John 3:1-8 Breaking it down - Pt. 3

I have sought to show that which is true of our Lord's word's to Nicodemus, and to us, in the initial installments of this short series; in this last part, we will end up with observations about how the natural man views such things, and how those who have literally experienced the new birth,  by our Lord and God's gracious mercy and love, are to view these things, beginning with verse 6, and finishing on verse 8.

There is more to be said for this chapter, and perhaps I shall put the study up for the entirety of it; that, however, remains to be seen.

As for now, we will simply go through what was brought out during the delivery of the study in these last 3 verses of John 3:1-8.

V. 6: That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Our Lord puts emphasis on the misunderstanding of Nicodemus in thinking the new birth He has spoken of to him about has anything whatsoever to do with the natural life of men born from the womb – again, we hear the echo of John 1:12-13 in these words.

That any aspect of natural birth has to do with the child is the same error as any aspect of the new birth having to do with anything other than receiving from God, by His Spirit, that work which is complete in Christ; other teaching than this is a fundamental error, and the same error which leads to the wrong teaching concerning God’s sovereignty and man’s radical depravity before such reception of eternal, or everlasting, life. The only thing we bring to the table is the fact that we are sinners, in need of the merciful grace of God, and such is intended by “that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” It must be the free action of God the Holy Spirit which brings one into the kingdom of God, or it is not that which is born of the Spirit of God.

The flesh – the carnal, sin-laden nature housed within the body of those same traits, or characteristics, is not fit or able to make itself into that which is of service of God, and it has been thus throughout the entirety of Scriptures.

Did Moses call God, or did God call Moses (Exodus 3:1-6)?

If there are those who tell us that Moses turned aside, and that was His free will choice, we may answer that God has assured us, in the entirety of His Scriptures and the further light the New Testament shines upon the Old Testament, that only enablement by the Lord would give Moses to turn aside to see – this was not a matter of curiosity by Moses, but of wonderment, which ended in His right attitude of fear of the One who had redeemed him to lead Israel out of bondage to the Egyptians.

What man of God in the Scriptures do we see who makes himself holy by application of the things of God, rather than appeal to the lack of those things in admission of that one’s, and those others who are to  be God’s people, sinfulness (Nehemiah 1)?

As it was, so it is: those who are called of God will respond, for His grace is irresistible to His own, and they will know of themselves as sinners, and cry out for their sin, forgiveness and repentance, and call on God to remember His promises to His people, who fear Him, and love to keep His commandments – that we are privileged to see this very thing explained to us by the Lord as being of the Lord alone, in our present passage, is great light indeed, and should cause us to continually respond in like manner.

We have been blessed, without any cause but His grace, to be born again of God’s Spirit, to have Christ our Lord take our sins upon His holy Self, and to have His righteousness accounted to us, though we lack anything which would cause God to give such – and this is of Him who alone is good.

Vs. 7-8: Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Nicodemus is indeed marveling that our Lord has told him, “You must be born again.” He expressed this in verse 4; he will again express it in an upcoming verse.

There are sermons on the freedom of the wind, and so must be understood what our Lord is saying to the learned Pharisee here. There is no gauging the wind, though we measure it with many instruments; there is no discerning where it comes from, though we may say it originates in this or that longitude and latitude. The truth of the matter when our Lord spoke these words over two thousand years ago remains the truth today – what man cannot fathom is that, though his knowledge increase, he will no more understand the nature of the wind to act independently of his control than he will understand his sinful nature and need of the rebirth of the Holy Spirit which comes about independently of man’s will and knowledge. It is true that science reveals to us more and more, yet what we are most often not told – indeed, forbid, in most cases, among secular, and even some “Christian” schools, is the fact that every true discovery of Science vindicates the divine record of He who created Science.

