John 3

At the end of the previous chapter, we read that the Lord Jesus knows what is in man and therefore He does not entrust Himself to them. Now a man comes to Him. It’s not just anyone. It’s a man of the Pharisees. His name is mentioned, Nicodemus, and also his function, he is a ruler of the Jews. So he is a deeply religious man who is also held in high esteem by the people. The Lord calls him “the teacher of Israel” (verse 10).

Nicodemus, like his colleagues, has seen the signs that the Lord has done. With him, it has awakened a longing for the Lord Jesus that has brought him closer to God inwardly and makes him seek Him. He is such a single person in the crowd who feels the need to get to know Christ better. That is why he goes to Him for a personal meeting.

As an orthodox and also a religious, distinguished Jew, Nicodemus should have gone to the temple and do so by day. However, he doesn’t go to the temple but to the Lord and he does so by night. Whoever has been touched in his conscience and shows interest in Christ, like Nicodemus, immediately feels that the world will be against him. That is why he comes by night. He is afraid of the world because he knows that he is dealing with God and also knows that the world is resisting God.

Nicodemus addresses the Lord Jesus as “Rabbi”, which means “Teacher” (Jn 1:38). This is the title with which scribes are addressed by their disciples. He acknowledges Him as a Teacher. He then declares that he and his colleagues – he speaks of “we” – know that Christ has come from God as a Teacher. The signs they have seen of Him cannot be denied. Like his colleagues, Nicodemus is convinced that He is a special Teacher. Yet he is still far away from the true knowledge of Him. He speaks of the Lord as One of Whom it can be said that God is with Him, as if He were a prophet.

Yet his interest is not based on a purely intellectual conviction. There is a deeper interest in him, worked by the Holy Spirit. He is not yet aware of this, but it drives him to the Lord. However, he only sees Him as a Teacher and also that God is with Him. In doing so he thinks he is paying a great tribute to Him; however, it falls completely short with regard to His Person.

By the way, it is beautiful to see that Christ is always available to anyone who sincerely seeks – and Nicodemus is such a person – even though it is in the night. He does not blame Nicodemus for seeking Him at this time.

The conversation that develops between the Lord and Nicodemus is one of the several personal conversations of the Lord Jesus that John mentions in his Gospel. For us this is an important indication to have an eye for the individual.

The Lord does not respond to the tribute of Nicodemus and his fellow Pharisees, but tells him what is necessary to really get to know Him. Nicodemus does not need an education from Him as a Teacher, but a completely new nature. This goes much further than being convinced in conscience. Nicodemus does not yet know himself as completely depraved and spiritually dead in sin. He needs to be made alive and not a new idea that can enrich his life.

God does not teach and improve human nature. Man needs to be renewed in the origin of his nature. Without that renewal he cannot see the kingdom of God. That kingdom of God stands here before Nicodemus. It is present and visible in the Son of the carpenter (cf. Lk 17:21). To see and acknowledge that inwardly, one has to be born again, that is to receive new life in a completely new way and from a completely new source.

The statement that a new birth is necessary is introduced by the Lord with “truly, truly” (Greek: ”amen, amen”). This double ”truly” occurs 25 times in this Gospel. The Lord hereby declares the absolutely certain truth of what He is going to say, whereas He underlines the importance of it once more by adding “I say to you”.

This makes it clear how important the content is of what He is saying here. It is indeed of immeasurable importance. It is the only way to see anything of God’s kingdom. He who has not been born again will see nothing of it, even though he is still so well versed in the Scriptures and even though he has such a high religious function as Nicodemus.

That Nicodemus sees no more than the natural course of events is evident from his reaction to the Lord’s words. He presupposes something that is in fact impossible, but which also shows that he does not understand what the Lord means by a new birth from a totally new source.

The reason for this is that Nicodemus does not yet recognize himself as a sinner. Otherwise he would have understood that even if it were possible for a human being to be born a second time from his mother’s womb, it would still be flesh born from flesh. No clean thing can ever come out of an unclean being (Job 14:4; Psa 51:5). Man would still be blind and unable to see the kingdom of God and therefore be as far away from it as ever.

