honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not
honor the Father who sent Him.’
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word,
and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not
come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
The Messiah revealed
Jesus told them He was the Messiah in unequivocal
terms. In John 5:25-32, Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the
voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just
as the Father has life in Himself, even so, He gave to the Son
also to have life in Himself, and He gave Him authority
to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man.
“ Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in
which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and will
come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of
life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of
judgment.
“I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I
judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own
will, but the will of Him who sent Me. If I alone testify about
Myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies
of Me, and I know that the testimony which He gives about Me
is true” (John 5:28-32).
– 53 –
Searching for eternal life in the Scriptures
Nicodemus and the other Pharisees were seeking
eternal life. They were trying to get an answer to their question,
“How do I earn my way into the kingdom?” They are trying to
earn their way. They were still searching for an entrance into
the kingdom. They were on the outside, and God had closed
the door on them.
If they had accepted the Scriptures, they would have
embraced Jesus Christ. Jesus said they were unwilling to come
to Him so that they may have life.
John 5:30-44 states, “You have sent to John, and he has
testified to the truth. Not that I accept human testimony; but I
mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned
and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy His light. I
have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that
the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am
doing—testify that the Father has sent me. And the Father who
sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never
heard His voice nor seen His form, nor does His word dwell in
you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You study the
Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have
eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about
me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
“I do not accept glory from human beings, but I know
you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your
hearts. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not
accept me; but if someone else comes in His own name, you
will accept Him. How can you believe since you accept glory
– 54 –
from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the
only God?"
Shocking Indictment
What an indictment! They did not have a love of God
in their hearts, and they did not know God because they did not
recognize Jesus as the Messiah. He said they were without
excuse. The Scriptures would judge them for their unbelief, and
Moses would be a witness and an accuser against them.
In John 5:45-47, Jesus said, Do not think that I will
“
accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you
is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. For if you believed
Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. But if
you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My
words?”
The Pharisees and scribes rejected Jesus’ and Moses’
teachings as well. The Pharisees knew from the Old Testament
that God is holy, and God could not look on evil and tolerate
sin. They knew God is the creator and the judge, and the
lawgiver. They knew God was the one who cursed humanity.
They knew God demanded punishment for sin. It was
death, a separation from God. They knew man was
fallen, sinful, and headed for judgment and destruction. The
problem was their pride and arrogance. They could not admit
their system of religion separated them from God. They could
not see the light in the darkness.
– 55 –
Saved by faith, not by works
God received and saved the Old Testament saints
because of their faith, not for their works. Abraham is a great
model of faith. He believed God, and it was accounted to him
as righteousness.
The Old Testament saints also understood that
forgiveness, reconciliation, justification, and granting of
righteousness by faith would be made possible through a
substitute sacrifice who would receive the punishment.
When Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit and
sinned against God, they realized their nakedness. They tried
to cover themselves with leaves. God later kills an innocent
animal and sheds its blood to cover the sins of Adam and Eve.
This act was the beginning of Israel’s sacrificial
system. Abel pleased God by offering an animal sacrifice on
the altar for sin. It symbolized the need for the blood and death
of a substitute. His brother Cain offered the fruit of the ground.
It was an offering that God rejected.
“So, it came about in the course of time that Cain
brought an offering to the LORD of the fruit of the
ground. Abel, on his part also brought of the firstlings of his
flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for
Abel and for his offering, but for Cain and for his offering He
had no regard. So, Cain became very angry, and his
countenance fell.” (Genesis 4:3-5). Later, Cain murdered Abel
because of his jealousy.
In Exodus 12, the Lord instituted the Passover
Lamb. Every single day God commanded the morning sacrifice
– 56 –
and the evening sacrifice according to the Mosaic
system. There was the shedding of blood and death because of
sin. God, however, promised to provide the final sacrifice one
day for sin.
Exodus 12: 2-14 states, “Speak to all the congregation
of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are each one
to take a lamb for themselves, according to their fathers’
households, a lamb for each household. Now if the household
is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his
house are to take one according to the number of persons in
them; according to what each man should eat, you are to divide
the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old;
you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall
keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the
whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to kill it at
twilight. Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it
on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which
they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted
with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter
herbs. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but
rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its
entrails. And you shall not leave any of it over until morning,
but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with
fire. Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins
girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand;
and you shall eat it in haste—it is the LORD’S Passover. For I
will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike
down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast;
– 57 –
and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I
am the LORD. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses
where you live; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you,
and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the
land of Egypt. ‘Now this day will be a memorial to you, and
you shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD; throughout your
generations, you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance.’”
Jesus was the Lamb of God
However, none of those animals – the lambs, bulls,
goats, or doves could finally be the satisfaction for the holy
God and Father. They merely pointed to the perfect sacrifice
that had to come. The Holy Spirit gave John the Baptist these
words when he saw Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)
Saving faith comes by hearing Scripture. Every man
can be held accountable for the testimony of the Old
Testament.
In John 3:11-12, Jesus told Nicodemus, “We speak
what we know and testify what we have seen, and you do
not receive our witness. If I have told you earthly things
and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you
heavenly things?
The Pharisees rejected the witness of the prophets and
their writings, John the Baptist, Jesus, and later the apostles.
John the Baptist’s mission was to announce and
proclaim the coming of Jesus, the Messiah. The Pharisees sent
a group to inquire of John. They wanted to know who he was
– 58 –
and what he was preaching. They did not accept John’s
testimony and message of repentance. They refused to be
baptized by John.
The Pharisees also assembled in large numbers to hear
Jesus and to judge His message and ministry. They did not
submit to Jesus as their Messiah. The Pharisees rejected the
witness of both John and Jesus.
Jesus knew the things of the Spirit of God are
foolishness to the natural man. As God and man, Jesus said he
bore witness of the truth from heaven with the Father and the
Holy Spirit. The Father was always with Him, and the Holy
Spirit was on Jesus at His baptism. Therefore, Jesus speaks in
the plural we – the trinity.
Nicodemus addressed Jesus as a prophet, but Christ
was more significant than all the Old Testament prophets. They
wrote by divine inspiration, and not by their knowledge. Moses
ascended into the Mount, but not into heaven.
