Rees Howells and the New Birth
by Doris Ruscoe

Rees Howells and the New Birth

Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.

Some of the Saviour’s most vital truths were spoken to individuals, such as Nicodemus and the woman at the well. Nicodemus represented the Jews of his day and his concern was to know why the Saviour had the power to do what no one else could do. The first thing the Lord said to him upset him. ‘Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ You may believe many things about the Bible, but this is still true that you cannot see the kingdom of God unless you are born again. Measure yourself with this man, this ruler of the Jews. Keeping the law does not get you into the kingdom. There was probably a greater conflict in this than you ever thought. The Saviour came to open a new dispensation and what changes there would have to be from former times. He was doing a new thing altogether and doing away with the sacrifices on which their worship had been based for so many generations. Nicodemus represented the synagogue, and in this conversation the Saviour gave to him the main principle of his teaching: ‘as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up’ (John 3:14). It was not religion that Nicodemus needed but life.