(Suggested Reading: John 3)
Born of Water and of the Spirit
Nicodemus is a beautiful illustration of James 4:88Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. (James 4:8) "draw near to God and He will draw near to you." The starting point for anyone ignorant of God is God Himself. In Heb. 11:66But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6) Paul says "he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." I am sure that Nicodemus is credited with diligently seeking God in spite of his poor start. If you do not know what his reward was I will tell you. It was God Himself. Go back to Abraham's days and you will see what I mean. God had said to him "fear not, Abram, I am your shield and your exceedingly great reward." But he missed the point for he replied "what will you give me?" Give him! What could God give any man more than Himself? So with Nicodemus. By his actions, rather than his words, he placed a higher value on man's approval than on God's. In John 19:3939And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. (John 19:39) he is called the man "who at first came to Jesus by night." In spite of that handicap he draws near God in this chapter, and what a rich reward he gets.
The Heart of Man Is Waste and Darkness
There is more than one explanation of why Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. But for the present let us consider a reason which takes us back to the old creation. The earth had once been fair, coming from the hand of God. Then it became without form and void, with darkness on the face of the deep. God began a remedial work to restore it. So with man, dust of the earth. God did not call their name Adam i.e. earth, in vain. Cradled in the earth are the seas, as the heart is in man. But man's heart is in the same darkness that the Spirit of God found on the face of the deep. With him too a new creation has become necessary. But Nicodemus has come to the same God who worked of old in creation and who is about to work a new creation in him. "If any man is in Christ (there is) a new creation; old things have passed away, behold all things have become new" 2 Cor. 5:1717Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17).
God Brings Light Into Our Darkened Hearts
Now the great lesson of the old creation which applies equally to the new is that God's works begin with light Gen. 1:33And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (Genesis 1:3) and end with blessing Gen. 1:2828And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:28). Then too God began to work where the need was the ruin, the darkness, and the deep and the energy of His work was the Holy Spirit. Was ever need greater than that of man who is all darkness or specifically of the well educated religious man who came to Jesus by night? The Lord opened his understanding of the great principle of the new creation with these words "unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." His works in the old creation were also by water and the Spirit Gen. 1:22And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:2). Of course we do not know where, on the face of the deep, the Spirit of God began His work in the old creation. "The wind blows where it will and you hear its sound but can't tell where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" John 3:88The 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. (John 3:8). A good example of this is when the Spirit said to Philip "approach and accompany this chariot" Acts 8:2929Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. (Acts 8:29). God does not have to tell us why one man is specially chosen for blessing any more than you have to explain why you chose your wife. The Spirit is sovereign in His actions and not accountable to man.
In the Genesis record of creation God said "let there be light" as soon as the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters. The new creation starts the same way, with the light of God shining into our darkened hearts and giving understanding to the simple. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" 2 Cor. 4:66For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6). The face of Jesus Christ is in contrast to the face of the deep in the old creation. We are taken out of Adam and the hidden works of darkness to behold the face of Jesus Christ. The light first shines inside to dispel the darkness of our hearts, but once this is done we gaze at the light itself an object outside ourselves. We behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord see 2 Cor. 3:1818But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18). Well, Nicodemus came to the One who alone could say "he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the light of life" John 8:1212Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (John 8:12). That is the divine order light first, then life. We find light in the old creation on the first day, life on the last two days. You cannot have life without light first in nature. But here the comparison ends.
Man's Barriers Against the Light of God
In nature, darkness is dispelled by light. With man the moral darkness was so great that it comprehended not Christ as the Great Light. That is why God sent John the Baptist to tell man that the Great Light was shining. When Nicodemus comes to the Great Light he is not instructed in the way of life first. He is not ready for that. In Genesis God told us about the ruin before He said "let there be light" just as an evangelist must convict men of sin before he preaches the cross as the answer. So Nicodemus must first understand that, like all men, he is not only in darkness but has a nature opposed to God. Unless he is born again he cannot receive the life God would give him. The Lord tells Nicodemus that the natural man can neither see the kingdom of God nor enter it. These foundation truths are unfolded later in the blind man of John 9 a figure of the man who can't see and the impotent man of John 5 a figure of the man who can't enter.
How Nicodemus illustrates the first barrier! He had not seen Jesus as the Son of God for he called Him "Rabbi." All that he stood for as a natural man made him shun coming to "the carpenter's son" in the day time. He had a reputation in the religious world. Should he jeopardize this by being seen with Christ? Nicodemus has much company. Men's names may change but not their nature. Such then was the humiliation of Jesus the Word who was made flesh that His own creature could have such thoughts of Him. "He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief... He was despised and we esteemed Him not" Isa. 53:33He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3).