Jesus was the manifestation of God. God came down
from heaven to teach and to save humanity.
He spoke to Nicodemus about things accomplished on
earth by the power of God – such as the doctrine of
regeneration and entering the kingdom of God. Nicodemus did
not understand these things. Then, Jesus said how can you
understand the heavenly things?
Paul wrote later about heavenly things. In 1
Corinthians 15:48-54, Paul wrote: “As is the earthy, so also are
those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those
who are heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the
– 59 –
earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. Now I say
this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will
all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the
last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be
raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this
perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must
put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on
the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality,
then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is
swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O
death, where is your sting?
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the
law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be
steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your
toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
Jesus spoke to His apostles about the heavenly things –
the divine decrees for man’s redemption and the fact that he
was the Son of Man. He talked about His death and His
resurrection. It was even difficult for His apostles to
understand.
– 60 –
The Son of Man was the Messiah
Nicodemus and the other Jews always understood the
Son of Man to be the Messiah. By calling himself the Son of
Man, Jesus pointed out that He is the second Adam, the first
Adam was the father of man. And all the Old Testament titles
of the Messiah, Jesus chose to make use of this because it was
most expressive of His humility.
Nicodemus did not believe Jesus’ witness
In John 3:11–12, Nicodemus’s failure to understand
Jesus’ words centered not so much in his intellect but in his
failure to believe in Jesus and His witness. In John 3:11, Jesus
said, you do not receive our testimony. Nicodemus was
speaking as a representative of his nation Israel. Jesus replied
with “you” indicating that Nicodemus’s unbelief was typical of
the nation as a collective whole.
Jesus told Nicodemus He was creating a new
people, giving them a new Spirit, a new heart, washing them,
cleansing them, and purifying them. Nicodemus knew God
acted sovereignly by giving believers a new heart, a new
disposition by washing and purging them from sin.
Apostate Judaism had ignored the truth of salvation by
grace and faith. Jesus confronted Nicodemus. How can you be
the supreme teacher of Israel and not know about salvation by
the washing of regeneration? How do you not know about the
washing of the Word and the giving of a new heart and a new
spirit by the Holy Spirit? How can you not know that is a work
of God and not an achievement by man?
– 61 –
What does the Old Testament teach about salvation?
God justified those who will be saved through faith by grace.
God said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever
because he also is flesh.”
The flesh is the word for fallen, corrupted, sinful
humanness. Salvation rids men and women of their sinful
nature. It is a sovereign act of God by grace. Man requires a
spiritual re-birth. God washes and transforms man. God
replaces man’s cold, stone heart with a new one. God replaces
a man’s spirit with a new Spirit. God plants the Holy Spirit
within men and women.
“So, Nicodemus, how can you be the teacher in Israel,
and you don’t know this?” Jesus said, “Don’t be amazed”
(John 3:7) Why would Nicodemus be amazed? This is
denouncing all religion apart from the sovereign grace of God
and the gospel of Christ. Nicodemus knew the Old Testament,
but Satan had blinded him into believing false doctrine and lies,
and not in God’s truth.
– 62 –
Chapter Five
Whoever believes in Him should not
perish.
“ No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended
from heaven: the Son of Man. As Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that
whoever believes will in Him have eternal life” – John 3:13-15.
Jesus continued His discourse with Nicodemus to reveal
that He was the Son of Man. Jesus was now sharing heavenly
details with Nicodemus. He said in John 3:13, “No one has
ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the
Son of Man.”
What man has ascended into heaven to learn the mind of
God and descended to teach men? The answer is no one. The Son
of Man descended from heaven to earth and then back again.
Jesus told Nicodemus no man could fully know and teach
these heavenly things unless He had existed eternally in heaven,
and then sent down to the earth to that end.
Jesus likened Himself to the Ladder of Jacob’s vision. In
Jacob’s dream, he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top
reaching to heaven. He also saw angels of God ascending and
descending on the ladder.
Jesus, the Son of Man, came down from heaven to reveal
heavenly things to humanity and to share eternal truths with His
Apostles and with Nicodemus.
– 63 –
–
This verse, John 3:13, contradicts all other religious
systems’ that claim to get special revelation directly from God.
Many false religions and false teachers claim to have special
revelations, teachings and healing powers from God. Jesus
presented Himself as the sole medium of communication between
heaven and earth. He also proclaimed Himself as the medium of
healing and life to a sinful world.
Jesus had been speaking of a rebirth, the work of God’s
Holy Spirit, who sovereignly brings about new life. This rebirth
comes “from above.”
If anyone could ascend into heaven, he must first descend
from heaven. Only the Son of Man could return to heaven because
He eternally resides there. Therefore, salvation is “from above.”
Enoch and Elias
Nicodemus also probably thought about Enoch and Elias.
Both did not experience death and were taken up to heaven by the
power of God. They, however, did not return to earth to teach
divine truths.
Jesus insisted that no one has ascended to heaven in such
a way as to return and talk about heavenly things. Only He was in
heaven before His incarnation and, therefore, only He has the
correct knowledge regarding divine truth and wisdom.
Jesus was pointing to Proverbs 30:4, “Who has gone up to
heaven and come down? Whose hands have gathered up the
wind? Who has wrapped up the waters in a cloak? Who has
established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what
is the name of His Son? Surely you know!”
– 64 –
Nicodemus did not know His name. He did not
understand that he was sitting across from the Son of Man, the
Messiah. Jesus gathered the wind in His hands and wrapped up
the waters in a cloak. He established the earth.
Proverbs 30:4 is a prophetic announcement of the Messiah
who came down from heaven to be the great Rabbi and Savior. He
then ascended into heaven to be the Advocate. The Messiah is a
person distinct from the Father, but His name was secret in the
Old Testament – it was the name of Jesus.
Messiah comes down from heaven
Jesus declared to Nicodemus that He is the Son of Man,
the Messiah. "No one has gone up but He that came down, even
He who is at once both up and down."
