Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 3:9
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
9. How can these things be? ] He is bewildered; there is no appearing not to understand, as in Joh 3:4. ‘Be,’ come to pass (see on Joh 1:6).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
How can these things be? – Nicodemus was still unwilling to admit the doctrine unless he understood it; and we have here an instance of a man of rank stumbling at one of the plainest doctrines of religion, and unwilling to admit a truth because he could not understand how it could be, when he daily admitted the truth of facts in other things which he could as little comprehend. And we may learn:
1.That people will often admit facts on other subjects, and be greatly perplexed by similar facts in religion.
2.That no small part of peoples difficulties are because they cannot understand how or why a thing is.
3.That people of rank and learning are as likely to be perplexed by these things as those in the obscurest and humblest walks of life.
4.That this is one reason why such men, particularly, so often reject the truths of the gospel.
5.That this is a very unwise treatment of truth, and a way which they do not apply to other things.
If the wind cools and refreshes me in summer if it prostrates the oak or lashes the sea into foam – if it destroys my house or my grain, it matters little how it does this; and so of the Spirit. If it renews my heart, humbles my pride, subdues my sin, and comforts my soul, it is a matter of little importance how it does all this. Sufficient for me is it to know that it is done, and to taste the blessings which flow from the renewing. and sanctifying grace of God.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Joh 3:9
How can these things be?
Religious revivals
This question is often asked concerning revivals of religion, and in dealing with it I would show
I. THAT THERE ARE SOLID GROUNDS ON WHICH TO BUILD A HOPE OF THE DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT TO PRODUCE REVIVALS OF RELIGION IN OUR CHURCHES.
1. We should endeavour to obtain a correct estimate of the real condition of the primitive churches of whom we read that they received the Holy Ghost. On this subject there are two opinions.
(1) Some regard them as bordering on perfection.
(2) Others as discovering the weaknesses of an infantile state emerging from barbarism. The truth lies between the two extremes. They were distinguished by peculiar privileges and exalted attainments, but many of them were possessed of weakness, imperfections, and sins. Yet nothing is more indisputable than that they were in constant receipt of the influences of the Spirit of God.
2. The Holy Spirit chooses oftentimes to display His Divine prerogative of sovereignty as to the time, place, and modes of His operations; and He displays it in such a manner that not unfrequently He gives no account of it to us. How is it that of two men brought up under the same influences one is converted and the other not? There is an analogy between the operations of God in nature and in grace, as different countries will yield different productions, each excellent in their kind; as oaks are of slow, and parasites of rapid growth, so is the work of conversion. Read the explication of the subject in 1Co 12:1-31. So one country is visited with a dispensation of the Spirit which issues in marked and numerous conversions, while another is visited with one which issues in works in defence of the gospel, and yet another with the missionary spirit.
3. There are circumstantials often connected with revivals which are by no means essential to their general character.
(1) It is no indication of a genuine revival that there is great excitement. There may be real spiritual excitement, but often it is of an empty character; and there may be a true revival when all is calm and noiseless.
(2) Nor is it a certain evidence that great numbers profess to be converted.
4. There are facts frequently occurring amongst ourselves which prove that the Spirit has not forsaken us.
(1) Individual sermons are known to produce great results.
(2) Churches often receive members into fellowship without special efforts.
(3) Individual cases of conversion show the Spirits operation.
5. Inference that if the means be employed we may expect yet greater things in the way of the Spirits manifestations.
II. THERE ARE PREPARATORY MEASURES TO BE ADOPTED IN ORDER TO THE ATTAINMENT OF THESE HIGH AND GRACIOUS DISTINCTIONS.
1. Cultivate a solemn, deep, and abiding conviction of the necessity and importance of the Spirits influences to advance the cause of religion.
(1) In your own hearts.
(2) In your congregations and churches.
2. Labour to put out of the way all those impediments which tend to obstruct the descent of the Spirit. Trifling with prayer, speculating on gospel verities, hypocrisy in worship, conformity with the world, uncharitableness and all those things which grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
3. Acknowledge thankfully what God has already done by His Spirit.
(1) Not to do so displays ignorance and ingratitude.
(2) To do so will open the eye to Gods wonderful working in many particulars, church building, Bible circulation, Sunday schools, missions, etc.
