Page 100 - Laying Down the Law

a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Yahshua answered, "Most
assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot
enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must
be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it,
but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is
born of the Spirit."

Nicodemus struggled to comprehend what the Messiah was declaring to him.
1,500 years of the Law’s instruction had not led God’s people to a knowledge of the
truth. It was very difficult for this man, in one brief moment, to hear spiritual truth
spoken and grasp it.

John 3:9-13
Nicodemus answered and said to Him, "How can these things be?" Yahshua
answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know
these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify
what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. If I have told you
earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly
things?”

Nicodemus was no less intelligent than other men. His failure to comprehend
the truth Christ presented to him was caused by his spiritual condition. Spiritually,
Nicodemus was dead. Therefore, the words of Christ, which were spirit and life,
sounded like foolishness to his ears.

I Corinthians 2:12-14
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from
God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we
also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the
Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man
does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him;
and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

In these words, the apostle describes an important difference between men who
have been born of the Spirit and those who have not. A spiritual man is able to receive
the thoughts of God. What the Spirit speaks to a spiritual man is comprehensible. The
same message is nonsense to one who has not been born again. Nicodemus’ problem
was that he was a natural man.
Although the Law had served as Yahweh’s appointed school-master and
instructor to the Jews for 1,500 years, its lessons were not learned. The reason is
disclosed in the following Scripture.