God became a man. He descended to earth as the Son of
Man to be the “Lamb of God,” the perfect sacrifice on the cross
for the sin of mankind. He would conquer death by His
resurrection on the third day after His crucifixion, thus providing
eternal life to His elect. He would again return to heaven.
Jesus told Nicodemus that no other men, including the
leading religious leaders, were qualified to speak of heavenly
things. They did not have His deity and knowledge.
Jesus, the Son of Man, was on earth conversing with
Nicodemus; yet He declared that He was "at the same time" in
heaven. Nicodemus had to be bewildered. It was another heavenly
thing that man cannot explain.
– 65 –
–
Jesus had two natures – His "divine nature" in heaven and
His "human nature" on earth. He was in heaven, while on earth.
He had a divine nature that was equal with God the Father.
Jesus reveals His mission to Nicodemus
After Jesus shared with Nicodemus that He was the Son of
Man, He also spoke about His mission in John 3:14-15. “And as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, must the
Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes will in Him
have eternal life.”
In Numbers 21, the bronze serpent story foreshadowed the
salvation which God provides by the “Son of Man.”
Jesus again used the Old Testament Scriptures to teach
Nicodemus. In Numbers 21:4-9, it states, “Then they set out from
Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of
Edom; and the people became impatient because of the
journey. The people spoke against God and Moses, ‘Why have
you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there
is no food and no water, and we loathe this miserable food.’
“ The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they
bit the people so that many people of Israel died. So, the people
came to Moses and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have
spoken against the LORD and you; intercede with the LORD, that
He may remove the serpents from us.’ And Moses interceded for
the people. Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Make a fiery serpent,
and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone
who is bitten when he looks at it, he will live.’ And Moses made
a bronze serpent and set it on the standard, and it came about, that
– 66 –
if a serpent bit any man when he looked to the bronze serpent, he
lived.”
Jesus provided Nicodemus with an example of how God
offered salvation to His disobedient people. Some of the people
escaped certain death because of His love and forgiveness.
They deserved to die
God commanded Moses to make a bronze serpent and put
it on a pole. God smote the snake-bitten Israelites because of their
sins. They deserved to die. God provided a merciful remedy. God
healed all the Israelites who looked up after the serpents bit
them. Apart from His provision of the bronze serpent on the pole,
they would have died. The Israelites who did not look up to Moses
and the bronze serpent perished.
Looking up to the bronze serpent was an act of faith. The
Israelites could not see or understand a direct link between the
snake bite they had received and the healing for which they hoped.
However, it was the means God provided for their salvation and
declared it by Moses. It was the only way God said He would save
His snake-bit people in the wilderness.
Israel’s healings in the desert were illustrative of the
salvation that God was about to accomplish through His only
begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so, must the Son of man be lifted up …”
As the serpent was lifted up, and thus became a source of
salvation, so the Son of Man must be “lifted up.” Those who look
– 67 –
–
to Jesus in faith can be saved from God’s wrath as well. This
brazen serpent was a type of Christ.
Jesus told Nicodemus the new birth was necessary for
those He would save. In John 3:14-15, Jesus connected the
serpent, which is lifted on a pole, with His imminent death when
He would be lifted on the cross. Jesus told Nicodemus He would
save people from the penalty of their sins when they “look up” to
Him for salvation.
Jesus, like the bronze serpent in the wilderness, would
later be “lifted up” on a cross. He also was lifted up” in His
resurrection and ascension. In so doing, God exalted Him for His
sacrificial obedience on the cross. All those who “look up” to Him
in faith, trusting in Him to remove the judgment for their sin, will
be saved.
Repentance and faith were the points of this Old
Testament illustration. Nicodemus must have understood it was
God’s healing power through the act of faith. It was looking on
the brass serpent that led men and women to trust in God.
The Suffering Servant
Jesus allowed Nicodemus to be a witness to the threshold
of Christ’s ministry, and later a witness at His death and
resurrection. From the beginning, Jesus knew His sacrifice on the
cross was to be His mission on earth. He must die and be raised
from the dead because He must save, and He must save because
He loved humanity, His creation.
Jesus’ statement, “the Son of Man be lifted up,” is a
hidden or veiled prophecy of His death on the cross. Jesus told
– 68 –
Nicodemus the Messiah would soon suffer and die. The reference
to the serpent further veils the crucifixion of the Messiah. The
fiery snakes’ venom shooting through the veins of the rebellious
Israelites was spreading death through the camp because of their
sin. Today, sin remains a deadly venom for the lost.
God provided the divine miracles
Bitten by deadly serpents, healing came by faith, looking
on a bronze serpent, having at a distance the same
appearance. Cursed by sin and spiritual death, man’s redemption
came by the death and resurrection of the Son of Man. In both
cases, God provided a divine miracle.
Romans 8:3 says, “For what the law could not do, in that,
it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.”
Both miracles, the brass serpent, and Christ’s resurrection
are difficult for the natural man to understand. How could deadly
poison dry up in a body by merely looking at a pole with a brass
serpent? How could Jesus allow Himself to be sacrificed and
crucified to deliver all who would believe in Him from eternal
hell?
As the bronze serpent was God's cure for the Israelites
bitten by the snakes, so is Christ for the salvation of every
perishing sinner.
Jesus used this example to illustrate men are sinners, and
there is no cure by human means for the eternally damned soul.
Sin is deadly. It can be removed only by looking to the one that
overcame the death on the cross, Jesus.
– 69 –
–
The cross is Christ’s sovereign manifestation of love and
power to save a sin-stricken world. He knows the hearts and wills
of rebellious and restored men and women. That is why He went
to the cross. He was the “Lamb of God,” the true sacrifice for the
sins of the world. He came to give His life a ransom for many.
Nothing restrained Christ to the cross but His desire to
save us. It was the yielding of His own will to do what was needed
for man’s salvation.
The sinner has hope only in Jesus’ saving work on the
cross … “whosoever believes in Him has everlasting life.”
Eternal life means a life in union with God, full of
blessedness, purity, satisfaction, desire, and aspiration.
Salvation is a new state of heart and mind. It is a new
relationship with God. It is the change that anchors a person’s
trust on Jesus Christ, the uplifted Son of Man. It is a new birth and
a new life with no proclivity to death.
