by Tad Lindley
The Bible uses four types of language to convey God’s message to us. For this reason, the word of God can at times be hard to understand. One night a man named Nicodemus came to visit Jesus (John 3). It was at that time that Jesus invented the expression, “Born again.” He told Nicodemus that the only way to see the kingdom of God is to be born again. When Nicodemus thought about being born again he panicked. He would have to literally reenter his mother’s uterus and pass through the birth canal again. It would be impossible for him to be saved! What he did not know at the moment is that Jesus was not speaking literally.
Literal
Literal language means exactly what it says. There is no deeper meaning to it. For example when Jesus tells his disciples, He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned (Mark 16:16). Another example of literal language in the Bible is found in Acts 2:41, And they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. It is describing what happened, no more and no less. Among the people that heard Peter preach there were about 3,000 that connected with his sermon and as a result were baptized. The number 3,000 has no special meaning, it is simply a literal statement of fact.
Figurative Language
Figurative language goes beyond the literal language by using comparisons to create a more powerful meaning. Check out Galatians 3:27: For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ [literal up to this point], have put on Christ [now using an image to create deeper meaning]. Here is another example, Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4) Obviously nobody alive today could have been thrown into the tomb with Jesus, but figuratively baptism has a deeper meaning than simply going under water while someone calls out the name of Jesus. We are dying out to one life, so that we can live a better one.
Allegorical
Remember the story of Noah’s Ark? How he built a giant boat and the animals got on board, and Noah’s wife, and three sons, and three daughters-in-law? Then the Lord flooded the earth and everything on Noah’s Ark was saved? This seems like a literal historical account, right? But we find out that although it really happened, it also represents a deeper meaning. …long ago when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat. Only eight people were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you, not by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God from a clean conscience. (I Peter 3:20-21 NLT) You probably had no idea that Noah’s Ark had a very real deep meaning for you and I, but the Bible makes it quite clear, it has a significant relationship to water baptism, which as you read earlier, is essential for salvation.
How can Noah’s Ark represent baptism? In allegorical writing, the literal things that we see at face value represent deeper ideas at a more abstract level.
Nicodemus: The rest of the story
It turns out that Jesus was speaking figuratively. When Jesus said in John 3:3, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” he needed to expand the literal language so that Nicodemus, and 2,000 years later, you and I, could understand what he meant. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” (John 3:5) Let me break that down for you in terms of the language that Jesus is using:
Except a man be born of water [figurative of baptism]
and of the Spirit, [figurative of receiving the Holy Spirit]
he cannot enter the Kingdom of God [figuratively, he can’t be saved]
Have you been born again?
If not, I urge you, as Peter did on the day of Pentecost: Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (Acts 2:38)
Reverend Tad Lindley is a minister at the United Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Alaska.
