JOHN CHAPTER THREE
The New Birth
John 3:1-21 ESV:
1 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.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.”
First, let us take an overview of this section. Then we will go back and walk through it verse by verse. As chapter 3 begins we find Jesus meeting a man by the name of Nicodemus. This meeting picks up where chapter 2 ended with Jesus reflecting on just how much He could, or could not, trust the people who were following Him (2:23–25). The encounter with Nicodemus is a continuation of what Jesus had previously said about not yet trusting the people. Obviously Jesus knew of the need each person had for a new birth and Jesus did not have to rely in any way on Nicodemus’ position as a religious leader to help Him accomplish His mission. Nicodemus was just another human being like everyone else and he too needed to be told about the necessity of being born again. John 3:1–21 gives us a sample of the kind of questions the Jews were asking about Jesus. First we listen in on a discussion that Jesus and Nicodemus had in verses 1–15. Then in verses 16-21 John adds some commentary about the discussion. John’s purpose in verses 1-8 is to explain how salvation is the result of being born again, undergoing a new birth.
The word was getting around the countryside about this teacher who was performing all kinds of miracles. A Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus had heard about His teaching and His miracles. Jesus did not waste much time in telling Nicodemus that a person cannot really enter into a meaningful discussion about spiritual issues until they are “born again.” Even though the concept of a spiritual rebirth appears in the Old Testament, Nicodemus did not have a clue as to what Jesus was talking about. Just as most people today do not understand the concept of being born again.
Jesus explains the truth of His message to Nicodemus (verses 10–15). Jesus also tells him about the tremendous price God is going to pay in order to offer eternal life to men and women (verses 16–17).
Salvation is therefore an issue of belief or unbelief. It is only by trusting Jesus that those who are “condemned already” pass from death to life (verses 18–21).
The Pharisees were the most popular political party so to speak in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus’ ministry. The famous Roman historian, Josephus, reports them to have originated sometime around 145 B.C. They were one of three schools into which the Jews were divided. The other two were the Essenes and the Sadducees. The Pharisees were noted for strictly observing religious rites and ceremonies of the written Law of God as well as obedience to their own oral traditions which they developed and applied to God’s Law, the Law given by God to Moses. In other words they made up their own laws and made them part of God’s Law, which no one has the authority to do From the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry the Pharisees did everything possible to destroy His influence among the people.[fn] The Pharisees maintained the attitude that others needed forgiveness or punishment for their sins, but they were different. They had no such need.[fn]
Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin, an aristocratic supreme court possessing jurisdiction over the Jews in both civil and religious matters. Civil matters would have to do with the issues of everyday life. For example, if you were caught speeding on your donkey in a school zone, you might have to appear before the Sanhedrin. That would be a civil matter. If you were accused of ignoring morning and evening prayers, you might be brought before the Sanhedrin. That would be a religious matter. The Sanhedrin functioned as a court to decide major cases and to interpret disputed points of law.[fn] The miracles that Jesus had performed were seen as having something to do with God, and after listening to Him they had to admit that Jesus was also a gifted teacher. But they were not about to admit that Jesus was the Son of God. So John’s Gospel is for the most part based on the question of whether, knowing that Jesus was a great teacher, they would listen to and learn from Him? Would people believe in His offer of eternal life?
Water and Spirit (3:5) define the phrase “born again” in John 3:3, 4, 7.[fn] The concept of being “born again” is one that requires an understanding of physical birth versus spiritual birth from God which John discussed in John 1:12–13 NLT:
12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
Nicodemus had difficulty understanding the concept of a new birth (3:9–15). He was too indoctrinated in the thinking of the Pharisees who considered themselves automatically saved because of the combination of their birthright as Jews plus their ability to obey the letter of the Law; a Law, by the way, which they had molded over the years to say pretty much what they wanted it to say. That is one of the primary reasons Jesus was so critical of them. The Church has been doing the same thing with the Bible over the last 2,000 years. So much so that people today are very reluctant to believe the truth of the Bible when they hear it.
Jesus was teaching that it was only through a new spiritual creation that a person could obtain salvation and forgiveness of sins. Jesus had been teaching some of the basic truths about the new covenant. He was introducing what had been predicted in the Old Testament. For example, in Jeremiah 31:31–34 NLT:
31 “The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah.
32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.
33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel on that day,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord.[fn] “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”
“I will write them on their hearts” in verse 33 describes how one‘s heart will be changed and prepared for service as a result of faith in Jesus Christ and the resulting grace of God. “Know the Lord” and “will know me already” in verse 34 refer to a knowledge that is intimate and based on one’s personal experience as the result of having their sins forgiven. These verses speak of the time when believers will be given the Holy Spirit to live within them and have Him available to help and guide them whenever they asked.
Ezekiel 36:26–27 NLT:
26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
27 And I will put my Spirit in you so that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations.
Joel 2:27–29 NLT:
27 Then you will know that I am among my people Israel, that I am the Lord your God, and there is no other. Never again will my people be disgraced.
28 “Then, after doing all those things, I will pour out my Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.
29 In those days I will pour out my Spirit even on servants—men and women alike.
These are things that Nicodemus, “a respected Jewish teacher,” should have understood (3:10). John provides us with an explanation of the difference between the first and second births in verses 11–15. Jesus’ glory would be made evident by His humiliation in being placed on the cross. What to people was a disgrace, would actually be evidence of Jesus’ deity and glory. The “bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness” (3:14) referred back to Numbers 21 where Moses prepared a bronze serpent to deliver the people from death by poisonous snakebites.
Numbers 21:1-9 NLT:
1 The Canaanite king of Arad, who lived in the Negev, heard that the Israelites were approaching on the road through Atharim. So he attacked the Israelites and took some of them as prisoners.
2 Then the people of Israel made this vow to the Lord: “If you will hand these people over to us, we will completely destroy all their towns.”
3 The Lord heard the Israelites’ request and gave them victory over the Canaanites. The Israelites completely destroyed them and their towns, and the place has been called Hormah ever since.
4 Then the people of Israel set out from Mount Hor, taking the road to the Red Sea to go around the land of Edom. But the people grew impatient with the long journey,
5 and they began to speak against God and Moses. “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die here in the wilderness?” they complained. “There is nothing to eat here and nothing to drink. And we hate this horrible manna!”
6 So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died.
7 Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!”
9 So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!
The bronze serpent in this Old Testament report was a representation of the Messiah, Jesus, and that He too would be able to save the people when He came. As the serpent was “lifted up,” so would Jesus be lifted up on the cross, and by looking to the cross people could also be saved, just as the people in the Old Testament on their way to Mount Hor were saved by looking at the pole. However, the cross would not be a means of saving them physically, but through faith a way to heal them spiritually.
When Jesus spoke of new birth, belief, and judgment there was an emphasis on personal choice (3:16–21). John 3:20–21 points to the necessity of free choice and the personal responsibility one has for their actions when first exposed to the light, which is the truth of the Gospel message of Christ.[fn]
We will now take a closer look at the first 21 verses of John chapter 3 beginning with verse 1:
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. (ESV)
Nicodemus was a very important man among the Jewish leaders. He was a teacher, a Pharisee, and a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish ruling council. The Sanhedrin had 70 members who were responsible for religious decisions and also, under Roman control, for civil (matters relating to the people) rule. Nicodemus would later challenge the Pharisees for condemning Jesus without getting his input (John 7:50-51). He would also later help Joseph of Arimathea bury Jesus (19:39-40).[fn]
This meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus has a great deal of meaning because Nicodemus was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. He would have been very well acquainted with Jewish teaching and the points Jesus was emphasizing. Here for a brief time Jesus had the opportunity to speak with a Pharisee who was honestly searching for the truth about who Jesus was.
John 3:2 ESV:
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.”
We cannot be certain why Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. It may have been to avoid detection because he was either afraid or ashamed to be seen with Jesus.[fn] It is also true that Jesus was involved most of the day in public ministry. Nicodemus was also a busy man and it is possible he could not spare the time during the day to pay Jesus a visit. But when Nicodemus had seen some of Jesus’ miracles, he probably made plans to see Jesus as soon as he could. Meeting at night would also provide less chance of being interrupted.
Nicodemus comes to Jesus in search of who Jesus is and what He is up to. Right off the bat Nicodemus tells Jesus he knows that He has come from God, but suggests He came only as a teacher. He called him Rabbi. It is obvious to Nicodemus that God has sent Jesus and that God was with Him providing Him with supernatural powers and authority. Nicodemus wastes little time in letting Jesus know that he has not come to meet with Him to discuss affairs of state but rather concerns he had about his own salvation. Nicodemus indicates that there are probably others who feel the same way that he does when he says, “We know that you are a teacher….” Perhaps Nicodemus brought one or more of his colleagues with him to hear Jesus.
Another thing verse 2 tells us that might easily be overlooked is that Nicodemus is confirming that Christ performed miracles. Here is a member of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish governing body, admitting that he has witnessed the miracles that Jesus performed. Jesus’ miracles were His identification. If someone comes to your door and says he/she is from the FBI and wants to come in and talk with you, the first thing you would probably do is ask for their identification so you could trust them to be who they claimed to be. Jesus’ miracles were His identification, His credentials, as being from God.
John 3:3 ESV:
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
We could freely translate this verse accurately by saying: “I’m telling you the truth from God. You must be reborn in order to be saved and have eternal life in Heaven.”
Nicodemus was one of the chief rulers and teachers over the Jews in Jerusalem, yet he did not understand the truth about the new birth. That was because of what Paul taught us in 1 Corinthians 2; spiritual truths cannot be understood by the unsaved mind.
1 Corinthians 2:10-14 NLT:
10 But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.
11 No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.
12 And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.
14 But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.
We do not believe it would be too much of a stretch to suggest that Nicodemus coming at night might suggest he was in the dark about spiritual things, representing unsaved men and women.
Ephesians 4:17-19 NLT:
17 With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused.
18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him.
19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.
2 Corinthians 4:1-9 ESV:
1 Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up.
2 We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this.
3 If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing.
4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.
5 You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake.
6 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair.
9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.
Jesus’ reference to being born again in John 3 verse 3, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God,” can be understood to mean beginning a brand new life but this time with a relationship to God. Thinking, feeling, and acting will be totally different once a person is under the direction of the Holy Spirit of God. We must not think in terms of patching up the old you, but beginning again from the foundation up. We become a new person with an entirely new nature, new morals, new affections, and new goals (2 Corinthians 5:17). The soul must be formed and shaped by the Holy Spirit of God. By our first birth we possessed a sinful nature. We must, therefore, be born againand this time with the potential not to sin because of the presence of the Holy Spirit of God within us. This new life is a life in which we have a direct two-way line of communication with God, and the line will always be open for us.
