Once again I learn something new from this most commonly known book of the Bible. John 3 is a chapter most Americans are familiar with. Once in a while God slows me down to take a deeper look at something in it. This week one specific word from verses 3 & 5 grab my attention. CANNOT, seems pretty
straight forward and is pretty clear, right?!
For what ever reason I looked it up and this is what I found,
CANNOT: to be unable to do otherwise than
Just as I suspected, simple enough. Well, I kept going with this defining of words and next up was UNABLE, here's what I found:
UNABLE: not able to do something
Full Definition of unable
- What caught my attention was this full definition... WOW! Now this gives more depth to the word CANNOT!!!
- Let's look at these two verses in John 3&5
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.
(keep in mind our definitions we just found)
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Jesus answered, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, Except a man
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
(keep in mind our definitions we just found)
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UNQUALIFIED...
INCOMPETENT...
IMPOTENT...
HELPLESS
All we have to do is obey Jesus... Jesus said if we want to enter the Kingdom of God and to see the Kingdom of Heaven, we need to be born again!
To be born again is to believe in Jesus as the only begotten Son of God! So simple yet so much depth! Only Jesus is ABLE!
I can hardly wrap my mind around these truths! Outside of Jesus we will NEVER get to Heaven! We will remain blind and dead according to these two verses. Jesus was talking to one of the Jewish leaders of that time. These words apply to us today just as much as they did to Nicodemus the Pharisee back then!
If we CANNOT see, then we are blind, if we are, UNABLE:
INCAPABLE, UNQUALIFIED, INCOMPETENT, IMPOTENT, HELPLESS, basically dead, then who is ABLE? Jesus is, that's who!
Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
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Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
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And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;
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John 3:16 tells us just what to do:
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
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This has been on my mind for several days now and I just had to share it! Look up the definitions of the defined words and get even more depth and realize there is just no way for us to save ourselves... CANNOT is such a deep word!
All definitions taken from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/
All scripture quotes are from the King James Version Bible through https://www.blueletterbible.org/
