THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
John 2:12-3:21
INTRODUCTION
The story of the wedding at Cana is unique because although it closes out the section of the disciples bearing witness to Jesus, it also introduces the next major section of the Gospel of John: 2:12-4:54. One of the purposes of the miracle at Cana was to communicate the truth that Christ/Christianity is superior to Moses/Judaism. The 6 stone waterpots used for the Jewish custom of purification were empty; however, by the time Jesus was finished with them, they were overflowing with new wine. In the same way compared to Christianity, Judaism is empty. To be sure Judaism has glory; however, when compared to the surpassing glory of Christ and Christianity, it has no glory (2 Cor. 3:6-11).
John continues this theme in the story of Jesus cleansing the Temple in Jerusalem. At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus in His zeal for His Father drives out the moneychangers and sellers of sacrificial animals from the Temple precincts. What they were doing was not bad; where they were doing it was criminal. The only place in the whole Temple complex where the Gentiles could worship was the Court of the Gentiles. Only on pain of death could they enter the rest of the Temple complex, that is, the Court of the Women, the Court of the Priests, etc. This mercantile activity was taking place in the only spot where Gentiles could worship.
When the Jewish religious leaders confront Jesus about His right to drive away the merchants, He appeals to His supernatural right as God the Son. How does He prove His deity? He informs them that if they destroy the Temple of His body, He will raise it up in 3 days. They misunderstand His reference to the Temple; they assume He is speaking about the physical Temple in Jerusalem. They fail to understand that He is talking about His own body. In this reference Jesus means (1) He will rise from the dead 3 days after His crucifixion and (2) He now, not the physical Temple in Jerusalem, is the place where man will meet God from now on. His Person has replaced the physical site of the Temple as the place where man meets God. John continues this theme of the inadequacy of Judaism and its structures, etc. in the following 2 chapters.
THE NECESSITY OF THE HEAVENLY BIRTH (3:1-3)
While Jesus was in Jerusalem during the Feast of Passover, many trusted Him because of the signs (miracles) He was performing. Jesus though on His part did not trust them because being God He was able to look into their hearts and evaluate their trust. While their trust was genuine, it was not the perfect kind of trust He would accept. It was a trust based purely on signs and thus could evaporate the moment the signs stopped or His claims on their lives became too demanding. “Heal me, and I will trust You. Claim to be Lord of my life, and I will want You crucified.” (In fact the same crowd that adored Him today will want Him crucified in another 3 years.) It was a trust that saw Jesus as a great man or even prophet but not as God the Son. Some of those who trusted like this might one day grow to trust Him as God the Son. Until that day Jesus was not going to commit Himself to them as He had committed Himself to His disciples.
A person with just this very kind of inadequate trust approached Jesus one night, Nicodemus, a Pharisee who was also a ruler of the Jews. Of the 6 major parties in Judaism (Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, Zealots, Sicari, and Essenes), the Pharisees were the religious fundamentalists. While the Sadducees had the Temple as their power base, the Pharisees operated in the synagogues which dotted the Roman empire. While the Sadducean priests focused on the sacrifices in the Temple, the Pharisees focused on the study of the OT. Whereas many of the Pharisees were rigid legalists who brooked no opposition to their interpretation of the OT, some like Nicodemus were open to what God wanted to say to them.
Next John remarks that he was a ruler. The statement that he was a ruler meant that he most likely was a member of the Sanhedrin, the 70 men who led Israel both politically and religiously. This is the group which will eventually condemn Jesus to death although Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea will dissent to the action. In many ways the Sanhedrin served as Israel’s supreme court.
The comment that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night might simply illustrate the custom of the rabbis (teachers of Israel) to study the Law at night. Many of them had day jobs and were thereby restricted to study at night. On the other hand, it might reflect the dangerous situation Nicodemus was facing when he visited Jesus. Jesus had aroused the hostility of the Jewish religious leaders when He cleansed the Temple. In order not to draw the attention of the Jewish religious leaders, Nicodemus might have thought it best to visit Jesus at night in secret. Most likely though the reference to night points to the spiritual darkness Nicodemus lives in. Although Nicodemus is the best man Judaism can produce, although he is the best man religion apart from Jesus can produce, he is nevertheless still in spiritual darkness. (Unfortunately there are going to be a lot of good men and woman who will not enter the kingdom of heaven.)
