Continuing a Bible study of the Gospels:
(John 3:1) There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
This was very early in Jesus's ministry. In the last chapter, we were told of His first public miracle and His first cleansing of the temple. Now John begins to tell us about Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and said to be a member of the Sanhedrin which ruled the Jews.
(2) The same came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that You do except God be with Him."
It seems that Jesus may have done other miracles besides turning water into wine as Nicodemus was aware of miracles that He had done. He told Jesus he knew He had to be from God because no one could do those things unless God was with Him. I find it noteworthy that the first person John tells us about seeking Jesus, other than His disciples, was a Pharisee, and a ruler at that. In the other Gospels, we are made to come to the belief that Pharisees were synonymous with wicked hypocrites and enemies of Jesus. But here was a Pharisee seeking the truth about Jesus, although he seems to have done it in secret at night. This proves that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is for all and was offered to all, although the rich and powerful usually find it harder to accept as we were told in Matthew 19:24.
(3) Jesus answered and said to him, "Verily, verily, I say to you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Jesus answered him by telling him that most assuredly a man had to be born again to be able to see the kingdom of God. It was not enough to just have knowledge about Jesus.
(4) Nicodemus said to 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?"
Nicodemus did not understand what Jesus meant by being born again, but he seems very sincere about learning just what He had meant. He asked how a man could be born when he was old; was he supposed to somehow enter his mother's womb to be born again?
(5) Jesus answered, "Verily, verily, I say to you, except a man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
Jesus explained that a man must be born of water and the Holy Spirit in order to enter the kingdom of God. Up to this point, Jews were not baptized, at least not until John the Baptist; only those wishing to convert to Judaism were baptized. Jesus said they, too, must be baptized or washed in water to be made clean, and they also must be baptized by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Water baptism by itself was not enough; they must also receive the Holy Spirit to be truly born again. Water baptism represented a person's desire to have their sins washed away by Jesus, and that true desire to repent and become a new person would entitle them to the gift of the Holy Spirit who would then lead them in truth. However, water baptism was not always necessary if it could not be done, as with the thief on the cross. There, Jesus washed away his sins like as said in Ezekiel 36:25, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you."
(6) "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
Jesus went on to explain that when born of the flesh as man is born by his mother in natural birth, he was only flesh. Even if he were able to be born again a second time from his mother's womb, he would still be born of flesh. However, when he is born again of the Holy Spirit, he becomes spiritual, seeking the holy things of God, and becomes a new man striving to become pure in his actions.
(7) "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' (8) The wind blows where it wills, and you hear its sound but cannot tell from where it comes and where it goes; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."
Jesus told Nicodemus not to wonder about how one was actually born again. It was not something one could physically see, as watching a baby be born. It was more like the wind that you know is there because you can feel it and see it, but you never saw where it came from or where exactly it would end up. So it was with someone born of the Spirit. You might feel and hear of the effects of it, but you can never actually see the Spirit in a person or when it came to be in the person. You cannot see that second birth just as you cannot see the birth of the wind.
I learned something fascinating as I studied the original Hebrew word "ruach." It means "wind" or "spirit," and was used many times in the Bible to mean each one almost equally. It was used in Genesis 1:2, "...And the Spirit (ruach) of God moved upon the face of the waters." It was used in Genesis 8:1, "...And God made a wind (ruach) to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided." Also in Exodus 10:13, "And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind (ruach) upon the land all that day and all that night, and when it was morning the east wind (ruach) brought the locusts." It's fascinating to think of the wind as the Spirit of God as it surely was in those last two examples.
(9) Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, "How can these things be?"
Nicodemus still didn't understand and asked Jesus how those things He spoke of could be.
(10) Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you a master of Israel and do not know these things?"
Jesus asked Nicodemus if he was a master, or learned teacher, in Israel and actually did not know these things. After all, why did he baptize converts to Judaism? Was it not to symbolize a new birth? And surely the Spirit of God was evident in the scriptures. What was there not to understand for a learned master of Israel?
