If you don't believe me when I tell you about things on earth, how will you believe me when I tell you about things in heaven? – John 3:12
Jesus taught in terms that humans could understand. He used expressions and parables about farms, fishing and the everyday life of that time period. In this verse it almost seems that Jesus is astounded that someone as smart as Nicodemus was unable to understand. What Jesus was talking about was far and beyond humans and we should be grateful that The Word Who created the very universe itself came to talk to us in our own tongue with terms that we should be able to understand.
Jesus was telling Nicodemus the secrets of Heaven; the great and wondrous love of God; using human terms. Yet Nicodemus didn’t get it. It is the same today. There are some people, no matter how simply you word it, who do not understand the Gospel. I often wonder if maybe they choose not to understand. Jesus could have spoken with the language of Heaven (the tongues of angels) or used English (not yet invented, but no problem for the Word) yet He chose to give Nicodemus, and us, the Gospel in simple, easy to understand terms.
Can we do any less? The Gospel is really very simple. We are sinners and deserve to die a sinner’s death, forever to live apart from God. Jesus lived a sinless, perfect life, did not deserve to die, yet He chose to take our place in death. Now, here’s where it gets hard for some people, so you may need to go slow here, or repeat this a time or two. All we have to do is to accept that His death covers all of our sin and accept this perfect gift. That’s it! Sometimes its simplicity is where people stumble. Thirty two years ago a Sunday School teacher once told me the best way to present the Gospel to people was to follow the K.I.S. principle:
Keep It Simple!
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