4. Consecrate more time to fervent and importunate prayer-private, family, social, etc.
5. Expect great things from God. (J. Clayton.)
Genteel ignorance
John Wesley always preferred the middling and lower classes to the wealthy. He said, If I might choose, I should still, as I have done hitherto, preach the gospel to the poor. Preaching in Monkton Church, a large old, ruinous building, he says, I suppose it has scarce had such a congregation during this century. Many of them were gay, genteel people, so I spoke on the first elements of the gospel, but I was still out of their depth. Oh, how hard it is to be shallow enough for a polite audience! (Anecdotes of the Wesleys.)
Man naturally ignorant
To unconverted persons a great part of the Bible resembles a letter written in cipher. The blessed Spirits office is to act as Gods decipherer, by letting His people into the secret of celestial experience, as the key and clue to those sweet mysteries of grace, which were before as a garden shut up, or as a fountain sealed, or as a book written in an unknown character. (Toplady.)
Christ and the enquiry room
I. THE INQUIRER Nicodemus was
1. A sincere inquirer; his sincerity was based on a conviction of Christs Divine mission. He knew there could be no trickery or magic in His wonderful works. Hence his unequivocal confession.
2. An anxious inquirer.
3. A perplexed inquirer.
(1) Perplexity results from thought and imperfect knowledge. In the multitude of his thoughts Nicodemus is bewildered. He is learned in the law, but ignorant of Christs true character as witnessed by the prophets.
(2) Prejudice begets perplexity; and to receive Jesus as the Messiah was to do violence to all orthodox views. But blessed is the perplexity that prompts to inquiry.
4. A reverential inquirer.
II. THE SUBJECTS TAUGHT IN THE INQUIRY ROOM
1. The kingdom of God. This kingdom is
(1) Real, though not of this world.
(2) Spiritual; hence it cometh without observation.
(3) Victorious, its weapons being mighty through God.
2. This kingdom has conditions. Entrance to it could not be
(1) by natural birth;
(2) by nationality;
(3) circumcision;
(4) pharisaical righteousness;
(5) but by Divine birth.
III. THE METHOD ADOPTED WAS COVERSATIONAL.
IV. THE RESULTS.
1. For a time doubtful.
2. Afterwards most satisfactory. (Joseph Heaton.)
Nicodemuss perplexity
1. We live in a world of wonders: vegetable growth, insect evolution, human birth; about each of which we might well say, How can these things be?
2. There are greater wonders in the world towards which we are hastening–resurrection, etc.
3. Not less wonderful is the work of grace within a mans soul.
I. WHAT THESE THINGS WERE WHICH PERPLEXED NICODEMUS. The new birth.
1. This doctrine is one of which the Bible is full. See Joh 1:13; 2Co 5:17; Eph 1:20; 1Pe 1:23, which teach that only by the almighty power of God can a dead sinner be born again, and that this power is exercised through the Word of Truth.
2. This doctrine presupposes the corruption of human nature–not that it has simply gone wrong through bad example and vicious training. It does not want mending, but renewing.
3. David found this out–I was shapen in iniquity. So did St. Paul–In my flesh dwelleth no good thing, They that are in the flesh cannot please God.
4. This doctrine is very humbling to pride of birth and intellect.
5. This doctrine conveys a blessed truth. Man may become a child of God, holy and meet for heaven.
6. Heaven being a character as well as a place no man can enter without being born again.
II. THESE ARE THE THINGS WE MUST KNOW IF WE ARE TO BE SAVED.
1. The very worst may be saved.
2. To be saved we must go to the author of the new birth.
3. Whatsoever may be our wants with regard to the present life nothing can stand in the place of His. Philanthropic schemes are good in their place, but are as the small dust of the balance compared with this.