Again the Lord introduces His answer with the impressive “truly, truly, [amen, amen] I say to you” to underline again the importance of the words He then speaks. He points out that in order to be born again two things are absolutely necessary: water and the Spirit. He does not say “of water and of the Spirit”, but He uses the word “of” only once. By saying it this way, water and the Spirit are intimately linked. They cannot be separated, but work together inseparably.

”Water” is sometimes thought of as baptismal water, but that cannot possibly be the case. If it were baptismal water, someone who has not been baptized would not be able to enter the kingdom. This would mean that the criminal on the cross who repented could not enter the kingdom, because he died unbaptized. However, the Lord assured him that he would be in Paradise with Him (Lk 23:43).

On the other hand, someone baptized would receive a new nature by baptism. This in turn would mean that only those who have been baptized would enter the kingdom and also that he who was baptized could never be lost, for he would have received eternal life through baptism. Both teachings are obviously follies. In addition, baptism with water nowhere speaks of giving life, but of death (Rom 6:3-4).

So what does the water represent? Water represents the Word of God in its cleansing power (Psa 119:9; Jn 15:3; Eph 5:26). The Lord Jesus speaks here of water as a picture of the cleansing power of the Word of God applied in the power of the Spirit.

If an unbelieving person reads or hears the Word of God, the Word will judge his whole life. He will see himself as a sinner. At the same time as he acknowledges this, the Word and the Spirit work new life in him. Through this new life he will receive new thoughts and affections. The nature of the Spirit is received and becomes active. Such a person is a new creation (2Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15).

The Lord establishes in verse 6 that flesh always remains flesh and that what is born of the Spirit is partaker of the nature of the Spirit. Each of these two natures bears fruit according to its nature (cf. Gen 1:12). Thus He underlines what He has just said about being born of a new source, of the Spirit of God. The water is not mentioned in verse 6, because it concerns the characteristic work of the Spirit. The Word without the Spirit does not work a new life, for it is the Spirit Who makes alive and gives the life of Christ.

Another thing that is important to realize well is the fact that the two natures, flesh and Spirit, remain completely separate. There is no way they can be brought into harmony with each other. There is constant enmity between them (Gal 5:17). The ‘flesh’ can never be transformed into the ‘Spirit’.

The Lord mildly reproaches Nicodemus that he should not have been surprised at what He said. He establishes a general truth. The word “you” in the sentence “you must be born again” is plural. This “be born again” applies to him personally as well as to the Jew and all people in general.

Nicodemus, as “the teacher of Israel” (verse 10), could have known from Ezekiel 36 what the Lord speaks about (Eze 36:24-32). This is about a profound cleansing of Israel that the people will undergo at the beginning of the realm of peace. Yet the meaning of that word has passed Nicodemus by because he does not consider it as applicable to himself. That heathens have to become clean, he can understand that, but he himself, as a Jew ...?

Like the wind, the Spirit is invisible (“wind” and “spirit” are the same word in Greek). The origin of the wind and where it goes remains unknown to us (Job 38:24), but we can perceive its working (Psa 29:5; 107:25; 1Kgs 19:11). So it is with the Spirit. When the Spirit, through the Word, works the new birth in someone, no one knows how it went. Like the wind, the Spirit cannot be controlled or directed by us.

What is possible, however, is that we perceive His workings. In this way His work becomes visible in someone who has been born again because from his new birth he loves the Lord Jesus, he speaks about Him with love and does His will. This applies to “everyone who is born of the Spirit”. Therefore, it applies not only to the Jews, but also to the Gentiles.

Again Nicodemus reacts from a human perspective to the Lord’s teaching. He asks how these things can be. Yet the question he asks makes it clear that there is a growing awareness that the Lord Jesus is telling him the truth. He feels that the Lord can provide for the true needs of his soul. Furthermore, in this section we hear nothing more from the mouth of Nicodemus.

The Lord begins the answer to Nicodemus’ question again with a mild reproach. He points out to Nicodemus that he could have known what He meant if he had read the prophets correctly. Nicodemus knows the prophets, but not their real meaning because his thinking is directed toward the glory of Israel and not toward the glory of the Messiah. As ‘the teacher of Israel’ he should have known what the Lord means. After all, he will have had sections like Isaiah 44 and 55 and the aforementioned Ezekiel 36 often enough for his attention (Isa 44:3; 55:1; Eze 36:24-32). Yet because he was not born again, he has never understood its true meaning.