Nicodemus was as the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-26), trusting in his observance of the law to make himself righteous before God, teaching those under him that such must be the case, and so had no understanding of the lack of the law of grace and life (Romans 8:1-2) that must replace the stone heart with a fleshly one, and the dead spirit with a resurrected one. There is no reason for us to suppose otherwise, for his questions reveal his understanding, which comes from the nature of a man. To comprehend what Jesus was saying to him, he would have need of the very miraculous birth of which our Lord spoke, for only the knowledge that comes from God can give birth to that which is of God; only those brought face-to-face with their own inability to perceive and receive the gospel can understand that no amount of external law keeping will suffice, in the face of the most Holy God of all that exists, who Himself stands beyond that He created, yet interacts within it. The God who causes all to come to pass must surely be as sovereign over the salvation of His people as He is over the very fabric of that which He created man from; from which He hung the planets; today, we can still ask man, mighty man, “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion (Job 38:31)?

The answer will no doubt proudly return, “No, but one day we shall conquer the stars.” Man, who cannot even conquer the lusts of his own body, so righteous in his own sight, whether of a moralistic religious nature, or the negative assent of God in the statement that God does not exist, thereby proving themselves fools, in stating that which they deny (for the fool says in their heart “there is no God,” yet what is it they are objecting too?), thinks himself able to rise to the station of He who created him from the dust of the ground, which He created out of literally nothing – such is the pride that God’s completely effective grace absolutely and irresistibly overcomes, and yet we have legions of those who say they overcome such by seeing this grace from a nature which houses this very pride.

Nicodemus was one who would assert that he was of God, and he was a much more religious man than those who, today, insist on this cooperative effort between their dead moral nature and the most holy “effort” of trying to convince them they say God puts forth to all men – we have but to look at the record of the Scriptures to know that such is not true, and we can say, in effect, one might as likely try to catch the wind, as the old Donavan song stated. This is the import of our Lord’s statement to Nicodemus which we just read.

To God be the glory - Bill Hier

John 3:1-8 Breaking it Down, Pt. 2

3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

This was undoubtedly not the reply that Nicodemus had been expecting, but it is the one our Lord gave to Him, so we would do well to examine this reply of our Lord, for although it was directed to Nicodemus, it is a general statement – it remains true for all who would see the kingdom of God.

The word “see” is speaking of an action that depends on another action – for one to see the kingdom of God, they must be born again. “Born” speaks of that action of being brought forth in birth, and it is a passive action, as in she gave birth to a child. The child being born is not bringing itself into the world – it is the mother who brings the child forth from her womb; even so, we must be brought forth from that spiritual death that is true of all men by the Spirit of God – He does the bringing forth, or giving birth – and as when a child senses the first of the outside world, so those God gives the new birth to, by His Spirit, can see the kingdom of God at that time – Calvin has it that the words see and enter are synonymous – that is, they equal the same thing, the same result. One who is born again has entered into the kingdom of God, and so they can see it; one who sees the kingdom of God has been born again, and so they have entered into it.

This is not of ourselves – in fact, this is the very passage most often associated with the theological phrase, monergism, the Scriptural doctrine that God the Holy Spirit acts alone – mono = one – to regenerate the fallen human nature – ism = work, deed – into a nature that is after our Lord’s.

We have mentioned this as “born again” or “born from above.” This is because the word used can be translated both ways, and whether or not our Lord spoke to Nicodemus in the Hebrew language, this is the language He willed to write His New Testament in, so our understanding might be of Him, not speculation as to what language our Lord spoke at the time to Nicodemus. That regardless of what language our Lord spoke to Nicodemus in, the leader of the Jews did not understand Him, is evidenced by Nicodemus’ reply:

4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Thus, this leading teacher of the Jews, one who is the teacher of Israel, proves himself to not be of that very state the Lord is speaking to him about – if he had been, he would have understood, for it is pictured in the Old Testament Scriptures which he was familiar with, yet he did not understand the reference (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

Our Lord thought nothing of the honor of men (Matthew 22:16), and even His enemies came to know this – He thought of the Father’s will being done, that His praise and glory be manifest – that was the reason He came; that will be the reason He comes again – all else is secondary in the Son’s doing the Father’s will, for the glory of God is God’s highest priority; still, in this manifestation of His glory, He brings about the salvation of those He has chosen for such, to the praise of His glorious grace, or to the praise of the glory of His grace.

