One of the very first things I noticed about Nebraska when I moved here twelve years ago – in addition to the oppressive sky and the militant grasshoppers – was the pervasive wind. On our second day in Lincoln, I remember stepping onto the driveway and being smacked head-on by a gale-force wind that nearly knocked me off my feet.
I’ve never liked wind. All the blustering and blowing and out-of-control feel of it makes me uncomfortable, even a little queasy at times. The wild, unpredictable nature of wind scares me; it makes me feel small and powerless.
At first glance, the reading for Sunday seemed pretty straightforward. When Jesus explains the requirements for entering heaven to Nicodemus, he mentions only two. “I assure you,” he says, “no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.” (John 3:5).
Sounds black-and-white, right? To enter heaven, you need to be baptized (born of water) and you need the Holy Spirit. This is what I was taught as a child: I received the Holy Spirit at baptism and was saved.
However, in typical Jesus-fashion, he complicates matters in the next few verses when he introduces the notion of wind into the equation:
“Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life,” Jesus says. “So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” (3:6-8)
What seemed to be a very specific, exclusive process for gaining admittance into heaven a moment ago has now been exponentially broadened with Jesus’ mention of wind. The Greek word for spirit, my Bible’s footnotes explain, can also be translated as wind. So, Jesus seems to be saying, “The Spirit blows wherever it wants. You might hear it, but you can’t tell where it comes from or where it’s going next. You can’t explain it, and you can’t control it.”
The problem, Jesus tells Nicodemus, and us, is that we want to explain it.
We want a nice, neat equation to explain who will get into heaven and how exactly they will get there. We want the “this plus that equals heaven,” and we want to be able to determine who’s in and who’s out based on certain criteria.
Frankly, we like it this way because it’s easy, and because it comforts us to know we’ve met the criteria for entrance into eternal life. Baptism plus the Holy Spirit equals my admittance into heaven – I’m good!
But Jesus tells us it’s not quite that black-and-white, not quite that knowable.
Think about the qualities of wind again for a moment. Wind is pervasive – it blows wherever and however it wants, touching everyone and everything in its path. Wind has no boundaries; you can’t contain it or limit it or even escape it, and you are powerless in its face. These are the qualities of wind that frighten and overwhelm me, but these are also the qualities of the Spirit that make it so mysterious, powerful and inclusive.
I love this about Jesus. He takes what looks like a simple, black-and-white equation – “Do this and that and gain entrance into the Kingdom of God” – and he turns it on its head. He tosses wind, the unpredictable, wild, all-pervasive wind – the Spirit – into the mix, and suddenly our nice, neat definition of who gets into heaven and who doesn’t is now a muddled, mixed up mess, beyond rational explanation, beyond any limitations or definitions or boundaries.
It almost doesn’t make sense, right? Until, that is, we realize we’ve been seeing much too small.
It almost doesn’t make sense until we realize that Jesus’ way is so much bigger, broader and inclusive than our black-and-white, got-it-all-figured-out-with-the-one-right answer way.
You’re thinking too small, too limited, Jesus tells Nicodemus…and us. You need to be born again to see, born again into my bigger, broader, all-encompassing everlasting life.
Questions for Reflection:
So what do you think about the Spirit as wind in these verses? Does your understanding of the nature of wind help you understand the Holy Spirit a bit better? Do you think there are certain requirements for salvation?
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A very thought provoking post for sure. As I have sat & thought on this & am sitting listening to the wind (which this winter has sounded so new & different to me), this is what hit me … the winds are never the same. There are times that the Spirit must blow hard on me to get my attention. And there are times, He knows it would devastate me & He comes gently, softly, so as to bring comfort. This morning you have cause me to be most grateful that our God works in our lives individually, knowing our frames and knowing what is needed. May you have a great week ahead!