Light Is for the Heart, Not the Mind
Yet the words of this humbled Savior gave life which the law could not. The law gave light but had to stop there. "By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified" Gal. 2:1616Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. (Galatians 2:16). Here was a man who taught a nation under law which once said "all that the Lord has said will we do and be obedient" Ex. 24:77And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. (Exodus 24:7) not knowing their hearts. What hope for the nation when its teacher had abundantly proved by his words and actions that "the world by wisdom knew not God" 1 Cor. 1:2121For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. (1 Corinthians 1:21). Neither education nor religion can enlighten you in spiritual things. The wise and prudent must become babes to enter into God's kingdom. It is not your mind that needs light it is your heart your affections. Nicodemus looked to Jesus for light, but only for his mind. He called Him a teacher. But the Lord does not teach flesh. He reminds him instead that he Nicodemus is the teacher of Israel and yet did not know these things. This is because they are spiritually discerned. You cannot learn them until you are in communion with God, and you cannot be in communion until you are born again. Because he is fallen, man needs not law but grace. Under grace the heart is attracted to Christ. But the teacher of the law could not understand grace. The only nature he understood was the one he was born with the flesh the old man. The Lord's words about the need of the new birth only made him marvel and exclaim "how can these things be?" as before he had said "how can a man be born when he is old?”
The New Birth Calls for the Death of Man in the Flesh
Well, the Lord Jesus knew that Nicodemus could not understand the nature of the new birth and so He reminds him of something he did understand. As a man of law He points him to Moses the law giver and his serpent of brass. The story of the brazen serpent showed man to be incurably bad. There was nothing for him but death. The first man's beginning was listening to the serpent in the Garden of Eden; his end is the cross "the serpent lifted up" not in type but reality. That is why the brazen serpent is introduced here to remind us of our beginning and end in the first Adam. The serpent is a picture of sin itself, and its author, Satan, for it takes us back to the garden in Eden, not merely the serpent lifted up in the wilderness. That was our beginning when our first parents listened to what came out of the serpent's mouth instead of every word that came out of God's mouth by which man alone should live. What came out of the serpent's mouth proved to be the sting of death. The first Adam was bitten by the serpent's poisonous fangs and so by one man's disobedience many became sinners. The venom of sin has stung the whole human race and death is the result. "The wages of sin is death" Rom. 6:2323For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23).
Christ assumed those wages for us when He was lifted up on the cross. During those three hours of darkness He was made sin by God Himself this is what the serpent of brass spoke of. The serpent of brass had never stung anyone just as Christ had never sinned. But it was a figure of sin itself. Even so on the cross the sinless One, the Lord Jesus Christ, was made sin. Then the Scripture was fulfilled "and it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day" Amos 8:99And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day: (Amos 8:9). And so there was darkness over all the land from the time appointed to the ninth hour Matt. 27:4545Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. (Matthew 27:45). Darkness was His portion that light might be ours.
The cross, which ends the first Adam, is also our beginning in the last Adam. There I am put an end to crucified with Christ as a man in Adam, but believing I receive a new life in God's Son. Man failed under law but Christ fulfilled it, and made it honorable, even to the sentence "cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree" Gal. 3:1313Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: (Galatians 3:13). So God now has a new standard of righteousness Christ. "Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" Rom. 10:44For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. (Romans 10:4). The Bible calls the law "the ministry of death" 2 Cor. 3:77But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: (2 Corinthians 3:7) the gospel "the ministry of righteousness" 2 Cor. 3:99For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. (2 Corinthians 3:9).
Man's Choice Now—the Light or the Darkness
Our next subject is man's responsibility to accept God's offer of "so great salvation." In his gospel John reveals the nature of God to us a nature which he states in his epistles to be light and love. His gospel starts with light, but because we are all darkness he brings in the subject of grace John 1:16, 1716And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. 17For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. (John 1:16‑17) to meet our need and then truth in the figure of the brazen serpent. The light of the law which Moses gave condemned us; the light of the gospel justifies and frees us. Now God can reveal the other side of His nature love. The first time love is found in John's gospel is where He so loves the world as to give His only begotten Son John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16). This love could not be unfolded until men understood how God gave Him not only the greatness of the gift of God's Son but the measure of it the cross, in the figure of the brazen serpent in the previous two verses. So now there is not only a full revelation of what God is as light and love but a way back to the God whose majesty was offended by our sins.
The immediate result is that man becomes responsible to obey the gospel and in the remainder of John 3 men are consequently divided into two classes those who believe and those who believe not. It was undoubtedly so when the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness some believed, others believed not and perished. That is why the Lord, in revealing life to man out of His death takes the title of Son of Man which in Scripture means the rejected One here but the Lord of the world to come. It is as Son of Man He will judge His enemies. Then God will once more divide between the light and the darkness as He did at the beginning. Outer darkness will be the portion of His enemies the inheritance of the saints in light will be ours.
Our portion is the fruit of grace. For it is sobering to see, in the story of the brazen serpent, the condemnation of the total man— man in the flesh. There is no difference between one man and another for all have sinned. The brazen serpent tells us that all men experience death because all have sinned. Just as Nicodemus gives us in a figure the sentence of death on man, Lazarus completes the figure with the execution of the sentence. In the intervening chapters, i.e. from the brazen serpent in John 3 to the grave of Lazarus in John 11 The Lord is acting in the full outshining of divine love to man so that he might pass out of death into life.
