Introduction
Today we shall consider an encounter of Christ with a
religious scholar. Nicodemus is a Jew, a Pharisee, a member
of the Sanhedrin (the highest legal, legislative and
judicial body of the Jews), and a highly respected teacher
of the Old Testament Scriptures. Let us listen well to the
inspired and infallible words of this Gospel to learn how
one must enter the Kingdom of God. We shall consider this
together.
The Background
When Jesus began His public ministry, the people who heard
Him recognized a difference between His teaching and that of
the Jewish religious teachers. Jesus taught as one having
authority and not as their experts in the law. Our Lord’s
authority was evident in His healing of the sick and casting
out of demons. It also seems to have been evident in the
impact His words made on His listeners. The Jewish experts
in the law taught with great dogmatism (Romans
2:17-20;
1 Timothy 1:6-7;
2 Peter 2:18), but their message lacked the power and
punch of our Lord’s words. All of the earlier events
concerning Christ seem to rivet the Pharisees’ attention on
Jesus. We know one Pharisee in particular is greatly
impressed — a Pharisee named Nicodemus.
Nicodemus’ Night Interview with Jesus (3:1-2)
Nicodemus cannot overlook the weight of the evidence. Not
until Nicodemus recognizes the failure of Pharisaism and
renounces his faith in this religious system will he cast
himself on Jesus alone for salvation. This is precisely what
our Lord’s response is all about. Jesus seeks to show
Nicodemus that his system of religion does not, and cannot,
save anyone. Observe that Nicodemus is partly correct in his
assessment of Jesus. Jesus is a “teacher come from God,”
and God is “with Him” (verse 2). What Nicodemus does
not know is that his words are even truer than he realizes.
Jesus is literally a “teacher come from God.” He has
come down to earth from the Father. And God is “with Him.”
But Jesus is much greater than Nicodemus ever imagined at
this moment in time. He is God, and He manifests the power
of God in His teaching and working of signs.
Be Born Again? (3:3)
Our Lord begins by indicating to Nicodemus that the words He
is about to speak convey a most solemn truth.
To many Jews, to be born a Jew is to be born into the
Kingdom of God. We know the Jews also believed that Gentiles
are born “lost.” Even the Jerusalem church leaders had to be
forcefully convinced that God had purposed the salvation of
Gentiles (see
Acts 10; 11:15-18), and even then, the practice of many
Jewish believers did not match their profession (see
Acts 11:19). Paul, likewise, hit hard at this point. All
Israelites are not true Israelites (Romans
9:6). Those who trust in the atoning work of Jesus
Christ for salvation are true Israelites, whether their
racial origins are Jewish or Gentile (see
Galatians 3:28; 6:16).Nicodemus must be shocked when
Jesus tells him that his natural birth (as a Jew) will not
save him, and that he must be reborn from above. The
implication is clear: Unless Nicodemus is born again from
above, he will not see the Kingdom of God. He first must be
born again, from above.
Nicodemus got it wrong (3:4)
Nicodemus chooses to understand Jesus’ words literally, so
that he assumes the expression “born again” must refer to
some kind of literal re-birth. Nicodemus at the moment
cannot understand Jesus at all and he is still unsaved.
Spiritual Regeneration (3:5-8)
Once again, Jesus begins His response to Nicodemus by
indicating the solemnity of His words. He then goes on to
answer the objection Nicodemus raises: “… unless a person
is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of
God” (verse 5). I believe we can safely reason that to
be “born again from above” is synonymous with being “born
of water and spirit.” The question many ask is, “What is
meant by the terms “water” and “spirit”? The
term “water” refers to natural birth, while they
believe “spirit” refers to one’s spiritual birth from
above. This is what our Lord intended, when we see the next
verse and see the word “flesh” being used as referring to
the physical. Jesus shocked Nicodemus by indicating to him
that apart from being born again from above, neither he nor
anyone else will see the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus thinks
that his birth alone (as a Jew) assures him of seeing the
Kingdom of God (see
Matthew 3:9;
John 8:39;
Romans 9:6). In short, Nicodemus is like the self
righteous, religious man today who felt as though the
Pharisees can save themselves by their good works.
No amount of good works, or striving, or manipulation can
save anyone (Eph 2:8-9, Tit 3:5) and only the Spirit can
bring about the new birth. We know it is the work of God’s
Spirit, unseen and beyond man’s control. In this sense,
neither Nicodemus nor anyone else can save themselves. Are
you trying to save yourself today? Salvation is the
sovereign work of God, accomplished by the regenerating
power of the Holy Spirit.
How Can These Things Be? (3:9)
In verses 4 and 9, Nicodemus asks two different questions,
but both begin the same. Nicodemus is so much a part of the
natural world that he cannot fathom the possibility of
anything spiritual and supernatural. In theory, the
Pharisees believed in the miraculous (see
Acts 23:6-8), but in practice Nicodemus appears to be
anti-supernatural. As many claim to believe God is in
control, and that He is all-powerful, yet often fail to live
like it is true.
