Born Again

The hope of the gospel is that God has already provided the cure for what's killing us, even when His way of doing it doesn't fit our logic. Like Israel looking at the bronze snake, or Nicodemus needing to be born again, we're invited to trust and act on what God says even before we fully understand it, and find true life on the other side.

God offers hope even in judgment: He scatters to discipline those who are His and destroys those who refuse Him, but His intent is always to gather His people back and give them a new heart. That new heart comes only through looking to Jesus, lifted up like the bronze serpent, who died and rose so we could be born again.

Christmas is the story of God coming to give us real life — life found in Him, not just fleeting moments of happiness. Like Israel in the wilderness, we're all snake-bitten by sin, but God didn't remove the danger, He gave us something to look at. Jesus, lifted up like the bronze snake on the pole, is the cure; all we have to do is look to Him and believe.