Jesus saves the filthiest addict

"I am not religious," Kevin started right out, "but I've seen seven of my friends die because of drugs, like me. I'm afraid I might die.  I have a pocket New Testament but I need a Bible.  I am addicted to heroine... I am afraid.  I could have died. Can you help me?"

Kevin is 31 and is an inmate at the Regional justice Center in Kent. Starting with marijuana around 15, he progressed to painkillers, oxycontin, and heroine. Oxycontin and heroine kept getting mentioned as he unfolded an ongoing 16 year trail of addiction and substance abuse.  

He admitted he was tired and his eyes kept rolling back through most of our time together. How much he was able to pay attention?  I thought I was losing him several times but, no, he was intent on hearing from Jesus and the message of eternal life.

                   God loves and wants to save addicted sinners

I had about 40 minutes for this first session right at the end of the day before dinner for the men. I am sobered by this kind of meeting because I may not get a second hearing.  From the unit bookshelf, I located a Gideon New King James Bible.  Holding the Bible, I emphasized it is merely another book if I don't recognize it is God's incredible message to us about His love and His way to deliver us from the messes we find ourselves in, even heroine addictions like his.  

 

Kevin may have attended church some as an early teen but there is no lasting understanding. He has not been around a church nor read a Bible for a long time.  This man needed to hear God loves and wants to save addicted sinners like him.  

God wants to save this heroine addict.  He can live... and doesn't have to die without Jesus.  Neither he nor I are guaranteed to make it out of the room we were sitting in. That isn't to traumatize him but God may bring death at any time.  Kevin is not a healthy man.  As a actively prayed silently and with Kevin to begin with, I led him to Jesus and Nicodemus.  

                            Go right to Jesus
I wanted him to hear Jesus.

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.  ~John 3:1-8

So, what are these statements about being born again?  The Lord Jesus is very direct. He said, "You must be born again."  How do we understand, "unless one is born of the water and the Spirit, he cannot see nor enter the Kingdom of God"?  Being born again means we are saved and enter the Kingdom of God through the supernatural work of God.  

Being saved is wholly, completely, thoroughly the work of God.  The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.  Here, Jesus focuses on the work of the Holy Spirit.

                       Water and the Spirit 

Jesus asserts Nicodemus should know what he meant when he referenced, "...born of the water and the Spirit..."  In verse 1, John introduces Jesus as a Pharisee.  Jesus knew he was a "teacher of Israel," in verse 10.  D.A. Carson notes "teachers of Israel" would have memorized the Old Testament so he should have known what being born of water and Spirit means.  

Jesus referred to Ezekiel 36.  Here it is--

I will sprinkle you clean...

 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.  ~Ezekiel 36:25-27

Nicodemus should have known about the cleansing water and the Father's work to "put My Holy Spirit within you."  Nicodemus didn't argue with Jesus; he remembered.  Kevin brought out the clear reference to the forgiveness of sin. 

Substance abuse and every other sin--gossip, overeating, etc.--leaves the addicted filthy before God.

Jesus is talking about a physical birth in the flesh and a second spiritual birth, wholly the work of God.  Lost sinners don't make themselves born again.  

                                      Born again

Again, Jesus teaches being born again is the work of the Holy Spirit.  The wind blows and we hear it.  The Holy Spirit works and we are forever, miraculously, supernaturally saved.  We see things change.  We don't know where it comes from.  The saving work of God makes changes in our lives on an ongoing basis for the rest of our lives. 

The lost sinner is forever changed.  I shared with Kevin this isn't primarily emotional, although emotions are engaged.  God forever and really changes us.  We sense a change.  Multiple men may experience it differently but each one recognizes radical change over time.  For some, it is very dramatic and for others it may be more quiet. We moved on to the next sections of John 3--

 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”  ~John 3:16-21

I asked if we could get real personal.  This wasn't "play time," at all.  Kevin's eyes still rolled back and he regained focus...Did he want soft and sweet or clear and straight?  He chose clear and straight. 

The Father loved Kevin, Kevin so much He sent God the Son, Jesus, to die so Kevin might not spend eternity separated from the love of God but Kevin might possess eternal life from God.  

The person without Christ is condemned, right now.  They are the living dead and face an eternity sentenced to remain under the wrath of God.  Jesus says this is hell, Kevin understood, and is a place of destruction where people are weeping and gnashing their teeth.  They are aware this hell is a very bad, horrible beyond description, place. 

Eternity rests on every person's believing response to the name of the only Son of God.  It is about leaning everything we are forever, our eternal destiny, on who Jesus is and what He has and continues to do to save us for all eternity.  

Kevin could do that, right now.  He could have eternal life in Jesus Christ.  He said that was what he wanted.  

In the text, "does what is true" and "his works"  contains the greatest news anyone could ever hear.  These are references to believing, the one who "comes to the light," this one leans everything they are on the once-for-all, finished work of Jesus Christ.  This one is saved by God, the act of believing is "clearly seen...clearly seen...as being carried out in God."

I assured Kevin he could have all these things related to eternal life and believing.  He wanted to pray.  I asked him to pray whatever was on his heart.  God hears and knows.  If God saves, how we pray isn't important.  It is not about the sinner's prayer to bring salvation.

We have heard the joyful sound: Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Spread the tidings all around: Jesus saves! Jesus saves!
Bear the news to every land, climb the mountains, cross the waves;
Onward! ’tis our Lord’s command; Jesus saves! Jesus saves!

Glory to God, Kevin prayed.  I left him with a worksheet from Romans and verses about the assurance of salvation to be found in Jesus.  We could talk Monday.