4. The new birth is a personal experience, and each sinner must come individually, prayerfully, believingly and now. (Canon Miller.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. How can these things be?] Our Lord had very plainly told him how these things could be, and illustrated the new birth by one of the most proper similes that could be chosen; but so intent was this great man an making every thing submit to the testimony of his senses that he appears unwilling to believe any thing, unless he can comprehend it. This is the case with many-they profess to believe because they comprehend; but they are impostors who speak thus: there is not a man in the universe that can fully comprehend one operation, either of God or his instrument nature; and yet they must believe, and do believe, though they never did nor ever can fully comprehend, or account for, the objects of their faith.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Nicodemus had before spoken as if he thought it a thing impossible, understanding our Saviour of a carnal generation, which he knew could not be repeated: perceiving that he spake of a spiritual birth, he is now posed at the mystery of it; it being a thing the doctrine of which he had not been acquainted with. His carnal stupidity hindered his understanding the first lesson of Christianity, though explained by the Sun of righteousness; and his pride hindered him from confessing his ignorance; he rather judges the doctrine to be absurd and impossible. The like darkness is in every unrenewed mind; regeneration being like that new name, which none understand but those that have it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9, 10. How, &c.Though thesubject still confounds Nicodemus, the necessity and possibility ofthe new birth is no longer the point with him, but the nature of itand how it is brought about [LUTHARDT].”From this moment Nicodemus says nothing more, but hassunk unto a disciple who has found his true teacher. Thereforethe Saviour now graciously advances in His communications of truth,and once more solemnly brings to the mind of this teacher in Israel,now become a learner, his own not guiltless ignorance, that Hemay then proceed to utter, out of the fulness of His divineknowledge, such farther testimonies both of earthly and heavenlythings as his docile scholar may to his own profit receive”[STIER].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Nicodemus answered and said unto him,…. Remaining still as ignorant as ever, though Christ had explained the phrase “born again”, at which he stumbled, by a being “born of water and of the Spirit”, or of the grace of the Spirit of God; and had illustrated this by the free, powerful, and invisible blowing of the wind:
how can these things be? The Arabic version reads, “how can this be?” referring either to the last thing said, that a man’s being born of the Spirit, is like the blowing of the wind; or to the explanation of the first expression, that a man should be born of water, and of the Spirit; or to the first assertion itself, that a man should be born again; which notwithstanding the explanation and illustration, seemed as impossible, and as impracticable as ever; or rather to them all, and so the Persic version reads, “how can all these things be?”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
How? (;) Nicodemus is not helped either by the use of or to understand (the necessity of the birth from above or regeneration). He falls back into his “stupid misunderstanding.” There are none so dull as those who will not see. Preoccupation prevents insight. Literally one must often empty his mind to receive new truth.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
These things. Such as the new birth.
Be [] . Literally, come to pass.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Nicodemus answered and said unto him,” (apekrithe Nikodemus kai eipen auto) “Nicodemus responded, and said, inquired to him,” for further information and clarification. Though one does not understand: 1) body development of the infant in the womb, a mysterious reality, Ecc 11:5, or 2)the way of the wind’s blowing, Joh 2:8, yet the Spirit is just as real, and present, in the new birth, or in regeneration.
2) “How can these things be?” (pos dunatai tauta genesthai) “How is it possible for these kind of things to come to be?” or to come to exist. Nicodemus asked the “how” question of the new birth, much as Mary asked the “how” question regarding the natural or biological begettal of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. In each instance, it was and is the quickening of the Holy Spirit from above, not by natural force from below, by which each occurred, Luk 1:34-35, Joh 6:63; 2Co 3:6.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
9. How can these things be? We see what is the chief obstacle in the way of Nicodemus. Every thing that he hears appears monstrous, because he does not understand the manner of it; so that there is no greater obstacle to us than our own pride; that is, we always wish to be wise beyond what is proper, and therefore we reject with diabolical pride every thing that is not explained to our reason; as if it were proper to limit the infinite power of God to our poor capacity. We are, indeed, permitted, to a certain extent, to inquire into the manner and reason of the works of God, provided that we do so with sobriety and reverence; but Nicodemus rejects it as a fable, on this ground, that he does not believe it to be possible. On this subject we shall treat more fully under the Sixth Chapter.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
EARTHLY MYSTERIES COMPARED WITH HEAVENLY MYSTERIES
Text 3:9-15
9
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
10
Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou the teacher of Israel, and understandest not these things?
11
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
12
If I told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13
And no one hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man, who is in heaven.
14
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up;
15
that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life.
Queries
a.
Who is the we of Joh. 3:11?
b.
What are earthly things and heavenly things?
c.
Why is the comparison made with the serpent in the wilderness?
Paraphrase
Nicodemus said to Jesus, How is it possible for all these things to come to pass? Jesus replied to Nicodemus, Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? I tell you positively, that John the Baptist and I are speaking that which we fully know, and we are testifying to that which we have actually seen with our own eyes, and yet none of you are receiving our testimony. If I have told you the earthly things of the kingdom which happen within the realm of human experience and you continue to disbelieve, how shall you believe if I tell you of the heavenly counsels of an Omniscient God? No mortal has ever ascended into heaven to obtain first hand knowledge of Gods eternal will except He that has come down from heaven, even the Son of Man. And in like manner as Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness, even so it is necessary that the Son of Man be lifted up in order that everyone who looks unto Him in believing obedience may be cured of sins deadly bite and may have eternal life.
