The Bible tells us that when we turn our lives over to Jesus Christ and become a Christian, then we are also a new creation, effectively being reborn. Nicodemus struggled with this when Jesus said to him that he must be born again, that is, he needs to be recreated, to become a new creation. Jesus explains this to Nicodemus in John 3:1-12. Campbell explains this to us further by showing the positive effect on us when we embrace Jesus and follow what he taught – taking our heart of stone and softening it (Ezekiel 11:19, Ezekiel 36:26 and 2 Corinthians 3:3). The Jews of Jesus day were living by the law which was given through Moses. The laws of God are good and holy, but unfortunately we, as humans, are unable to obey them. God’s laws show that we fail, that we all fail, “Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.  As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one’ ” (Romans 3:9-10). But the good news that Jesus brought us is that he came to fulfil the law, bringing us God’s mercy and grace. Mercy and forgiveness, because we cannot possibly obey his laws, and grace given by God who freely gives us what we do not deserve. Which is eternal life with him, commencing from when we embrace him and his requirements on us. And we can only have this free gift from God, because Jesus paid the penalty that we deserve. Jesus died on our behalf, he died, paying the penalty that we deserve for not keeping the law, to then receive God’s grace of total forgiveness. But wait, there is more, because when Jesus rose from the dead, God poured out on us his Holy Spirit, to live within us, to guide us in all that we do, and lead us to a loving personal relationship with Jesus.