John 3:1-21
I have a riddle for you. How can I have two birthdays per year yet not age twice as fast? One is July 15th and the other is February 4th. The answer should become evident as we work through these verses.
In verses 1-2 we find Nicodemus coming to Jesus secretly at night.
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 have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him."
We know from 7:50-51 and 19:38-39 that he was one of the rulers that came to Jesus under the cover of darkness because he feared the Pharisee leaders. They hated Jesus because they were jealous of how the people followed Him. Nicodemus knew Jesus was unique but at this point didn’t realize how important He was. Little did he know his questions would prompt Jesus to reply with the most famous verse of the Bible. In this short discussion with Nicodemus, Jesus explains three things.
1. How to be reconciled with God
2. Where Jesus got this information from
3. God’s purpose in sending Jesus to us
First, in verse 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus how to be reconciled with God.
Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Sin separates us from God so the question for all of us becomes “how can my sins be removed so I can be reunited with Him?” The answer is simple. Jesus said you have to be born a second time. OK, fine, great, but what in the world does that mean? He’ll explain that soon, but for now, first realize this isn’t the normal way most of think about “getting to heaven”. We usually think about it as earning our way there, as doing something to impress God so that He’ll let us in. Often we think of getting into heaven by being nice or doing good things for others. Then we view heaven as a reward or accomplishment for what we’ve done. But Jesus said no, we simply must be born again.
If you’re confused, don’t worry, Nicodemus was too. Read verses 4-6.
Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”
Everyone is familiar with physical birth. It only happens once in your life, when you’re born from your mother. We’ve all experienced it even though we probably don’t remember much about it! But we’ve had children of our own, visited friends or family in the hospital after they’ve given birth, etc. It’s something we’re all familiar with. Jesus here isn’t talking about being born “physically” again. He’s using something we all know about to explain a deeper spiritual truth. He’s using the natural to explain the supernatural. He’s contrasting the physical birth (born from womb, water, flesh) with the spiritual birth (born of the Spirit, born from above).
This spiritual birth is mysterious because we don’t see it with our eyes. There isn’t a baby to hold in our arms as tangible proof that a birth really took place. Look at verses 7-8.
Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Just because we don’t see though, that doesn’t mean it isn’t real. It’s similar to the wind. We don’t see the wind itself but we do see its effects – bustling leaves, swaying branches, knocked over garbage cans! We don’t see the spiritual birth but we do see its effects – a changed life. See these other Scriptures where the new birth is likened to becoming a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:14-21) and results in fervent love for others (1 Peter 1:22-25).
Now who has the right to say how to get into heaven? Isn’t this just one person’s opinion? Where did Jesus get this information from anyway? Who gave Him this authority? These are the concerns Jesus tackles next. Even though Nicodemus is a religious teacher he still doesn’t get it yet. His comment here in verses 9-10 is kind of like a put off, in effect saying “Oh yeah, who says?” Jesus gently scolds him by explaining where this news comes from.
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?”
Jesus was telling him the truth but Nicodemus didn’t fully trust Him yet. Jesus explains in verses 11-13 that this trust is paramount; that it’s the key to being born again.
Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.
He told Nicodemus that if he wouldn’t believe what He said about things of this world that can be seen, then how could he trust Him concerning spiritual things? The world is full of different opinions on how to get to heaven. But isn’t it a bit unusual when people claim to be experts on a place they’ve never been? No one has gone to heaven to learn the way to get there. If left to our own devices no one would ever know how to be reconciled with God and spend eternity with Him. Thankfully, God came down to tell us how to go up! This isn’t just another person’s opinion, this comes from God Himself.
In verses 14-15 Jesus gives Nicodemus an example out of the Old Testament from Numbers 21.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.
Shortly after God used Moses to rescue His people from slavery in Egypt, they complained about their poor circumstances out in the wilderness. As punishment for this, God sent an outbreak of deadly snakes. To teach them to trust in the Lord alone, God commanded Moses to take a bronze statue of a snake and set it up high on a pole. God promised that if they would but look at the snake they would be healed of their snake bite.
There was nothing magic or superstitious about the statue. It was a simple lesson for the people to learn how to completely depend upon and trust God. Jesus used this as an example of what He was about to do. Not long after this Jesus will be lifted up on a wooden pole and anyone that looks to Him will be freely given an eternal healing from their sin.