We cannot receive the benefits of Christ and His Gospel without regeneration, without being created again. And this regeneration is absolutely necessary to our happiness in the here and now as well as in the hereafter.
It is through God alone that we can find true happiness. It is not possible to find genuine happiness without the presence of the Holy Spirit of God within us and our allowing that Holy Spirit to guide and direct our lives.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NLT:
9 Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality,
10 or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God.
11 Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Going back to John 3, “Cannot see” in verse 3 would be more understandably translated for us as “Can have no part in.” So it could read, “Unless one is born again he can have no part in the kingdom of God.” Anyone who is not reborn will be on the outside looking in.
Some of you may have some questions about the Kingdom of God. What is it? When does it begin? Well here is a simple answer that should satisfy us for now: First, the Kingdom of God and The Kingdom of Heaven mean the same thing in the New Testament. Secondly, the Kingdom of God refers to the rule of God, whether in Heaven or on earth. The Kingdom of God was introduced on earth when Christ began His earthly ministry; and it will be fully operational when Christ returns in the end times, locks Satan in the Pit, and begins His thousand year reign upon the earth (Revelation 11:15).[fn] So the Kingdom of God on earth began with Christ’s ministry at His first coming, is therefore in existence today, and will be fully under the control of Christ when He returns. Today when we seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness, as Matthew 6:33 urges us to do, we are seeking God’s rule in our personal lives.
Jesus told Nicodemus that it was not enough for him to recognize the miracles Jesus performed. It was not enough for Nicodemus to recognize that Jesus was sent by God. He needed to be born again. What might Jesus say to a high-ranking church leader today? He would say the same thing: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Jesus would tell him/her that it is not enough to go through a lot of ritual and to recognize that Jesus is a great teacher, sent by God.
Unless you are born again, you will not enter the Kingdom of God and have everlasting life in Heaven.
We may understand from Nicodemus’ comments in verse 2 that He saw in Jesus a sign of the coming Messiah. In fact he may have believed Jesus to either be the Messiah or the prophet who would announce His coming. He is therefore courteous to Jesus, even complimentary. Perhaps he hopes to gain favor from Jesus so that he may have an important role in the Kingdom of God that the Messiah would bring. You see the Jews believed that the Messiah, when He came, would come as a conquering hero, a political leader and military conqueror who would free them from Roman control and establish Israel once again as a world power. But, in verse 3, Jesus immediately states His reason for coming, which is to provide people with the opportunity to be born again so that they may receive salvation and eternal life through the grace of God.
Nicodemus recognized that Jesus was a messenger from God and he wanted Jesus to know that he was interested in knowing what the message was and that he had a willingness to receive it.
We trust that each of you has also recognized who Jesus is, heard His message, and is willing to receive it into your own life so that you can be assured of eternal life.
Starting Life All Over Again
Did you ever wish you could start life all over again knowing what you know now and having another chance to correct all the mistakes you have made? Well you can. All of us are born in sin. Our “first birth” makes us children of Adam. This does not mean that Eve gave birth to us physically but rather that we are descendants of Adam and Eve, which means we are born with a sin nature and that sin nature leads us to disobedience. Everyone who has been born after Adam and Eve, and that of course means everyone but Adam and Eve, has a sin nature. No amount of education, religion, or discipline can change that old nature; we therefore need to receive a new nature from God. He provides all of us with that opportunity to be made into a new person.[fn]
We will now get back to the conversation Nicodemus was having with Jesus. Nicodemus was struggling with that very issue: how is it possible for someone to be made into a new person?
John 3:4 ESV:
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?”
Was Nicodemus, a Jewish teacher and leader in the Sanhedrin, so simple minded that he really believed Jesus was suggesting he climb back into his mother’s womb and be born again? Let us look at a couple of possible explanations for verse 4, both of which we can see as being true and applicable to what Nicodemus was thinking. Obviously Nicodemus had lost sight of that fact and the concept of a new birth as Jews applied it to non-Jews, and the way the Jews thought about themselves. They could understand that someone who was not a Jew would have to go through some special process in order to become a Jew.
But the Jew thought that he was saved simply because he was a Jew, one of God’s chosen people. They had, however, no right to think that way because nowhere in the Old Testament was it suggested that Jews were saved because they were part of a nation God called to serve Him. The thought of a Jew having to go through some type of conversion in order to be saved was simply a lot of foolishness to a good Pharisee like Nicodemus.
It is also possible that Nicodemus may have given Jesus the benefit of the doubt that a new birth might be necessary for non-Jews and said what he said about going back into his mother’s womb simply as a way of expressing sarcasm that he was probably too old and set in his ways to change and that in his case that kind of spiritual rebirth was impossible.[fn]
John 3:5 ESV:
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.
Jesus quite likely referred to water here to remind Nicodemus of the preaching of John the Baptist. Nicodemus was certainly aware that John the Baptist had preached a message of repentance and baptism and used water as a symbol of the cleansing of sin. People who wished to convert to Judaism in Old Testament times were said to become “as newborn children” when they were baptized to remove Gentile impurity. So water being used as a symbol for conversion is a concept that Nicodemus would have been quite familiar with. “Born of water” therefore makes it clear to Nicodemus that “born from above” meant conversion, not a second physical birth.[fn] Jewish teachers generally spoke of converts to Judaism as “newborn,” only in the sense that they were legally severed from old relationships. An actual rebirth by the Spirit would produce a new heart.[fn] The Greek wording of 3:5 can mean “water that is the Spirit.”
Verse 5 could then be read: “Unless someone is born of water, that is, the Holy Spirit, they cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” The water in baptism therefore only represents outwardly the cleansing that the Holy Spirit provides inwardly.
So contrary to what some churches teach, it is not the physical baptism that one receives that provides salvation, but rather the inner cleansing that is provided by the Holy Spirit through faith in Christ.
Ezekiel 36:24–27 used water symbolically for the cleansing that the Holy Spirit works in us:
24 For I will gather you up from all the nations and bring you home again to your land.
25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.
26 And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart.
27 And I will put my Spirit in youso that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. (NLT)
Being born of the Spirit requires a radical change, a new beginning, a complete change of heart.
Titus 3:5 NLT:
God saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.
To a Jew the idea of being baptized would be intolerable because it reminded them of a ceremony by which an unclean Gentile could become a member of the Jewish race. For Nicodemus to go through this would be disgraceful and humiliating. He would in effect be admitting that Pharisees needed to repent and ask forgiveness of Christ for their sins just as a Gentile would.
So the phrase Jesus used in verse 5 about being born of water could mean “converted by the Spirit.” If so, we could then read the verse this way: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is converted by the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” We see further evidence of this in John 7:37–39 NLT:
37 On the last day, the climax of the festival, Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!
38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’”
39 (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him.)
Paul described the Kingdom of God, which John refers to at the end of verse 5, in Romans 14:17 NLT:
For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
When a sinner kneels before Christ and confesses he is a sinner and that he has come to realize that Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for sin that he would have had to pay on his own, and tells Jesus that he wants Him to be his personal Savior, God through His grace grants that believer salvation and assures him of a place in Heaven for eternity.
God seals that promise by placing His Holy Spirit within that person to help guide and strengthen him/her in resisting sin and also to enable the individual to live a righteous life. That is how a person enters the Kingdom of God. Only by being born again can we enter the Kingdom of God.
John 3:6-8 ESV:
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not marvel (be surprised)[fn] 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.”
The “spirit” that is born from God’s Spirit may refer to the “new spirit” of Ezekiel 36:26, which we read a few moments ago.[fn] When something is born it resembles whoever gave it life. We resemble our parents. Your dog’s litter of puppies resemble their parents. When something is born of the Holy Spirit of God it is something that resembles the Holy Spirit of God. It is not God, but is like God. “Flesh is flesh. Spirit is spirit,” as we read in John 3:6.
Now let us consider the word “flesh” in verse 6. Flesh is not just our physical body. It includes all that comes into the world through birth, the entire person. This is not just a human being but a human being who is corrupted and has a tendency to commit unethical, immoral, and evil behavior. This flesh is a person who is a slave, a prisoner to the sin that came through the fall of mankind when Adam and Eve sinned.[fn]
Romans 8:4-7 NLT:
4 But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love,
5 he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit.
6 He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior.
7 Because of his grace he declared us righteous and gave us confidence that we will inherit eternal life.”
The Spirit was symbolized as wind in Ezekiel 37. The wind is unpredictable and uncontrollable. In Old Testament times the Holy Spirit only came to specially chosen people to do special work as directed by God. But there was no indication in the Old Testament Scripture that the Holy Spirit would come and live within all who received the Messiah as their Savior. When Nicodemus heard this he would be very surprised at such a suggestion. The mystery and the reality of the Holy Spirit’s work were included in the comments Jesus made about the wind. The origin of the Holy Spirit could not be determined either, but yet the presence of the Holy Spirit in one’s life was obvious. Nobody could deny its existence.[fn]
Regeneration, in other words is a complete renewal of one’s motives and behavior. It is the basis of salvation. We should be quite certain that we are truly "born again," for there are many people who think they are but who are not. Just because a person calls himself a Christian does not mean that the inner nature of that person is truly Christian. Being born in a country that is supposedly Christian does not make a person a Christian. Claiming to belong to a Christian church does not mean that a person is a Christian. Something must take place as the result of faith in Christ, whereby the person is "born again" by the power of' the Holy Spirit. Being "born again" is something so mysterious that human words cannot describe it. But it is a change which is both known and felt. It is known by works of holiness and it is felt by experiencing the presence and grace of God in our lives.[fn]
This incredible transformation comes from God Himself and is supernatural. It is not something which a person performs for himself/herself. It is not merely an attitude adjustment. However God accomplishes the process, the rebirth produces a new person. God renews the heart and the soul in a way that affects the entire individual. It is not a change of name or plastic surgery to change one’s appearance or weight loss to make one look better, but a renewal of one’s nature so that the person is not the person they used to be, but a new person in Christ Jesus. To wash and dress a corpse is far different from making the corpse alive. Human beings can dress the corpse, but God alone can make it come alive to a new life. If you have been "born again," you can rejoice by saying, "Lord Jesus, You are my new Parent. If it was not for You breathing into me a new and holy life, I would still be dead in my sins. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20).
John 3:9-10 ESV:
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things?
