"Ye must be born again." What makes that must? Men's need. "The Son of man must be lifted up." What makes that must? Our need of God.
Well, you think this is a strange thing to think of—our need of God. Ah, there is a strange truth that comes out here, which is often overlooked by the preachers of the Gospel:
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
There are two things there—perish, and eternal life. What led to that lifting up of the Son of man? What is the source? It is a great thing to trace things back to their source; especially in this day when all is so shallow and artificial—surface work. The nature of God. You view that awful scene of the Son of Man being lifted up; "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness;" of what does it tell? What is its source, its origin?
"For God so loved."
The love of God has found a way of meeting man's need, as well as meeting His own. God looked down from heaven upon the earth in the love of compassion; and it moved His heart, and if I may speak in that familiar way, He says, as it were:
"O, I should like to save that sinner, but there are his sins; I can not pass them over." God must have satisfaction for sin.
When God saves and blesses me (or any other poor sinner), it is because He has had satisfaction as to my sins. Where do we find satisfaction as to those sins? He found it in judging sin. His nature required that He judge sin according to His nature; and that is what He did in Christ. God had such a satisfaction for my sins; and He sees such worth in the cross of His Son, that the message of forgiveness—and a better word, still, is justification—is sent out world wide from Calvary. O, what a wonderful work, the work of Christ on the cross—"so must the Son of Man be lifted up."
One thinks some time of what will be the joy of heaven when we are there, and we look into that Saviour's face and know how God loved Him. Now how God gave Him up for us, and made Him to be a sin offering. Ah, the joy and joys of heaven will be various, but it will ever be Christ, in some way.
"So must the Son of man be lifted up." He came down from heaven; and He manifested the power of God in healing all manner of diseases.
But He had not made atonement for sin. And if He knew from day to day the bitterness of the end, He ever knew what was before Him in the cross. The judgment of God against sin and sins, was what was before Him that He would have to meet it.
We get on certain occasions in His life of ministry, that dark cross coming to mind. And, O, how precious the cross of Christ makes Christ to those who know Him as their Saviour; when we look up to His face and bless Him, we say:
"Ah, Lord, it was Thy atoning death upon the cross that met the musts of God." For man and the world, increasing light is given as to who and what God is in His nature; and man has to do with Him.
Suppose that the Lord Jesus had gone to heaven after He had been on the cross only three hours; at the end of that wondrous life. Do you know what would have been the result? The door would have closed when He went in. What! after all that wondrous life and service? Yes—"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)). O, how well the Lord Jesus knew that! And so, after those first three hours are past—and they are passed in communion with God—there are three hours in communion with God; after which He finds Himself forsaken of God—for what? Sin? Ah, He was bearing sin. And at the end—after three long hours—and they were days and nights to His soul:
"I cry in the daytime, and Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent." But at last the spell is broken, and He is back in communion with God. What has He done? He has made propitiation to God for sin and sins.
Another wonderful thing it will be to be in heaven, in all His holiness and enjoying God in His holiness; and the holiness of His love, the holiness of God, judges, and does not pass over, sin.
I was struck with a passage of Scripture just recently:
What a truth is there—God's presence and the reverence of His truth. There will be no levity in heaven—it will be all deep, solid joy in heaven. And there will not be any levity in hell, either.
May the Lord bless John 3 to us; help us to think of those three persons which we have spoken of—Nicodemus, John the Baptist, and the Lord Jesus.
At the close John the Baptist says:
"A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven."... "He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth."
What a wonderful thing it is that One has come down from heaven to let us know what is necessary on our part, and necessary on the part of God, in order that we may enter in.
"No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven."
In heaven and on earth—the same one—"the Son of Man which is in heaven." And He has told us heavenly things. And what are those heavenly things? Simply:
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see, or enter, the kingdom of God." That is a heavenly thing.
What a Saviour God has found for us! What a Saviour God saved people with, from their sins! What a wonderful work, and wonderfully precious, too.
The Lord teach the speaker and the hearers to value more and more the truth of John 3—those musts.
(Concluded)