I’ve never read this passage this way, Michelle, but I love your take on it. Yes, the Spirit is way more complicated than we like to give credit for. I believe there is one requirement for salvation – proclaiming Jesus as Lord. I believe we all ought to be baptized (for many reasons…it’s commanded, Jesus did it, etc). The wind of the Spirit will blow through our lives, drawing us to God, convicting us of sin, illuminating scripture, and guiding us to stay on the path. I definitely don’t understand all the ways he works, but I’m so glad he does!
Hi Michelle,
We like to make things into check lists – I’ve done this, this, and this…and we take a sigh of relief. Attend church – check. Pray before meals – check. Read a devotion – yep, check. But God doesn’t work that way, and thankfully so. He’s not concerned with a holy to-do list. He wants our hearts, and He will pursue us…not force us into a relationship with Him…but He’s there when we’re ready. (And He’s not checking the check list.) 🙂
Blessings,
Laura
Michelle,
Thank you, again, for shining a spotlight on a very familiar passage. You ask the question, “Do you think there are certain requirements for salvation?” I do. Thankfully, they are beautifully simple. From this very conversation with Nicodemus, the Lord shows us the way, :. . . that whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.” In my own quiet time today, I read, “unless you become as little children, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” What are the characteristics of children? Helpless, weak, and trusting. Ephesians 2:8-9 is my hope: “For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man may boast.”
Like a child, I am helpless. Condemned by my own sinfulness, I have no hope of ever being “good enough” to work my way into heaven. But God, in his mercy, paid the penalty for my sin through his death on the cross. When I come as a child and declare, “I have sinned and fallen short of God’s standard,” he exchanges his righteousness for my filthy rags, and I am born again. Cleansed. Forgiven. Filled with the Holy Spirit and made into a new person.
The only requirement in Scripture for my conversion is a turning toward him in repentance, and even that is brought about by the Holy Spirit. He saved us, “not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit,” (Titus 3:5)
All the works that follow, including baptism, service, giving, prayer, are manifestations and demonstrations of our desire to obey God now that we are his children. What an amazing transformation he works in us — we who were dead in our sins are now alive and useful for his kingdom. Amazing grace!
Beautifully and perfectly said Lori………So glad Michelle posted this today. I think as humans we tend to want to figure it all out and put salvation into a formula with checks and balances. That is kind of what the Pharisees tried to do and we all know how Jesus felt about them. And you are right. It is amazingly so simple a child can understand it, but we complicate it. As my Pastor used to say, “Jesus plus Nothing” The Spirit can’t be tamed, He comes at different times in our lives, but at that pivotal moment when we put our trust in Him for our salvation, He comes to live within us permanently. Praise God, we never have to wonder if we are going to Heaven or not, we know! But when a person loses that humility and walks around thinking they have their salvation “in the bag” so to speak, that worries me. We should never forget the grace that we walk in. And there but for the grace of God go any of us.
Beautifully said, Lori. This too, is what I believe and know to be true.
I do not believe baptism in water saves anybody, however. As you’ve said, the Holy Spirit comes to reside in us at the moment of conversion, of accepting Jesus Christ and His work for us on the Cross, as our only “means” by which to “qualify” for Heaven one day. When we are baptised, it is in the Name of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, already resident in our heart. I always think of the thief on the cross next to Jesus–he had no time to come down and be water baptised, yet Christ told him, “TODAY, you shall be with me in Paradise.”
That Midwestern wind can be brutal! I have had the wind hold me back and push me forward. The Holy Spirit guides me in much the same way and I believe that Jesus is bigger, broader and more inclusive than our minds can comprehend. But I also believe he is very clear about salvation and he is clear about being born again. I believe salvation and conversion can be a process…not every one has a Saul on the road to Damascus experience.
Thought provoking post, as always, Michelle.
“The problem, Jesus tells Nicodemus, and us, is that we want to explain it.”
Michelle, I love your discussion, here!
Yes, we seem to always try to make everything a step-by-step recipe for acquring godliness…but God doesn’t work that way. The black-and-white 12-step programs lead to the legalistic approach that Jesus continually condemned in the religious leaders of His day.