Nicodemus now seems to be concerned about what this new teaching means and how he might obtain this assurance of renewal and everlasting life. From this moment on in the conversation Nicodemus has nothing more to say. It now appears that he has accepted Jesus’ message and wants to hear more details. “How can I experience this new birth?” would be a fair paraphrase of verse 9.[fn] Jesus replies with a mild scolding of Nicodemus. Note that Jesus says: “Are you the teacher . . . ?” “The teacher” would suggest that Nicodemus is possibly the most respected teacher in Israel, or at the least one of the most respected. And yet he did not know a very basic truth taught in the Old Testament.
The evidence in the Old Testament was clear. It was necessary for a person to trust and obey God in order to obtain salvation. This salvation was not available because of one’s birthright or because one went through some kind of ceremony, or to those who did good works, or more accurately, thought they did good works. Regeneration was available to people in Old Testament times by trusting God, before the coming of Christ.
Jesus is telling Nicodemus that no one has in the past, or will ever have in the future, a spiritual experience of salvation without the assistance of the Holy Spirit.[fn] Evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament may be found in the following passages: Joseph--Genesis 41:38. Bezaleel--Exodus 31:3; 35:31. The seventy elders--Numbers 11:17. Balaam--Numbers 24:2. Joshua--Numbers 27:18. The Judges: Othniel--Judges 3:10; Gideon--Judges 6:34; Jephthah--Judges 11:29; Samson--Judges 13:25; 14:6, 19; King David--1 Chronicles 28:11, 12. The prophets: Azariah--2 Chronicles 15:1; Zechariah--2 Chronicles 24:20; Zechariah 1:1; Ezekiel--Ezekiel 8:3; 11:1, 5, 24; Daniel, Daniel 4:8; Zacharias--Luke 1:67; Elizabeth--Luke 1:41; Simeon--Luke 2:25, 26.[fn]
A spiritual experience here would be defined as a joining together of the person’s own spirit with the Holy Spirit. Christ had promised to give all believers the Spirit and that the Spirit would come to replace Jesus’ presence with them when Christ returned to Heaven (John 7:37-39; 14:16,17,26; 16:7,13,14).
John 3:11-13 ESV:
11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
“We speak of what we know, and . . . have seen,” would seem to be a reference to the Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus is referring to absolute knowledge and experience that only He could have had with God, as John described earlier in John 1:18 NLT:
No one has ever seen God. But the one and only Son is himself God and is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
The phrase, “But you do not receive our testimony,” would indicate both Nicodemus himself as well as the group of religious leaders to which he belonged. If Nicodemus and his associates could not understand these things that were clearly taught in the Old Testament that was available to them here on earth, how could they grasp a concept that could only be considered supernatural? How could they comprehend something which was not yet known here on earth because it originated in Heaven?
John 3:13 ESV:
13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
This verse basically states that knowledge of God is not obtained by a person going up from earth to Heaven to receive it. No human being from earth has ever done that and then returned to tell us what God wants us to know.[fn] Firsthand knowledge from God comes only from the Son of God. Jesus, whose home has been in Heaven from the very beginning. He has taken on human flesh and descended to earth to reveal to mankind what the Father wants them to know.[fn]
Jesus was the only link they would have with Heaven, and what He had to say was the final Word from God Himself.
Matthew 11:27 NLT:
All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
No one can come to the Father except by believing in Jesus Christ.
This fact assumes monumental importance today, when there are a number of religions and cults that acknowledge God as the heavenly Father. But these cults and religions do not accept the Person and work of Jesus Christ as God’s only Son. But Jesus stated, “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
John 3:14, 15 ESV:
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life.
A while back we looked at the passage from Numbers 21 which spoke of the poisonous snakes God sent among the people when they were rebelling against God and Moses. Let us read it again because it is important to the understanding of this section of John chapter three.
Numbers 21:6-10 NLT:
6 So the Lord sent poisonous snakes among the people, and many were bitten and died.
7 Then the people came to Moses and cried out, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you. Pray that the Lord will take away the snakes.” So Moses prayed for the people.
8 Then the Lord told him, “Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to a pole. All who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!”
9 So Moses made a snake out of bronze and attached it to a pole. Then anyone who was bitten by a snake could look at the bronze snake and be healed!
The bronze serpent in this Old Testament report was a representation of the Messiah, Jesus, and that He too would be able to save the people in a similar way when He came. Here, near the beginning of His ministry, Jesus is predicting His death on the cross. As the serpent was “lifted up,” so would Jesus be lifted up on the cross, and by looking to the cross people could also be saved just as the people in the Old Testament on their way to Mount Hor were saved by looking at the pole. However, the cross would not be a means of saving them physically, but through faith it would be a way to heal them spiritually.
The venom of these poisonous snakes was spreading through the bodies of the Israelites and thereby spreading death throughout the camp. This is a perfect analogy to the death awaiting all mankind because of sin. The healing power in both of these situations was provided by the grace of God. And we find that in both situations the cure resembled the disease. In the Numbers account the snakes are the problem and a snake on a pole is the solution.
In John’s account in John 3:14, the problem was sin causing men and women to face an eternal death in Hell. The cure was a man “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3) who would be hung on a cross. Just as one man (Adam) brought death, one Man (Jesus) brought life. Just as the snake hanging on the pole had no venom to cause the Israelites death, the Man hanging on the cross had no sin. In both situations the cure is placed right out in the open in a prominent place where everyone can see it. In both situations one is healed by looking to the cure. In the case involving the snakes, one looks with the eye on the cure God sent and believes in their heart God’s promise that they will be healed. In the case of Christ they look upon Him on the cross and believe in their heart that they will be saved.
Isaiah 45:22 NLT:
Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
Both concepts are far beyond human reason. Both concepts are foolishness to the enlightened mind of the intellectual. Having faith in Christ instead of earning their way into Heaven was a stumbling-block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:21-25 NLT (taken from Isaiah 8):
21 Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe.
22 It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom.
23 So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.
24 But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
25 This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.
Romans 9:30-33 NLT:
30 What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place.
31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.
32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.
33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”
In both situations the process is the same. The bottom line in both cases is faith and trust in God that His promises are true. All one had to do was take a quick look at the serpent on the pole to express faith in one case, and in the other simply believe that Jesus was who He had shown Himself to be by fulfilling prophecy and performing miracles. The consequences of disobedience are the same in both cases. We would not be surprised if many of the Israelites thought such a suggestion was ridiculous. Imagine thinking that a piece of metal in the shape of a snake hanging on a pole would cure them. Many of them probably sought all kinds of other cures until they dropped over dead. Unfortunately the teaching about the cross of Christ is met with the same kind of attitude. People go around believing in all kinds of other religions and philosophies based on their own logic and intelligence until they drop over dead. Then one second after they die they receive the shock of their lives when they find themselves surrounded by the horrors of Hell, and then of course it is too late to change one’s mind.
Some time back H. R. Block Inc. reportedly offered walk-in customers a chance to win a drawing for a million dollars. Glen and Gloria Sims of Sewell, New Jersey, won the drawing, but they refused to believe it when an H. R. Block representative phoned them with the good news.
After several additional contacts by both mail and phone, the Sims still thought it was all just a scam, and usually hung up the phone or trashed the special notices. Some weeks later, H. R. Block called one more time to let the Sims know the deadline for accepting the million-dollar prize was nearing and that the story of their refusal to accept the prize would appear on an upcoming NBC "Today Show."
At that point, Mr. Sims decided to investigate further. A few days later he appeared on the "Today Show" to tell America that he and his wife had finally gone to H. R. Block to claim the million-dollar prize. Mr. Sims' final words were: "From the time this has been going on, H. R. Block explained to us they really wanted a happy ending to all this, and they were ecstatic that we finally accepted the prize." This is so typical of how the Good News of the Gospel is treated. We resist the happy ending that God wants for us. Had the couple continued to assume the phone calls were not real and not believed the representative, they would have died missing out on the fortune just like those who refuse to accept the free gift of salvation by believing in Christ’s death on the cross as payment for their sins. We pray that no one will be so foolish.
For God So Loved The World
John 3:14-18
As we look at the concept of being born again, it reminds us of a story about an irate subscriber who stormed into a newspaper office waving the current edition of the paper. He demanded to see "whoever wrote the obituary column." When referred to a young reporter, he stormed, "You can see I'm very much alive, and you've put me in the obituary column! I demand a retraction!" Replied the reporter, "I never retract a story. But I tell you what I'll do. I'll put you in the birth column and give you a fresh start."
Being born again does not quite work that way when we look at what is probably the most often quoted verse in the Bible, John 3:16. It is most likely the most quoted verse because it sums up the message of the Bible as well as it could be summarized in one verse: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Because of God’s love for all of mankind, He was willing to send Jesus, the second member of the Trinity, to earth in the flesh of a man to suffer and die so that all people who believe in what He did for them may have eternal life in Heaven. But in order to get the full flavor of the message, we need to look at some verses before and after John 3:16 and read them together to complete the thought. So let us do that.
John 3:14-18 ESV:
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
That is quite a mouthful and if we stopped right here and did nothing more than read this passage over and over again, and memorize it, there would not be a theologian in the world who had anything on our understanding of God’s message.
Remember that Jesus is still talking to Nicodemus in these verses. The story in Numbers 21:4-9 was certainly familiar to Nicodemus. It is a story of sin, for the nation rebelled against God and had to be punished. As we have already learned, God sent fiery serpents that bit the people so that many died. It is also a story of grace, for Moses went to God asking help for the people and God provided a remedy. He told Moses to make a brass serpent and lift it up on a pole for all to see. Any stricken person who looked at the serpent would immediately be healed. So, it is also a story of faith. When the people looked by faith, they were saved.[fn]
The verb lifted up has two meanings. It means to be crucified (John 8:28; 12:32-34) and to be glorified and exalted. In his gospel, John points out that Jesus’ crucifixion was actually the means of His glorification (John 12:23ff). The cross was not the end of His glory; it was the means of His glory (Acts 2:33).[fn]
Much as the serpent was lifted up on that pole, so the Son of God would be lifted up on a cross. Why? To save us from sin and death. In the camp of Israel, the solution to the "serpent problem" was not in polling the serpents, making medicine, pretending they were not there, passing anti-serpent laws, or climbing the pole. The answer was in looking by faith at the uplifted serpent.[fn]
The whole world has been bitten by sin, and "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). God sent His Son to die, not only for Israel, but for a whole world. How is a person born from above? How is he or she saved from eternal perishing? By believing in Jesus Christ, by looking to Him in faith.[fn]
“On January 6, 1850, a snowstorm almost crippled the city of Colchester, England; and a teenage boy was unable to get to the church he usually attended. So he made his way to a nearby Primitive Methodist chapel, where an ill-prepared layman was substituting for the absent preacher. His text was Isaiah 45:22: ‘Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’ For many months this young teenager had been miserable and under deep conviction; but though he had been reared in church (both his father and grandfather were preachers), he did not have the assurance of salvation.