Summary
Nichodemus is curious as to the exact manner of working of the Holy Spirit in the new birth. Jesus tells him that inability to comprehend the secret actions of the eternal God is no excuse for unbelief. What is necessary for man to know, God has revealed through His Son.
Comment
Nicodemus continual how? (Joh. 3:4; Joh. 3:9) is like that of so many men and women today. He cannot understand the secret doings of an Infinite God and therefore he refuses to obey the mysteries of this God which have been revealed and which may be empirically known. There are those today who will admit the historical verity of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth but they will not give their souls over to God in trustful obedience to His Word because they cannot probe into and prove to their senses every unveiled mystery of an omnipotent God.
In Joh. 3:10 Nicodemus is informed that he should have had some knowledge concerning the subject under discussion, i.e., regeneration. The use of the article the in the Greek language emphasizes identification. Since the article is used with both teacher and Israel in Joh. 3:10, the emphasis is that Nicodemus was one of the esteemed teachers in all Israel. He may even have been the leading teacher of the day, as Gamaliel was a few years later. The Pharisees were supposed to be the spiritual leaders of the nationthey were supposed to be the experts in the Scriptures. Nicodemus ignorance of the subject of regeneration was inexcusable and should have been embarrassing. The law and the prophets spoke again and again of Jehovahs demand for a renewal of heart and mind (cf. Deu. 30:6; Psa. 51:10-12; Psa. 51:17; Isa. 1:16-20; Isa. 57:15; Jer. 24:7).
There are various interpretations of the plural we in Joh. 3:11 : (a) Jesus speaks of Himself and the twelve disciples; (b) Jesus refers to Himself and the Old Testament prophets and writers; (c) Jesus means Himself and His forerunner, John the Baptist. We prefer the latter of the three as the most likely meaning. Both Jesus and John the Baptist knew the Spirit for they were filled with the Holy Spirit; both had seen the Holy Spirit in a visible manifestation (Mat. 3:16; Mar. 1:11; Luk. 3:22; Joh. 1:33-34); both were sent to testify as to the work of the Holy Spirit and to preach repentance and regeneration. Both were eyewitnesses of the working of the Holy SpiritJesus testimony being greater than Johns, of course, for He had descended from Heaven and from intimate communion with the Father. Jesus and the Baptist went about testifying as eyewitnesses to the reality of the Holy Spirit, but the Pharisees rejected their testimony and their message of repentance and were, in essence, calling both Jesus and John liars! The cause for rejection by the Pharisees is made plain in Luk. 7:29-30. When the outcasts of society heard Johns message of repentance they justified God (put God in His rightful place of Divine authority) and were baptized of John. But when the Pharisees heard, they rejected the counsels of God (dethroned God) and refused Johns baptism. The Pharisees rebelled because they did not want to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance (cf. Luk. 3:7-14).
The omniscient Teacher now shows the mortal teacher it is unless to discuss Heavenly mysteries. Nicodemus cannot even understand earthly things. There are two general interpretations of what is meant by earthly things in Joh. 3:12 : (a) that Jesus means the wind, or (b) that He means the earthly things within the kingdom of God, e.g., things that may be experienced such as faith, repentance, baptism, and renewal of mind and heart. We prefer the second interpretation, for it fits the context better. If Nicodemus could not understand that a new heart and a new spirit was necessary to be pleasing unto God (something he should have known from the Old Testament), how much more incredible would be Gods eternal purposes to such a carnal mind! It was evident even then to Jesus that the cross would be a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. How could Nicodemus understand it was necessary that the Son of Man be lifted up, like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wildernesshe could not even understand the Prophets whom he had pledged to study all his life!
Even when mortal man asks, How can these things be? Gods wisdom is so infinite and unsearchable that none can know except they ascend into heaven and sit in personal conference with him. None except the Son of man and the Holy Spirit have ever enjoyed this intimate bosom-acquaintance with the Father. Paul informed the Corinthians the wisdom he spoke was Gods wisdom, infinitely greater than mens eloquence. Such wisdom God had hidden since the foundations of the worlds, but it had been given unto the apostles by a special revelation of the Spirit which searcheth the deep things of God, (cf. 1Co. 2:6-11). The last phrase of Joh. 3:13, who is in heaven, is omitted in many ancient manuscripts. It is omitted in the most recent Codexthe Bodmer Papyrus (see Introduction). Most authorities believe it to be a scribal gloss and we have, upon textual evidence above, omitted it from our paraphrase.
