 |
| To Part 1 |
The
spiritual leadership had a knack for hanging out on the exterior of things, externalizing
everything. Their traditions were, theoretically speaking, based on the
rabbinical misinterpretations of Moses which turned out to be essentially
nothing more than a usurpation of authority (Mk 7:9). These looked-up-to leaders in their community were legalistic and hypocritical, and we know that
they were going to reject the claims of Jesus and eventually pressure Pontius
Pilate to have Him crucified.
Self-righteous
people live a callous and unhappy life. Come to think of it, I don’t think I
have ever met a happy self-righteous person (SRP)? I want to insert a warning of
something very subtle for all of us here. Without appearing overly dramatic, if
we are not careful (Pro 4:23), we can uncannily become the very thing we passionately
oppose – being legalistic and hypocritical. It is something to prayerfully watch
out for (Psa 139:23-24)!
Jesus
wanted Nick to see that something was seriously lacking in his understanding
and relationship to God; he was spiritually disconnected. When Nicodemus heard
the word born (Gk., gennao),
he was stuck on the physical plane of natural birth and unable to get beyond
that to the supernatural. Tack on the word again (Gk., anothen), and now Nick is
thinking Jesus is talking about a second physical birth (v4)!
We
know that Jesus wasn’t referring to a second natural birth at all! As silly as
that appears, I can see why Nick thought that; his education, career, and
lifestyle were more about outer motions that could be seen rather than the
inner spiritual realities. It all dovetailed nicely with the Sanhedrin
philosophy and expectations of its members. Emphasis was on the outward, not
the inward.
Born
again had
nothing to do with the ridiculous notion of a second physical birth but a
one-time spiritual birth. Spiritual birth was never talked about in Sanhedrin
circles or in Jewish thought! Their salvation was strictly in the physical realm
– a work-system. They may have archived the truth of spiritual regeneration in
the OT due to their replacement theology: tradition.
So,
of course, Nick is thinking naturally rather than supernaturally (cf. Jn 3:4).
Jesus came to bring supernatural light to a spiritually dark world in which
Nick was a part of that darkness. There’s talk that Nick should have known that
spiritual regeneration was not foreign to the OT; however, Nick is way off the
bubble with Scripture and spiritually dead, a natural man (cf. 1 Cor 2:14). He
may have it academically down, but completely missing the meaning of it; I have
seen the Bible taught in a secular manner as literature.
The natural man can memorize all of Scripture, but it doesn’t mean he or she understands
the spiritual import of any of it. I know of this liberal Greek scholar who agreed
that the NT taught that Jesus was God, but he personally didn’t believe that He
was God. Yes, 1 Cor 2:14 is NT truth, but it has always been a spiritual
truth; we cannot maintain that it didn’t become true until Paul said it. Though
it wasn’t revealed until God’s timing during inspiration, it has always been
true, just like 2 Cor 4:4. A lost man in the OT was the same as a lost man in
the NT for the same reason: unbelief. Both are currently in hell, waiting to be sentenced to the lake of fire.
Obviously,
there was more light exposure by the inclusion of NT revelation, but unbelief
is the cause of the second death, eternal separation from Yahweh. I am of the opinion
that the degree of light exposure determines the severity of punishment in eternity.
If general revelation (creation) is enough to condemn a person in unbelief,
imagine the addition of special revelation (the Bible)!
Again
(Gk., anothen)
This
adverb can be translated again (Jn 3:3, 7), from above (Jn 3:31; 19:11), or from the top (Jn 19:23). Personally, I prefer born “from
above” here as befitting the context (cf. Jn 3:4, 6-8). Jesus was referring to a second birth alright,
but it was spiritual in nature. This is why some interpreters translate anothen
with again. Being born again or from
above had nothing to do with an earthly birth but birth from above, a
heavenly source (Jn 3:6-8). I wouldn’t put up much of a fuss over the adverb
being translated “again” or “from above” for it carries both meanings: from above (Jn 19:11) and again (the latter one in Gal
4:9). A preacher of the past once said, “I don’t care what you call it; just
get it; you need it!”
He
cannot see
(Gk., eido, intellectual knowledge, contrast this knowledge with ginosko,
experiential knowledge). See [ing] the kingdom of God is explained by Jesus as enter [ing] the kingdom of God (v5). I would be remiss
not to point out the gravity of the warning to Nicodemus and to us.
Jesus
told Nicodemus twice: unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God (v3) and
unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom
of God (v5). And
strong emphasis will be added in v7,
Do
not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again (emphasis mine).