A Review of God's Ways in Three Beginnings and Endings
John gives us three beginnings and endings at the opening of his gospel. The Passover is mentioned in 2:23 the brazen serpent in 3:14 and the death and resurrection of Christ in 2:18-22. These three events span the whole history of Israel and each one has a beginning and end: The Passover This was the end of Israel's slavery in Egypt and the beginning of their journey to the Promised Land. In the Passover a spotless lamb was sacrificed a lamb which looked on to Christ. John the Baptist reminded them that the Lamb was present when he cried "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" John 1:2929The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29). After the Lamb had gone on high Paul wrote "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us" 1 Cor. 5:77Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: (1 Corinthians 5:7).
The Brazen Serpent: In the desert and at the moral ending of their desert journey at that the children of Israel were bitten by poisonous snakes. God instructed Moses to make a serpent of brass and erect it on a pole. Those who had been bitten would not die if they looked at the serpent of brass. That look had saving power because it meant trust in God believing His message "Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth" Isa. 45:2222Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:22). What did the people see when they looked? Why a serpent of brass which reminded them of man's beginning listening to the venomous voice of the serpent in the garden of Eden. What could be more in contrast than their beginning in Egypt when they looked at a spotless Passover lamb and their moral end in the desert when they looked at a serpent of brass. Surely in the brazen serpent we see the utter condemnation of man in the flesh. Why was Nicodemus chosen to receive this teaching from the Lord? Because as man went he was one of the best. If the best of men stand condemned at the cross what of the rest of us? At the end of John's gospel we find Nicodemus at the cross where he finally understands the meaning of the Lord's words "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.”
c. The Temple Destroyed and Raised Again: The temple was erected in the Promised Land but the Lord Himself was the Temple. "In Him all the fullness (of the Godhead) was pleased to dwell" Col. 1:1919For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; (Colossians 1:19). He Himself is the beginning "that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life" 1 John 1:11That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (1 John 1:1). Then the time came when He said "the things concerning Me have an end" Luke 22:3737For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end. (Luke 22:37). In the Revelation He brings these two things together "I am...the beginning and the ending saith the Lord" Rev. 1:88I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. (Revelation 1:8). In the beginning Jesus is the Passover Lamb in the end He is the brazen serpent. The Passover lamb had to be perfect for it was a figure of Jesus who is perfect. Then that Lamb is made sin on the cross the serpent lifted up. Now we must return to the Passover to complete the chain of God's salvation. The Lamb's blood is shed, for without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sins.
What wisdom we find in the way Scripture is written. Wedged between the Passover 2:23, and the brazen serpent 3:14, the Lord tells Nicodemus that a man must be born again or he cannot see or enter the kingdom of God. In other words because the only way to get the new birth is through Christ dying for our sins, this message is bracketed between the mention of the Passover and the brazen serpent. Once we are born again we can enjoy God's nature. What is God's nature? John tells us it is light and love see 1 John 1:55This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. (1 John 1:5) and 1 John 4:88He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:8). His gospel agrees with that teaching. In John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16) God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Because we have believed on the Son in John 3:2121But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John 3:21) we come to the light that our deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God.
The Revealed Father's Heart
Alas that man does not hunger and thirst after such righteousness! We can only say "what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid" Rom. 3:3,43For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? 4God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged. (Romans 3:3‑4). May we who know Him act as obedient children not fashioning ourselves according to our former lusts in our ignorance 1 Peter 1:1414As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: (1 Peter 1:14) but abiding in the knowledge of our Father's unclouded love, await the assembling shout that will take us all to glory. There in our Father's house of love and light and song we shall see the One who spoke not of the earth but who, coming from heaven was above all, and attracted our hearts to that bright glory. Gazing on His face we shall see our Father whom He so perfectly made known to us here. From the first tender movement of our hearts to the Lord Jesus until the wilderness ceased, we will remember that He was our Father. Even the little children know the Father 1 John 2:1313I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father. (1 John 2:13). And how the Father has cherished us with a love which found expression in these words to an earthly people and how much more to a heavenly one "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after Me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown" Jer. 2:22Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. (Jeremiah 2:2). Yes, it was in the wilderness that the brazen serpent was lifted up that the Father gave the Darling of His bosom for such as us. Even when we are in the glory, God will never let us forget that. It was in this world and at the cross that the Father's heart was brought to light and our hearts won. It is the revelation of the divine bosom at the cross that will ever draw forth praise, worship, and adoration to our Father.
The knowledge of God and the love of the Father is something that grows with the new life God has implanted. Truly everything starts when we are born with water and the Spirit. But the work of the Spirit does not stop there. In John 4 we find water again this water scene being at a well. But we propose to by pass this for a time to consider two other water scenes both at pools of water.