That God’s glory is comprised of more than His grace to the undeserving sinners who hate Him, are His enemies, as all mankind is, we have found in various parts of our studies, and will continue too (Exodus 34:6-7) – the God who has willed us to serve Him by making us His is not any one of those attributes we have studied about in our studies, but the sum, the culmination of all of them, and for His glory to be fully expressed to mankind, He has designed His plan for those creatures He created to show forth all of His glory, which He has done throughout the history He created – to us who are His, it seems amazing that this is not understood, when the various terrible judgments of His wrath are shown throughout the Scriptures, and having been carried out, provide a positive proof for those judgments yet to come; we must remember, however, that even in the professing church, there are many who do not believe the Scriptures, or believe them according to various traditions of men, who also do not understand that to be His child, through the adoption that is in Christ Jesus, is not only having been given the right to believe, but to suffer, for His sake (Philippians 1:29-30); thus, the gracious regeneration of a dead in sin nature is but one aspect of our God’s manifesting His glory, and we must keep that always in mind.

The redeemed mind will understand that there is no exercise of that creature to bring about their regeneration, even if it is an understanding fraught with error through the traditions of men – there is nothing in this passage that speaks of anything the creature does, and this is the seminal, or determining, text, when speaking of this experience and doctrine.

So, Nicodemus did not understand this simple phrase, nor will any who have not partaken of this work of God’s grace – He asked what is a very natural question, and emphasized it with the experience of entering again into one’s mother’s womb – as ridiculous as this sounds, recall how ridiculous our gospel sounds to those who are perishing – Nicodemus was grasping to bring into understanding that which cannot be understood by the natural man, and this is a proof of the natural man not understanding the things of the Spirit of God, and shows that these things are foolishness to such a natural, or carnal, understanding (1 Corinthians 2:14).

Do you think Nicodemus was surprised, and somewhat taken aback, by our Lord’s non-response to His greeting of Him as Master (for so the term Rabbi must be understood – a title only given to those with expertise in the Law of God, and so a term of respect – a master of the teaching and writings of God – given by men to men)? I surely do.

We should back up, here, and establish the meaning of the words “kingdom of God.”

Many think this refers to that kingdom for which we pray to come (Matthew 6:10), and this is a right, and proper way of looking at the kingdom of God, but it is an incomplete one, for while He was on this earth in His first advent, our Lord said, “…then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20). His meaning is unmistakable in this statement, since the word “has come” is a past tense – the kingdom of God was there among them, in His Person, in His Son, incarnate. When Jesus came into the world, He brought that which was not of the world with Him, and the apostle Paul defines that such is still in place among those who have experienced the new birth: “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). So, what we learn from these two passages, and from other of that which we have studied, is that the kingdom of God consists of His presence yet being in this world through the body of Christ, the church, which is made up of all truly regenerated believers, and shows not only in the members, each and every one of them, but the way these members act towards one another, which of itself, is a testimony to the world that they are disciples of Christ – it shows in that which is of the light, which brings out the fact of that which is of the darkness, and if we do not live in such a manner – in such a way – that distinguishes us from the darkness we are to bring the character of our Lord of Glory and Light into and upon, then it is very doubtful our confession of faith in the Lord of all creation is, in fact, true, for He cannot live within us, in fellowship with our new nature, unless that which is of Him shows (Ephesians 5:6-21; 1 John 1:5-7).

Thus, the kingdom of God is indeed among the world, and is seen in such local fellowships of churches which are made up of His saints, and should, indeed, be carried along with each member into their daily living.

Next, we take up our Lord’s reply to Nicodemus’ question regarding the nature of the new birth.