When Nicodemus addresses Jesus, he first calls Jesus “a rabbi” and then informs Him how impressed he is with Him. According to Nicodemus and some others of his acquaintance, Jesus must have come from God as teacher because of the signs which He has been performing. Although everything Nicodemus has said is true (God is behind Jesus’ ministry, Jesus is a great teacher), it is not enough. Jesus does not want us to limit Him to being nothing more than a great teacher. He wants us to recognize Him as no one less than God. For this reason Jesus drops a bombshell and tells him that unless he is born from above (that is, receive a heavenly birth), he will not be able to experience (“see”) the kingdom of God.
Jesus statement is significant first because He introduces it with the formula “Truly, truly, I say to you . . .” Any statement in the Fourth Gospel which begins with this formula demands our complete attention because our response to these statements will determine to a major degree our eternal destiny.
Next, by uttering this statement Jesus is striking right at the heart of the theology Jews practiced in that first century. Entering the kingdom of heaven was essentially the same thing as being saved because only those saved could enter the kingdom of heaven. They serve as synonyms to each other. The Jews would have had no problem with this. They would though have had problems with the idea of having to receive a heavenly birth in order to enter the kingdom of God. They believed that God had promised to save Abraham and all his descendants. Since they had descended physically from Abraham, they claimed that they were automatically qualified to enter the kingdom of God. (Little though did they appreciate the fact that even God said being simply descended physically from Abraham was not sufficient—see Gen. 17:10-14.) Jesus strikes at this belief. According to Him a heavenly birth in addition to an earthly birth was essential for entrance into the kingdom of heaven. [Note that the word anwqen (“anothen” pronounced a-no-then with a long “o”) means both “from above” and “again.” Translating it “again” does not necessarily mean that the second birth is from above, while translating it “from above” or “heavenly” implies a second birth since everyone naturally has already experienced an earthly birth.]
THE HOW OF THE HEAVENLY BIRTH—BY THE SPIRIT (3:4-8)
Like the Jewish religious leaders in the story of the cleansing of the Temple, Nicodemus misunderstands Jesus. He thinks that Jesus is crassly referring to the need for a second physical birth. To Nicodemus it is inconceivable for an old man like him to be able to reenter his mother’s womb and be born a second time.
Jesus explains though what type of birth He is referring to, one by the Spirit. Jesus expands upon His first statement: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (We’ll deal with what born of water means in just a moment.) According to Jesus this heavenly new birth is a product of the Holy Spirit. Flesh (man restricted to himself) cannot produce this spiritual birth. Only the Spirit of God can produce this spiritual person because while flesh can produce flesh, only the Spirit can produce spirit.
This is important. All of us desire to have the kind of life that only God can give us; however, we are determined that the life of God consist of certain things (nice home, cars, successful career, popularity, name recognition) and is to be gained only by a certain way (manipulation, force, deceit, power plays). The life of God though is essentially spiritual in nature and can be produced only by God’s Spirit. It not only comes from the Spirit but is also experienced daily by living under the leadership of the Spirit.
This heavenly birth by the Spirit puzzles Nicodemus since he does not understand how it works. Simply because Nicodemus doesn’t understand the process of spiritual birth does not mean he should reject it. (Simply because I don’t understand the way a microwave works doesn’t mean I don’t use it.) Jesus claims there are many things we don’t understand and yet accept, e.g. the movement of the wind. Jesus in verse 8 uses a play on words to illustrate His point. The word pneuma (“pneuma” sounded as new-ma since the “p” is silent) can mean either “spirit” or “wind,” while the word fwnh (“phone” sounded as pho-nay) can mean either “sound” or “voice.” Jesus means that although you do not understand where the wind comes from or where it goes does not mean you reject its reality. You know it is real because you hear the sound of it and you see its effects as the leaves rustle in the wind. In the same way although Nicodemus does not understand where the Spirit comes from or where He is going, you should still accept Him because of the effects you see He produces.
I may not understand the way the Spirit works; however, I’ve seen Him change lives like those of Karen Long. Karen should be totally dysfunctional because of her past; because of the Spirit in her life though, she not is only functional but is also experiencing to a real degree God’s life right now. The Spirit changes people who are washed-out in life into viable, dynamic sons and daughters of God.
Before we leave this section, we need to tidy up the matter of what it means to be born of water. Some of our Christian brothers point to this verse as conclusive proof that water baptism is necessary for salvation. Well, this verse does not prove that because John does not say that a person has to be born of water baptism; he says that he has to be born of water. There is quite a difference between the 2. They might mean the same, but they definitely don’t necessarily mean the same. We as well as our Christian brothers are in the area of interpretation.
