All Biblical references in the following post are from the King James Version using a tool from Blue Letter Bible. Scriptures can be viewed within the post by hovering the mouse cursor over the highlighted Bible references. Any other significant references are available at the bottom of the post, with their in-text citations marked by a number in brackets (e.g. [1]).
“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:3
In the series of blog posts focusing on Salvation that I recently finished, I covered many aspects of the Biblical process. In that series, I went over a few of the more complex aspects of the process of Salvation as outlined in Ephesians 2:8-9. Taking all four posts together, it is both lengthy and contains a lot of information to process. With that in mind, I would like to visit Salvation again for this month’s “educational” post. My goal is not to keep dwelling on the same drawn-out subject, rather I would like to readdress the issue from a more simplistic point of view, focusing on John 3:1-21. This post will analyze the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus while examining the context of what Jesus Himself taught about Salvation.
To begin, let us look at the context surrounding this conversation. The first two verses give us a lot of contextual information. John 3:1 tells us that Nicodemus was a Jewish leader and a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a strict group of leaders among the Jews of Jesus’ day. They strictly observed the Law of Moses (according to their interpretation), along with many other traditions, rituals, and rules that they deemed necessary parts of the religion. John 3:2 says that Nicodemus, this important religious leader came to Jesus at night. This implies that he did not want the meeting to be public, likely because the Pharisees hated Jesus. Nicodemus probably wanted to avoid being seen with Him to protect his leadership position.
While meeting with Jesus secretly, Nicodemus opened by admitting that he knew Jesus was (at the very least) a teacher sent by God. He used the term Rabbi, a term for a respected teacher among Jews. Jesus’ reply was a statement that many Christians today take for granted. He told Nicodemus that the only way to see the Kingdom of God was to be born again. With this seemingly simple statement, Jesus came out swinging. He did not greet Nicodemus back. Instead, He cut through the pleasantries and got to the heart of what He knew Nicodemus needed to understand. Jesus told Nicodemus that it is necessary to be “born again” to see the Kingdom of God. What Jesus meant by this was that, because of sin, people cannot be saved from their condemnation and cannot enter eternity with God unless they are spiritually reborn. This phrase may not be too surprising for people today, because we have heard it in churches and from other people who quote the Bible. For Nicodemus, the idea of being “born again” was completely unheard of. As a Pharisee, his attachment to the strict physical adherence to the Law of Moses and the various rules and rituals they associated with it made it hard for him to understand that Jesus was making a purely spiritual statement. Nicodemus demonstrated this confusion when he asked Jesus how he could re-enter his mother’s womb. This reveals the flaw in both the Judaism of Jesus’ time and the modern day. The Jewish religion seems to focus so much on the following of rules that they neglect the fact that God does not want rule-followers, He wants the hearts, souls, and minds of people.
Born again in this passage could also be understood to mean “born from above.” The key word in this Greek phrase is the word anothen, which is translated as “again,” but can also be understood to mean “from above. ” After Nicodemus questions Jesus about His meaning, Jesus adds in John 3:5 that a person must be born “of water and of the Spirit.” This is both a restatement of the idea of being born again and a clarifying statement. Some people confuse this verse to mean that it is necessary to be baptised in water to receive salvation. This is a doctrine in some Christian denominations, but this verse simply is not saying that. As Ephesians 2:8-9 says, salvation comes by the grace of God through faith, not through any physical action or work of man. In this phrase, Jesus is speaking of birth by water and Spirit together, as a singular event. This would have been somewhat familiar to Jews, as water was often seen relating to purification (See where Ezekiel 36:25-26 refers to the cleansing of Israel).
After this initial part of the conversation, Jesus makes a statement in John 3:13 that seems to contradict Scripture. We know that Jesus is God’s Word made flesh- God Himself in human form (John 1:1). This means that the written Word of God, which in its entirety points to Christ, cannot contradict itself. However, that does not mean that Scripture does not require some deep thought and explanation at times. In verse 13, Jesus tells Nicodemus that no man has ascended into Heaven except the Son of Man who came from Heaven (meaning Jesus Himself). This can seem wrong to those well versed in the Bible, considering that Enoch was taken into Heaven without dying (Hebrews 11:5), and so was Elijah (2 Kings 2:11). Now I do not want to get too deep into the weeds of speculation, but two explanations could adequately explain Jesus’ statement. The simplest explanation is that Jesus was saying that no man can actively ascend and descend from heaven by their own will. The Greek grammar in John 3:13 can be taken in the active sense, lending some plausibility to this explanation. The main question that arises is whether nuance and grammar are sufficient for translation.
The other explanation of this passage involves the discussion of whether a place like Sheol or Abraham’s bosom existed before Christ’s death and resurrection. I am not going to fully address what happens immediately after death in this post, as that is a lengthy study of its own. But if we suppose that before Christ changed everything with His resurrection, that all the dead did go to a “place of the dead,” then that could also explain John 3:13. This is because Jesus is referring in verse 13 to Heaven, meaning where God the Father is (sometimes referred to as the Heaven of Heavens in some theologies). If Jesus is saying that no man has ascended to where God is, it stands to reason that Enoch and Elijah may have been taken to Abraham’s Bosom (referenced by Jesus in Luke 16:19-31). This would mean they were taken into “the heavens” or the first Heaven (meaning the atmosphere) before being taken to Abraham’s Bosom, the place for the righteous in Sheol (Hades in Greek), the resting place of the dead. I am going to leave that discussion here, because my point here is not to discuss the reality of a “place of the dead.” My point is simply to show that Jesus was not lying or mistaken in His statement that no man has ascended to Heaven except Himself.
Moving on, Jesus makes the point in John 3:14-20 that it is only through Him that one can be born again. He puts a period on His already dramatic statement to Nicodemus by showing that He is the only way to the Father. Verse 14 is a reference to the story of Numbers 21:1-9, which Jesus uses to show that all who would be saved must look upon Him and believe. After this, Jesus speaks the foundational principle of understanding Salvation: John 3:16-17. Here Jesus is referring to His place as our substitute in punishment, offering salvation from the eternal, spiritual death that would occur due to sin (Romans 3:23, Romans 5:12-16, Isaiah 52:13-53:12). For a deeper look at Salvation, please read my previous 4 posts in my “Understanding Salvation” series. The most important thing to understand here is that true belief in Jesus is required; we must be fully persuaded to entrust ourselves to Him for our salvation. Jesus wanted Nicodemus to understand the purpose of His ministry, which was to offer salvation to those who believe in Him, not to judge all those He encountered. The judgment will come at the end of time (Matthew 25:31-46), and Jesus is the only way to avoid it.
Jesus closes out this passage by saying that those who do evil choose to be left in the darkness. Those who believe Him and come to the light will be evident in their following of truth (John 3:21). Because Jesus is the truth (John 14:6), this evidence is found in those who follow Jesus’ commandments. What are the commandments that Jesus expects us to follow? Is it a long list of demands, rules, and rituals like Nicodemus and the Pharisees demanded? No, they are simple to understand as written in Matthew 22:36-40. Our sinful nature as humans makes it so that it is still not easy to follow these simple commandments. That is why we need Jesus, because it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that He sent to dwell in believers that we can learn to live like He did.
