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.

John 3:1-3

Explanation

In this text a man named Nicodemus has an encounter with Jesus. We learn a few things about him right away.

First we learn that he was a pharisee. For most people that are familiar at all with the New Testament, the term pharisee is a negative word because of their role in the life of Jesus in the Gospels. The term has come to be synonymous with hypocrite for many people. Pharisees were typically upper middle class people in Jesus time who were highly concerned with being ceremonially and externally pure. They were puritanical in that sense. They memorized and strictly adhered to the law, and even added to the law their own codes of interpretation and behavior to strive to keep the law purely.

Secondly we learned that Nicodemus was “a ruler of the Jews”. This meant that he was a part of the San Hedrin. This was the ruling body of the Jews that made decisions in regard to religious law. They could only appeal to Rome when it came to the judicial, like capital punishment, but were well known and possessed some power. 

So this was a person of some prestige and authority. Nicodemus knew people. He was connected. This might be why he “came to Jesus by night”. The people that he associated with certainly had a position on Jesus, and it wasn’t good. They did not like Jesus, and certainly did not accept Him. 

This caused a problem for Nicodemus. Why? He trusted His own eyes. The people He associated with claimed to be people of God, yet they rejected Jesus. But Nicodemus knew that Jesus had to be someone who came from God, and he gave the reason.

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.

A couple of questions about that statement should be asked. First, Did Jesus come from God? Certainly, He did. Second, could Jesus do miracles merely because God was with Him? No. It is not enough to say and believe only that God was with Jesus. God was with Moses, and that is why Moses could be seen as parting the Red Sea. God was with Elijah, and that was why Elijah was seen as calling fire from heaven. Though Jesus came with the Fathers authority, He didn’t do miracles because he was with God, and was from God. He was doing miracles because He is God.

Nicodemus may have thought that He made some huge admission in stating that He recognized that Jesus was from God, but His position did not go far enough for Him to be saved. This is why Jesus began to teach Him about salvation using three different illustrations, the first being “birth”. Jesus told Nicodemus that salvation is necessary. Jesus described salvation as being “born again”.

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.

There are people that will see the kingdom of God after they die, and people who will not. What Jesus tells Nicodemus, almost abruptly at first glance, is that the only way to see the kingdom of God is to be “born again”. 

Application

Salvation cannot happen when we wrongly identify Jesus as a “good teacher” or merely “from God”. Salvation must happen by a miraculous transformation brought about by the Lord in what He calls being “born again”. As we will see in this passage, turning to Jesus knowing that He is Christ by faith as the only hope for salvation through forgiveness of sins is what it takes to be born again. There has to be a transformation brought about by the Holy Spirit that only He can do. 

Response

Father, thank you so much for sending Your Son, Jesus to not only provide salvation through His life, death, burial, and resurrection, but to also teach us about how we can receive that salvation that has been offered. Thank you for Your Son. Amen.