After this mild reproach, the Lord does not close the discussion, but continues His teaching and even extends it to the heavenly things. For the third time He uses the double “truly” followed by “I say to you” to emphasize the importance of His teaching. He assures Nicodemus that He does not talk about unfamiliar things. He is perfectly able to speak about the things He has just said because He has seen what He is testifying of. Only God can say that He ‘knows’ what He is talking about. With Him it is perfect ‘knowing’. He possesses the perfect knowledge of the essence of all things.

The Lord Jesus knows what is in man, for He knows what is in man (Jn 2:25). He knows what is in God, for He knows God because He is God. He makes God known (Jn 17:6,26). The Lord speaks in the ‘We’-form because He testifies together with the Holy Spirit. He and the Holy Spirit are Divine Persons Who have perfect knowledge of all things. Like the Son, the Holy Spirit also knows perfectly what is in man and what is in God. He is perfectly familiar with this. No one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God (1Cor 2:11).

For a man to be able to share and know the things of God, he must first be born again and receive the Spirit. Through the new birth he is able to understand the things of God. The natural, unborn man does not accept the things of God because they are spiritually appraised (1Cor 2:14). He cannot even accept those things because he has no part in the life that is needed to do so.

The Lord has spoken about the earthly things, that is, things that the prophet Ezekiel has communicated and that are necessary for the earthly blessings in the realm of peace. The new birth is an earthly matter that is necessary to enter the earthly realm of peace. And Nicodemus does not even understand this. So how then would he understand anything if the Lord is going to speak about heavenly things?

For the kingdom of God has not only earthly but also heavenly aspects (Heb 12:22-24; Eph 1:10; Col 1:20). The heavenly things will be fully revealed by the Spirit after Christ has shed His blood and ascended into heaven. In the Son of God Who is speaking here with Nicodemus, these heavenly things are present in perfection. Only Nicodemus does not (yet) have an eye for them.

No one can speak of the heavenly things better than the Son. As He speaks here, no prophet has ever been able to speak of himself. Prophets were mediators used by God to speak to people. The Son is not a mediator through Whom God speaks, but He is God Himself (Heb 1:1). As He speaks with Nicodemus on earth, He is present in heaven. Therefore, He speaks on earth about things He sees in heaven simultaneously. People can ascend into heaven, angels can descend from heaven, but they change places. Only the Son of Man remains where He was before because He is also the only begotten Son of God. He is the answer to the challenging questions of Agur in Proverbs 30 (Pro 30:4).

The Lord Jesus never ceases to be God. Therefore, while He is on earth talking to Nicodemus, He can say that He is in heaven at the same time. We have also read of Him that He declares the Father on earth as the Son Who is in the bosom of the Father (Jn 1:18). However, He says that as the Son of Man! This means that we cannot separate His being God from His being Man. He is one Person. As the Son of Man, He is therefore the perfectly reliable Proclaimer of heavenly things. Only He Who is in heaven can communicate heavenly things to us. The question is whether my heart is ready to accept these heavenly things.

Once the Lord has mentioned the heavenly things, He gives additional teaching. In order to understand the heavenly things, the new birth is in fact not enough. The new birth is necessary, but it is connected to earthly things. The new birth enables to know things on earth in the way that God looks at and judges them. To know and enjoy the heavenly things more is needed. For this we need to know the meaning of the cross.

To illustrate His teaching about the cross the Lord Jesus refers to what Moses did with the serpent in the wilderness. This is an example of what will happen to Him as the Son of Man. Lifting up the serpent in the wilderness looked forward to lifting up the Son of Man on the cross.

Moses made the bronze serpent in the image of the fiery serpents (Num 21:9). These fiery serpents were the plague from which the people died. Moses lifted up the image of the serpent he made of bronze so that everyone could look at it wherever he was in the camp. Whoever did was healed. This required the acknowledgment of being bitten and being certain of dying, and the faith that only one look at the lifted-up serpent would give life. Nothing else would free them from the effects of the plague, however cleverly conceived. Moses thus made the plague a symbol of salvation, and that salvation was obtained only by simply looking at that symbol. Looking at it meant the acknowledgment of being bitten by the serpent, resulting in death.