“The unprepared substitute minister did not have much to say, so he kept repeating the text. ‘A man need not go to college to learn to look,’ he shouted. "Anyone can look? A child can look!" About that time, he saw the visitor sitting to one side, and he pointed at him and said, ‘Young man, you look very miserable. Young man, look to Jesus Christ!’ The young man did look by faith, and that was how the great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon was converted.”[fn]
The difference between perishing and living, and between condemnation and salvation, is faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus could well have come to this world as a Judge and destroyed every rebellious sinner; but in love, He came to this world as our Savior, and He died for us on the cross. He became the "uplifted serpent." The serpent in Moses' day brought physical life to dying Jews; but Jesus Christ gives eternal life to anyone who trusts Him. He has salvation for the whole world.[fn]
In this passage beginning in John 3:14 and ending in John 3:18, Jesus provides each person all they need to know for salvation and eternal life.
Far too many people and far too many churches complicate the process, and far too many people do not want to accept the fact that they cannot earn salvation on their own. They want to believe that they are better than others and therefore deserve better treatment. We have seen far too many people reject Christianity because it teaches that God will forgive the worst of sinners if they believe in the blood of Jesus as payment for their sins and that such forgiveness is available even if a person makes that faith commitment with their dying breath. These people do not think it is fair for someone who has done good things for 40 years to be treated the same way as someone who has only had 40 seconds to do good things. But that is the way it is for believers. They must accept Jesus as their Savior. It is not the good works that save you and get you into Heaven; it is the belief, the faith, the trust. It is a gift, and the only thing you need to do to earn it is to accept it. You can do that when you are 5 years old or 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, or beyond. The advantage of receiving Christ early in this life, however, is that you can avoid a lot of pain and grief that is caused by pride and self-will. Being saved does not promise an easy life, but it does promise a peaceful life.
A closer look at this passage will show clearly why anyone can get to Heaven by accepting the teaching here as absolute truth. Some explanation will certainly be helpful for those who are not familiar with the Bible.
“Whoever believes in him may have eternal life (John 3:15 ESV).”
Whoever means everybody, which means everybody in the entire world, no matter what they have done during their lives. Mass murderers, prostitutes, child molesters, embezzlers, wife-beaters, idol worshippers, alcoholics, drug addicts, along with gossips, individuals who bend the truth, and people who cheat “just a little” on their income tax are all still able to be forgiven and have eternal life in Heaven if they believe in Jesus Christ as the One who died to pay for those sins. This means that Hitler, Stalin, Al Capone, Saddam Hussein, and even far-left liberals could have forgiveness in the last few moments of their lives if they had accepted Christ as the substitute who paid for their sinful, evil lives. Had they done that they would have been escorted into Heaven the moment they died. What a gift! What love! Did any of these guys do that? We doubt it very much but no one can know for certain. There has been no one, by the way, since God put human beings on earth who has not sinned. No one that is but Jesus Christ. He, therefore, could be the only perfect, sinless sacrifice that God demanded for forgiveness of sin.
John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (ESV)
There is so much more in the Christmas story than the birth of a Babe in Bethlehem. It is the story of a loving God who set aside His glory to come take on the form of sinful human beings, so that those human beings could have a personal relationship with Him and eventually live with Him forever. What kind of ability does God possess to love people who are sinning all the time? How do you feel about people who do not do what you want them to do, who do not think the way you want them to think, and who continually fall short of what you expect of them? Kind of sounds like your teenager, does it not? But that is how mankind responds to God. But yet God loves us and wants us to come to Him so that He might bless us, and we bet that is the same way you feel about your teenager. Maybe there is a lesson in that thought that can help us understand how God can love us as His children, even if we are bad.
God loves us in a way and so deeply that it is beyond our understanding, but what higher standard is there to prove love than to sacrifice your beloved child in death so that some miserable sinner can be saved and have eternal life in Heaven? In the best translations the phrase, “His only begotten Son” is used, “Only begotten” or “one and only” tells us this Son is “special” or “beloved.” Do you have children? Would you be willing to sacrifice your child so that a serial killer could be saved and have eternal life in Heaven? In fact would you want to allow your child to be killed so that your nephew or brother-in-law, or sister could be saved and have eternal life? There is no stronger bond between anyone than there is between a parent and a child. Would you be willing to sacrifice your life so that God’s will could be accomplished through your martyrdom and death as a believer? You should, because that is how much He loved us and anything less on our part would be a rejection of God. His love is unconditional and ours must be as well.
Imagine the suffering Jesus endured. Here is the Son of God, the second member of the Trinity, who is without sin, and who must then bear the sin of all the world upon His tortured and beaten body as He hangs on the cross slowly dying an excruciatingly painful death. He is also for the first time in history separated from His Father because God could not look upon the sin of the entire world that was heaped upon His beloved Son. That, my friends, is love. It is the kind of love that all of us may not be able to give while we are still in these human bodies, but there is no reason that we cannot feel that kind of love, because we see the evidence of it on the cross.
Martin Luther called John 3:16 "the gospel in miniature." “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” D. L. Moody said this verse brought him to an understanding of the love of God. As Moody tells it, early in his ministry he had gone to England. While there, he met a young minister by the name of Henry Morehouse, and in their conversation Morehouse said to Moody, "I am thinking of going to America." Moody responded, "Well, if you should ever get to Chicago, come down to my church and I will give you a chance to preach." Now Moody really did not mean that. He realized after he said it that he hoped this man did not come to America because he had never heard him preach.
Some time later Moody received a telegram that read, "Just arrived in New York. Will be in Chicago on Sunday. Morehouse." Moody did not know what to do. He had promised the man his pulpit, but he had never heard him preach. So after discussing the matter with his best counselor, his wife, and with the church leaders, he decided to allow him to preach one time. Then if he did okay, he could preach again. Moody had to go out of town, and Morehouse came.
After the week was over, Moody returned and asked his wife, "How did the young preacher do?" His wife responded, "He is a better preacher than you are. He is telling sinners that God loves them. You must go hear him!" Moody said, "What! He is telling sinners that God loves them? That's not true!" She said, "Well, he has been preaching on John 3:16 all week long." Moody made haste to get down to the church that night. Morehouse stood in the pulpit and began by saying, "I have been hunting for a text all week, and I have not been able to find a better one than John 3:16, so I will just talk about it once more." Later Moody testified that on that night he saw the greatness of the love of God as he had never seen it before.[fn]
John 3:16 speaks of God's love, a love that is impossible to imagine in its scope, a love that is never ending, a love that extends as far as the eye can see and beyond. That is the heart of the Gospel. It is not simply "God is love," but "God so loved the world that he gave." That is what forms the foundation for the new birth. "Nicodemus, do you want to understand how such things that Christ is telling you can be? It is because of the boundless love of God." F. M. Lehman wrote a great hymn about the love of God. Betty and I love this hymn so much that we had it sung at our wedding. Interestingly, Lehman did not pen the last verse. He found it inscribed on the wall of an insane asylum next to the bed of a man who had evidently found the love of God before he passed away.
“The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell,
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave his Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
“Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were ev'ry stalk on earth a quill
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.”[fn]
"Nicodemus, the new birth is possible because of the great, boundless love of God." That is the meaning of the words "God so loved the world." The day we die will be the greatest experience of our lives if we have invited Christ to be our Savior. John 3:16 says that when we believe, we have eternal life as our present possession. Eternal life begins from the moment we believe.
God’s love is not limited to a select group of people but His gift of love is for the whole world. God’s love was expressed in the giving of His most valuable gift, His unique Son.
Romans 8:3, 32 NLT:
3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?
In John 3:16 the Greek word translated in some translations as “one and only” or “only begotten,” referring to the Son, is monogenes, which means “only begotten,” or “only born-one.” The word is also used in 1 John 4:9 NLT:
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.
What part do we have to play in this transaction? We need only to reach out and receive the gift and say, “Thank You.” Salvation comes only as a gift because of God’s grace and love for us, there is no way we can earn it no matter how hard we might try.
John 1:12-13NLT.
12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
13 They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
A person is saved by believing, by trusting in Christ. Perish (apoletai in the Greek) does not mean to cease to exist but rather a final destiny of misery in Hell apart from God. Eternal life is a new quality of life, which a believer has now as a present possession and will possess forever.[fn]
John 10:27-28 NLT
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me,
John 17:1-3 NLT:
1 After saying all these things, Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son so he can give glory back to you.
2 For you have given him authority over everyone. He gives eternal life to each one you have given him.
3 And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth
There are two things we need to be perfectly clear on here. One is that we must be born again. The other is that the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, must be lifted up. Our salvation requires both the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ. By believing in these things the Spirit of Christ is alive within the believer to provide us regeneration, a new life through a new birth as well as giving us eternal life upon the death of our physical bodies. Receiving this gift of being born again is the only way God will allow us into Heaven.
Romans 10:9, NAS
. . . if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.
God saves by grace! "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). Now, how does God save? God saves by grace. God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever (you can write your name in here and we can write ours) believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Notice that with the word believe is the little preposition “in,” which means to believe in Christ. That is, we trust Him as the One who bore the penalty for our sins. This is a personal thing. We must each believe that He died in our place. You must believe that He died for you.[fn]
John 3:17:
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. “
It is true that those who do not believe will be condemned, but God’s purpose in sending Jesus into the world was to save them, not to condemn them. God does not delight in the death of the wicked according to Ezekiel 18:23, 31-32 NLT:
23 “Do you think that I like to see wicked people die? says the Sovereign Lord. Of course not! I want them to turn from their wicked ways and live.
31 Put all your rebellion behind you, and find yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O people of Israel?
32 I don’t want you to die, says the Sovereign Lord. Turn back and live!
God desires that everyone be saved, 1 Timothy 2:1-4 NLT:
1 I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them.
2 Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity.
3 This is good and pleases God our Savior,
4 who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.
2 Peter 3:9 NLT:
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think. No, he is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
God was in Christ giving the people of the world an opportunity to restore their relationship with Him, and in the process giving the world an opportunity for salvation and eternal life. The world could not be saved except through the perfect sacrifice of Christ. No one, and we repeat, no one from any time in history, or from any country, or from any religion can have their relationship with God restored without believing that Christ died for their sins and is therefore their Savior.