It
is not optional, folks! Unless you care nothing for the kingdom of God, that
is.
The
kingdom of God
Jesus
did not explain what He meant by the kingdom of God because He knew what
Nicodemus thought about it. How to get there according to the Jews was where the
great disconnect lay; the Pharisees were longing for the kingdom of God, regaining their national sovereignty, and ridding themselves from being under
the thumb of any Gentile rule. Nick just got hit between the eyes with a criterion that he wasn’t
expecting; being a good Jew and waiting for the Messiah was not enough. No
matter how you live, no matter how hard you labor to do the right things, it
will not matter. There is the all-important spiritual element to salvation: you
must be born again or from above. Jesus threw a spiritual wrench into the cogs
of his material world!
As
I said before, the Sadducees and Pharisees did not see themselves as sinners,
particularly the sect of the Pharisees; the Sadds were a contradiction of terms,
in my opinion; they were a religious and a secular lot, going with the flow to
keep their way of life and retain their control over Israel. Anyone disagreeing
with the Sanhedrin’s narrative of life was a sinner. They considered themselves
sons of Abraham, and those who were not lawbreakers of their traditions or
Moses would see the kingdom of God. Jesus would disturb all of their comfy
notions of traditional tidiness. All of that was superfluous because according
to Jesus, it all boiled down to one thing and one thing only – unless one is born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (v3)!
Jesus
opened a fracture in Nick’s thinking about the kingdom of God. See (v3) and enter (v5) was physical in
nature, but Nick was going to learn that that was never going to take place
physically without being born spiritually, from above. He was trusting in being
a son of Abraham, keeping with tradition, the law of Moses, and looking and
waiting for a political Messiah to break the Roman yoke of Gentile bondage and
usher in the kingdom of God.
What
do we pray for in Mt 6:10a? Your kingdom come. This kingdom of God is invisible now, but at
the end of the age, the millennial kingdom becomes a physical reality. This
kingdom is the realm of God’s authority and blessings. There is only one way
into the kingdom (Jn14:6, I know, yet to be given ~A.D 80-90!), and they
(including Nick) were completely mistaken about that way (cf. Jn 3:3, 5, 7).
Physical lineage and religiosity were definitely not the way to the
kingdom! There is another part of that prayer, Your will be done on earth as it is
in heaven (Mt
6:10b). The members of the Sanhedrin
were only interested in their will, their agenda. That’s the way of the natural man.
The conversation started out pretty well in v2, but in v4, we see the telling of
Nick’s spiritual darkness (cf. v11). Folks, we are talking about the cream of the
crop here of the Sanhedrin though he wasn’t there to represent his colleagues. Let’s
read of his question for Jesus, as a matter of course,
John
3:4, 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?
Nick
was an intelligent man, so I am going to think that he asked this of Jesus in a
manner of incredulity? Jesus wasn’t a madman or a loon, and Nick was not stupid! Nick’s response
reveals that Jesus was going spiritual, and Nick interpreted Jesus’ words as physical
in nature. Keep in mind that the nation saw Nicodemus as the paradigm of the
Jewish way. He was the guy that any Jewish parents dreamed that their kids
would be, a ruler of the Jews (v1), the teacher of Israel (v10)!
What
they didn’t know was that when you set aside all of that paraphernalia of
praise, he was as spiritually lost as the hated Roman occupiers of their land!
He was, in actuality, a leader who was spiritually blind leading a people who
were spiritually blind. Both were ditch-prone. Practically speaking, the whole
nation was spiritually in the ditch (Lk 6:39)! You must be born again (v7) was a foreign language
to Nick (cf. Jn 3:4)! Imagine how many people died and went to hell under the
tutelage of the Sanhedrin philosophy?
The
Law was to bring the Jews to a Person (the Messiah), not a place (the kingdom
of God), cf. Gal 3:24. “Nick, even though you are a Pharisee, a ruler of the
Jews, and the teacher of Israel, unless you are born from above, you cannot see
or enter the kingdom of God!”
No
wonder Nick left in the night in the same spiritual condition he came to Jesus (v2). What Jesus was
advocating was cutting against the grain of everything he had been taught! This
was different, radical, and revolutionary to him! He would have to take some time
to process it. The undeniable and amazing miracles and the strange words of
Jesus were challenging and playing havoc with his worldview. Fortunately for Nicodemus,
the seeds that Jesus planted in his heart that evening would germinate unto
salvation. Glory to God! <><
%20MG%20t-bkgrd%2060x44.png){kind=small}
%20sunflower%20makeover%2045x63.png){kind=small}
 |
| To Part 3 |