This is an example of what God did to His Son, the Son of Man. In Him God has sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to condemn sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3). When the Son of Man was lifted up on the cross, He was made sin by God. The Son of God was rejected by His people and lifted up on the cross (Jn 8:28).

God, in His unfathomable wisdom, used man’s greatest crime, the culmination of his sins, to fulfill His plans by making His Son sin. Sin could not be removed in any other way. Sin could only be removed through God’s judgment of Him Who alone was able to bear the judgment on sin. And it had to be a Man, the Son of Man, so that it could be satisfactory for men.

This work had to be done for or on behalf of us, for the purpose of the gift of eternal life, while the new birth, of which the Lord spoke to Nicodemus, is a work that is happening within us. Both for the work within us and for the work for us, He used the word “must” (verses 7,14), for both were necessary if we were to enter into a blessed connection with God.

The glorious result is for everyone who believes. It is about faith in Him. The believer looks away from himself and looks at the Lord Jesus. Just as the Israelite bitten by the fiery serpent only had to look at the lifted up serpent to be saved, now a person only has to look at the Christ lifted up on the cross in order not to perish. On the cross God made Christ to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2Cor 5:21).

Through faith in the Crucified we acknowledge the rightness and righteousness of God’s judgment for us, but also that this judgment has already been exercised. As a result, we no longer look at ourselves, but at Him Who bore the judgment on our behalf. We shall not perish because He, when made sin, bore the judgment. That is the parallel with the bronze serpent.

The Lord goes beyond this comparison with the bronze serpent. It is not only that we shall not perish and do not come into judgment, but there is also a tremendous positive result of Christ’s work on the cross. We see that positive result in what we have received as a result of that work which is “eternal life “.

Eternal life is not life that lasts forever, because then the unbelievers would have that too. Eternal life is life that is eternal in itself, it is life without beginning and without end. Eternal life has been revealed to us in the Lord Jesus. He Himself is eternal life (1Jn 5:20). However, it is not only revealed in Him, but it is given to us.

It is a gift beyond our comprehension that comes from the love of God. The giving of eternal life is directly connected to the love of God through the word “for” in verse 16. Christ’s work on the cross originated in the love of God. And when God reveals His love, He withholds nothing.

He gave His Son to save the lost who were in the power of sin (Rom 8:3). They were bitten by the serpent, which is the devil (Rev 12:9). The Lord Jesus, the only begotten Son, was made sin and punished with God’s righteous judgment. As a result, the ruling power that worked in our old life has been condemned.

However, a believer may look at the lifted up Son of Man and be relieved as to the problem of sin, but may not be at peace with God. This is the case if he continues to see God as a Judge Whom he fears, but Who fortunately can no longer harm him because Christ stands between him and God. To take that fear away, the Lord Jesus now reveals that it all comes from the love of God. God is not Someone to be afraid of, but Someone Who has shown all His love for the world by surrendering the Dearest He had.

When it comes to the love of God, it cannot be limited to Israel, but goes out to the entire world. Everything in this Gospel crosses the borders of Israel. God’s love cannot be limited. The greatness of God’s love is seen in the giving of His “only begotten Son”. That Name indicates the highest and unique place the Son has in the love of God Who gave the Son.

Anyone who accepts this gift of God in faith knowing that he shall otherwise perish, receives eternal life as a special gift. This eternal life includes two great things: it is the Lord Jesus Himself (1Jn 5:20) and it is knowing the Father and the Son of the Father, Jesus Christ (Jn 17:3).

Faith in the Lord Jesus opens a glory to everyone who believes that no believer in the Old Testament has ever heard of. This couldn’t be, because then the Son was not yet given by God. Now that He has given His only begotten Son and His Son has glorified Him in His way and work on earth, it is God’s joy to let all who believe in His only begotten Son share in all that is of the Son in the most glorious way imaginable.

When God has thus revealed His love, the objects of His grace through the work of His Son are no longer limited to the borders of Israel. If God reveals Himself in His Son as a Savior-God, it befits His love that the good news is sent to the world as a whole. He did not send His Son as a Judge, but as a Savior.