The incident referred to by Jesus in Joh. 3:14 is found in Num. 21:4-9. The Israelites were in the wilderness country south of Mt. Hor, near to the Red Sea and the land of Edom when they began to rebel against Moses and God. The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and many were bitten and died. The people repented of their murmuring and came begging Moses to intercede on their behalf for mercy. Jehovah God then revealed His plan of salvation to Moses who was to tell it to the people. Moses would fashion a serpent from bronze and raise it up on a pole or a standard. Every Israelite who obeyed Gods plan and looked upon the brazen serpent would be cured and restored to life. Commentators have wrested Jesus use of this incident as an illustration in order to carry out their own analogies. There seems to be at least two main points of analogy or illustration which are relevant to the context: (a) just as the brazen serpent was the only cure for the deadly bite of the fiery serpents, so the lifting up of the Son of Man is necessarya mustas the only remedy for the deadly bite of sin (cf. Joh. 8:28; Joh. 12:-32); (b) God provides the remedy for sin through His Son and only that man who looks upon Him in trusting obedience will be saved, Although God provided the children of Israel with a cure for snake bite, not one would have lived had they stubbornly refused to look upon the brazen serpent, Obvious! a reader says, Yet how many today who have been bitten by that old serpent, the devil are refusing to do the obvious thing and obey the gospel? Did the Israelites hold back, like Nicodemus, harping on the how can this be? Did they demand an explanation of the scientific and medical relationship between a bronze serpent and cure of snake bite? Indeed they did not! These people were saved, not because they understood Gods requirement, but because they trusted God and obeyed His demand to look upon this brazen serpent. Whom among mortals can explain fully the relationship between Christs death on the cross and His commandment to believe and be baptized with salvation? How is this possible?it is not possible for us to fully comprehendbut it is possible for us to trust and obey! This was the lesson Nicodemus needed to learn, this was the lesson the disciples had to learn and the lesson we must all learn. Trust and obey, for theres no other way . . .
Quiz
1.
Why should Nicodemus have known of the subject of regeneration?
2.
Give three Old Testament Scripture references that speak of regeneration.
3.
What is the best interpretation of we in Joh. 3:11? Why?
4.
What are the earthly things that Nicodemus could not believe?
5.
Give the two main points of comparison between the brazen serpent and the lifting up of the Son of Man.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(9) How can these things be?The answer to the previous question has spoken of a spiritual birth and a spiritual life and a spiritual kingdom, but all this is in a region of which the Rabbinic schools knew nothing. They were the authorised exponents of Law and Prophets; they knew the precise number of words, and the shape of letters; the form of a phylactery, and the width of a fringe; the tithing of garden herbs, and the manner of washing the hands: but spirit, life, a mans soul born again!how can these things be?
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. How Nicodemus here does not so much ask the manner as imply that it cannot be in any manner. He is too respectful to give his doubt in any stronger form than a question.
Our Lord has now firmly maintained the doctrine of regeneration propounded in the third verse, but his listener is in doubt. Jesus, therefore, in the following verses, First grounds himself on his own authority as a teacher, acknowledged by Nicodemus himself to be from God, affirming in the sublimest terms his own absolute knowledge, 10-13. Second, To this doctrine of regeneration he adds the second great spiritual truth of the kingdom of God, the doctrine of universal atonement, 14-17. Third, He affirms that upon faith depends our justification or condemnation, assigning for that doctrine its proper reason, 18-21.
Rationalists boldly assert that the doctrines contained in 14-21 were not, according to the other Evangelists, advanced by Jesus so early in his ministry. Yielding to this claim, commentators like Tholuck and Olshausen maintain that the passage was not spoken by Jesus, but is our Evangelist’s own additional comment. This we may answer in the course of our notes, but we here say: Since Nicodemus has acknowledged Jesus, on ground of miracles, to be a God-sent teacher, there was a perfect wisdom in our Lord’s forthwith pushing him individually into the deeper truths of the Gospel, however much in advance of his teaching to a world less prepared and committed. You admit, Nicodemus, my mission from God. You are bound then to stop not there. Your next steps are renovation, (which you should accept on my authority,) atonement, and salvation by faith in the Son of God.
