So again we ask, “What is the most important thing in life?” Any answer based on this passing world is shortsighted. “Flesh gives birth to flesh.” “All flesh is like grass.” The flesh will fail you.
There is a better answer, a better hope.
“The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:17).
Fleshly life is brief and fading. God’s life is the opposite – always bright, always whole, always fresh, never ending. Fleshly birth, by its very nature, can never be good enough for God’s kingdom.
“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (1 Corinthians 15:50).
In John 3 Jesus announces His priceless gift, “eternal life.” Such a prize, though, cannot come through fleshly birth, no matter how noble. It comes only from God’s Spirit, and only through rebirth. This is the most important kind of life: life with God, which is richer, fuller and more secure. To be born once is to die. To be born twice is to live forever (even when flesh fails).
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26).
What others hopelessly call “death” becomes our doorway into eternal happiness. The One who welcomes us home is our Creator, and much more. He is “our Father!” For He invites you and me to become…
… children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12-13).