5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Many have supposed that “water” here refers to the obedient ordinance of baptism in water as a testimony to the truth of the confession of Jesus Christ as one’s Lord, having repented of their sins, is what is pictured – to this, we reply, such cannot be the case, for Jesus is speaking of a literal new birth, of which any element of it is done by the Holy Spirit alone. This is not to say that, if we have made the proper confession of our Lord as we should, baptism in water is not to be observed; indeed, it is commanded, and a part of the great commission (Matthew 28:19-20). However, that cannot be what is intended by our Lord here, for that would constitute a work on our part that is to proclaim the fact that Salvation is of the Lord, and of Him alone (Psalms 18:2; 27:1; 68:20; Isaiah 25:9; 62:11; Jeremiah 3:23), and that such salvation, according to our God’s election, begins in time and space for us when we are regenerated – that is to say, born again by the work of the Holy Spirit alone, without any aid upon our part, as we have already discussed from Ephesians, 2 Timothy and Titus.

The most crucial thing has just been discussed – that salvation is of the Lord – so we need to break down the parts of that which we are considering that has to do with that salvation.

If it were needful for Jesus our Lord to remind a person that natural birth preceded spiritual birth, it is likely He would have done so – the phrase, born of the water, however, though it has been held by some to mean exactly that, is out of place in a context of salvation, for when a person is born into this world, though a woman’s water break, from what, then, are they saved?

They are born a sinner – the election of God may be upon them, but until the time when He moves, of His Spirit, to make that election real by the work of the regeneration of the dead-in-sin human spirit, it is hardly salvific that such natural birth is being mentioned by our Lord as a necessary component to the work of the Holy Spirit here.

Most good commentators see the type mentioned in the Mosaic Law – the water of purification (Numbers 8:7-26), and along with the plain indication that regeneration is of the Spirit of God, by divine counsel within the triune God Himself, we see this type mentioned exactly this way of the New Covenant, which is spoken of by God in the Old Testament prophets in this manner:

Ezekiel 36:25-26:  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

That this is the water Jesus is speaking of – the water of purification, not as the Jewish rites in the previous chapter, but as consecration of those who would be His own, is echoed in a Scripture we have already looked at often in the New Testament, which, along with those we considered, makes the meaning of this water our Lord speaks of in this verse unmistakable:

Titus 3:4-5: But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, in which we see the entirety of the triune God involved in this work, though the Spirit carries out the will of the Father and the Son in performing, as the third Person of the triune God, the work of regeneration, and that it is said that He was poured out on us richly is showing the means, that is, God the Spirit Himself, as the One who cleanses us and regenerates us, making us fit for use as God’s people.

Though it may be said (and has been) that all of salvation occurs in an instant, as to our present experience of eternal life – that is, a new life imparted in a dead spirit being made alive – there are divisions in this work of God, as to our experience of it. That one who is regenerated does begin to live the sanctified life to which they are prepared by each aspect of the death and resurrection of our Lord being applied to us, this is the beginning: the new birth, by which one sees and enters the kingdom of heaven. Seeing and entering the kingdom are synonymous – that is, they are the same, for to see the kingdom is to enter into it, to have passed from death to life. A further note on Titus 3:4-5: the word and is the beginning of a construction, in the original language, which connects the washing of regeneration with the renewal of the Holy Spirit – it is a logical connective; that is, it makes the entire phrase in reference to the work of the Holy Spirit, so to read it any other way would be against the sense of the language. This would also be true to the English in a good translation.

So, this is the meaning of born of water, and this meaning cannot be separated from and the Spirit, for both are part and parcel of His work of causing us to be born again. There is the separation of being cleansed by the Spirit as the means of cleansing to be vessels fit for the use of the Lord, with the regeneration of the spirit He brings about also to enable and empower us to exercise repentance of sin, faith, and so be saved – this is a partial description of what takes place in salvation – but to actually say that the cleansing and the rebirth are not of the Spirit is to deny the entire intent and meaning of this passage we are studying and meditating upon.