He who accepts the Lord Jesus in faith as Savior is not judged and is no longer an object of judgment. The Person of the Son of God is the great test for all. It is poignant that judgment is attached to not believing “in the name of the only begotten Son of God”. This emphasizes the rejection of the One Who is the unique Son of God to Whom all His pleasure is directed. He who despises that, sins against his life.

The law is not the great test for man. The law did make man acquainted with God's holy demands. Thus man’s sin has become manifest because he has not fulfilled God’s holy demands. As a result, judgment must come, without there being a way out. The law has only judgment (Gal 3:10). The Son offers that way out.

Man is no longer judged by the law that was given to Israel, but by the light that has come into the world. The light reveals everything, not only who man is, but also Who God is. It is no longer a question of keeping the law, but of seeing oneself in the light and believing in the Son of God.

The presence of light shows the utter depravity of man, who consciously rejects light in favor of darkness. This is because his deeds are evil and he does not want to give them up. It is therefore not only about unbelief. His deeds are the great blockade to believe. That is why the sinner is judged before the great white throne according to his deeds (Rev 20:12), not because of his unbelief. People don’t want to believe because they do evil things and like to do them.

When the light comes that exposes these deeds, these people resist. They don’t want to stop doing evil at all. Their hatred of the light becomes public. They don’t want to come to the light, because that would mean that they would have to stop doing evil things and evil deeds. They choose to stay in the darkness in order to continue doing evil. That’s why they reject the light. How can such people be fit to share in the inheritance of the saints in light (Col 1:12)?

Doing the truth is the opposite of doing evil. He who does the truth comes to the light. Truth and light belong together. Nothing is hidden in the truth, everything takes place in the light. He who does the truth shows that he lives out of God. His life gives testimony that God is the source of his deeds. His life has nothing that is done secretly.

After the impressive teaching about the new birth and eternal life, we follow the Lord with His disciples to the land of Judea. He stops there with His disciples, while people come to Him to be baptized. He does not baptize Himself, but has His disciples do so (Jn 4:1-2).

While He receives people who want to be baptized, John is also busy baptizing people. John does this in a place where there is a lot of water, an indication that baptism was not by sprinkling, but by immersion, because a lot of water is needed for that. John the evangelist mentions in between that John the baptist had not yet been thrown into prison. This statement shows that the above happened before the Lord Jesus began His public service work. The Lord began it when John was thrown into prison (Mt 4:12; Mk 1:14; Lk 3:20).

While John is busy baptizing people, some of his disciples have a discussion with a Jew about purification. Both the disciples of John and the Jews were still bound by the religious statutes belonging to the life of the people under the law. Then there are always disputes about the correct interpretation of certain acts. Here it is about a purification ritual.

No details are given, but we know how attached the Pharisees were to their traditions in this matter (Mt 15:2-3; Mk 7:3-4; Lk 11:38-39). Later, the Pharisees will want to entice the Lord into such disputes again and again. People who attach great importance to traditions and rituals always defend these things with a battle of words. Because the disciples of John are not free from this either, they let themselves be tempted to do so. The Lord has never had a battle of words. He spoke the truth.

After the discussion about the difference of opinion about purification, there are disciples of John who observe another difference. They see the Lord at work and how all people are coming to Him. They address John as their “rabbi” and tell him what they have seen.

They refer to the Lord Jesus as “He who was with you” and “to whom you have testified”. They have no enmity against Him, but are ignorant of Him. They do not see Him as the Lamb of God and the Son of God, even though John clearly spoke about Him that way (Jn 1:29,34). It seems as if they see the Lord as a competitor of their master. In any case, they do not know what to think of Him and His actions. In their thinking John still occupies too great a place, so that they have no eye for the glory of the Son of God.

John gives testimony of the impossibility of receiving the truth about Christ from themselves. In order to gain insight into Who the Lord Jesus is, the eyes must be opened from heaven, which is by God. It is impossible for a man to accept this without a revelation from God. After all, there is no one who seeks God (Rom 3:11). John points out to his disciples that they themselves have heard what he has said that he is not the Christ and that they, in turn, bear witness to what John has said about himself.

His disciples also know that he was sent out ahead of the Christ. John did not claim anything of Christ for himself in any way. He knows his place in relation to Him. Every true servant will know that he is only a messenger and that the purpose of his mission is to point to the Lord Jesus (Acts 26:16-17). No one can preach without being sent (Rom 10:15).

