanted to spend. But it would look nice once we were finished working on it. Often times we think that is how salvation is. We often think God is after a clean outside.
“If I just get things in order—get a haircut, start making better choices, avoid sin, go to church, look nice—then God will be pleased.” God is not interested in your personal remodeling project. He wants to remake and reshape you from the inside. We struggle to understand this because we don’t understand how bad we are. We think we’re pretty good. Like Nicodemus, we think our religious credentials will stand up to God’s examination. We don’t understand God’s requirement: perfection. After Jesus said your righteousness must exceed the Pharisees’ righteousness to enter heaven, he went on to say, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt 5:48).’
But you can’t be perfect! In fact, we’re all far from perfect, so we need more than a little touch-up. We need more than just a fixer-upper. We need to be made new. Our radical corruption from sin demands a radical redemption from God: we need a brand-new birth. You and I must be born again and only the Spirit of God can renovate, or rather, make our hearts new.
It doesn’t matter if your busted up or cleaned up on the outside. You and I need to be internally cleansed on the inside. And only the Spirit of God can do that. Have you been born again? It all begins with a relationship with Christ. Submit your life to Him and He will make you brand new.