Jesus maintains that the doctrine of regeneration should be accepted upon his own divine authority, 10-13.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Nicodemus answered and said to him, “How can these things be?” ’
Nicodemus still does not understand. ‘How can these things be?’, he asks. What is clear to many a Christian child is a total mystery to the learned scholar. We must, however, remember that he has long cherished views. To him water is for outward purifying, and his religious agenda is found in seeking to keep God’s laws assiduously and totally in order to be true to the covenant with God and achieve eternal life in the future. The thought of the freedom and new life that comes through the Spirit of God is foreign to him. He is baffled.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The witness from above:
v. 9. Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be?
v. 10. Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things?
v. 11. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
v. 12. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
v. 13. And no man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. Nicodemus could not understand yet, and so proceeded to ask a human explanation of a divine phenomenon. He wanted to know how these things could be; he wanted a plausible exposition. His personal conviction was that it was impossible for God and His Spirit to accomplish such results, to make a man entirely different from what he was before, actually to regenerate him. Jesus begins His explanation with an exclamation of surprise at the bewilderment of the Pharisee. For Nicodemus was a teacher in Israel, he held the position of a scribe, who was supposed to be well versed in the Law. The subject of regeneration is treated so often in the Psalms and in the visions of the prophets that a teacher of the people should have been thoroughly familiar with its full import. Bad enough for the pupil, for the ordinary Israelite, to be so blind; what, then, shall be said of a master that shows such obtuseness! See Psa 51:12; Eze 11:19. The scribes anti Pharisees of the time of Jesus no longer understood the Scriptures. They clung to the outward letter, while the true sense was hidden from them. Most emphatically, therefore, the Lord declares that His case is not one of ignorance and denseness. He has a first-hand, thorough knowledge. He speaks such things as He knows; and what He has seen and is continually “seeing as the eternal, omniscient Son of God, that He bears witness of. He speaks with divine authority of the miracle of regeneration as well as of the inner mysteries of the Triune God. And Jesus knows in advance that His word will not be accepted, His witness will not be believed. Not only Nicodemus, but all men that are like him in their position toward divine revelation are so blinded by their reason that they cannot understand. Of things pertaining to this life challenging their attention Jesus had spoken, of regeneration and sanctification; and not even those did they credit, much less have faith in His words. But if they could not understand the easier, the more tangible, that which ought to engage their attention at once, what would be the result if Christ should begin to teach of matters not open to human observation and experience, things wholly in the unseen, the essence and purposes of God? Of those things He could speak and testify of His own personal experience. No human being has ever dwelt in heaven and thus gained a knowledge of heavenly things. One only has dwelt there and is able to communicate the true knowledge concerning God and all divine matters. The Son of Man, the God-man, in His great work of atonement, has come down from heaven to be a witness of heavenly things. And for this He is fully qualified, for He is still in heaven; He is in the closest, the most intimate connection with the two other persons of the Godhead, even though His body is walking the earth in weakness and humility. Christ here states expressly that He was in heaven from the beginning, for else He could not have come down; that He has now come down for the purpose of testifying of heavenly things; that He is still in heaven, also according to His human nature, as the Son of Man. See Joh 1:18. And finally, the time is coming when He will return to heaven, when His human nature will be finally and fully translated into the heavenly glory and majesty. “Flesh and blood cannot get to heaven; only He ascends up to heaven that came down from heaven, in order that the government over all may be in His hand. Whatever lives He can kill; and what is dead He can make alive; what is rich He can make poor. Thus it is here resolved, whatsoever is born of flesh does not belong into heaven. But this ascending into heaven and the coming down was done for our benefit, in order that we, who are carnal, might also get to heaven, but with this form, that the mortal body first be killed.”