That means that all the people who have and do believe the doctrine of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Shamanism, Wicca’s, or anything else, are not going to Heaven. They are going to go to Hell forever and they will not be happy there. If you are saying to yourself “That is not fair. There are a lot of good people who do not accept Jesus as Savior. Why should they go to Hell?” The answer is because they are not good enough. The only way to be good enough cannot be achieved by our own efforts, but by accepting what Christ has done for us. If you choose to reject this truth, you have had your chance. You have heard the truth and your eternity is now in your own hands. And about those other religions, they do not hold a candle to Christianity, to the perfection of the Word of God given us in the Bible, and we will readily discuss the differences between Christianity and other religions, as well its exclusiveness to truth, whenever and wherever anyone would like to do so.
God knew we were all hopeless and could not meet the requirements for Heaven on our own. So instead of simply destroying all of us He implemented this incredible plan so that everyone could be saved and go to Heaven instead of Hell. But He wanted to have each individual person decide that they wanted to turn away from sin and turn to God for a new life. Knowing that a perfect sinless sacrifice would be required to accomplish this cleansing of human sin, God decided that only He could be that sacrifice.
So out of love He was willing to take on human flesh in the form of Jesus and come to earth to allow Himself to be sacrificed to pay for the sin of all mankind. He could have come to earth to judge and punish sinners, but instead He was willing to come first in an attempt to save people rather than condemn them. One day in the future Jesus will come as Judge of the world, but before He does that He wanted to give everyone a chance to repent of his or her sins and accept the one and only way into paradise.
John 3:18 ESV:
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Any person who has ever lived or will ever live has an entire lifetime to believe in Jesus as Savior, and if they do that they will not be judged, condemned, and sentenced to Hell for eternity. But instead they will enter into the Kingdom of God and be assured of eternity in Heaven. And once that salvation has been given it will never be taken away no matter what you do. However, if any person refuses to believe in Jesus as Savior, they have condemned themselves to Hell for eternity and will have only themselves to blame for their decision. If they choose that they believe God and want to be with Him, they will be. If they choose not to believe God and not be with Him, they will not be with Him. The choice is ours. You may have and get whatever you want. You have an entire lifetime to make your decision, but the catch is that you don’t know how long that lifetime will be.
Anyone who believes in Christ is not condemned. That means they will not go to Hell. Even though a person may have been the world’s worst sinner, they are not dealt with according to what their sins deserve. Why? Because God sent Jesus to save us. How awful it will be for unbelievers who have no Savior. There is no way they can make it on their own goodness.
Unbelief is a sin against God‘s mercy and grace. It is shaped by the hostility of one’s heart to the things of God, from the love of sin in various forms. Sinful works are works of darkness and those who love sin go as far away from the light as they can get in order that their sin cannot be seen in the light of God’s presence. John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.” Then in John 8:12 we read: “Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” People hate Christ because they love sin. They reject the knowledge of truth so that they might remain comfortable in their ignorance. On the other hand, a person who has been born again embraces this truth. He wants more than anything to know what the will of God is and to then do it. A complete change has taken place in the mind and heart of a person who has been reborn. The love of God now fills this person’s heart because of the presence of the Holy Spirit and the willingness of the person to surrender their will to the will of the Holy Spirit.[fn]
When we do what we know to be God’s will in our lives by asking the Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us to do things that glorify God, then we are truly doing good works, works which are done by the power of God within us for His sake not for ours, and because our motive is to glorify God, we may benefit from those things as well. We are not doing those things in order to be saved; we are doing them because we are saved.
Imagine that after a lifetime of satisfying our various bodily desires and pleasures (sex, alcohol, drugs, etc) we die in sin. In other words we have rejected Christ and have continued to satisfy only those things that we want: Lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, and the pride of life. Imagine that kind of a death and within the blink of an eye awakening to the reality of Hell’s prison all around you. You then finally cry out for mercy, you plead for another chance, but it is too late. You hear the voice of God saying: “Depart from me, I never knew you.”
A believer in Jesus Christ will never be condemned. Romans 8:1 NLT: “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” John 5:24 NLT: “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life.”
Moses' illustration in verse 14 is not only a good one because it tells us what will solve the problem, but because it also tells us what will not solve the problem. Would it not be just like mankind to have tried every possible remedy to solving the problem of the poisonous venom that was killing them all off? They could have called a meeting; they could have had the venom analyzed by various scientific laboratories; they could have questioned the snakes to determine what their motive was for biting them. They could have contacted NASOCC, The National Association for Snakes and Other Crawling Creatures.[fn] They could have tried anything and everything and they would have died trying because they did not do one simple thing. They did not look to God for the answer and for His help.
Similarly, in our lives today, we try to solve problems by doing all kinds of things that we think might solve the problem. Everything that is but getting down on our knees. Or as Nicodemus says, "How can this be? How can I be born again?” Well, Nicodemus, you can be born again, that is, you can become a Christian, by believing in Christ alone and by looking to the cross. We must give up our dependence on ourselves, our cleverness, our own self-improvement, our plans of becoming religious. We must simply look to Jesus.
The new nature in the Christian comes on the basis of the atonement of Christ; that is, Christ dying on the cross and rising again so that we may have the presence of the Holy Spirit within us. Have you looked to Him? The Scriptures say, "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:22).Look to Jesus Christ, believe, and in doing so, have eternal life.[fn]
Light and Darkness
We hope John 3:14-18 gave you an overwhelming sense of God’s love for you and the security you have in that love for all eternity because of God’s grace and your faith in Jesus Christ. As we have already mentioned, Martin Luther called John 3:16 "the gospel in miniature." That is truly an appropriate and fitting description of the verse including the two verses that precede and follow it (John 3:14-18). So let us go back and review these verses and we will include verses 19-21 that will conclude this witness about salvation and rebirth that Jesus provided for Nicodemus.
John 3:14-21 ESV:
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been carried out in God.”
Judgment will be the consequence of not believing in Jesus Christ as Savior. There will be no way to avoid judgment for those who avoid His message of salvation and eternal life. If you hear Jesus’ message, the Gospel, and you do not accept it at some time before your death, it is the same as admitting you prefer your sin to His salvation. If a person refuses to come into the light so that his/her entire life might be visible and evaluated, it is obvious that the person is ashamed of certain things they have done and want to keep them hidden in the darkness, and prefer them to Christ’s forgiveness and gift of eternal life in Heaven. It is a shame that so many choose this course, and Satan has made it easy for them by blinding them to the truth through a variety of different religious beliefs that allow them to live in their sin by choosing a god they believe would not punish them for what they consider their excusable shortcomings.
Light and darkness is one of the major images used in John’s Gospel. We see this image right at the beginning in John 1:4-13 ESV:
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.
8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.
12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,
13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
Why do sinners not run toward the "light of life"? Because they love the darkness in which they live. They prefer doing things the way they want even if it means judgment. Many deceive themselves into believing the things they do are not really bad. That is why our present day culture has legitimized almost every conceivable deviant form of behavior. Looking at pornography is considered something harmless. Never mind that it breaks a wife’s heart if she discovers her husband involved with it. And never mind that it cheapens the view regarding sexuality for the young single or teenager, so that when they get married they will not be able to have a meaningful sexual relationship with one woman or one man as God intended. Practicing homosexuality is considered okay because they say you were made that way. It is simply a matter of what a person chooses. Never mind that it spreads all kinds of social diseases including the killer “AIDS.” And never mind that the Bible absolutely forbids it. After all, they say the Bible is out of date.
And they say abortion is a woman’s constitutional right to choose. A woman should have the right to murder her unborn baby if she wants to, should she not? After all it is her body. In reality, however, her choice is to have unprotected sex and then murder the child so she does not have to be bothered with the life that is created within her, a life that has been placed their by God, and a life that has a purpose in God‘s plan. After all, He would not have created the life within her if He did not have a plan for that life. And we certainly do not want these young women to be aware of the fact that abortion will very likely give them an increased possibility of breast cancer, emotional disorders, and additional future health problems.
And then there is alcohol and drugs. Everybody should be allowed to have a good time, right? A little recreational drinking and drug use is not really going to hurt anyone. Never mind that many alcoholics and drug abusers are hooked in an addiction after even the first drink or the first fix. And we certainly would not want to make people aware of the families that have been destroyed by these addictions. Not only is the addicts life affected, but their family and friends. It will destroy one’s health and frequently cause premature death if the addict is unable to stop.
Then there are video games and violent movies. But they are only a harmless form of entertainment. Kids get a kick out of playing cops and robbers, batman, and other such adventure thrillers. It has no affect on their emotional development. What is the big deal? The big deal is that there is a direct correlation between the amount of violence an emotionally disturbed child, or adult for that matter, is exposed to and their tendency to carry out such violence on other people.
We could go on like this all day, but let us close with one of our favorites, music, or more accurately, psychotic screaming accompanied by cacophonous finger-nail-on-the-blackboard screeching about violent sex, physical violence, degradation of women, and racial slurs.
Why does a college student murder 32 people on a college campus? Why do young teenagers murder 6, 8, 10, or more of their classmates? Because the prevailing mindset of the United States trains them to do such things. These things never happened when we were kids and we believe they did not happen because the parents of that generation would have not allowed them to happen. If the parents of that generation had found out that a school was teaching tolerance of homosexuality as an alternate lifestyle, whoever was responsible would have been run out of town, if not worse. So what has happened to create such a contrast in morality in only a couple of generations?
Satan has been very clever in this regard. He took several mediums that started out very innocently and wholesomely and gradually, ever so slightly he began to desensitize the American people little by little with each passing year. He took Music which was wonderful, tasteful entertainment in the 1940’s, and allowed “Rock N Roll” to appeal to the young people of the 1950’s because of the catchy beat and the sappy love songs that went along with it. Teenagers bought into some of those lyrics and little by little the morality of our country began to be more and more permissive of lowering the bar on morality and personal integrity. Movies, radio, and television followed right along. Soon music was calling for more and more rebellion against the standard mores of the culture and young people began rebelling in all kinds of different ways including use of drugs and sexual promiscuity.
Television and movies which for the most part were quality forms of entertainment in the forties and fifties blended right in with the same pattern of moral decline. The board of censors for motion pictures that was made up of the clergy from a number of different denominations voluntarily gave up that watch dog position. Consequently sex and violence gradually became more and more acceptable, until today when just about anything goes. People enjoyed television shows like “I Love Lucy,” “Milton Berle,” “Red Skelton,” “Bob Hope,” “Perry Como,” and many more. But then came the rebellious years of the 60’s and 70’s with the Vietnam War and the Nixon resignation. We began to see more and more violence on TV along with some pretty harsh language. We have now evolved to the point where sex and violence is about the only thing you can see on the major networks. And if it is not sex and violence it is news reporting that is not trustworthy, not accurate, and is aimed at stirring controversy, which it seems people have come to consider a form of entertainment.
