John 3:1-21 comments; you must be born again

1 ¶  There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2  The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 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  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 9  Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10  Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12  If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13  And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. 16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Jesus gives a Jewish leader named Nicodemus a lesson in New Testament theology. The first point Jesus makes has confounded those who chose to be willfully ignorant or had poor reading comprehension skills for two thousand years.

A human being must be reborn spiritually in order to enter God’s kingdom. The contrast here is between the spirit and the flesh. Nicodemus’ reply in verse 4 to Jesus’ statement in verse 3 shows that the discussion will revolve around being born in the flesh versus being born in the Spirit. “Born of water,” in verse 5 clearly means then, in context, being physically born from the womb and has nothing to do with baptism, which is not mentioned in these verses at all. You are not born again by being baptized although this heresy has been of old.

Jesus goes on to promise that whomever believes in Him, which is what being born again revolves around, will have eternal life, although from other passages in the Bible we learn that this eternal life will not be in the decaying flesh you currently walk around in but in a new body, a resurrection body that cannot die (Job 19:25-27; Isaiah 26:19; Romans 8:23; 1Corinthians 15:35-52 as examples).

God, the Creator, loved the people of the earth, the world (Revelation 3:10), at the Cross, and gave Himself for them so that if anyone believed in Him and received Him they received life everlasting. The son of a king was received with the same power and authority of the king himself. The Son of God is the Word, the visible image of the invisible God, walking on earth in human flesh.

Colossians 1:15a  Who is the image of the invisible God…

Hebrews 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

 It is a brilliant way of describing what God has done and has not been explained and developed by theologians nearly enough although many have taken the concept of the Son of God and made it into polytheistic idolatry, as if there were three Gods, which the Bible does not say.

If you believe in His name you are not condemned but if you do not believe you are lost.

Acts 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

God has shown a light on this dark world, ruled by Satan, and you preferred darkness. Why? Because what you are doing is evil. Men hate the light because the light shines on their wicked works and exposes them.

The person who seeks the truth will come to Christ and that work is God’s work as was shown by the first chapter of this gospel and many other verses. It sort of makes you wonder if some of the horrible things done by those claiming to be God’s people don’t reveal that they are just fooling themselves and are worshipping a god that is simply a reflection of themselves and have not submitted to the Christ of the Bible.

Christ came the first time to save the world, not to judge it.

John 12:47  And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

The second time He will come in judgment.

2Thessalonians 1:7  And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 8  In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Verse 18 underscores that the only time that God appeared on earth in human skin was in the form of Jesus of Nazareth. All other claimants to being the Son of God, whether they be Alexander the Great or Augustus Caesar, were frauds. Jesus is the, “only begotten Son of God.”