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Joh 3:9-10. Nicodemus answered, &c. Our Lord’s arguments were undeniable: nevertheless, Nicodemus, who had been accustomed to the pomp and ceremony of an external religion, surprised to hear that Jews (who by birth were the people of God,) must be begotten and born again, still urged that the thing was impossible; which it doubtless was, taking regeneration, as he did, for conversion to Judaism, a notion which he was led into from what Jesus had told him, Joh 3:5-6 namely, that the regeneration he spake of was a moral and spiritual one. Our Lord replies, Art thou a master,, a teacher in Israel,and knowest not these things? Our Lord having all along spoken to Nicodemus in the common dialect of the Jewish divinity schools, might justly express his surprise, that he, who was a teacher in Israel, did not understand it: for though he affixed a meaning to the word regeneration different from what it bare in the mouths of the doctors, it was plainly analogous to their sense of it, and so might easily have been understood even by a novice; the admission of a proselyte being looked upon by the Jews as a second birth to him, in regard that his parents and relations were no longer reckoned such, and the proselyte was thought to have received a new soul by the change of his religion. It is strange that any should doubt whether proselytes were admitted into the Jewish church by baptism, that is, by washing; when it is plain, from express passages in the Jewish law, that no Jew who had lived like a Gentile for one single day, could be restored to the communion of their church, except by baptism. Compare Num 19:19-20 and many other passages relating to ceremonial pollutions, by which the Jews were rendered incapable of appearingbefore God in the tabernacle or temple, till they were washed, either by bathing or sprinkling.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Joh 3:9-10 . The entire nature of this birth from above ( ) is still a puzzle to Nicodemus as regarded its possibility (the emphasis being on ); and we can easily understand how it should be so to a learned Pharisee bound to the mere form and letter. He asks the question in this state of ignorance ( haesitantis est , Grotius), not in pride (Olshausen). Still, as one acquainted with the Scriptures, he might and ought to have recognised the possibility; for the power of the divine Spirit, the need of renewal in heart and mind, and the fact that this renewal is a divine work, are often mentioned in the O. T. Jesus therefore might well ask in wonder: Art thou the teacher , etc.? The article . and the . following designate the man not merely in an official capacity (Ewald), which would not mark him out individually from others, but as the well-known and acknowledged teacher of the people. See Bernhardy, p. 315; Winer, p. 110 [E. T. p. 143]. Hengstenberg puts it too strongly: “the concrete embodiment of the ideal teacher of Israel;” comp. Godet. But Nicodemus must have held a position of influence as a teacher quite inconsistent with this proved ignorance; there is in the article a touch of irony , as in the question a certain degree of indignation (Ngelsbach on the Iliad , Exo 3 , p. 424).
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? (10) Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? (11) Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. (12) If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? (13) And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. (14) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: (15) That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. (16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten, Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life; (17) For God sent not his Son into the world, to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. (18) He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (19) And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world; and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. (20) For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. (21) But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
I must not in a Poor Man’s Commentary swell our pages, even though it be the words of Jesus that we are here attending to. What a lovely and sweet discourse is this of our Lord! Every verse is a sermon. But let me call the Reader’s attention to those two most striking passages in the midst of it: I mean, first, of what Jesus hath said of his ascension, and descension, and everlasting presence in heaven; and, secondly, of what the Lord hath said in relation to the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness.
The former of these passages will, I apprehend, appear very plain and obvious, if we consider the words as Christ delivered them, relating wholly to the Son of Man; that is, God-Man, Christ Jesus. No man but the God-Man, hath either ascended, or descended, in the character and office work of Jehovah’s servant, to make known the Being, Perfections, and Love, of Jehovah, in his threefold character of Person, to the Church. It is He, and He only, which lay in the bosom of the Father, hath come forth to declare Him. For though Enoch and Elijah simply as men, had special tokens of divine favor, in being translated to heaven, different from the common mass of the spirits of just men made perfect; yet none but Christ could act in this high capacity, from being God and Man, in one Person, of making known Jehovah. The office was solely and properly his, and no other: Mat 11:27 . And hence that question of Christ: Joh 6:62 .
And in respect to the everlasting presence of the Son of Man, as such in heaven; nothing can be plainer, than that it means, his everlasting representation in Covenant engagements there. He hath been so from the first, in the eternal counsel. The expression is similar to what is said, Pro 8:22-31 . Christ there, speaking in his wisdom character, saith; The Lo r d possessed me from the beginning of his ways. I was set up from everlasting. And my delights were with the sons of men. And this was said at a time, not only before the Son of God became incarnate, but before the foundations of the earth were laid. How was he then possessed? And how set up; and his delights with the sons of men? Evidently in the representation of all these grand events, planned and brought forward in the eternal counsel; and to be accomplished in the fulness of time. So that in fact, the things were as good as done, which in Jehovah’s mind were determined upon. And in this sense Christ’s presence as Son of Man, was everlastingly, in heaven. A similar passage we have, Col 1:15 , etc. See Joh 1:2-3 . and observations thereon. As also Poor Man’s Commentary on Col 1:1-29 etc.–That the passage must be understood in this light, or somewhat like it, is evident from hence. For it cannot refer to the divine nature of the Son of God only; because, as God, he is everywhere present. The Lord filleth all space; and is no more present in heaven than on earth. Neither as man only, would it have been correct. For Christ in his human nature, was at that time conversing with Nicodemus upon the earth. But all difficulties are at once removed, if the expression be considered as speaking of Christ, in his high representing character, the Son of Man; the Head of his body, the Church: for here he evidently becomes that fulness which filleth all in all. Eph 1:22-23 .