Where are the gentlemen? Where are the ladies? What has happened to the term “Good sportsmanship?” Where are the clean cut young people? Where is decency, integrity, and honesty? They are still there but those qualities are rapidly losing out to the attitude of “life is all about me,” and “I’m going to grab as much pleasure as I can get while I can, and I don’t give a _______ about how it affects other people.”
Those attitudes, my friends, suggest that people love the darkness more than they love the light. They prefer to live in darkness where they can enjoy the things they do and not feel guilty about them. People have always been sinful but today it is becoming more and more prevalent confirming John 3:19-20 ESV:
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.
20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
How do people today feel when you tell them about the light that is in the world in the person of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ? They all too often react in a manner that makes it clear that they will determine who God is and what He expects of them by their own supernatural power. What nonsense! What they really want is to create their own god who will be tolerant of their behavior and assure them that everything will be okay in eternity, if there is an eternity. They want to persist in their evil deeds, and this keeps them from coming to the light; for the closer the sinner gets to the light, the more his/her sins are exposed. And it is not intelligent reasoning that keeps people from trusting Christ; it is the moral and spiritual blindness that keeps them loving the darkness and hating the light.
You may be interested in knowing that Nicodemus finally did "come to the light” when he identified with Christ at the cross. Somewhere along the way Nicodemus had accepted Jesus Christ as the Son of God and the Savior of the world for all those who would believe. John 19:38-42.NLT:
38 Afterward Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus (because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus’ body. When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away.
39 With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes.
40 Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth.
41 The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before.
42 And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
People love darkness not for its own sake but because of what it hides. Just as natural light shows up what is otherwise unseen, so Christ, the Light, exposes people’s deeds as “evil.” The word “evil” here can also be translated as “worthless,” and is also used by John in chapter 5, verse 29. Let us look at that passage beginning in verse 25:
25 I assure you that the time is coming, indeed it’s here now, when the dead will hear my voice—the voice of the Son of God. And those who listen will live.
26 The Father has life in himself, and he has granted that same life-giving power to his Son.
27 And he has given him authority to judge everyone because he is the Son of Man. 28 Don’t be so surprised! Indeed, the time is coming when all the dead in their graves will hear the voice of God’s Son,
29 and they will rise again. Those who have done good will rise to experience eternal life, and those who have continued in evil will rise to experience judgment.
Unbelievers have no worthwhile meaning to their lives. They deceive themselves by making something up that they like to believe is meaningful, but when you do not have the Holy Spirit of Christ in your life, you in reality have nothing that is worth anything from an eternal perspective. Such people are afraid of walking into the light of Christ’s truth because if they do they know those make-believe things they have created to be meaningful will be illuminated for what they really are, worthless. Believers, those who have been redeemed and saved and who now have the Holy Spirit of Christ living within them, are drawn to His light, the truth of His Word, and they welcome His teaching. Though the light exposes their sin as well, they respond with repentance and faith, and they try as best they can to live according to the truth as we are told in 2 John 1-4 and 3 John 1- 4 NLT:
1 This letter is from John, the elder. I am writing to the chosen lady and to her children, whom I love in the truth—as does everyone else who knows the truth—2 because the truth lives in us and will be with us forever.3 Grace, mercy, and peace, which come from God the Father and from Jesus Christ—the Son of the Father—will continue to be with us who live in truth and love.
4 How happy I was to meet some of your children and find them living according to the truth, just as the Father commanded.
1 This letter is from John, the elder. I am writing to Gaius, my dear friend, whom I love in the truth.
2 Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit.
3 Some of the traveling teachers recently returned and made me very happy by telling me about your faithfulness and that you are living according to the truth.
4 I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.
By being born again, given a new life, they live differently than they did formerly when they too chose darkness rather than light. Their new lives are lived by faith in Jesus and His Word of truth. The Holy Spirit of Christ working in their lives gives them new power, goals, and interests that they were not capable of having before their rebirth. In 2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT, Paul writes:
17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
And in Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT, Paul writes:
8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.
9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.
10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
There is another aspect of sin we need to briefly cover. It is one thing to love the darkness because it hides one’s sins, but is also a sin to be walking in the light and know what is true, what is the right thing to do, and then not do what we know Christ’s Spirit is leading us to do. That might not be considered loving the darkness, but it is a sin none the less because one who does not do what the light shows him/her is right, is guilty of sin, James 4:17 NLT tells us: “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” Also we read in James 1:19-27 NLT:
Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.
20 Human anger does not produce the righteousness God desires.
21 So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.
22 But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
23 For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.
24 You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like.
25 But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.
26 If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless.
27 Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you.
How folks react to the light indicates how they feel about their new birth, their new life. How do you respond to the light? In these first 21 verses of John 3 we have been looking at what it means to be born again. We have been given the answer in John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.“ Rebirth is possible because of God's great love.
A Good Servant
John 3:22-30 ESV:
22 After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he remained there with them and was baptizing.
23 John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because water was plentiful there, and people were coming and being baptized
24 (for John had not yet been put in prison).
25 Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification.
26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”
27 John answered, “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.
28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.’
29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.
30 He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.
In this passage we listen in on a conversation between some of John the Baptist’s disciples and a Jew or Jews. The bottom line here revolves around the issue of whose baptism is approved by God, the baptism of John the Baptist or the baptism of Jesus. John the Baptist recognized his place as a servant of Jesus and as Jesus’ ministry expanded John’s role would be diminished. John had announced the coming of Jesus and had thus fulfilled his mission. These are the last words by John the Baptist recorded in this Gospel.[fn]
Until John the Baptist was arrested by Herod and put into prison, his ministry continued even after Jesus’ ministry had begun. John (the Baptist) did not want anyone to follow him any longer. John’s ministry was to point people toward Jesus and urge then to trust in His teaching. But think about what might happen in a church when there are two popular pastors who are both gifted preachers and teachers. It is very likely that people will begin to favor one against the other and get caught up in competition and comparison.
This matter of purifying which means the same as baptizing was important to the Jews (Mark 7:1–23). Under the Old Testament Law, it was necessary for them to keep themselves ceremonially clean if they were to serve God and please Him. Unfortunately, the Pharisees added so many extra traditions to the Law that the observing of it became a burden.[fn]
John’s disciples, whether intentionally or unintentionally, were putting him into a position of competing with Jesus. How did John the Baptist handle this situation? He began by stating a biblical fact: “A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven” (John 3:27). Paul spoke of a very similar situation in1 Corinthians 3:1–9 NLT:
1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn’t talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life.
2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren’t ready for anything stronger. And you still aren’t ready,
3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?
4 When one of you says, “I am a follower of Paul,” and another says, “I follow Apollos,” aren’t you acting just like people of the world?
5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God’s servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us.
6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow.
7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow.
8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work.
9 For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.
Also see 1 Corinthians 4:1–7. Our blessings come from God alone and He alone deserves the glory.
“Then John used a beautiful illustration. He compared Jesus to the bridegroom and himself only to the best man (John 3:29). Once the bridegroom and bride had been brought together, the work of the best man was completed. What a foolish thing it would be for the best man to try to “upstage” the bridegroom and take his place. John’s joy was to hear the voice of the Bridegroom and know that the Bridegroom had claimed His bride.”[fn]
The illustration of the Bridegroom would have been meaningful to the Jewish people because God had a “marriage covenant” or “promise” with the nation of Israel.[fn] Although Israel broke those vows and had to be punished, God will one day in the future fulfill those promises to Israel. When Israel rejected the Messiah, Christ, God offered the promise to everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike. Anyone who trusted in God and the Son He sent to forgive the sins of the world would be saved. Those who received the gift at that time founded the Church, the bride of Christ (2 Corinthians 11:1–3; Ephesians 5:22–33). One day the Bridegroom will come to claim His bride and take her to her new home in Heaven (Revelation 19:6–9; 21:9ff).
A Presbyterian pastor in Melbourne, Australia introduced J. Hudson Taylor by using many superlatives, especially the word “great.” Taylor stepped to the pulpit and quietly said, “Dear friends, I am the little servant of an illustrious Master.” If John the Baptist in heaven heard that statement, he must have shouted “Hallelujah!”[fn]
It is enough for John the Baptist to be the bridegroom’s, Jesus’ friend. The friend who was sent by God to be the matchmaker. John had the privilege of bringing together Jesus and His bride, the Church, those he came to seek and to save. It is enough for John to rejoice with joy simply to be able to stand there and hear the bridegroom’s voice, as a groomsman to the blessed marriage. It was not only John who must decrease, but the old order which he represented. We will see how this unfolds beginning in chapter 4.
Jesus the Witness
John 3: 31-36
Does the thought of witnessing to someone scare you to death? We mean, you know that as a Christian you are to be telling others about Christ, but somehow it just does not seem politically correct, so you are concerned about what people will think of you. Or maybe that does not concern you, but you are afraid you will say the wrong thing or stumble over your words. Remember what George W. Peters once said, “The world is far more ready to receive the Gospel than Christians are to hand it out.” It is true we do need to be loving in our testimony and it is also true that, like it or not, our lives and our actions speak louder than our words. Let us see what tips we can get from this message about effective witnessing.
The focus in this section of John chapter three is on witnessing, that is giving one’s testimony regarding the truth of the message Jesus was teaching. This is one of the key subjects in John’s Gospel. The Greek word translated “witness” or “testimony” is used forty-seven times. John bore witness to Jesus (John 1:7; 5:33), but Jesus was also a witness to the truth. Why should we believe His witness? We will find out shortly.[fn]
John 3:31-36 ESV:
31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.
32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.
33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.
34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.
35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John has already taught us a very important lesson in verse 30. If you recall we paraphrased this verse as, “More of Jesus, less of me.” John found satisfaction in the fact that Jesus was becoming more and more prominent as a teacher while his own influence was diminishing. John tried to make his position as clear as possible to his followers by giving them an illustration that they would readily understand. The primary purpose of the friend of the bridegroom at a wedding was to help the bridegroom in whatever way he could and to direct the attention of people, not to himself but to the bridegroom. John the Baptist’s work was to prepare the people for the coming of Christ, the “Groom,” and John found true joy serving in that capacity.
John 3:31 ESV:
31 He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all.
Please understand the incredible fact that is presented in the first sentence of this verse. Jesus comes from Heaven. He is God, the second member of the Trinity, who has come to earth in human flesh. He is fully God and fully man, a reality that is difficult for our finite (limited in understanding) minds to understand. Such things regarding God should not surprise us, for He is a supernatural being with capabilities far beyond our human understanding. Some things we simply have to accept as true because God tells us they are true. There is no way we could understand such things in our present status as human beings. Jesus was supernatural, outside the realm of complete understanding.