This is the very purpose Jesus came to earth. All of Christianity is summarized in this most famous of all verses – John 3:16.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
If you have children then you know the powerful love God has given parents for their offspring. Jesus was not birthed by God in the sense that He was created or had a beginning. Jesus is eternal and within the Trinity has always had a relationship with God the Father. But God uses the close bond between parent and child to describe the intimate love relationship between God the Son (Jesus) and God the Father. Again, this is something most people can relate to. Can you imagine willingly giving up your only child’s life for the benefit of people who hate you? That is what God did and He did it because He loved you so much.
This verse also tells us exactly how you can be born again. Whosoever believes in Him begins a new life that has no end. This believing isn’t just a flippant agreement to a few religious facts but a deep personal abiding trust. I believe facts about George Washington that I learned in school but I don’t trust him for anything. Every relationship begins with facts. When I first met my wife I was on a fact finding mission to learn everything about her I could. After I learned a great deal about what type of person she was I then chose to put my trust in her as my wife. Could it be you’ve known a great deal about Jesus your whole life but have never put your complete trust in Him yet? That would be a good description of my life before February 4th, 1994.
Is it too narrow to say trusting Jesus is the only way to Heaven? It might be narrow but isn’t God free to make the rules as He wants? He could have based forgiveness on many other things; how beautiful you are, how much money you have, what color your skin is, how smart you are, what family you come from, how good of a life you’ve lived, etc. If he based it on any of those things where would our hope be? I certainly wouldn’t have any! But no, He says whoever will believe.
God is not making this difficult. Read verse 17 and the first sentence of 18.
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
Jesus didn’t come to give us what we deserved; punishment for our sin. He was on a rescue mission to save that which was lost. The sad news is that many don’t want to be rescued. Continue reading verse 18 and continue through 21.
He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.
If you won’t trust Jesus instead of yourself than you’ve been judged already. If you reject the only begotten Son than there is no other alternative except to bear the weight of your own sins. The Light came but many rejected it. Why? Because they loved the darkness. Some don’t want to come to the light because that would expose their sin and they’d have to admit they were living in error. This is the first step towards faith, admitting your sinfulness and need of forgiveness. It’s called repentance and it means changing your mind about your sinful lifestyle, whether you have a little sin or a lot!
This is the dichotomy of salvation being a free gift but yet coming with a cost. There are no conditions for forgiveness except a simple trust in Jesus BUT it will cost you your life. As we’ve seen, the Bible teaches that when you put your trust in Jesus, the Holy Spirit takes up residence in your life and changes you from the inside out into a new creature that is full of love for God and for others. Many do not want to give up their old life of selfishness and sin.
Now this doesn’t mean a Christian will always be perfect. Like a new physical life, the new spiritual life will be a process of learning to walk by power of His Spirit, learning to feast on the milk and then the meat of the Bible, learning to speak to God in prayer and ask Him for help. The new birth begins a process of becoming more and more like Jesus that won’t be complete until you are with Him in heaven.
Have you ever been born from again? Maybe you’ve tried to be “good”. Remember it’s not about you changing your behavior, it’s about Him changing your heart. He promises He will change you if you trust Him. Don’t understand? Don’t know for sure? Simply take Him at His Word and trust like a child trusts his parent.
Our natural inclination is to trust in the wrong solution to our sin problem. Most people agree they aren’t perfect and that “something” needs to be done in order for them to be reconciled with a perfectly holy God. What someone believes that “something” is shows what they’re trusting in as their ticket to heaven. This was driven home to me on February 4th, 1994 when a fellow High School student asked me this simple question.
“How would you answer if God were to ask you why you deserve to go to heaven?”
The beauty of this question is that how you answer reveals what your trust is in. If you answer that you’re going to heaven because you have long hair then it’s clear you’re trusting your long hair to remove your sin and make peace with God. If your answer is that you wear size 7 shoes then you’re trusting in your shoe size to make things right with God. These are silly answers no doubt, but some common ones include “I go to church, I haven’t committed any big sins, I try to be a nice person, I was confirmed, I keep Ten Commandments, I was baptized, I’ve done many good things and they will outweigh my bad ones”. Notice that with all of these answers the person’s trust is in themselves and what THEY have done. They are trusting in the wrong thing. John 3:16 says whoever believes in Him has eternal life, i.e. is forgiven of their sins and reconciled with God.
Maybe you have trusted Him, you’ve experienced the new heart He’s given you, you’re walking with Jesus by faith, but you don’t know exactly when your new life began. Knowing exactly when it happened isn’t important, as long as you’re confident your trust NOW is in Him alone. If we didn’t have parents and medical records we probably wouldn’t know when our physical birth happened either! God will tell you exactly when it happened some day, just be sure it has truly happened! Put your faith in Jesus alone today.