Eternal life is bestowed at the time of salvation on men and
women. It is a gift which comes to a person here and now on
earth. It may happen to any man or woman the instant he or she
looks to Jesus Christ.
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. Jesus
shed His blood on the cross for the remission of all our sins (I John
1:9).
Eternal life refers not only to eternal quantity but the
divine quality of life. It means, “life of the age to come” and refers
to the resurrection and heavenly existence in perfect glory and
holiness.
– 70 –
Life for believers in the Lord Jesus begins before they go
to heaven. It is the life of God that is in every believer at the
moment of salvation. The Bible says, “For our citizenship is in
heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state
into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the
power that He has even to subject all things to Himself”
(Philippians 3:20–21).
– 71 –
Chapter Six
For God so loved the world
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not
perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son
into the world to judge the world, but that the world might
be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not
judged; he who does not believe has been judged already
because he has not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God” – (John 3:16-18).
The Father sacrificed His only beloved Son on a
cross for sinful men and women. This sacrifice is the
supreme love of God even though this evil, sinful “world”
is in rebellion against Him. “For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting
life” (John 3:16).
Jesus shared with Nicodemus why He, the Son of
Man, came down from heaven. God “loved” the world
through His Son, Jesus. He “loved” the world by sending
His Son into the world to die as a sacrifice, so that He
might be “lifted up” as a sin-bearer.
The statement that God loved the entire world was
foreign to Nicodemus and other Jewish leaders. He would
have expected: “For God so loved the Jewish people.”
Nicodemus and his fellow Jews knew that they
were God’s chosen people, and God had set His love on
them.
In Deuteronomy 7:6-8, the Lord said, “For you are
a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD, your
God, has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of
the earth to be His people, His treasured possession.
“The LORD did not set His affection on you and
choose you because you were more numerous than other
peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was
because the LORD loved you and kept the oath, he
swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a
mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of
slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
God loves this sinful world
Jesus’ message was that God loved the world, even
outside of Israel? God would reach this world through
Israel, His child. Jesus said God’s love extended beyond
the limits of race and nation.
Nicodemus and his fellow self-righteous Pharisees
thought they were above ordinary sinners. However, “God
so loved the world” was just plain appalling to them!
God’s love extends to the world. God’s purpose is to save
Gentiles as well. The Father’s love extends even to those
who are enemies of Israel?
God demonstrated His love for the world in Jesus.
The Israelites learned that God loved them only through
Christ. If they reject Christ, they also discard the love
which the Father manifested toward them in Christ.
Jesus told Nicodemus, “that whoever believes in
Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The
message was clear: the Jews and Gentiles could receive
salvation and enter the kingdom of God now.
This phrase “whoever believes in Him” means
more than mere intellectual assent to the claims of the
gospel. A person must be “born from above.” God chooses
to give a person a new nature that produces a change in
heart and obedience to the Lord. It allows the person to
believe, trust, and make a commitment to Christ as Lord
and Savior. The believer is no longer an enemy of God.
He or she has become a friend of God.
Nicodemus and his fellow Pharisees were looking
for a Messiah that would destroy Israel’s enemies – the
Romans and the other Gentiles. He did not think that God
would save Israel’s oppressors. But he was wrong. Jesus
said, “For God did not send the Son into the world to
judge the world, but that the world might be saved
through Him.”
Jesus entered this world in His incarnation,
knowing that hostility would result. His sacrificial love
for mankind would lead Him to the cross and to death. His
sacrifice would be needed to redeem the world.
The Son of Man did not come into the world to
save only Jewish believers. Instead, He came to provide
salvation to the world. He came to save men and women
who were in darkness and dead in their trespasses and sins.
The Son of God came into the darkness of this world to
bring His divine light to penetrate the hearts of both
Gentles and Jews.
Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to
reveal and save sinners. He provided a way of escape for
those in the darkness like Nicodemus.
Jesus’ coming did not bring a verdict and a death
sentence. Those who see this light by the power of the
Holy Spirit and recognize the tragedy of their situation
have one responsibility: to believe.
The obstacle to God’s love is the heart of
man. Most people “love darkness instead of light.” The
world hates God.
Evil and darkness wage war against God, who is
the light of the world. However, despite these efforts, the
darkness cannot vanquish the light. False religion always
hates the real Christ. It still manufactures a false Christ
and a false gospel. Error always seeks to kill the truth and
those who proclaim it.
By contrast, those who love the light, who believe
in Jesus and “live by faith,” these believers will enter the
kingdom of God while on earth and enjoy eternal life.
They will promote Christ and His truths.
Why does He not save everyone?
One question that some ask if God loves even His
enemies, why did He not choose to save everyone? Christ
died for all, and His death was sufficient for all. God
invites, commands, and desires salvation for all men and
women. Unfortunately, wicked men and women do not
love God. They are sons and daughters of Satan. They love
their sins and will not repent. They hate everything about
God, including His followers.
God hates the wicked because of their sin; yet He
has compassion, pity, patience, and genuine affection for
them because of His nature. Christ’s followers are
commanded to go and tell others that God loves them, and
He sent His only Son to die for their sins. If they seek God,
He will find them. Those chosen before the foundation of
the world will repent and believe in Christ, then they can
experience the kingdom of God now.
At the same time, believers should warn
unbelievers that if they do not repent and believe in Christ,
they are under God’s judgment and wrath, which will be
finalized for all eternity when they die in unbelief.
John 3:18 says, “He who believes in Him is not
judged; he who does not believe has been judged
already because he has not believed in the name
of the only begotten Son of God.”
Jesus told Nicodemus that he would not see the
kingdom of God unless he was reborn from above. Jesus’
following words to Nicodemus are also alarming, “he who
does not believe has been judged already because he
has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son
of God.”
Nicodemus is not only unable to enter the kingdom
of God in His present state, but he is also condemned to
perish in hell if he does not believe in the name of God’s
only Son. His name is Jesus.
