Nicodemus' Response

As I was thinking about some of the responses I get when talking to people about the doctrines of grace or God's Sovereignty and man's responsibility, I began wondering if Nicodemus was thinking any of those things when he answered Jesus' statement, 'You must be born again.'

He asked, 'How can that be? How can one who is old be born again, can he enter a second time....'?
Was he sarcastic toward Jesus? "That's ridiculous, a man can't be born again, he can't enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born."

Did he say, "That's too deep of a concept, that's too hard to understand. No one could agree on how that could happen so let's not talk about that anymore, Jesus."

Did Nicodemus make Jesus look foolish for even suggesting that someone could be born again?

Did Nicodemus see that what Jesus said was foolish because he himself couldn't understand it?
1 Cor. 2:14

When I hear some of these arguments from people about man's sinful nature and whether that sinful nature can choose to be saved from his own free will or that God chose them from before the foundation of the world to be saved and then saved them in time calling them to Himself, I hear these objections/arguments:

• too hard to understand so let's not argue about it-let alone have a conversation about it.
• no one can agree on that so let's not talk about it.
• many great teachers on 'both' sides of the issue can't agree and if great men can't agree we shouldn't even try to understand it.
• some just don't want their 'world' upset by sound teaching at all- just want to believe what they have been taught all their lives without looking into whether it is true or not.
• I have even been told it is not in the Bible at all and won't be discussed or taught 'in this church'.
• Some believe it would be horrible of God to choose some for salvation but overlook others and make it sound like a ridiculous concept. (I would remind them of many times He did just that throughout the Bible, especially the exodus)

I want to have the discussion. I want people to understand the depth of the love of God for them in their salvation.

for the praise of the glory of His grace alone,

Norma