John 3:3 -- On Spiritual Rebirth

"Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
John 3:3


Scripture is sometimes difficult to understand and sometimes easy, usually depending on who is speaking, like Isaiah versus Nephi. When it is Christ speaking, it is also sometimes hard and sometimes easy, depending on whether he explains himself later or not, but because of that example, of saying something that seems confusing and then explaining it to his disciples later, we learn a lot about how to read the scriptures, because there are perfectly plain things, and there are richly symbolic things, and sometime both when there is a plain meaning and then a deeper meaning.

I don't think it is meant to confuse... after all, Shakespeare also wrote with multiple levels of meaning. I think it is meant to make us think and ponder a little bit more, and dig deeper. Curiosity enhances our learning because when we are curious about something, we'll read more about it, look up things about it, and try to delve deeper, and Christ uses that curiosity to get us to really think and try to figure out what he means.

Another way to understand besides just pure studying it out is to have the spirit with us. The more we get to know God, the more we will understand him and the more we'll be able to not only process the messages in the scriptures, but to understand "the truth of all things" (Moroni 10:5).

This particular verse is talking about baptism and helping us to understand that we need to be transformed in a fundamental way to follow God and be a part of his kingdom. Baptism is symbolic of that change, but I think it is the same "mighty change of heart" it talks about in Alma 5 as well. Today, let's put some thought and perhaps infuse some curiosity into what the Lord is telling us, and learn more about it... figuring out not only how we can become new people in Christ, but gaining a key that can open the door to everything else we will ever need to know.