John 3

Nicodemus was an important man in the circles of religious power in Judea. He was a ruler of the Jews, one of the elders of the nation, and a leader in the religious and political party known as the Pharisees. The Pharisees were known for their seriousness in attending to the Law, though their understanding of God’s Law was deeply flawed, and their expectation of what would come to them through their supposed keeping of that Law was greatly inflated. Because of these problems, it was very difficult for someone committed to the Pharisaic way to appreciate the ministry and purpose of Jesus Christ, and the good news that He came to bring. A right understanding of Jesus and the gospel is built upon the fact that we are all guilty sinners according to the Law of God, rightly condemned for our disobedience. This was something that the Pharisees as a group could not fully embrace. Therefore, it is easy to see why they would have no place in their system for a Messiah who would atone for the sins of Israel through His own obedience and death.

Nonetheless, this Nicodemus was attracted to Jesus, and came to Him at night, and he spoke to Him some words of approval. Yet Jesus Christ did not receive his compliments. It is true that Jesus was a teacher from God, and that the signs that He performed displayed that fact, but Nicodemus needed to see more than this. It is not enough for us to recognize our Lord’s good qualities and gifts, or even to consider Him to be the best of all prophets. We must see Him as the Messiah who takes away our sins, and to see this requires a work of God in our souls that Jesus calls here being “born again,” or “born from above.”

The kingdom of God is the kingdom of heaven, and to be a part of that kingdom is greatly to be desired. The way into that kingdom is by birth, not the physical birth that seems to be the only birth that Nicodemus can think of, but by spiritual birth that can only come from heaven and heaven’s God. It is by God the Holy Spirit that people are brought into heaven’s world. He is a wind from another land that cannot be observed with the eyes entirely, and cannot be controlled by even the most well-connected, influential, and pious people. The fact that there would be a coming age of the Spirit of God could have been known from many passages in the Law, the prophets, and the writings of the Old Testament Scriptures. This is something that any true religious teacher in Israel should have known. Yet they did not seem to know, and even though Nicodemus had some respect and admiration for Jesus, he also did not seem to know these things.

The way of the kingdom of heaven on earth has come through the One who came from heaven to earth, and who ascended back to His heavenly abode after completing His work that He came to accomplish. The way for someone to experience heaven’s birth in his soul is to look to Him and live. As the people of Israel dying in the wilderness because of their sin and rebellion needed to look to the serpent lifted up upon the pole, the people of every time and place on earth need to look to Jesus and the cross in faith in order to live, in order to be born in heaven. This is why Jesus first came into the world, not to condemn, but that people who are already condemned might find eternal life through believing in the name of the only Son of God.

Nonetheless, when the Son of God came with such mercy and salvation, just as when God provided the serpent in the wilderness, not everyone would look to Him and live. The Light came into the world, but those who were not yet born from above showed that they loved their evil more than their God. They turned away from the Light of the world instead of embracing Him. They may have insisted on their good standing with God, and their excellence in keeping all kinds of religious traditions. They would not see their depravity and find life in Jesus.

Those who rejected the way to peace with God through the works and atonement of a Substitute, rejected both John the Baptist and Jesus. They believed that their standing with God had to do with things like purification rituals of cleansing oneself from the stain of a dirty world, rather than admitting the sin that is within, and turning away from that sin. The rituals of Jewish purification were one thing, the baptism of repentance as preparation for the coming of the Messiah was another, and the baptism of union with Christ as a spiritual reality was yet another, better, thing. This final baptism is well connected with the kingdom of heaven, and with the celebration of a marriage between Christ and His church. The purification rituals would go their way, and even John and his baptism of preparation for the Messiah would decrease, but Jesus Christ and the reality of our engagement to be the Lord’s people will increase forever.

The amazing thing about Jesus is that He is from above. Prophets and godly men were entrusted with messages that were from above, but He Himself is from above, and He is above all. The testimony that He gives is the testimony of the one who has seen and heard the reality of the kingdom of heaven. It is somewhat understandable when those who do not accept this reality of the pre-existent Son of God reject His testimony concerning the facts about heaven. What is harder to understand is when we who believe in Jesus still insist on treating heavenly realms as a complete mystery, though He has revealed to us so much. We need to receive His testimony. God is true, and Jesus is God. Set your seal of approval on the person of Jesus and on His teaching about heaven and earth. He is an unending Source of the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the Father has given all things into His hand. We need more than purification ceremonies and even our own thoughts of repentance if we are to have honest evidence that we are no longer under the wrath of God. We need to believe in the Son of God, and to obey Him by the grace of the Holy Spirit.