After testifying about himself in connection with Christ, John then speaks about his personal relationship to Him and the joy he finds in it. He speaks of Him as “the bridegroom”. He also mentions the bride, without saying who that is. Here too John the baptist takes the right place. He knows that he is not in that intimate relationship with Christ as the bride.

Although he does not count himself as belonging to the bride, he also has a special relationship with the Bridegroom: that of a friend. He is the friend of the Bridegroom who rejoices in everything the Bridegroom says (Rev 19:7). When Simeon had the Lord Jesus in his arms, he could say that he could go in peace because his eyes had seen the salvation in Him Whom he had in his arms (Lk 2:28-32). In the same way, John can say that his joy is fulfilled now that he has heard the voice of the Bridegroom.

With that full joy in his heart, John expresses the desire that the Lord Jesus should increase, but that he should decrease. He speaks these words about himself and at the same time says this to his disciples. Also for them the Lord Jesus must increase and he, John, decrease. This is the answer to the question about the difference between the Lord and him with which they came to him (verse 26). Thus every servant must step down so that in the hearts of those he serves all place and glory will be given to Christ.

In verse 30 it is about practice, in verse 31 it is about position. Only of the Lord Jesus it can be said that He comes from above. He comes from above and is above all. Even though He humbled Himself so much, He always takes the first place in all things (Col 1:18).

For John and for every person applies that he is from the earth and speaks of the earth. Every human being is a creature and as such originates from the earth and therefore cannot but speak about things from an earthly point of view. A revelation from God to his heart is needed to get an eye for what is from above and for Him Who is from above and above all. He who comes from above comes from heaven.

John says twice that the Lord Jesus is above all. He is far above all what is on earth. On earth He testifies what He has seen and heard in heaven. Heaven is the dwelling place of God. The Lord Jesus testifies of God as His Father, but His testimony is not accepted by anyone. It becomes clear that man can have nothing to do with heaven. There is nothing of God and the Father in heaven that the Son has not seen and heard. He can testify of heavenly, eternal, Divine things, but because of the sin in which man is, man cannot receive this testimony.

If anyone has received His testimony, he has put the seal on the fact that God is true. For God has revealed it to him, and he has believed it. This is the essential character of living faith. This faith is not based on reason (Jn 2:23), but on a conviction worked in heart and conscience by God’s Spirit. The Son is sent by God and He speaks the words of God. Whoever receives the spoken testimony of the Son also receives the words of God.

In all that Christ has spoken, the full power of the Holy Spirit is present without restriction. With Him there is no impediment to the Spirit making all things known from God. Also, in order to accept what He has spoken, God does not give His Spirit in a limited way, but in His fullness. We as believers have not received a little of the Spirit, but the Person of the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:13). The fact that we often still only understand a little of the words of the Lord Jesus is due to the fact that we still expect so much from our flesh.

With all the glory already witnessed of the Son, He is, above all, the object of the Father's love. The Father has made the Son, because of His love for Him, the Possessor of all things. In His love for His Son, the Father has given Him all things into His hand to bless and control all these things with His hand. As the Son of the Father, He is the Heir of all things. This goes far beyond what He is as the Messiah and has in connection with Israel.

After the relationship of love between the Father and the Son, the relationship of each person to the Son is presented. The relationship to the Son determines everything and forever. Whoever believes in the Son already now receives the blessing of eternal life and shares in everything that belongs to the Son. But he who rejects Him has no part in anything except the wrath of God.

The cause through which one will not see life and through which the wrath of God remains upon him, is not obeying the Son. Not obeying the Son means that someone has not listened to the Word that the Son has spoken and has not bowed down in reverence to Him.

Not obeying the Son has two consequences. The one consequence is missing out on the life that such a person will never partake of until eternity. The other consequence is the eternal partaking of God’s wrath, which abides on him without ever ending.

The fact that someone will not see life precludes by definition universal reconciliation. This fixed fact leaves no room for the false teaching that all who are lost in one way or another will eventually see life at some point. That the wrath of God abides on someone means that he who is lost continues to exist as a person. It means the impossibility of annihilation of the soul of the unbeliever.