Jesus was not conceived like all other children in the womb of His mother. This is yet another thing no one could possibly explain. Jesus came from Heaven and was placed in His mother‘s womb so He would grow and develop just like any other human baby and be born after a nine month pregnancy just like any other baby. He would then grow from year to year into adulthood just like every other human being. Yet in his manhood He was still fully God and He had come from Heaven where He had lived from eternity past. If anyone would like to take a shot at explaining any of that, we are all ears. Jesus was from Heaven and that is why John can say in verse 31: “He who comes from above is above all.” Andyou might remember what Jesus said about John the Baptist in Matthew 11:11 NLT: “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist. Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he is!” So John the Baptist is the greatest human being who has ever lived, and John says Jesus is far greater than he or anyone else on earth. Jesus considered John to be the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets and thus the greatest human ever. But after Jesus’ death on the Cross, anyone who accepted Jesus’ message and had all their sins forgiven, were considered by God to be without sin. They became part of the Kingdom of Heaven. We might call it the kingdom of grace where all who are saved are equal before God. Yet Jesus the Son of God is greater than all.
Jesus has more wisdom than anyone, more power than anyone, more love than anyone, more understanding than anyone, more everything than anyone, and He also had the capability of rising from the dead. Do you imagine anyone could ever do that on their own? Have there ever been great philosophers, or scientists, or teachers, or rulers, or church leaders who have ever risen from the dead? If you know of any, again we are all ears. No one in history has ever risen from the dead except Jesus Christ, and to prove He was God, He allowed Himself to be seen by over 500 witnesses, a number of whom were secular historians and not Christians. The only thing Jesus had less of than anyone else was sin. And He had none of that!
It was this claim that He was God that the Jews would not accept. In spite of all the miracles and prophecies that Jesus fulfilled at His first coming, 106 to be exact. They refused to accept Jesus for who He was. Yet in spite of this clear reliable witness, mankind as a whole has rejected His message. You may recall what John told us early on in his message in John 1:11 NLT: “He came to his own people, and even they rejected him.”
John the Baptist was not “from above,” nor did he claim to be. None of God’s servants or prophets came “from above.” Only Jesus Christ can make that claim and prove it to be true. Since Jesus came from Heaven, He represents the Father. Look at what Jesus said in John 6:38-42 NLT:
38 For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will.
39 And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day.
40 For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.”
41 Then the people began to murmur in disagreement because he had said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”
42 They said, “Isn’t this Jesus, the son of Joseph? We know his father and mother. How can he say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”
We cannot know, but we may form an opinion from their behavior, whether the Jewish leaders were simply fools, power crazed, or perhaps both. Because anyone who would reject God’s Son, God’s witness, was rejecting God the Father, as we are told in John 5:23 NLT: “Anyone who does not honor the Son is certainly not honoring the Father who sent him.” But this was not unusual behavior for the Jews because they had been rebelling against God ever since God gave Moses the Law at Sinai.
Another point that can be made about the statement in verse 31 is that earth people are mortal and corrupted by sin. No one born on this earth, no matter how good they were, and that includes John the Baptist, has or ever will have the ability to provide the perfect sacrifice that was required for sin to be forgiven. Only someone without sin could provide that perfect sacrifice and the only place such a sinless person could come from would be Heaven.
John 3:32-33 ESV:
32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony.
33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.
Jesus is telling the people what He has seen in Heaven and heard directly from His Father, John 8:38 NLT: “I am telling you what I saw when I was with my Father. But you are following the advice of your father.” The Gospel of Christ is not an opinion that people are free to accept or reject as they would an editorial in the newspaper or on television.
The Gospel of Christ is fact. Christ is revealing to the world the mind of God, which contains the eternal truth that will affect our lives both here on earth and in eternity, which can only be spent in one of two places depending on whether or not we accept His Word as truth.
Anyone who is willing to give Jesus the benefit of the doubt and apply His teaching to their lives will come to know that what He says is true, John 7:17 NLT:
Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own.
They will come to know the truth of Jesus’ witness (teaching) because they will see His words changing their lives in exactly the way He has promised. So if you want to help lead someone to faith in Christ, you might simply suggest that if they are experiencing difficulties with life, they begin reading the Bible as if it were a self-help book and start applying the principles of Jesus’ teaching to their lives, while at the same time asking God in prayer to reveal His truth to them. When they see the changes that He promises occur, it will be easier for them to believe the teachings about what is necessary for salvation and eternal life.
It is when we obey His Word and put it into practice that we see its truth and experience its power.[fn]
In verses 32 and 33 John begins developing the understanding about the superiority of Jesus, which John the Baptist spoke of to his followers (John 3:28-30). Since Jesus has come from Heaven, His words mean far more than those of any religious teacher, because each human teacher is limited by his earthly humanity. Paul confirms what John is saying in Colossians 1:18 NLT: “Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.” Christ is also the head of the Church, which is His body. So He is first in everything.
Jesus’ witness or message has not, however, been universally rejected as verse 32 by itself might suggest. Verse 33 tells us that anyone who hears this message and believes it is in effect affirming that what Jesus is saying is the truth and that it comes directly from God the Father in Heaven. Again John is re-affirming the statement he made in 3:21 NLT: “But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” To reject what Jesus is saying through His testimony is the same thing as calling God a liar, 1 John 5:10 NLT:[fn]
“All who believe in the Son of God know in their hearts that this testimony is true. Those who don’t believe this are actually calling God a liar because they don’t believe what God has testified about his Son.”
This unbelief on the part of sinners is a source of grief to those who are saved. I know this grief repeatedly when people tell me that I am arrogant because I claim to know the truth and do not allow other people to accept what they believe to be true. The big difference here is that what I claim to be true is not what I myself believe to be true, but what Christ as the Son of God has told me is true. Their truth, for the most part, is based on what they made up from their own reasoning and want to believe is true about what God is like.
If you are or have ever been part of a 12-step program to arrest some addictive behavior, you know that several of these 12 steps require a recognition of the power of God, which they also refer to as a “higher power,” to help a person stop doing whatever he or she is trying to stop doing. In other words they allow people who cannot stand God to create a god of their own making in their minds, a god with whom they are comfortable. That will often work for a person because they are then willing to accept all the principles of the 12-step program that refer to the real God and come directly from the Bible. When they call on God, they may then call upon their higher power, a god who makes no demands of them nor calls them to any accountability beyond what they are willing to accept. The reason this works even for this kind of acceptance is stated in John 3:32-33. As we mentioned just a page or so back, “They will come to know the truth of Jesus’ witness (teaching) because they will see His words changing their lives in exactly the way He has promised.” The people in these programs are using all the principles that Jesus brought with Him as a revelation of the mind of God. Over time, those who practice the 12-steps find that their lives change for the better and very often are able to overcome their addictions. Yet in spite of this the greatest majority of these people refuse to accept the true God as the source of this truth and healing power. They continue to believe some unknown force in the universe is the source of their healing. They prefer to believe that these principles God sent through Jesus and the help that healed them come from a god of their own choosing. That is nothing less than idolatry and their fate is told in verse 36: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.” It may help them with their addiction, but it will not do a thing for where they spend their eternity.
Just listen to how Paul expressed his grief over the many who rejected the message of Christ.
Romans 9:1-3 NLT;
1 With Christ as my witness, I speak with utter truthfulness. My conscience and the Holy Spirit confirm it.
2 My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief
3 for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them.
By believing in Christ we believe that all God has promised in the Old Testament is true including all the promises which he made concerning Christ. We confirm that everything that God spoke through His prophets is true. We are therefore willing to deal with Christ in complete trust and faith. In so doing we bring honor to God.[fn]
John 3:34 ESV:
34 For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure.
Harper’s Bible Dictionary describes a prophet as “a person who serves as a channel of communication between the human and divine worlds.” God’s prophets were messengers that brought letters from Heaven; but Christ came more in the role of ambassador, someone who comes from a certain country with a message from its leader. He spoke the words of God, which means the whole message of God, and nothing He said revealed any human shortcomings. All of His teachings and comments were of a divine nature. When the prophets delivered messages from God, they temporarily were under the influence of the Holy Spirit, but at other times they also displayed their humanness as well. You may recall the books of the prophets in which they either displayed a reluctance to obey or they complained about what God wanted them to do as well as various other human shortcomings. When someone spoke with Jesus or heard Him teach they must have known they were in the presence of or hearing the words of someone who was unlike any other human being. Jesus proved in any number of ways that He was sent from God and therefore His words were to be received as coming directly from God. In John 3:2 we hear Nicodemus say: “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are evidence that God is with you.” (NLT)
Jesus spoke as no other prophet could, and it is possible for this reason that many scholars interpret the latter part of verse 34, “God gave Jesus the Holy Spirit without measure,” to mean that the Holy Spirit was with Jesus all the time and filled Him completely. That would most certainly be true. You see in the Old Testament, God would send the Holy Spirit to indwell someone that He chose to perform a specific task or tasks. When the task was completed, the Holy Spirit was withdrawn.[fn]
In the case of Jesus, the Holy Spirit was with Him constantly and guided all of His behavior. No one can speak the Words of God without the Holy Spirit of God. We see this confirmed by Paul in 1 Corinthians 2: 1-16 NLT:
1 When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn’t use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God’s secret plan.
2 For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.
3 I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling.
4 And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit.
5 I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.
6 Yet when I am among mature believers, I do speak with words of wisdom, but not the kind of wisdom that belongs to this world or to the rulers of this world, who are soon forgotten.
7 No, the wisdom we speak of is the mystery of God—his plan that was previously hidden, even though he made it for our ultimate glory before the world began.
8 But the rulers of this world have not understood it; if they had, they would not have crucified our glorious Lord.
9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.”
10 But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets.
11 No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit.
12 And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.
14 But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.
15 Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.
16 For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.
The Old-Testament prophets had the Spirit, but in different degrees as we see in 2 Kings 2:9, 10 NAS:
9 When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”
10 He said, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.”
God gave the prophets the Spirit by measure, but He gave the Holy Spirit to Christ without measure. The total fullness of God’s Holy Spirit was in Christ. "The prophets who had the Spirit in a limited manner in respect to some particular revelation, sometimes spoke of themselves; but Jesus had the Spirit always residing in Him and therefore always spoke the words of God.”[fn]
So this is a possible meaning in John 3:34. But we cannot help thinking that for God to say He gives Jesus the Holy Spirit without measure would seem quite obvious and even repetitive after what has been said and implied in the previous verses. We believe there is a meaning here that is more accurate based on the original Greek that is used. So let us look at verse 34 from a little different perspective.