Here is a post a wrote a while back, about this same passage, and the mysteries of how the Holy Spirit works: http://josephjpote.com/2012/09/just-a-trace/
“The problem, Jesus tells Nicodemus, and us, is that we want to explain it.”
So true. But the older I get, the grayer the answers become (and even the questions too). I can’t nail things down like I once did. But maybe I like it better this way, even though it is unclear. Maybe I’ll be more accepting of the wind in this half of life…
wow Michelle you have my head spinning this morning and even more so after I read the wonderful comments here. Your exploration of this passage added new depth for me. And I think the wind is even wilder the last few years – mmm, is the Holy Spirit up to something? I will hold onto your thoughts about my thinking being too small. I think that is where God is inviting me. And I remember that there is Mystery to this spirit filled journey. A glorious, sacred Mystery. Thanks for such an in-depth post. You have started my week off nourished in His word
Provocative, Michelle.
I love it.
Thought provoking and well-timed — we have just spent two days with high winds blowing all around us sending limbs and debris to the ground. I loved reading this on Monday morning!
I LOVE this, Michelle! Like woah.
I love that you are showing just how wild and utterly mad Jesus is. He’s mad, and He’s unusual, and He’s so far outside the Church-appropriate box of modern Christianity. but He is so GOOD and He is so MIGHTY. Wow, this is a powerful message, one I will be returning to again and again.
Michelle, I love how you let us into your head. I can hear you thinking as you write out this post.
Here I see Jesus telling Nicodemus that his preconceived notions of how to behave in order to be acceptable to God were all wrong. God wants you to live your life in a whole new way with Him in the driver’s seat. “Tradition and religiosity won’t get you there, Nicodemus.” That’s what I hear Jesus saying here.
I think that there are certain “heart requirements” for salvation — you must surrender and take up your cross and follow Him. You must believe that Jesus is who He claimed to be, and yield to Him as Lord of your life. You must acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of a Savior. But again, it’s more than just “saying magic words” — I think that’s why He called it a “new birth” because it’s a radical internal transformation that only God can accomplish in you as you press into Him.
Nicodemus thought that because He was a child of Abraham, and he obeyed the commandments, he was on God’s team, but Jesus says stop putting your hopes into empty rituals and traditions. External obedience is not salvation. Jesus says, “Believe in me, and I will invade your .life with the fresh wind of the Holy Spirit and wash you with the water of the Worth. I will do a new thing. It’s a supernatural work of God– you can’t accomplish it for yourself just like you can’t control the direction of the wind.”
Love your thoughts and ponderings on the “wind-like workings” of the Holy Spirit, Michelle.
I too, immensely dislike strong winds, and here in Sleepy Gulch, Ontario, Canada, we have been experiencing the wrath of high winds…and snow…and sub-zero temperatures! We are having a winter such as we have not experienced for years and years. Today, I sit at a balmy -21 C.!!! My worst fears rear their ugly head during tornado season, however, in the heat and muggy weather of our summers here. Lightening storms, hail, and gale-force winds scare the heart out of me! But, they ARE amazing, when pondering the awesome power of God!
You have given me food-for-thought regarding the wind and Holy Spirit–how He moves and works. It is another of the great mysteries of our Almighty God!
I believe there is only one way for us to get saved and that is through Jesus Christ. No other way. It is through His atoning death on the cross and His shed blood. Baptism is for believers after they are saved and the Holy Spirit indwells us so that we He abides in us. I like John chapter 15. and this verse: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” ~Romans 6:23~
This has been a very thought provoking post and I like you question, causing us to really think about how we believe in Jesus. I have trouble explaining it and remembering where verses are in the Bible so this was really good for me.
Michele, I really love your posts and look forward to linking up with you in just a second. Thanks so much for hosting faithfully each week.
Too often I want the formula — the black and white, predictable — not the messy wind. And I don’t want to wait — what I wrote about today!