In Hebrew literature the Jews many times were not content to make a statement and move onto another statement. Many times the Jews would make a statement and then emphasize it by repeating it another way. This is called “simple parallelism.” Well, Jesus seems to be using the same literary technique in verses 5 and 6.
Born of water and of the Spirit (verse 5)
Born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spiritual (verse 6).
I’ve shown the parallelism by italicizing and bold-facing the parallel clauses. “Born of water” is parallel to “born of flesh.” Anybody who has been in a labor and delivery situation appreciates the role of water in the birth of a baby. I believe this is the proper interpretation. Whatever else it does show though, it shows that verse 5 does not conclusively prove that water baptism is necessary for salvation.
THE HEAVENLY BIRTH MADE POSSIBLE BY CHRIST BEING LIFTED UP (3:9-15)
Nicodemus responds: “How can this be?” Jesus rebukes Nicodemus: “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?” With all due respect, this is getting a little embarrassing. The reason Jesus rebukes Nicodemus is that he as a teacher of the OT should have at least remembered Ezekiel 36:26, 27 which spoke of a pouring out of God’s Spirit in the last days which produced a new kind of person. (Many of the Jews including the disciples though did not understand what the OT meant until after Jesus was crucified and the Holy Spirit was given to them.)
Jesus goes on to say that He is qualified to speak these things: “We speak that which we know and bear witness of that which we have seen.” The problem is not that Jesus did not know what He was talking about. He had actually witnessed the very things He was speaking about; the problem was with Nicodemus and others like him who simply refused to accept the things Jesus was telling them. Well, if Nicodemus has trouble understanding events which occurred here on earth, he was really going to be in trouble when it came to understanding purely heavenly events.
Before communicating to Nicodemus a heavenly event, Jesus once more points to His credentials as a credible witness to Jesus: Jesus has descended from heaven. Everybody else came into existence only after they had been born here on earth. One day they will go to heaven; however, no one started out in heaven and then came to the earth, with the sole exception of Jesus. Jesus existed in heaven before He came to earth; therefore, He is qualified to speak about heavenly things.
What heavenly event has brought about this outpouring of the Spirit which produces the spiritual birth? The heavenly event Jesus refers to begins on earth but ends in heaven: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.” Jesus is pointing back to an incident in the OT in which the Israelites once more complained against God. As a punishment God sent forth serpents whose bite killed the people. When the people cried out to God, He instructed Moses to suspend a brass serpent from a pole in the middle of the camp. When the people looked up in faith to the serpent as the means of God’s salvation, they were saved. In the same way the people who look up to Jesus in faith as the means of God’s salvation will be saved.
What does Jesus’ being lifted up refer to though? Some have reduced this only to the cross event. The cross though is only part one of Jesus’ being lifted up. The first part of Jesus’ exaltation is the cross. As we shall see, the cross in many ways is described as the throne of Jesus Christ. Part 2 of Jesus’ being lifted up is His resurrection when God lifts Him up from the dead. Part 3 is His ascension when He is lifted up into heaven and God lifts Him above every created thing, even above the Holy Spirit. Only the Father remains above Jesus. It is this event which leads to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and leads to the salvation of the world.
Why does it take the exaltation of Christ to lead to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit? Remember that the word “Christ” or “Messiah” means “the Anointed One [with the Holy Spirit].” Jesus is anointed with the Holy Spirit so that He can pour it out upon His followers. Jesus’ being anointed with the Holy Spirit at the time of His baptism is stage one in His being the Messiah. He enters fully into this role only after He has ascended into heaven. It is then that He assumes fully this role and then pours out the Spirit upon all those who believe in Him. In fact the pouring out of the Spirit after His ascension confirms the fact He is the Messiah.
The result of looking up to Jesus and His being lifted up is eternal life for those who believe. By eternal life Jesus is referring to the life of God, the very life that the Holy Spirit has come to produce within you. We will experience that eternal life to the fullest only after Christ returns; however, we can experience it to a real degree right now if we continue to exercise faith in Jesus Christ.