The Father draws men to Jesus. John 6:44 says,
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me
draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
God loves even the worst of sinners and makes a
provision for their salvation. God sent His Son into the
world because that was the only way that He could uphold
His holiness and justice by Jesus’ bloody sacrifice, and at
the same time, forgive sinners.
God is holy and just. He will not brush away sin
without demanding the person pay the just penalty. God
must judge all sin. Because of His great love, He sent His
only Son, who is eternal God in the sinless human flesh, to
bear the penalty that we deserve. Paul said in Romans 3:26,
“God can be just and the justifier of the one who has faith
in Jesus.”
The one who does not believe in the Son of God is
under condemnation. Those who do not believe in Jesus
will perish.
The cross draws a distinct line. Either a person
believes in Jesus Christ and has eternal life, or the person
does not believe in Him and perishes.
God’s great love does not override or deny His
perfect holiness and justice. The main reason Jesus came
to this earth was to die on the cross to rescue sinners from
God’s eternal judgment.
So, God’s love for this sinful world is astonishing.
He would be just and righteous to condemn all men and
women to hell because everyone has sinned. However, He
didn’t do that. At high cost, He sent His own Son to bear
the penalty that humanity deserves.
Those who believe have eternal life; those who do
not believe are under God’s condemnation and eventually
will perish.
When Jesus comes again, He will wage war against
a sinful world. In Revelation 19:15, the Bible says,
“Coming out of His mouth is a sharp sword with which to
strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron
scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of
God Almighty.”
Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Jesus went
into a hostile world to save some and condemn
others. Jesus says that some “will go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Jesus referred to eternal punishment as the place
where “their worm does not die, and the fire is not
quenched” (Mark 9:48). It is eternal death.
Eternal life grants believers access and fellowship
to the eternal God. Once a believer passes from this world
to the next, it is a perfect life, without any of the
consequences of sin and death. It is an “abundant life” with
“fullness of joy” and “pleasures forever” in God’s
presence. There will be no more pain, weeping or sorrow.
Eternal life begins the moment a person is born
from above by the power of the Holy Spirit, and then he or
she will believe in Jesus as the only begotten Son of God.
Believing in Jesus requires understanding who He is, and
what He came to do through His death and resurrection.
The Holy Spirit awakens a person’s spirit and
brings it to life. A believer is transformed by the Holy
Spirit, allowing him or her to believe in God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God enables
believers to entrust their eternal destiny to all that Jesus did
in dying for their sins on the cross.
It means that a person with a new heart will repent
and put his or her faith entirely in Jesus. In the same way,
there will be many who say they believe in Jesus, but they
have never been “born from above.” They will not find the
entrance into God’s kingdom, without God intervening in
their lives.
Chapter Seven
Men love darkness rather than light
“ This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the
world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light,
for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil
hates the Light and does not come to the Light for fear that
his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth
comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as
having been wrought in God.” – John 3:19-21
Jesus told Nicodemus that men and women are
depraved, lost in darkness. The light exposes their
sins. Jesus said God would judge men and women by how
they hated the light and loved the darkness.
“
Jesus continued, This is the judgment, that the
Light has come into the world, and men loved the
darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were
evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light and
does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will
be exposed.” (John 3:19-20).
Nicodemus knew the Messiah was the Light,
foretold by the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 9:2, says, “The
people who walk in darkness will see a great light; Those
who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them.”
Jesus is that “Light” who came into the
world. The Light signifies not only His incarnation but
His revealing the merciful counsel of God for a person’s
salvation and eternal life.
The “Light” came into the world but was rejected
by many. Why? “Men loved darkness rather than
light.” They choose darkness and death over the light of
life, the saving knowledge of the gospel. The Bible says
men and women are without excuse and guilty of
neglecting the Scriptures and the teachings of the Son of
“
God – Jesus. In Romans 1:20, Paul wrote, For his
invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine
nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the
creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
So, they are without excuse.”
The love of darkness is a result of mankind’s vile
and wicked ways. The significant penalty of sin is death
and separation from God. A preference for evil is
originated and confirmed by sinful compliance. The
blinding of the eye and the deafening of the ear are the
result of unregenerate man’s unwillingness to see or walk
in the light of the Lord.
Jesus disclosed to Nicodemus that unbelievers
have no power because they have no life. They are dead
in their trespasses and sin. They do not have a new heart.
They do not have a new spirit. They are not guided and
empowered by the Holy Spirit. They do not have a love
for God and righteousness. They cannot serve God.
Jesus said mankind lives in darkness because
“their deeds were evil.” The vices and love of sin are the
works of darkness. The fruits are their ignorance and
pride. They protect and feed their carnal, corrupt
nature. They reject the light of the gospel because it
exposes their depraved lifestyle and the fact that they are
slaves to their sins. They cannot stop sinning.
Sin permeates every part of the unregenerate
sinner's nature, even the seemingly good things he or she
does are done ultimately with wrong motives.
Only light can penetrate this darkness. Jesus
Christ is the Light. This Light came into the world to
provide a way for man to gain eternal life.
Jesus said, "The world hates Me because I testify
of it that its works are evil" (John 7:7). The world's
contempt for Christ stems from moral, not intellectual
motives.
Most people love sin and hate God. They refuse to
be held accountable for their sins and guilt. And that’s
because all people are sinners by nature—a nature passed
on to every descendant of Adam after the fall in Genesis
3. “Through one man, sin entered into the world, and death
through sin, and so death spread to all men because all
sinned” (Romans 5:12). “Through the one man’s
disobedience, the many were made sinners” (Romans
5:19). “No one seeks for God” (Romans 3:11).
With Jesus’ visit to earth, God reached out in the
darkness to bring light and salvation to His elect. John
3:20 says, “For everyone practicing evil hates the light
and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be
exposed.”
Not only does man love evil and darkness rather
than light, but he hates the light and lives in known sin.
The light illuminates the dark and secret chambers of the
heart and reveals thoughts and deeds. It detects and
exposes man’s corrupt practices, and thus it causes
anguish and shame to his guilty mind. A person avoids
looking at his or her true character and the dangerous and
miserable condition which he and she live.