As with all things of the pattern set in the Old Testament, we know, from the further revelation of God in His New Testament, that they are often representative of heavenly things (Exodus 25:40; Hebrews 8:5). All the various types of the holiness of the temple and its sacrifices may be attributed to our Lord, while very often, the purity of those serving, and the various cleansing rituals, represent the preparation of the people of God – in this, we receive the benefit of that which our Lord accomplished, but we must be prepared to receive that benefit by being vessels made fit for God’s use – this is what happens when we are regenerated, and continues to happen as we are having the truth of His Scriptures applied to us by the Holy Spirit who was given to us, even as He prepared us to do such; thus, our Lord here expresses that preparation, which we see to be solely of God, and that of the third Person of the triune God.

The fullness of this work of God is stated firmly in the book of Hebrews 10:16-22, which references Jeremiah 31:33-34, and we would do well to notice the following passages in Hebrews 10, for they are of the sort that speaks to our mortification of these bodies, our meeting together in the Lord’s name on His Day, and our perseverance in the ways and Word of our Lord, to the edification of the body, and the proclaiming of the glory of the Lord.

John 3:1-8: Breaking It Down

The first verse is self-evident; we might suppose all the rest to be so, but it is worth taking a closer look:

So, at this one time, Nicodemus came to Jesus to proclaim that which He believed about Jesus, and notice that which the leader of the Pharisees proclaims about our Lord:

“You are a teacher, come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

Ah, how perceptive! He distinguishes our Lord as a teacher come from God, without giving any more understanding of Him than that – such a teacher would be one who performs signs, and this we know our Lord did, from the ending of chapter 2: “Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing” (John 2:23). That such a teacher was from God is distinguished by the signs that that teacher did, and so, this might be a way of saying that he believed Jesus to be another of God’s prophets, but notice what he didn’t say, which Nathanael had said when simply confronted with our Lord’s seeing Him under the fig tree in chapter 1: Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel” (John 1:49)!

So, while giving our Lord a distinguished status because of the signs done by Him, this leader of the Jews did not have the recognition of Him afforded to one much less learned than he, and in essence, showed that understanding that Nathanael had spoken of (Can anything good come out of Nazareth?[before confessing what he did upon meeting the Lord]) – it was common knowledge among the Jews, regardless of station, status, or learning, that the Messiah would come out of Bethlehem, and that one of these men recognized Jesus as the Son of God, the King of Israel, was not out of character with that expectation: remember, our Lord’s disciples fully expected Him to restore Israel to it’s former glorious status as the conquering Messiah, and this never stopped until after the crucifixion and resurrection; still, this leader of the Jews did not afford our Lord such status even now, after seeing the signs He had done, for signs alone have never led any to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the great King spoken of in the prophets – that is the point of this discourse between our Lord and Nicodemus – there must be that divine intervention of the triune God, to take a man from spiritual death to spiritual life, of which we learn the Spirit’s work in these verses.

The signs that Jesus did are not described, but that they were of a character which led Nicodemus to believe that God is with Jesus in certain – it may be that our Lord was doing that which He often did: healing the sick, casting out demons – but we are not told; we are only told that they were of enough significance to show that Nicodemus, as the leader of the Pharisees, said they believed (at this point) that God was with our Lord, not that our Lord was God.

In responding to Nicodemus’ assertion, Jesus not only does not answer his statement, He refutes it, in part: He IS God the Son, and this has not been recognized by Nicodemus; secondly, our Lord addresses the reason why Nicodemus has not recognized who He is – He states the absolute necessity of being born again to even see the kingdom of God. This seeming ignoring of Nicodemus’ assertion is nothing of the sort, as our Lord is teaching him what it needed to recognize that which leads to eternal life – He is addressing the assertion, refuting the part of it that does not have to do with seeing the kingdom of God, and making His own assertion that is strictly of God, which allows a person to have access to the proper view of the kingdom of God. This corrects the basic assumption of Nicodemus, which was shared by all the Jews, both learned and unlearned alike, for they thought the kingdom of God would be established on their behalf, taking the yoke of the oppressors off them, and restoring them to their former glory as the most prominent nation on earth, with whom God’s special favor rested.

