Kingdom Focus
New Birth Leading to Eternal Life
John’s emphasis on the new birth is helpful for the church to keep her kingdom focus today. In John 1, he writes, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13). In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, John records our Lord’s words, saying, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). A dozen verses later, Jesus says, “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” (John 3:16). These few verses discuss a new birth, initiated by the will of God through belief in the Messiah, leading to eternal life. New birth leading to eternal life is an emphasis that John carries throughout his Gospel, and one that the church ought to carry throughout her kingdom-expanding ministry today.
The Woman at the Well
John continues this theme in his fourth chapter as he depicts Jesus’ conversation with a lady we often call “The Woman at the Well.” In John 4:20, we read her theological persuasions as follows, “Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” She believes, or at least her kin believe, that geographical location is a defining factor in what is true and right worship.
There are several comparisons or dichotomies within this discussion, but two that tend to get the most attention are: 1) Jews vs. Samaritans, and 2) Jerusalem vs. Mt. Gerizim. Jesus, however, emphasizes a different, more eternally significant contrast, saying, “But an hour is coming, and not is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers” (John 4:23). Jesus is less concerned about the difference in a Jew and a Samaritan but rather the contrast between true worshipers and false worshipers. Jesus recognizes a difference in “you” and “we” in the text (Samaritans and Jews), but in the kingdom of God, such differences do not dictate who is on what side of good and evil. No, John’s composition makes it clear that the defining line in the kingdom is the new birth, and here is how we know.
Belief and Eternal Life
Remember John 1:12? It says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name” (emphasis added). Note the word “believe” in this verse and follow me to the events immediately following Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well in John 4. John writes, “From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified . . . Many more believed because of His word” (John 4:39, 41). True to John’s theme of new birth leading to eternal life, Jesus told the woman at the well, “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14). In John 4, Jesus draws from the well of himself and, by the will of God through belief in the Messiah, distributes the new birth leading to eternal life sumptuously to many Samaritans.
Application For Today
We are a reformed people not because of our physical birth— “who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God”— but because of a spiritual birth that Jesus calls being “born again” (John 1:12; 3:3; cf. Jer. 31:3-34; Heb. 8). Whether a person is born a Jew or a Gentile is inconsequential to their eternal soul’s destiny, for “unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Therefore, today’s church must focus less on one’s physical birth, the skin pigment and nationality that accompany it, and focus the waning hours of our lives on their impending rebirth into the kingdom of God where everyone looks like Christ. No, I am not advocating practices like “reverse-racism” or suggesting that we stop opposing them. But I am reminding Christ’s bride not to lose her focus despite what the world says about being white, black, Jewish, or Gentile. We must emulate the method of Jesus in John 4 and echo the message of God, who “is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent” (Acts 17:30).
