1978), 139 – 52. Hodges makes the startling claim that the people described here are true, albeit secret,
Jesus Heralds His Gospel
that here we see the simplicity of the gospel outlined clearly, but Jesus was not bringing this self-righ teous Pharisee a message of easy-believism. On the contrary, our Lord challenged everything the man stood for. In the course of their dialogue, Jesus confronted Nicodemus's spurious faith, his works-based religion, his Pharisaical righ teous ness, and his biblical illiteracy. The Savior called for nothing short of complete regeneration. Without such a spiritual rebirth, He told Nicodemus, no one has any hope of eternal life. Nicodemus was clearly jolted by Jesus' words, and there is no evidence in this passage that his immediate response was positive.
John included this account in the process of making the argument that Jesus is God. The gospel of John begins and ends with declarations of Jesus' deity (1:1; 20:30 – 31), and nearly everything else John says expands on that theme. The encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus is no exception. The narrative flows out of John 2:23 – 25, which says Jesus "knew all men, and . . . knew what was in man." The story of Nicodemus goes on to prove Christ's omniscience by demonstrating His ability to read Nicodemus's heart. It further confirms Jesus' deity by revealing that He is the way of salvation (John 3:14 – 17).
Nicodemus was one of those John described at the end of chapter 2 who believed just because they saw Jesus' miracles. Their kind of belief had nothing to do with saving faith, as we see from John's testimony that "Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men" (v. 24). That is a clear statement about the inefficacy of artificial faith.2 Nicodemus, then, stands as an illustration of inadequate faith. His mind accepted to some extent the truth of Christ, but his heart was unregenerate.
Nicodemus begins the conversation with this confession of faith: "Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him" (John 3:2). He was intrigued with Christ. Being a religious leader, Nicodemus obviously would have had a keen interest in anyone he felt was sent from above. He had seen Jesus' miracles, and he knew He was from God. There had not been a prophet for four hundred years, and Nicodemus was probably thinking he had found one. Perhaps he even was wondering whether Jesus was the Messiah, but he had not yet come to see Christ as God incarnate.
2. Cf. Zane Hodges, "Untrustworthy Believers — John 2:23 – 25," Bibliotheca Sacra (April – June 1978), 139 – 52. Hodges makes the startling claim that the people described here are true, albeit secret, believers. Still, he acknowledges the obvious link between John 2:23 – 25 and the account of Nicodemus (ibid., 150). Clearly, Jesus dealt with Nicodemus as an unbeliever. If he was one of those described in John 2:23 – 25, he could not have been a genuine believer at the time. As Hodges himself concedes, commentators are nearly unanimous in the view that John 2:23 – 25 describes something less than saving faith.
He Calls for a New Birth
Jesus, who "knew all men" (John 2:24), understood what was really on Nicodemus's heart. He ignored Nicodemus's profession of faith and instead answered a question Nicodemus didn't even ask.
Without confirming, denying, refuting, or even acknowledging Nicodemus's statement that He was from God, Jesus gave an answer that demonstrated His omniscience. Thus our Lord confronted Nicodemus with the fact that he had fallen short of realizing the full truth. Nicodemus was not dealing with a mere teacher sent from God — He was standing before God in the flesh. John 3:3 says, "Jesus answered and said to him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' "
The Savior's words were shocking to Nicodemus (John 3:9). Do not miss that point or minimize Jesus' challenge to this man. Our Lord's strategy in witnessing was always frank, direct, and to the point. He took the confrontive approach in this first encounter. Nicodemus was drawn up short by Jesus' answer. It included four critical truths that must have astonished him.
The Futility of Religion
Nicodemus was "a ruler of the Jews" (John 3:1), a member of the Sanhedrin, the powerful ruling body of the Jewish nation. Perhaps he came by night because he didn't want the whole world to see him and think he was representing all the Sanhedrin. Or maybe he was afraid of what the other Pharisees would think. They were known to put people out of the synagogue for believing in Jesus (John 9:22). Nevertheless, he came — unlike his colleagues — with a sincere desire to learn.