The Teacher of Israel learnt about Spiritual Things
(3:10-15)
Our Lord’s words are a gentle rebuke: that the teacher in
Israel could not grasp these things. Nicodemus is not only a
Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, he is “the
teacher of Israel (verse 10). Jesus contrasts “earthly
things” with “heavenly things.” He seems to place
the things of which He has been speaking in the category of
“earthly things.” “Heavenly things” would thus
refer to those things associated with the coming kingdom of
God, things presently beyond our comprehension. How can
Nicodemus, a teacher of the Old Testament law, not grasp
those things the law teaches? The problem with mankind
has always been with the heart (Gen
8:21;
Exod 7:14;
Deut 5:28-29; 8:14;
Isa 29:13;
Jer 17:9), a problem which God alone can solve by
giving men a new heart (Deut
30:6;
Jer 31:31-34). To be reborn by the Spirit of God makes
one a new man (see
1 Samuel 10:6-13), and it is the Spirit who enables men
to see such truths (see
1 Corinthians 2). Paul carries this even a step further.
Jesus has been speaking of regeneration, a new birth which
comes from above. It is the work of God’s Spirit, who
sovereignly brings about new life (verses 7-8), and it is a
work that comes “from above” (verses 13-15). Does
Nicodemus believe in a heavenly kingdom? He did the Old
Testament men and women of faith (see
Hebrews 11:13-16). If anyone could ascend into heaven,
they must first come down from heaven. Only the Son of Man
can return to heaven, because this is where He came from
(verse 13). This is why salvation is “from above”.
The story of the bronze serpent, recorded in
Numbers 21, foreshadows the salvation which God will
provide through the “Son of Man.” The Israelites had
been complaining against God, grumbling about the journey
and their apparent lack of food and water. They did not like
the manna God gave them day after day. And so God sent fiery
serpents among them, and many of those who were bitten died.
God provided salvation for this disobedient people, so that
they might survive divine judgment. He instructed Moses to
make a bronze serpent and to set it on a pole, so that
anyone who was bitten by one of the serpents could merely
look up at the serpent and be healed. This is precisely what
happened. All who were bitten and looked up were healed as
we look up to Jesus alone as the Author and Finisher of our
faith (Heb 12:1-2).
The snake-bitten Israelites were smitten of God for their
sin. They deserved to die, and apart from His provision of
the serpent, they would have. Those who did not look up to
the bronze serpent died. The act of merely looking up to the
bronze serpent was an act of faith. It was the means God
declared through Moses. It was the one way God said His
people could be saved. Those who looked to the bronze
serpent were saved from the death they deserved. And we need
to do the same today by looking to Christ as our redeemer,
sin bearer, Lord and God. In verses 14 and 15, Jesus
connects the serpent, which is lifted up on a pole, with His
own death at Calvary, when He is lifted up on the cross.
Nicodemus asks how a man can be reborn from above. Jesus
first tells him by analogy; now He tells him more directly.
If anyone is to be saved from the penalty of their sins,
they must “look up” to Him for salvation. He, like the
bronze serpent of old, will be “lifted up” on a
cross, and He will later be “lifted up” in His
resurrection and ascension.
The Love of God and the Cross of Christ (3:16-21)
This brings us to verse 16, perhaps the most well known
passage in the Bible. Unfortunately, this verse is almost
always used in a “stand alone” fashion, without any
reference to its context. Now let us apply this aspect of
the expression to
John 3:16. Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born
again from above. Nicodemus is surprised and confused by
what Jesus has said (3:4, 9). Jesus gently rebukes
Nicodemus, a prominent teacher of the Old Testament law,
because he finds our Lord’s words so new and so difficult
(3:10). And so in verse 14, Jesus turns to the Old Testament
to clarify what He has told Nicodemus. In this incident,
Moses lifted up a bronze serpent in the desert, so that all
who (by faith) looked up to it were saved. In the same
way that Moses lifted up the serpent, the Son of man
must be “lifted up.” The Son of man is to be “lifted
up” so that everyone who believes in Him may have
eternal life.
The salvation is from above, not only in that God has
provided it through Him who descended from heaven, but also
in that men must look up to Him first to be saved (Isaiah
55:22).God’s love for the world was demonstrated in Jesus,
the One whom Pharisaism rejected, whose testimony (along
with John’s) they did not believe. The Jews wrongly assumed
that God loved them because they were Jews. Now they are
informed that God loves them only through Christ. If
they reject Christ, they also reject the love which the
Father manifested toward them in Christ. In verse 16, it
declares that God’s love extends to the world without
discrimination, and that God has purposed to save elect
Gentiles as well as Jews. This was literally beyond the
comprehension of many Jews, including believing Jews. For
Jesus (or John) to say that God loved the world was
revolutionary, shocking, and very distressing for a strict
Jew.
The biblical concept of hell, or eternal judgment which is
real, is introduced by the term “perish.” The people
who were “saved” by looking up to the bronze serpent were
those who were dying. They were “perishing” because God was
judging them on account of their sin, and they knew it. If
they did not quickly look up to the serpent in faith, they
would perish. Jesus first shocked Nicodemus by telling him
that he would not even see the Kingdom of God unless he was
born again from above. Nicodemus is not only unable to see
the Kingdom of God in his present state, he is destined to
perish. God’s purpose in sending Jesus into the world was
not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved. Those for whom He came to provide a way of
salvation are guilty sinners, already under condemnation
(see
Romans 3:9-18, 23). Those who reject the offer of
salvation in Jesus Christ reject God’s love, and fall under
even greater condemnation for having seen the light and then
rejecting it (see
John 9:35-41). .
Conclusion
We shall conclude by noting some vital principles.
“Are you a Christian, or are you just religious?” If
you take the words of our Lord seriously, there is a great
difference between those who are religious (i.e. go to
church or be active in some work or service) and those who
are born again from above. Nicodemus was as lost as the
Samaritan woman at the well (John
4). Hell will be populated by many people who are
“religious,” who have trusted in their religion to save
them, rather than trusting in Christ alone.
God will give you rest and peace when you seek the love of
God in the person and work of Jesus Christ and embrace Him
as your Saviour confessing and repenting of your sins. Will
you do that today before it is too late? Seek and believe
the Lord Christ and confess and repent of your sins and be
saved now and forever more. There is no other way. Jesus
alone saves. |