In this first part of His teaching, our Lord is correcting this assumption, as well – the kingdom of God is not to be of simply the nation Israel, restoring them to political and economical power as the preeminent nation upon which God’s favor rests. It is necessary for this assumption to be refuted, for the Jews, and especially their leaders, thought themselves already favored by God, despite the abundance of evidence of the prophecies of the Prophets having been fulfilled, as to their disobedience to His laws, their continual idolatry and adultery, etc.

Looking through the record of all the things God had brought upon them, how they could still consider themselves God’s favored people was based solely on Scripture, but they had missed the one thing that would have ensured that favor when it came: the necessity for atonement to be made for the people, that their sins would be forgiven forever, by the very Messiah they waited for! Theirs was a conquering Messiah-King who would extinguish their enemies and reinstate the law and priesthoods and all that had to do with what they wanted, even though they had continually provoked Him to anger, and after all, hadn’t He restored them before? Hadn’t He promised them a king after the line, or from the line of David, that would rule them forever in righteousness?

Of course, they missed that the Messiah would be the literal fulfilling of those things which were but a shadow and type of He who was to come – if they had recognized this, they would have understood the Psalms, writings and Prophets which spoke of the suffering Lamb of God: and hadn’t His forerunner already called Him that?

How, then, could they mistake the parallel of which the Baptist spoke?

Because they looked for a new heart through the simple giving of it; a new spirit that would be theirs simply because God promised them it would be so – they completely overlooked the necessity of the need for their sins to be atoned for, and indeed, for many of them, this would not be so, as we shall see further in this study.

So, Jesus addresses this lack, which is in all men – this lack which cannot be met by any seeking, any searching, for it is the very lack of that which will seek and search for God: a new life imparted (Romans 3:9-12; 6:4; 8:11-17). This new life is the regeneration of the dead in sin spirit, literally represented, in our references, as dying with the literal death of Christ, and being made alive as the literal resurrection of Christ. This not only gives us new life now, it is a forerunner of that promise of the new bodies we shall have when He comes again, to judge the world (1 Corinthians 15:20-58).

Before that great and glorious day when our Lord returns to collect His elect from the four corners of the earth (Matthew 24:31), we who are Christ’s will already know of that eternal life which He has given us to have, not by our choosing, but by His working (Romans 9:16) – God, in His magnificent mercy towards those He has chosen to show forth the riches of His grace in Christ Jesus, does this work completely, effectively, and without the aid of anything of man, and here we see the working of the third Person of the triune God, the Holy Spirit.

Read through the passage, then read it again – you will find nothing whatsoever about the so-called “free will of man” in it, but the free will of God, the free will of the Spirit, which we cannot even tell from where He comes or where He goes in this work – man is never mentioned as anything in this section of Scripture but as the recipient of the magnificent work of the Spirit of God, and the result is that, just as Christ took on the sins of the elect, so His life is given to us – not literally, as in God the Son living in us, though we put it that way, and it is correct to say so; however, this means that we are given to have our dead in sins spirit reborn into the likeness of that very sinless human spirit our Lord had as a man – it is, as we observed, literally, “a new life imparted.”

John 3:1-8 - Introduction

Having recently finished teaching through this chapter, it seemed good to me to share that which came from that study with my brethren. This introductory material will be followed by the study of the rest of the chapter, until we get to the end.

John 3:1-8: Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ESV

Now we are coming to one of the key passages that speaks of God’s work in bringing to life that which was dead – the spirit of man, which is so radically corrupt, that it must be brought low, and even to a co-crucifixion in the death of He who created it, as to His humanity (Romans 6:1-14; Galatians 2:20-21; Colossians 2:11-12; 3:1-3). Having read these passages, it should be needless to say that we have died, but we cannot stop there, for out of death to that which was dead, comes the life that lives unto God.

