(John 3)
Nay more than this: man as he is can never be improved so as to be trusted by God. His affections may be stirred, his intelligence informed, his conscience convicted; but still God cannot trust him. Thus we have read that “many believed in His name when they saw the miracles that He did; but Jesus did not commit Himself unto them.” Man in this way was putting forth his best; he was moved by the things that Jesus did; but still the Lord could not trust him. For in the Kingdom there is to be none of this distrust of man; but the Lord must have in His people then the joy and confidence of well-tried allegiance. But in man himself there is none of this trustworthiness: he must therefore be born again.
The need of the new birth He here preaches to Nicodemus. But having stated this requisition, the Lord graciously discloses to Nicodemus the need of this new life. He preaches to him redemption through the sufferings of the Son of man as its means, and the love of God as its rich and blessed source. The word of salvation is the seed of the new needed life, the word which by the gospel is preached to as (1 Peter 1:2525But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:25)). This the Lord seeks to sow in Nicodemus himself, to sow it (where it ever must be sown, if unto fruit) in his conscience. For Nicodemus had come to the Lord by night as though his deeds could not bear the light and the Lord, aiming as it would seem to reach his conscience, just on their parting says, “Every one that doeth sin hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.”
Thus our Lord here teaches the need of the new birth through the word of salvation. Without it man cannot be trusted of God. And without it the kingdom of God could not be sure and eternal. What association had the elder brother with that which was the characteristic joy of the father’s house? None! He never had so much as a kid to make merry with his friends. None but a returned prodigal could draw forth the ring, the best robe, and the fatted calf. And so the Kingdom is such a kingdom as none but the redeemed can have any place in it or taste its joys. There is not a just one in it from one end to the other: all are justified. Every one, everything in it is reconciled by blood. (Col.1:20-22.)
J. G. B.