The Pharisees were hyperlegalists who externalized religion. They were the very epitome of all who pursue a form of godliness with no reality (2 Tim. 3:5). Although they were fanatically religious, they were no nearer the kingdom of God than a prostitute. Their credo included fastidious adherence to more than six hundred laws, many of which were simply their own inventions. They believed, for example, that it was all right to swallow vinegar on the Sabbath but not to gargle it — gargling constituted labor. One Pharisaical teaching held that it was permissible to eat an egg that had been laid on the Sabbath only if the chicken was killed the next day for having violated the Sabbath! The Pharisees were so enamored with the law and religion that when Christ came offering grace and salvation to even the grossest of sinners, they would not receive Him.
When Nicodemus heard Christ talking about a new birth, his mind must have been a bog. He had always believed that salvation was to be earned by good works. He probably even expected Christ to commend him for his strict
Jesus Heralds His Gospel
legalism! Instead, Jesus confronted him with the futility of his religion. What a letdown! Unlike religious works, being born again was something Nicodemus could not do himself!
Nicodemus's reply has often been misunderstood: "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" (John 3:4). Nicodemus was not speaking in literal terms. We must give him credit for a little common sense. Surely he was not so feebleminded as to think Jesus was really talking about reentering the womb and literally being born again. A teacher himself, Nicodemus understood the rabbinical method of using figurative language to teach spiritual truth, and he was merely picking up Jesus' symbolism. He was really saying, "I can't start all over. It's too late. I've gone too far in my religious system to start over. There's no hope for me if I must begin from the beginning."
Jesus was demanding that Nicodemus forsake everything he stood for, and Nicodemus knew it. Far from offering this man an easy conversion, Christ was challenging him with the most difficult demand He could make. Nicodemus would gladly have given money, fasted, or performed any ritual Jesus could have prescribed. But to call him to a spiritual rebirth was asking him to acknowledge his own insufficiency and turn away from everything he was committed to.
Jesus merely reiterated, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Some people say that means literal water — H2O. It doesn't. This has nothing to do with water or baptism. Salvation cannot be accomplished by a bath. John 4:2 says Jesus baptized no one. If baptism were a condition of salvation, He would have been baptizing people; after all, He came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). The water Jesus is speaking of is merely symbolic — as it was in the Old Testament — of purification.
Nicodemus would have understood this reference to the Old Testament water of purification, which was sprinkled on the altar and sacrifices in most of the rituals. Being a scholar, Nicodemus no doubt remembered Ezekiel 36:25 and the promise of the new covenant: "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you." Two verses later is the promise, "I will put My Spirit within you" (v. 27). Those statements, bringing the ideas of water and the Spirit together, sandwich another promise: "I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (v. 26). That is the Old Testament promise of regeneration by water and the Spirit.
The only baptism implied here is the baptism in the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist said, "He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, 'He upon whom you
He Calls for a New Birth
see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit' " (John 1:33). Spirit baptism takes place at salvation, when the Lord places the believer into the body of Christ by means of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13), and purifies the believer by the water of the Word (Eph. 5:26; cf. John 15:3). Paul refers to this as "the washing of regeneration, and renewing by the Holy Spirit" (Titus 3:5), almost perfectly echoing Jesus' words in John 3:5: "Unless one is born of water [the washing of regeneration] and the Spirit [and renewing by the Holy Spirit], he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
Thus Jesus was saying to Nicodemus, "You need to be spiritually purified and spiritually reborn." The whole point was that law and religious rituals — including baptism — cannot give eternal life. We can assume Nicodemus got the message, because it apparently jarred him fiercely.
The Unity of Revelation
Jesus then gently chided the shocked teacher, saying, "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again' " (John 3:7).