I said, in the study of John 1:12-13, that I consider those verses to be an introduction to these verses of chapter 3, and so I do – though the exposition of those verses completely established the truth that God must give us the gift of being His children, which is another way to say eternal life, here, we have the truth of the work of the Spirit in that salvation, and that it is a new birth, or birth from above (for so the passage regarding the new birth may be translated, which in itself is very telling, as the new birth is both new, and from above), cannot be doubted, so we look to that which the text states very plainly about how this birth of that which was dead was accomplished, as God gives us to understand it, after a few more introductory notes.

In saying that which was dead was put to death by being baptized into the death Christ suffered on the cross, and buried with Him in that, a truth of the nature of man, before the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, becomes clear: when we say that the nature of man is radically corrupt, we are not speaking of it as being inactive – indeed, it is active every moment of every day, suppressing the truth about God in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18), so this marks that which relates to activity towards the true worship of God (John 4:23-24); this seeking of God is an active thing, and is not to be taken as if it were anything else, for those God seeks, He finds, according to His decree from before the beginning of the world or time (Ephesians 1:1-11; 2 Timothy 1:9-11; Titus 1:1-3). Being spiritually dead, while compared to being, literally, a corpse (Ephesians 2:5; Colossians 2:13), does not mean that man cannot act in a manner that is “alive” – that is, that a man cannot make choices, cannot do things, for he is yet animated by the very God he despises, though he protest that he believes, yet not according to the truth of God; though he says there is no God, thereby declaring himself a liar in the statement of the negative (for there must be something he makes this statement about for it to be a meaningful statement).

No, being a “corpse,” spiritually, means that there is no activity of the spirit of man which strives towards pleasing His Maker according to that spirit and truth which we cited above – there is no fear of God before His eyes, He will not seek God (Romans 3:10-12; 18). This is spiritual death: the human spirit has not the ability to seek God, nor the desire, or inclination, and remains an enemy of God – when we are told that “You will find Me, when you seek for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13), such must be understood in the harmonious context of all of Scripture (Ezekiel 36:22-32) – here, in this chapter of John, we will find that such seeking with all one’s heart is impossible, unless that heart be a new one, given by God, regenerated by the Spirit of God, as well as other absolute statements about how salvation comes about, and how a man cannot initiate it by the movement of his dead-in-sin will – God continually frustrates the efforts of those who will not consider these great statements of Scripture which show His sovereignty in all the work of salvation, from beginning to end, and this insults those who want to believe that they have some control over the working of the almighty God of all.

So, here we have Nicodemus, a man of authority of the highest religious authority in Israel (more on this in the coming verses), coming to Jesus by night to have a discussion with Him. We remember those who do their deeds in the darkness do so at night (as indeed we will learn again in this very chapter), and this is because they are of the darkness that does not overcome or comprehend the light – in this sense, we can say that Nicodemus came under cover of darkness, or night, so as not to be known by those He taught, or His contemporaries in the Sanhedrin.

Yet that he did come to Jesus speaks of that which I believe we will later learn of this leading teacher of the Jews – as I said before, so I will say again: there is that which is of God’s election which keeps those whom He will regenerate (according to His divine counsel from before the world began), coming back to inquire of these things, to think of these things, to wonder about these things – as I also stated, this is the work of God, which we cannot see prior to salvation, for He promises no such vision of the marks of His election to us, but commands us to go, preach, teach, make disciples; still, what we find here is in the written record of that which reflects the life of our Lord and Savior, and will be revisited in a much later chapter, so the indication is of God in His Scriptures, not of man judging whether another has visible signs of redemption showing, as some who are heretics have believed.

Proclaiming the unmatchable excellence of the glory of God to all - Bill Hier