The Messenger of God, Jesus, speaks the words of God, which means the entire message of God, and thus shows Jesus to be worthy of their trust. He confirms His worthiness to be trusted as the Son of God by further giving the gift of the Spirit in full measure to anyone who believes His message. “He gives the Spirit without measure.” Not only does He Himself have the full measure of the Holy Spirit, but He proves it by giving the Spirit in full measure to all who believe.
Verse 35 would also seem to follow this sequence. Because God loves His Son, He has given Jesus the power to give the Holy Spirit to those who show their worthiness through faith. God has given the Son all things to administer according to His own pleasure and rule. Look at Matthew 11:27 NAS:
27 “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
A measure of the Holy Spirit was given to John the Baptist which was adequate for the work God had sent Him to do. The Baptist himself saw the Spirit descending in a bodily form upon the Son of God, and heard the voice from Heaven saying, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The Spirit is thus Christ’s own. He gives it (δίδωσιν), to believers in its fullness. Thus Jesus said, later in John 16:1-15 NAS.[fn]
1 “These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.
2 “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.
3 “These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me.
4 “But these things I have spoken to you, so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.
5 “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’
6 “But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
7 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
8 “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;
9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;
10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me;
11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
12 “I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
14 “He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
15 “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”
We consider this to be the best explanation of John 3:34.
John 3:35 ESV:
35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.
The gospel of John refers to Jesus being sent from God thirty-nine times.[fn] This affirms Jesus’ deity and heavenly origin, as well as God’s sovereignty and love in sending Jesus to earth.[fn] God sent Jesus. God gave Him the Word. God gave Him the Spirit, and God gave Him all things. And Jesus was aware of all of this as John repeats later in John 13:3. To reject Jesus’ witness was to call God a liar or tell Him in effect that you had no interest in what He had to say. A decision one will live to regret.
God does love this lost world (John 3:16), but John reminds us of God’s love for His Son. Jesus is the Father’s “beloved Son.” Because the Father loves the Son, He has given Him all things, and He shows Him all things (John 5:20). It is a love that can hold nothing back. Therefore, when we accept Jesus’ witness, His message, we share in the love of God that will bring forgiveness for our sin, salvation and eternal life. No wonder Jesus wept over the city of Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37–39). Jesus was not weeping because the Jews had rejected Him personally. He wept because they had rejected the Word of God. They had rejected Jesus’ witness, both His messages and His miracles, and their rejection led to judgment.[fn]
“The Son is endowed with all authority to accomplish the Father’s purposes” (John 5:22; Matthew 28:18).[fn]
John 3:36 ESV:
36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
This is the only place in John’s Gospel or epistles that he uses the word “wrath.” He uses the word six times in the Book of Revelation. This verse confirms what was said in John 3:18 and leaves little doubt that we have only two alternatives when it comes to Jesus. We either trust Him or we reject Him.
“Everlasting life” does not simply mean eternity in Heaven. The believer possesses eternal life the moment he/she believes. Eternal life is the life of God in the believer. The opposite of eternal life is eternal death, the wrath of God. A person does not have to die and go to Hell to be under the wrath of God. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son” (John 3:18 NIV). The verdict has already been given, but the sentence has not yet been executed. Why? Because God is patient and wants everyone possible to be saved, and continues to call sinners to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).
As you think back through John 3, you can see that the Apostle John is emphasizing a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a living relationship that begins with the new birth, the birth from above. When we receive Jesus Christ into our lives, we share His life and become children in the family of God. It is also a loving relationship, for He is the Bridegroom and we are a part of the bride. Like John the Baptist, we desire that Jesus Christ increase as we decrease. He must receive all the honor and glory. It is a learning relationship as well, for He is the faithful Witness who shares God’s truth with us. What a joy it is to receive His Word, meditate on it, and make it part of our lives.
We must never forget the cost of these blessings. For us to be born into God’s family, Jesus had to die. For us to enter into the loving relationship of salvation, He had to endure the hatred and condemnation of men. He had to be lifted up on the cross so that we might experience forgiveness and eternal life. May we never take this for granted. “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).[fn]
[fn] Hughes, Robert B. ; Laney, J. Carl ; “Hughes, Robert B.: Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary” Wheaton, Ill. : Tyndale House Publishers, 2001 (The Tyndale Reference Library), S. 469.
[fn] Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. Jn 3:22.
[fn] Isa. 54:5; 62:4ff; Jer. 2:2; 3:20; Ezek. 16:8; Hosea 2:19ff.
[fn] Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. Jn 3:22.
[fn] Ibid. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, John 3:31.
[fn] Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. Jn 3:31.
[fn] Walvoord, John F.; Zuck, Roy B.; Dallas Theological Seminary: The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-c1985, S. 2:283.
[fn] Henry, Matthew: Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1991, S. Jan 3:22.
[fn] Numbers 24:2; Judges 3:10; 6:34; 11:29; 13:25; 14:6, 19; 2 Chronicles 15:1; 24:20; Zechariah 1:1; Ezekiel 8:3.
[fn] Henry, Matthew: Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. Peabody: Hendrickson, 1996, c1991, S. Jan 3:22.
[fn]Vincent, Marvin Richardson: Word Studies in the New Testament. Bellingham, WA : Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2002, S. 2:106-
[fn] John 3:17, 34; 4:34; 5:23-24, 30, 36-38; 6:29, 38-39, 44, 57; 7:16, 28-29; 8:16, 18, 26, 29, 42; 9:4; 10:36; 11:42; 12:44-45, 49; 13:16, 20; 14:24; 15:21; 16:5; 17:3, 18, 21, 23, 25; 20:21.
[fn] Gal. 4:4; 1 John 4:9-10, 14.
[fn] Matt. 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22.
[fn] Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. Jn 3:31.
[fn] Walvoord, John F.; Zuck, Roy B.; Dallas Theological Seminary: The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-c1985, S. 2:283.
[fn] Wiersbe, Warren W.: The Bible Exposition Commentary. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1996, c1989, S. Jn 3:31.
[fn] Easton, M.G.:
Easton's Bible Dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996, c1897.
[fn] Richards, Larry; Richards, Lawrence O.: The Teacher's Commentary. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1987, S. 666.
[fn] Achtemeier, Paul J.; Harper & Row, Publishers; Society of Biblical Literature: Harper's Bible Dictionary. 1st ed. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985, S. 905.
[fn] Water and Spirit together indicate a cleansing and spiritual renewal. Jesus certainly knew that Nicodemus was quite knowledgeable about the Old Testament. Thus this interpretation is more likely because it sees in this verse an allusion to Ezekiel 36:25-27. We see that in the Ezekiel passage the cleansing image of water is combined with the giving of God's Spirit for the renewal of the people. Of course, there are other passages in the Old Testament which also refer to the Spirit using water imagery, such as the Spirit being "poured out" upon people. We are not depending on a single reference for our argument, but Ezekiel gives us the most explicit association of Spirit and water. Furthermore, the association of Spirit with birth is clear enough in that it is when God's Spirit or breath (in Hebrew the same word means "spirit," "wind" and "breath"; in Greek "spirit" and "wind" are two meanings of the same word) comes into Adam that he becomes a living being (Genesis 2:7). This is not literally a birth (no woman was involved), but the parallel is close enough, for it is when the man came alive. What we understand Jesus to be saying, then, is that one must receive the cleansing and spiritual renewal that comes from God. At this stage he may be alluding to the later coming of the Holy Spirit, but Nicodemus would know nothing about that. What Nicodemus is being instructed about is the cleansing from sin and spiritual renewal that come through Jesus, the One from above.—Hard Sayings of the Bible
[fn] Two characteristics of the new covenant are now mentioned (34). First, people will not need to be encouraged to know God, because all will know him. Such knowledge means not only a knowledge of God’s character and ways, but is personal, and implies a commitment of the will. It is a response to his knowledge of us, which is also a total commitment of himself. -----New Bible CommentaryKnow me. This knowledge is intimate, experiential, based on the forgiveness of sins. ------Wycliffe Bible Commentary
[fn] Hughes, Robert B.; Laney, J. Carl; Hughes, Robert B.: Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001 (The Tyndale Reference Library), S. 468.
[fn] Walvoord, John F.; Zuck, Roy B.; Dallas Theological Seminary: The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983-c1985, S. 2:280.
[fn] Carson, D. A.: New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition. 4th ed. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., USA: Inter- Varsity Press, 1994, S. Jn 3:1.
[fn] Elwell, Walter A.; Comfort, Philip Wesley: Tyndale Bible Dictionary. Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001 (Tyndale Reference Library), S. 775.
[fn] Wiersbe, Warren W.: Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the New Testament. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1997, c1992, S. 217.
[fn] Tenney, Merrill C, John The Gospel of Belief. 1948, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, P.86.
[fn] Jamieson, Robert; Fausset, A. R.; Fausset, A. R.; Brown, David; Brown, David: A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments. Oak Harbor, WA: 1997, S. Jn 3:5.
[fn] Keener, Craig S.; InterVarsity Press: The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Ill. InterVarsity Press, 1993, S. Jn 3:3
[fn] Keener, Craig S.; InterVarsity Press: The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1993, S. Jn 3:6.
[fn] Jamieson, Robert; Fausset, A. R.; Fausset, A. R.; Brown, David; Brown, David: A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments. Oak Harbor, WA: 1997, S. Jn 3:6.
[fn] Op cit., Tenney, P.87.
[fn] Spurgeon, Charles Haddon, Morning and Evening Devotions, The Old-Time Gospel Hour, Lynchburg, VA, P. 132.
[fn] Op cit., Tenney, P.87.
[fn] Jamieson, Robert; Fausset, A. R.; Fausset, A. R.; Brown, David; Brown, David: A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments. Oak Harbor, WA: 1997, S. Jn 3:9.
[fn] Swanson, James; Nave, Orville: New Nave's. Oak Harbor: 1994.
[fn] Paul and John came the closest to doing so, but they indicate that they had visions of the heavenly scenes which they then have relayed to us (2 Cor. 12:2-4; Rev. 1:10-19 and much of the book).
[fn] Jamieson, Robert; Fausset, A. R.; Fausset, A. R.; Brown, David; Brown, David: A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997, S. Jn 3:11.
[fn] Bible Exposition Commentary - New Testament.
[fn] Bible Knowledge Commentary.
[fn] J. Vernon McGee's Thru The Bible.
[fn] “Matthew Henry Concise.”
[fn] My creation for emphasis. No such organization exists.