THE HEAVENLY BIRTH ONLY BY FAITH IN JESUS (3:16-21)
Jesus now goes into fuller detail about the relationship of faith/belief and eternal life. First, what we are speaking about is the will of the Father: “For God [the Father] loved the world to such an extent that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” The sending of Jesus into the world and His being lifted up on the cross, from the grave, and into the heavens were the will of the Father. As a result, our response to Jesus is nothing less than our response to God the Father Himself. Our response to Jesus constitutes our response to God.
Also note that it is a result of the God’s love for the world. God did not send Jesus into the world to spoil our fun. We are so foolish whenever we mistake our pitiful existence apart from God as life. It is a shell of what life is truly all about. God sent Jesus into the world because He knew that if He did not do something we would face certain death. What motivated Him was His super-abounding love for mankind, not for just a portion of mankind who would one day accept Him but for all of mankind, even those who continue to spit on Him.
We do well not to lessen what it cost the Father to send Jesus into the world to die on the cross. I think the worst thing a parent can ever face is the death of a child. It’s just not supposed to be that way. I want to die before either one of my children passes away. I conducted a funeral recently in which a mother had to bury her 50-year-old son. I looked at her and said, “It’s not supposed to be this way, is it?” She nodded her head in agreement. It costs us deeply to lose a child; how much more then did it cost the Father.
Lest we misunderstand the purpose of His coming into the world, Jesus once more emphasizes the purpose of His coming: He did not come to condemn the world but to save the world (3:17). (Unfortunately most of our newer translations mistranslate the word “krinein” in this passage as “to judge” rather than as “to condemn.”) All that a person has to do to receive this life and escape this condemnation is to believe in Jesus. In fact the person who believes has already received eternal life, while the person who refuses to believe has already received the sentence of condemnation.
Jews normally believed that receiving eternal life and being condemned to eternal death occurred only at the time of judgment. While it is true that we shall stand before God in judgment, the NT also teaches that at the present time we experience in the here and now the verdict we will hear on Judgment Day. When I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, God guaranteed me then that my verdict on Judgment Day would be “righteous,” “saved,” or “accepted.” Right now I am living in light of that acceptance. The person who rejects Jesus can hear right now that on Judgment Day his verdict is going to be “condemned,” “unsaved,” or “not accepted.”
Moreover, people don’t have to wait until judgment day to begin to experience the kind of life that awaits them. The person who has believed can start experiencing the life of God because the Holy Spirit lives in him right now (God the Spirit is the One who produces that life in the Christian). The person who rejects Jesus can even now experience the guilt and condemnation he will experience fully on Judgment Day.
What constitutes the basis of the verdict? What leads God to render the verdict of “not guilty” on some and “guilty” on others? Are some going to suffer wrongly because they had no chance to hear about Christ? That is never an issue in the Bible. The issue is always how people respond to what God has revealed to them. Everybody to some degree or other has received the light of God. They may have received the light of Christ only through creation; however, they have still received it. The question is never how much light we have received but how we have responded to the amount of light given us.
The reason some receive a guilty verdict is that they refuse to come to the light. Why? They don’t want to change; their deeds are evil and therefore they don’t want to change. The reason many refuse to come to Bible study and worship on Sunday mornings is that their lifestyles contradict what is being preached and taught. They don’t want to be convicted of their God-less lifestyle. It’s not that they are bad; it’s just that their lives are not under the direction of God. It is that simple. Coming to Jesus means that I have to accept Him not only as Savior but also as Lord (see John 3:36). That means that from now I have to follow His leadership, something many refuse to do.
What leads God to pronounce a verdict of “not guilty” on others? Their positive response to the light. Even though they received as much or as little light as the others did, they nevertheless came to the light positively because they know that their deeds were produced as a result of their following the light. They don’t dread coming to church. They don’t get angry when anybody brings up Jesus. They delight when these things happen because their deeds result from their positive relationship with Jesus.
CONCLUSION
By the end of this chapter Jesus has moved to a discussion of coming to the light. It balances the beginning of the chapter which spoke of Nicodemus coming at night. Although the process is not yet complete, Nicodemus is coming out of the night into the light. By the end of the Gospel of John we know that this process was completed in Nicodemus. At the very end after Jesus had been crucified and it was dangerous to claim to be a follower of Jesus, Nicodemus along with Joseph of Arimathea stepped up and asked for permission to bury Jesus. On the surface it appeared that there was absolutely nothing to gain by claiming to be a follower of Jesus at this point; yet in spite of the danger by asking for Jesus’ body he declared himself to be Jesus’ follower. He had truly passed from darkness into light. He was going to experience that heavenly birth with the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.