Metochoi Learning

As Moses had lifted up the bronze serpent in the desert, so God’s Son would be lifted up on the cross of Calvary. Therefore, as God’s appointed Savior for sin-stricken humanity, anyone could look to Him in faith and, like the Israelites of old, find life instantaneously. A single look with eternal life the result. What could be plainer? But obviously, here too there is no thought of looking and looking and looking. Just as the single drink of living water was an effective appropriation, so too is the single look of faith. . . . For at the precise instant when a man or woman believes in Christ, at that moment, eternity itself invades human experience and transforms our inner beings into something wonderfully and permanently new.

What does it mean to be “born again”? When Jesus spoke to Nicodemus under cover of darkness, He did not hand down an arduous checklist of moral reform, religious ritual, or legalistic surrender. Instead, He directed the inquiring Pharisee back to the wilderness of Numbers—where dying sinners were delivered by a single look. The new birth is a supernatural, unrepeatable miracle received not through human strivings, but simply by believing in the Son of Man lifted up on the cross.

At Jacob’s well, Jesus did not offer religion, moral improvement, or religious ritual. He offered a thirsty outcast eternal life as living water—a gift completely unearned, irrevocably permanent, and received simply by asking and believing in Him.