Christ is hated, sin is loved
Christ is hated because sin is loved. Moreover,
sinners hate the light because it discovers the evil and
sinfulness of their ways. God condemns them because
they will not repent of their vile sinfulness.
The man who practices evil shuns the light is on a
path to eternal hell. He experiences a wasted life of
regrets.
Jesus told Nicodemus, “But he who does the
truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly
seen, that they have been done in God” (John 3;21).
Who comes to light? It is those people who are
drawn by God to obey the truth. The sinner acts from
falsehood and error. The redeemed person acts according
to the truth. The sinner believes a lie - there is no God, or
there is no eternity and no hell. The follower of Christ
believes in God, and he or she desires to serve and have a
relationship with His Son and Spirit. He or she believes
there is an eternity and believes in the saving work of Jesus
Christ: the Son of Man who came to earth died on the cross
for mankind’s sins and was raised from the dead.
Lord’s first coming
The primary purpose of Jesus Christ’s first coming
was to provide a way of salvation for lost sinners. Jesus
died on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice and
atonement. It was a glorious act of God’s love.
However, those who reject this offer of salvation
refuse God’s love. They fall under even greater
condemnation for having seen the light and then denying
it. Unregenerate people are spiritually dead; they cannot
respond to the light of divine truth without God’s
intervention.
A person’s response to the light of the Lord’s
coming is indicative of their moral and spiritual condition.
Those who practice the truth do not fear the light since it
exposes the righteousness of righteous men. Those who
are wicked will fear and avoid the Son. They practice sin
and are the slaves of sin. Thus, the spiritually dead person
cannot stop from sinning. He or she needs to be made alive
by God alone, through His Holy Spirit.
A follower of Christ loves the light and walks in
truth. “They have been done in God (John 3:21).
A Christian hates the darkness. A person who is
born from above will seek and do the will of God and will
bear fruit, godly works. He or she walks according to the
truth. The person has a living faith and relies on God’s
grace.
He steps into the darkness to redeem
Christ’s work of redemption extends to those in
darkness as He is “the light.” Jesus stepped into the
darkness to redeem those captive to it. Jesus mission was
to enter the dark and sinful world and help men and
women find Him.
Humanity is broken beyond all repair. Men and
women are slaves to Satan and in a state of sin. Jesus told
Nicodemus that man is spiritually dead. Only by the
power and work of the Holy Spirit can mankind be
brought back to life.
True religion unites humanity with God’s mighty
Spirit, who overwhelms, transforms, and converts men
and women.
Humanity’s role in this transformation is a belief,
and yet it is a belief that is aided by God’s work within a
person since he or she lives in the darkness and has
spiritual capacities incapacitated by sin.
Jesus taught that all true believers come to the
light, love the light, obey the Son, practice the truth,
worship in spirit and truth, honor God, do good deeds,
remember His death and resurrection, love God, follow
Jesus and keep His commandments. Nonbelievers do not
practice such things.
The Holy Spirit convicts unbelievers of sin,
righteousness, and judgment. True believers still sin, but
they cannot and will not continue to live in open rebellion
and unrepentant sin after salvation.
Old Sin Versus New Birth
“No one who is born of God practices sin, because
His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is
born of God. By this the children of God and the children
of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice
righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love
his brother.” (1 John 3:9-10).
The new birth signals a new reconciled life in
Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17-18. Those who were
hopelessly corrupt become new creations in Christ, buried
with Him and raised unto a new life of righteousness.
In Ephesians 2:4-6 it says, “God, being rich in
mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us
alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
The Spirit-Empowered Result of Salvation
The Bible says, there are only three groups of
people in the world: “the spiritual person, the infant in
Christ, and natural person.”
In 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:3, Paul wrote, “The person
without the Spirit does not accept the things that come
from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness and
cannot understand them because they are discerned only
through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes
judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject
to merely human judgments, for, ‘Who has known the
mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the
mind of Christ.
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as
people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still
worldly-mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid
food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still
not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy
and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you
not acting like mere humans?”
The spiritual person displays God’s righteous
character through obeying His law. He or she lives by the
Spirit and is growing in a personal relationship with Jesus
Christ. He or she has been born twice. The spiritual man
receives the truths of the Word of God
The infant in Christ may be growing up slowly in
the faith, but he or she is weak and vulnerable to the sinful
world. This type of person may be saved, yet mostly
unchanged. He or she continues to be defeated by the
flesh, by the world, and by the devil.
The natural man, however, is dead, doomed,
depraved, and in darkness. The natural man reflects
Satan’s sinful character by neglecting God’s Word and
habitually sinning. The exact nature of a man’s or
woman’s faith eventually manifests itself in how he or she
lives.
Unlike the natural person, a person who is a
Christian loves the Lord and will show evidence of the
authority of God’s Word, the righteousness of His Son,
and the manifest work of His Spirit.
Christ is the Word of God
Jesus said to Nicodemus, “But he who does the
truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly
seen, that they have been done in God.”
Jesus presented the gospel to Nicodemus
strikingly and memorable. Christ message was clear: He
was the Word of God and the source of salvation.
The Bible says, “Neither is there salvation in any
other: for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).
Jesus gave Nicodemus a powerful illustration of
the new birth. Jesus told Nicodemus if he were to enter the
kingdom of God, he had to be “born from above” by the
power and the work of the Holy Spirit!
The Holy Spirit whispers the same message to all
men and women today, “Are you born from above?” Do
you have peace with God? If you were to die tonight,
would you be in God’s kingdom of heaven or hell with
Satan and damned forever? Do you know the answer to
these questions?
I John 5:13 says, “These things I have written to
you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that
you may know that you have eternal life.”
Few will hear and heed the warning of Jesus’
teaching on being born again, while many others will
remain deaf to the Holy Spirit’s call.
Chapter Eight
Nicodemus is “born from above!”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word,
and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not
come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life”
(John 5:24).
After Nicodemus’ encounter with Christ in John 3,
Nicodemus defended Jesus against the Sanhedrin two years
later in John 7. It was about one year before the Romans
executed Jesus on a cross at Golgotha.
Jesus was in Galilee for the Feast of the Jews and the
Feast of Booths. There, several members of the Sanhedrin
confronted Jesus.
