In John 3 Nicodemus, the Pharisee, found that all his own religiousness was totally inadequate to take him into the blessing he was hoping to reach by his merits. "Ye must be born again" was a sudden deathblow to every such hope. It has been well said that one of the most religious men, belonging to the most religious sect in the most religious city in the world, could not gain a title to glory by his own goodness.
In John 4 the best of blessings—"living water"—is held out to a poor guilty woman just for the asking.
In John 5 the friendless man at the Pool of Bethesda, too weak to secure by his own efforts the healing he longed for, got all he wanted when Jesus came on the scene.
What does all this teach us? Why, just this, that if a man's own goodness cannot take him into the blessing, neither his badness nor his weakness, or both put together, can keep him out if Christ is trusted.
George Cutting