A change of heart
Dear Friends,
Probably the most famous preacher in the eighteenth century was an Englishman called George Whitefield. He used to love to preach on Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John chapter 3: “You must be born again.” So much was this a favourite text that he was once challenged by a man who asked, “Mr Whitefield, why is it that you keep preaching again and again, ‘You must be born again. You must be born again’?” “Because, sir,” Whitefield replied, “you must be born again.”
As I reflect on the recent riots in England (and I’m writing this some ten days before you’ll be reading it), these words of Jesus seem particularly relevant. It is the only thing that will finally guarantee that we don’t, on the one hand, tear one another apart or, on the other, sit in self-righteous condemnation. The fact is, we just don’t have it in us to love one another as we should, let alone to love God as we ought. Each of us, literally, needs a change of heart – a spiritual change of heart, to be sure, but none the less real.
Jesus was speaking to one of the best men of his day, a leader and a teacher in Israel. And he wasn’t making a good suggestion, giving a good idea, or offering some good advice, as if he’d said, “I wonder, had you thought of being born again?” He said, “You must be born again.” And, if Nicodemus had to be born again, is there any reason to think that we might not need to?
Chris Hobbs,
Vicar.