(11) "Verily, verily, I say to you, We speak what We know, and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness."
Jesus and His disciples taught what they knew to be true, but it seems that learned teachers of Israel taught what they themselves did not understand. Not only did Jesus and His disciples teach, but the disciples could testify about what they had seen, the miracles Jesus did proving He was from God, as Nicodemus had said he knew He was in verse 2, yet he did not receive His testimony.
(12) "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?"
Jesus went on to ask Nicodemus how he would understand and believe a deeper and more spiritual answer when he did not even grasp and believe the earthly things he should have already understood and believed, like water baptism and a simple understanding of the spiritual nature of God.
(13) "And no man has ascended up to heaven but He who came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven."
I believe the sense here is that no one has ascended up to heaven and returned to be able to tell about those heavenly things. Only Jesus, the Son of man, came down from heaven as a son born to human parents, but was also God in heaven. "Was God in heaven" is not exactly accurate. When you really look at the words of Jesus, He said, "who is in heaven," present tense. The omnipresent God was at that moment in heaven and in bodily form there on earth in the presence of Nicodemus. Jesus was the only one who could talk firsthand about heavenly things.
(14) "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, (15) That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."
Jesus referred Nicodemus to the scriptures which in Numbers 21:8-9, told of how Moses lifted up the brass serpent on a pole and whoever had been bitten by a fiery serpent could look up to the brass serpent and live. He said it was to be in the same way of Him, that He, the Son of man, was to be lifted up on the cross, and whoever looked to Him and believed in Him would not perish in their fiery sin but would have eternal life.
I never quite understood why a brass serpent so like an idol of sorts could be symbolic of Jesus. However, for the first time, I see that just as the brass serpent was used as a symbol of the people's sin and their righteous punishment, so the perfect Jesus Christ on the cross was made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13) taking on all our sins and suffering what should have been our punishment for our sins. On the cross Jesus was a curse, a symbol of our sins and punishment. When we look to Jesus on the cross and believe and accept what He did for us, we are saved from eternal death, just as the people were saved from death when they looked to the brass serpent. Of course, there was no real power in the brass serpent itself, but God gave the people a way to be saved by using it. The perfect Jesus was not worthy of His punishment and in human reality, just because He suffered and died unjustly does not mean we should be saved. However, God used Jesus on the cross and Jesus willingly allowed Himself to take on all our sin, so that we could be saved. But we have to look to Him. It's not automatic just as making the brass serpent was not an automatic cure. The people had to look up to it accepting the fact that that was their only way of being saved. Looking up to Jesus is our only way of being saved!
(16) "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."
Jesus told Nicodemus that it was because God loved His children in the world so much that He gave them a way to be saved from their sin and death. He gave them His only begotten Son, a term for the nearest and dearest possible bond among men. There is no more deeper bond; God gave of Himself to save the world. Whoever believed in Jesus, Son of Man and God on earth, would not die but would have everlasting life.
(17) "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved."
Although the world did deserve to be condemned, that was not the reason God sent Jesus. He sent Him to provide a way that the world might be saved through Him. People of the world were unable to save themselves through the law, for all fell short (Romans 3:23), so because God loved His creation so much, He sent them a way to be saved.
(18) "He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
God did not send Jesus to condemn and punish those who did not believe in Him. They were already condemned because of their sin! They just remain condemned if they do not believe in and accept Jesus.
(19) "And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil."
Jesus explained when the condemnation came. God's light had come into the world through His word and the prophets and even in the consciences of man that God gave them, but men loved darkness rather than the light because they wished to continue in their evil ways. Satan may tempt man, but man himself decides whether or not he enjoys his sin.
(20) "For everyone who does evil hates the light, nor comes to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed."
Those who do evil do not like the light; they don't want to come near it and have their evil deeds exposed.
(21) "But he who does truth comes to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they were done in God."
However, the one who obeys the truth and does rightly has no fear of the light. In fact, he loves the light and truth and wants to learn more. He searches for truth and light so that he knows his actions are right.
