John 3:1-17
Reread verse 2, keeping in mind that this is one of Judaism’s rulers from Jerusalem addressing an ex-carpenter from Nazareth. What Nicodemus had to say about Jesus truly was remarkable. But notice that Nicodemus still didn’t declare Jesus to be God Himself. Though Nicodemus already knew and discerned a lot about Jesus, he still didn’t know Jesus, because he had been born only once.
If Nicodemus would have had the right acquaintance with the Old Testament, he would have understood what Jesus said to him.
Faith in Jesus delivers from eternal destruction and leads into possession of life. This is eternal life, a perpetual life of immeasurable quantity and quality. This is God’s kind of life, the kind enjoyed in eternity, rich and abundant. To not choose this through the Son is to choose death.
Jesus is the way of salvation and life; not the Law, not Jewish ethnicity. Whosoever means the scope of salvation is as broad as the human race. Gentile and Jew alike are the objects and recipients of God’s love. And that love now comes only through Christ. What a clash with Nicodemus’ understanding of God’s interaction with mankind!
John 3:16 speaks of the manner in which God loved the world. “This is how God loved the world: He gave His only Son.” The beloved Son is the expression of God’s love. He is also the gift of God’s love. Thus, to not accept the Son is to reject God’s love.
An acting faith that Jesus is the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Son of the Highest signals rebirth (1 John 5:1). Living a righteous life reveals the changed nature brought on by the new birth (1 John 2:29). Those who are born of God do not deliberately and consistently choose sinful living (1 John 3:9). God’s love in our hearts expressed to others proves we have been born again (1 John 4:7).
Jesus makes Himself obvious to every human heart. Nicodemus acknowledged that he and others in his socio-religious class knew that Jesus was no ordinary teacher of ordinary origin. Jesus had made Himself obvious even to the social upper class and the religious elite. He is “not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9). So He declared, “I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 38:23).
In our natural spiritual state we do not qualify as citizens of the kingdom of God. Jesus calls us to “seek…first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). However, we cannot see or enter into that kingdom without receiving life in the Spirit. Furthermore, “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (1 John 5:12). This takes fervent self-denial and undistracted focus — “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord…that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:8).
God’s love should not be underestimated. His intense love for me moved Him to hold back nothing to make possible my redemption. What His love did for me, it has done for everyone else! We forget that too easily in the face of life’s unlovelies.
“Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? …Ye receive not our witness…ye believe not, how shall ye believe…?” (John 3:10-12). Why was Jesus so hard on Nicodemus? Jesus not only holds everyone accountable to live according to what they know, He also holds them accountable to know what they could have known. (Don’t forget that everyone and them includes you!) It seems ignorance is no better excuse that carelessness or even outright disobedience.
Read the full piece here: Jesus and Nicodemus