These leaders were troubled by Jesus’ opposition to
their religious system and the people’s reactions to Jesus’
teachings and miracles. A few Jews believed He was the
Messiah. Others thought He was a great teacher or prophet.
There was not a division among the rulers,
however. Most believed Jesus was a false teacher and a
danger to their way of life. They wanted Him silenced. So,
they ordered the officers of the Temple guards to seize Him
and arrest Him.
When the guards later returned empty-handed, the
rulers asked the Temple officers, “We sent you to arrest Him,
why didn’t you bring Him?”
In John 7:46-49, “The officers answered, ‘Never has a
man spoken the way this man speaks.’ The Pharisees then
answered them, ‘You have not also been led astray, have
you? No one of the rulers or Pharisees has believed in Him,
has he? But this crowd which does not know the Law is
accursed.’”
Then, Nicodemus spoke in defense of Jesus.
“ Nicodemus (he who came to Him before, being one of them)
He said to them, ‘Our Law does not judge a man unless it first
hears from him and knows what he is doing, does it’” (John
7:50-51)?
Nicodemus told the Pharisees, you cannot do this to
Jesus. Even the Romans gave due process and a hearing to a
prisoner before they condemned and executed him.
Most members of the Pharisees, however, wanted
Jesus arrested and executed. They could care less about the
due process and law.
Nicodemus stepped up to the defense of the law and
was trying to protect Jesus.
The leaders were furious with Nicodemus’ response,
though he was most respected and the leading expert of the
law in Israel. The Pharisees countered. “They replied, ‘Are
you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a
prophet does not come out of Galilee’” (John 7:52).
They rebuked Nicodemus with sarcasm and mockery
because he broke away from the leadership’s position to arrest
and have Jesus killed without a trial.
The Pharisees also did not have the right information
and facts about Jesus. He was not a prophet from Galilee,
but the city of Nazareth. However, many of Jesus’ disciples
were from Galilee.
Nicodemus was legally right, but the religious leaders
choose to ignore the man-made rules they had put in place.
The Pharisees only backed down because the guards could
not seize Jesus. They did fear, however, the reactions of the
people if they arrested Jesus who had been healing
hundreds. They waited and considered another plan and an
opportunity to silence Jesus and have him arrested.
Nicodemus is a witness at Jesus’ crucifixion
Nicodemus next appeared in the Scriptures at the
crucifixion of Jesus. John 19:38-39 says, “Later, Joseph of
Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph
was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the
Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took
the body away.”
Nicodemus joined his friend, Joseph of
Arimathea. And now Nicodemus was bold, and he
identified himself with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Joseph of Arimathea brought a linen shroud, and
Nicodemus helped him carry Jesus' body after it came down
from the cross. At significant risk to their safety and
reputations, they defied the Sanhedrin and Pharisees. They
treated Jesus’ crucified body with respect and dignity.
By touching Jesus’ dead body, however, both men
were willing to make themselves unclean for seven days as
per the Mosaic Law.
Joseph and Nicodemus cared meticulously for the body
of Jesus. They washed the body. Then, they applied costly
embalming spices and carefully wrapped Him in the linen
strips.
John 19:39-40 shows the honor and care that Joseph of
Arimathea and Nicodemus gave Jesus’ body, “He was
accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had
visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of
myrrh and aloes, about 75 pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the
two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of
linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.”
Nicodemus brought 75 pounds of myrrh and
aloes! This was an abundant amount of expensive spices to
honor Jesus as the King of kings. This was a noble act. It was
a bold act that showed Nicodemus’ respect and high regard for
Jesus.
Several historians say 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes
would be enough for 100 or more traditional Jewish burials.
Sandalwood aloes and myrrh are expensive spices. In today’s
market, 75 pounds of aloes and myrrh would cost about
$200,000.
By bringing this amount of aloes and myrrh,
Nicodemus may have remembered Psalm 16:10, “For you
will not leave my spirit in the grave; neither will you allow
your Holy One to see decay."
Envisioning Nicodemus handling Jesus’ body with
reverence is astonishing. Two years before, he sat with Jesus
at night and questioned His authority. Nicodemus was now a
believer and a follower.
After applying the spices and linen wrappings to Jesus’
body, Joseph and Nicodemus placed Jesus in Joseph of
Arimathea's unused tomb before the Sabbath started.
The tomb, on a hillside outside of Jerusalem, was in the
garden at Golgotha, the place of the skull. Men had prepared
this tomb by cutting it out of the rocky hillside. They also
cut and shaped a large stone that could be rolled in front of
the entrance to seal the tomb. The garden tomb was next to
the place where the Roman soldiers had crucified Jesus.
John wrote in Chapter 19:41-42: “Now there was a
garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the
garden, there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been
laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation,
and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”
Jesus has risen. The grave is empty.
Three days later, the tomb was empty. Jesus had
risen from the grave as promised on a Sunday morning.
In John 20:11-17, the Bible says, “But Mary was
standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept,
she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she saw two
angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet,
where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to
her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them,
‘Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know
where they have laid Him.’ When she had said this, she
turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not
know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are
you weeping? Whom are you seeking?’ Supposing Him to
be the gardener, she said to Him, ‘Sir, if you have carried
Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take
Him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said
to Him in Hebrew, ‘Rabboni!’ (which means,
Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Stop clinging to Me, for I have
not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and
say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My
God and your God.’”
What happened to Nicodemus?
What happened to Nicodemus between John 3 and
John 20? He was “born from above!” God came down and
gave him a new heart, a new soul, and washed away his sins.
The Holy Spirit regenerated Nicodemus.
Nicodemus found the Way, the Truth and the Light.
Jesus knew during His late-night meeting with Nicodemus that
he would believe and be transformed by the Holy Spirit into a
child of God.
The Son of Man also knew after His crucifixion,
Nicodemus would honor Jesus, the Messiah, and painstakingly
prepare His body for burial. John 1:12 says, “But as many, as
received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of
God, even to those who believe in His name.”
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ saved
Nicodemus. He became a member of the kingdom of God.
