「重生？那是什麼意思？我從沒聽說過。」殯葬負責人問道。死者的兒子便把握機會，用約翰福音第3章向對方解釋了重生的含義。

他說：「歸根結底，每個人都出生在這世上，但要得永遠的生命卻要重生。上帝不是用神奇的天平來衡量我們的善行或惡行，而是要我們從聖靈而生。」他接著說：「這就是為什麼耶穌要死在十字架上──祂為我們的罪付上代價，使我們能與祂一同得享永生。這永生不是我們靠善行能得到的。」

約翰福音第3章記載，尼哥德慕懷疑自己是否真的明白一切。他是一位精通律法的聖經教師（1節），但他體認到耶穌與眾不同，因祂的教導帶有權柄（2節）。尼哥德慕想親自找到答案，所以夜裡去見耶穌尋求解答。過後，他一定相信並接受了耶穌所說的「你們必須重生」（7節），因在耶穌被釘十字架之後，尼哥德慕協助纏裹祂的身體以便埋葬（19章39節）。

那位殯葬負責人聽了這段話，答應在回家後會閱讀約翰福音第3章。像那位死者的兒子將福音傳給殯葬負責人一樣，我們也可以靠著耶穌的幫助，謹記祂所說的話，並將福音傳給別人。

“Born again? What does that mean?” asked the funeral director. “I’ve never heard of that term before.” Grasping the opportunity, the son of the deceased father explained what it meant through the words of John chapter 3.

“It comes down to the fact that we are all born once into this world,” he said. “God doesn’t have a magic scale where He weighs our good deeds against the bad. God requires us to be born of the Spirit,” he continued. “That’s why Jesus died on the cross—He paid for our sins and made it possible for us to possess eternal life with Him. We can’t make it on our own.”

In John 3, Nicodemus began to doubt if he truly had it all figured out. A trained teacher in the Scriptures (v. 1), he recognized that Jesus was different and that His teaching had authority (v. 2). He wanted to find out for himself, so he approached Christ one night to get the matter settled. Nicodemus must have accepted Jesus’ statement “You must be born again” (v. 7) and believed, because he helped prepare the Savior’s body for burial after He was crucified (19:39).

The funeral director agreed to go home and read the third chapter of John’s gospel. Like the son who talked with the director, let’s take Jesus’ words to heart and share them with others as He helps us.