Nicodemus's next question revealed the turmoil in his heart: "How can these things be?" (v. 9). He simply couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"Jesus answered and said to him, 'Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?' " (v. 10). That rebuke from the Lord completely silenced Nicodemus. He made no further response. Perhaps he stood and listened as Jesus graciously explained the new birth. Perhaps he turned and left in anger. John does not tell us. Nicodemus seems to have ultimately become a believer — if not here, at some later date. After the crucifixion it was he, along with Joseph of Arimathea, who claimed the body of Christ and prepared it for burial (John 19:38 – 39).
Yet if Nicodemus said any more in this conversation with the Lord, John does not record it. The silence is understandable. Jesus' challenge of his aptitude as a spiritual teacher was a devastating putdown. The Lord's use of the definite article ("the teacher of Israel") indicates that Nicodemus had a reputation as the preeminent teacher in all of Israel. Christ's rebuke, however, insinuated that he really understood very little of the truth of the Scriptures. This must have been a painful jab at his ego.
Jesus' challenge also made an important doctrinal point. The clear implication is that the Old Testament plainly taught the way of salvation (cf. 2 Tim. 3:15). Jesus was not announcing a new way of salvation distinct from Old Testament redemption (cf. Matt. 5:17). This is to say that salvation under the dispensation of grace is no different from salvation under the law. There is perfect unity in God's Word, and the way of salvation revealed in the Old Testament
Jesus Heralds His Gospel
was the same as salvation after Christ's work on the cross. Salvation was never a reward for human works; it has always been a gift of grace for repentant sinners, made possible by the work of Christ.
The experience of conversion — a new birth, involving the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit — has been the plan of God from the beginning. Even in the Old Testament, salvation was not a payoff for those who observed the law; it was a gift to those who humbly and by faith sought redemption from their sin. Yet it always meant a new start, a rebirth, a turning from sin to God. Nicodemus, as a teacher of the law, should have understood that. He should have been familiar with the words of the Lord recorded by Isaiah:
"Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; Remove the evil of your deeds from My sight. Cease to do evil, Learn to do good. . . . Come now, and let us reason together," Says the Lord, "Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool." (Isa. 1:16 – 18)
The central theme of the Old Testament is redemption by grace. But incredibly, the Pharisees entirely missed it. In their rigid emphasis on religious works, they deemphasized the truth of God's grace and forgiveness to sinners, evident throughout the Old Testament. They stressed obedience to law, not conversion to the Lord, as the way to gain eternal life. They were so busy trying to earn righ teous ness that they neglected the marvelous truth of Habakkuk 2:4: "The righ teous will live by his faith." They looked to Abraham as their father but overlooked the key lesson of his life: "He believed in the Lord; and [the Lord] reckoned it to him as righ teous ness" (Gen. 15:6). They scoured the psalms for laws they could add to their list, but they ignored the most sublime truth of all — that God forgives sins, covers transgressions, and refuses to impute iniquity to sinners who turn to Him (Ps. 32:1 – 2). They anticipated the coming of their Messiah but closed their eyes to the fact that He would come to die as a sacrifice for sin (Isa. 53:4 – 9). They were confident that they were guides to the blind, lights to those in darkness, correctors of the foolish, and teachers of the immature (cf. Rom. 2:19 – 20), but they missed the most basic lesson of God's law: that they themselves were sinners in need of redemption.
People have always stumbled over the simplicity of salvation. That is why there are so many cults. Each one has a unique slant on the doctrine of salvation — and each one corrupts the simplicity of the gospel revealed in God's Word (cf. 2 Cor.
He Calls for a New Birth
11:3) by espousing salvation by human works. Each one of the major cults claims to have a key that unlocks the secret of salvation, yet they are all alike in propagating self-righ teous achievement as the way to God.