Instead of perishing like many of the other Pharisees and
religious leaders, he received eternal life.
Tradition says Nicodemus was the Pharisee who stood
up at Jesus’ trial before Pilate and defended Jesus. Tradition
also teaches that Peter and John later baptized Nicodemus.
Afterward, the Sanhedrin and Pharisees removed him from his
position as the leading teacher in Israel. They banished him
from Jerusalem. They forced him to live outside the city, while
his family lived inside the city.
Some centuries later, a man named Photius referred to
an ancient document that records that a mob beat Nicodemus
to death in the first century for his devotion to Jesus Christ.
Nicodemus may have lost everything in this world, but
he gained everything in the world to come. John 6:37 says,
“Him that comes to Me I will not cast away.” Nicodemus
came to Jesus, and He did not cast him away. Instead, Jesus
revealed that He was the Christ to Nicodemus.
Jesus, the Son of God, came down from heaven, and
He was lifted on a cross to bear the penalty for the sins of
Nicodemus and all mankind. Jesus was raised from the dead
and exalted to the right hand of God. He continues to offer
righteousness and eternal life to all who will follow Him.
While Jesus offers eternal life to all who will believe,
those who reject him will suffer eternal death. To deny Jesus
Christ as God’s provision for salvation is to reject God’s love,
and to be under divine condemnation, awaiting the day of
God’s eternal judgment.
The God of love who sent Jesus Christ to save the
world from sin is the God who will send Him a second time
to judge the world for sin. Those who have “looked up” to
Him for salvation, now “look up,” waiting for His return.
Today, Nicodemus is a model of faith and courage for
all Christians. He was a seeker of God and truth. Though
he was religious and lost when he first met Jesus, God
loved Nicodemus and saved him.
Nicodemus did receive mercy and came to believe in
Jesus. He risked his life and reputation by helping Joseph
of Arimathea provide Jesus with a royal burial.
Nicodemus first came to Jesus by night for fear of the
Jews, but at the end of John’s Gospel, he anointed the body
of Jesus during the day for all to see. Nicodemus became a
believer and follower of Christ. He was “born from
above” by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Chapter Nine
The walking dead!”
“But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of
God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot
understand them, because they are spiritually appraised”
(1 Corinthians 2:14).
Every person experiences a physical birth and one day
a physical death. Like Nicodemus when he met with Jesus at
night, most people do not recognize their spiritual
condition. We are born into this world spiritually blind and
dead. We are indeed the “Walking Dead” spiritually.
The Bible says, “The natural man understands not the
things of God, to him they are foolishness because they are
spiritually discerned, and he is spiritually dead.”
The popular television series, The Walking Dead takes
place during a worldwide zombie apocalypse. These zombies
or "walkers" try to find life by eating human flesh. Humans
that get bit or scratched by zombies become infected and
eventually turn into walkers as well.
The writers of the show reveal that all living humans
carry a pathogen so that if they die from any cause, they will
also turn into walkers. The only way to permanently kill a
walker is to damage its brain or otherwise destroy the body by
cremation.
In the show, Deputy Sheriff Rick Grimes is the leader
of a group of survivors. They try to protect themselves not only
against attacks by walkers but from other groups of
survivors. The people in this group are willing to assure their
longevity by any means necessary.
This television horror story may be science fiction
and entertaining, but there are billions of spiritually dead
zombies roaming the earth today. The Bible says the
unregenerate man and woman do not know God and will
perish and spend eternity in hell. They cannot receive the
things of the spirit of God because they are dead and in a state
of sin. They love the darkness rather than light because their
deeds are evil.
There is profound blindness that engulfs the souls of
all human beings. We were all born and infected by original
sin. All men and women are born with the sin nature, and
because they carry a sin nature, they are eternally damned to
hell.
This sin is our “pathogen” that causes us to be slaves
to sin. Evil, pride, and selfishness infect us all. The Bible
says, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the
unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2
Corinthians 4:4).
Eternal Death
This state of spiritual blindness leads to eternal death
– Hell. It is outer darkness and a place where a person is
separated from God. The Bible says it is a place of torment.
We all enter the world spiritually blind and
spiritually dead, but we don’t have to leave this world that
way. Some of us come to see. God will deliver some of us out
of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God. Some
of us will be “born from above,” a spiritual rebirth. We will
come to the light of the world – Jesus Christ - in whom all
darkness is dispelled.
Without God invading our lives, we are members of
the “Walking Dead,” some permanently and some
temporarily. The Bible says, “All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
The result of sin is death, spiritual separation from
God (Romans 6:23). God sent His Son to die for your sins!
Jesus died in our place, so we could have a relationship with
God and be with Him forever.
“God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
But it didn’t end with His death on the cross. He rose again
and still lives!
“Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He was
raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures” (1
Corinthians 15:3-4).
Jesus is the only way to God. Jesus said, “I am the
way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father,
but through Me” (John 14:6).
Eternal Life
Unless we hear and respond to the gospel of the glory
of Jesus Christ, we will not experience the “spiritual” birth by
the Holy Spirit. We will remain among the “walking dead”
for eternity.
Jesus said, “We must be “born from above.” If not,
we will remain unknowingly or knowingly following and
worshipping the fallen angel, Satan. He is the father of lies, a
murderer and a thief (John 8:44).
As a follower of Christ, our mission is to “go and
tell.” We must present the gospel to everyone, all the walking
dead around us.
"And we know that the Son of God has come and has
given us understanding in order that we might know Him who
is true, and we are in Him who is true in His Son Jesus Christ
this is the true God and eternal life" (1 John 5:20).
Jesus is the eternal life. It is essential that men and
women know that they need to repent and acknowledge their
sinfulness. Men and women must turn from sin and die to
self. “So, whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things
have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2
Corinthians 5:17).
It is clear; a person must acknowledge sin and submit
to Christ. Salvation comes to those who believe in Him and
turn from their sin and surrender to Christ. When that happens,
eternal life begins with the Holy Spirit indwelling in that
person. Then, he or she is no longer among the “Walking
Dead,” but he or she is now spiritually alive, “Walking in the
Spirit.”
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