(22) After these things came Jesus and His disciples into the land of Judea and there He tarried with them and baptized.
Then Jesus and His disciples went into the land of Judea and stayed a while. Jesus was probably still in Jerusalem (which is in Judea) when he dialogued with Nicodemus. He and His disciples now went out of Jerusalem into the country of Judea. His disciples under Jesus's direction baptized people. John 4:2 later tells us that Jesus Himself did not do actual baptisms, but rather His disciples did the baptizing.
(23) And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim because there was much water there, and they came and were baptized. (24) For John was not yet cast into prison.
John the Baptist was also still baptizing even though Jesus and His disciples were, in an area said to have much water. He had not yet been cast into prison so he continued to do the work he had been sent to do. People indeed did come to be baptized by him and by Jesus and His disciples.
(25) Then there arose a question between John's disciples and the Jews about purifying.
A discussion arose between the disciples of John and other Jews about purification. It seems by what follows that they discussed who should be doing the baptizing as the disciples may have felt some resentment that it was being taken from them.
(26) And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, He who was with you beyond Jordan, to whom you bore witness, behold, the same baptizes and all come to Him."
John's disciples came to him to tell him that Jesus, the One he had testified of as being the Messiah, was also baptizing and it seemed all the people were going to Him.
(27) John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven."
John answered that a man could not receive anything from heaven by his own will, only if it was given to him by God. If Jesus was now baptizing, then it was by God that He should do so, and seeing it was God's will, they should be glad and not envious.
(28) "You yourselves bear me witness that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him.'"
John went on to tell his disciples that they had heard him tell them in the past that he was not Christ, but he had been sent before Him.
(29) "He who has the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice; therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled."
John went on to explain and compared himself to the friend of a bridegroom who stood with the bridegroom. It was only the bridegroom who got the bride, but his friend who stood with him rejoiced greatly for his friend. In that way, John rejoiced because his purpose had been fulfilled. He came to prepare the way for Jesus and he had done that, and now Jesus began His ministry. That was a great joy to John.
(30) "He must increase, but I decrease."
It was time for Jesus to begin His ministry and make His doctrine grow and spread to all people, and as John had fulfilled his purpose of preparing the way for Jesus, it was time for him to decrease his teaching and baptizing.
(31) "He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all."
John told his disciples that because Jesus came from above in heaven He was foremost and above all, even him. Although John did prophesy about things he may not have had direct earthly knowledge of, he modestly admitted most of what he could speak of were earthly things that he knew about, but Jesus would teach with firsthand knowledge from heaven.
(32) "And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies, and no man receives His testimony."
The old commentators I read believed this meant that no man (or very few) received Jesus's testimony and teaching. In this context, I see it differently. I believe it means that Jesus was able to testify of all that He knew of in heaven, and no other man on earth could receive a testimony such as His, only He who had Himself lived it. Therefore, Jesus had the foremost authority to testify about His own doctrine.
(33) "He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true."
Jesus, the One who received His testimony by living it in heaven proves that God is true! That's the way I understand it. But if taken the way many commentators see it, then this was John saying that he was one who had received Jesus's testimony and could certify that God was true.
(34) "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit sparingly."
Jesus, whom God sent to save the world, actually spoke the words of God, for He was God and He was the Word, and God would not limit the amount of His Spirit that He gave this Son of man, so although Jesus was fully man, He was fully God.
(35) "The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand."
Father God in heaven loved His Son on earth and had given all things of heaven and authority over all things to Him.
(36) "He who believes on the Son has everlasting life and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."
Anyone who believes in the Son of God will have everlasting life, but those who do not believe in Him will perish and suffer the wrath of God that already abides on him because of his sin. It's not that God actively goes forth and punishes those who don't believe in Him, although He could, but every one of us have had the wrath of God already on us because of our sins, and it is only through Jesus and His atonement that we may have His wrath removed from us. Some commentators believe that at some point in these last verses, it ceased to be the words of John the Baptist, and were the words of John the evangelist, the author of this Gospel.
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