From start to finish, God's Word disproves them all, and in a wonderfully consistent way. Its message, woven through sixty-six books, written over a span of fifteen hundred years by more than forty different authors, is marvelously unified and congruous. The message is simply that God graciously saves repentant sinners who come to Him in faith. There is no secret there, no mystery, no obscurity, and no complexity. If Nicodemus had truly understood God's Word, he would have known that much. And if he had sincerely embraced and believed the written Word, he would not have resisted or rejected the incarnate Word, who was standing before him, the embodiment of God's eternal way of truth (cf. John 5:39).
The Necessity of Regeneration
Despite his great ability as a teacher and his obsession with the details of the law, Nicodemus had fallen short. Jesus did not mask the truth or try to make it palatable. Nicodemus was nurturing a great sin he was not even aware of — the sin of unbelief. When Nicodemus said, "I don't understand," what he really meant was, "I don't believe." Unbelief always begets ignorance.
Verses 11 – 12 confirm that unbelief was the real issue. There Jesus says, "Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen; and you do not receive our witness. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things?" "You do not receive" and "you do not believe" mean the same thing. Nicodemus claimed he didn't understand. Jesus wanted him to know that faith comes before full understanding. As Paul wrote in 1 Co rin thi ans 2:14, "A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised." Spiritual truth does not register in the mind of one who does not believe; unbelief understands nothing.
What a blow this was to Nicodemus's self-righ teous ness! He had come to Jesus with a smug profession of faith: "We know that you have come from God as a teacher" (John 3:2). In essence, Jesus responded, "No you don't. You don't understand Scripture. You don't know the basics about salvation. You don't even understand earthly things. What good would it do for Me to expound heavenly truth to you?"
Like most religious unbelievers, Nicodemus did not want to confess that he was a helpless sinner. Jesus knew the truth. Nicodemus thought of himself as a great spiritual leader. Jesus had reduced him to nothing.
Jesus Heralds His Gospel
"No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, even the Son of Man" (John 3:13). With that statement of His divine origin, Jesus rebuked Nicodemus's shallow faith and destroyed his system of religion by works. No one can ascend to heaven; that is, no one can earn his way there. God has come down from heaven and spoken to us by His Son (Heb. 1:1 – 2). We could never climb to heaven and find the answers for ourselves. The only Person who has that kind of access to God is the One who descended from heaven. He is not just a teacher sent by God; He is in fact God in human flesh. We either accept what He says, or we are left with our sin.
This, then, is His message: "You must be born again" (John 3:7). Regeneration is no option, but rather an absolute necessity. No one — not even the most religious Pharisee — is exempt from the divine call to a new birth. And thus we have the starting point of Jesus' gospel: that salvation is impossible apart from divinely wrought regeneration.
The Reality of Redemption
When Nicodemus offered no further response, Jesus lovingly and graciously explained to him the new birth in all its simplicity. Beginning in John 3:14, Jesus introduced the details of the way of salvation. He chose an Old Testament illustration of salvation, as if to underscore His rebuke to Nicodemus for not understanding the truth of Scripture: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life" (vv. 14 – 15). Surely Nicodemus knew that story. Why hadn't he ever understood its truth?
Numbers 21 gives the full account of the serpent in the wilderness. The Israelites were wandering around, having left Egypt but having not yet entered the Promised Land. They had been complaining incessantly — grumbling about the food, muttering about Moses, and whining about how bad their condition was. Finally, when God had had enough, He sent a plague in the form of hundreds of poisonous snakes. The snakes overran the camp, and the rebellious people were bitten. When they realized they were dying, they repented. They came to Moses, asking him to intercede on their behalf. God in His mercy forgave them and told Moses to construct a pole with a bronze serpent at the top. He was to erect it in the center of the camp. The Lord gave this promise: "Everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he shall live" (Num. 21:8). He did not prescribe a ritual or a chant. Just so, salvation doesn't happen by religious ceremony. That was true when the Israelites were in the wilderness; it was true for Nicodemus; it is true today.
Those who reject obedience to Christ as an element of saving faith claim that Jesus selected this illustration to show that faith is simply embracing the facts of