In respect to the latter of these passages in our Lord’s sermon, where Jesus speaks of the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness; I beg the Reader to attend to the subject with that due regard so beautiful a representation of Christ in the type evidently sets forth. According to my view, it is one of the most blessed shadows of Christ in the Bible; and I have found cause, very often, to thank God the Holy Ghost for it.
For the better apprehension of the subject, I beg the Reader to remark with me, that among the several office-characters of Christ; there were two, more immediately express, and striking. The one was, that He who knew no sin, should be made sin for his people: that they, who knew in themselves no righteousness, should be made the righteousness of God in him. 2Co 5:1 . And both these the Son of God in our nature, in what is called the fulness of time, undertook to do: and hath done most completely and effectually. But before the accomplishment of Christ’s undertaking, that Old Testament saints might not lose this just apprehension of New Testament blessings, the Holy Ghost was pleased to appoint, that these things should be shadowed out, in lively type, and figure. Hence the Scape-Goat was appointed on the day of atonement, to set forth the former, and the Brazen Serpent to manifest the latter: and both directly pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him alone, to have their accomplishment. And while the Scape Goat became so very direct and pointed, that no Israelite whose eyes were opened, could overlook Christ, as bearing the sins of his people, the Brazen Serpent, the only creature of God, declared cursed at the fall, was expressly suited to prefigure Him, who bore both the weight, and displeasure, due to the sins of his Church; in the cure of God’s broken law, and the indignation which became justly due thereon. And thus the Lord Jesus explains it. As the type was lifted up that the dying Israelite might look with an eye of hope to it, as God’s own appointed way, and be healed: so now, the thing signified, even Christ himself which is the sole method of redemption, and appointed by Jehovah is lifted up, that the dying sinner might look to Him with an eye of faith, and be saved. Isa 45:22 . I hope that the Reader will be led by the Holy Ghost to enjoy with me the blessedness of this subject, explained as it is to the Church, by the Lord Jesus himself.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Ver. 9. How can these things be? ] Christ had told him that the manner of the Spirit’s working is incomprehensible, and yet he is at it, How can these things be? Sed scribo haec frustra (saith Luther in a certain letter of his to Melancthon) quia tu secundum philosophiam vestram, has res ratione regere, hoc est, ut ille ait, cum ratione insanire pergis.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
9. ] The question of Nicodemus is evidently still one of unbelief, though no longer of frivolity: see Joh 3:12 .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 3:9 . This explanation did not satisfy Nicodemus. He falls back upon his bewilderment, ; This question stirs Jesus to a fuller explanation, which is reported in Joh 3:10-15 .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Joh 3:9-15
9Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?” 10Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? 11Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. 12If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man 1:14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.
Joh 3:9-10 Nicodemus should have understood Jesus’ symbolic terminology in light of (1) Judaism’s proselyte baptism and (2) John the Baptist’s preaching.
This may have been a purposeful downplaying of human knowledge; even someone like Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, did not fully understand spiritual things. John’s Gospel was written to combat incipient Gnosticism, a heresy that emphasized human knowledge as a means of salvation. Only Jesus is the true light (cf. Joh 3:19) for all, not just an elite group.
Joh 3:11 “we speak of what we know” These plural pronouns refer to Jesus and John the Apostle (cf. Joh 3:11) or Jesus and the Father, which fits the context better (Joh 3:12). The gospel is not speculation, but divine revelation!
“you do not accept our testimony” John often uses the terms accept/receive (lamban) and its prepositional compounds in a theological sense.
1. of receiving Jesus
a. negatively (Joh 1:11; Joh 3:11; Joh 3:32; Joh 5:43; Joh 5:47)
b. positively (Joh 1:12; Joh 3:11; Joh 3:33; Joh 5:43; Joh 13:20)
2. of receiving the Spirit
a. negatively (Joh 14:17)
b. positively (Joh 7:39)
3. of receiving Jesus’ words
a. negatively (Joh 12:48)
b. positively (Joh 17:8)
See SPECIAL TOPIC: WITNESSES TO JESUS at Joh 1:8.
Joh 3:12 “If. . .if” The first one is a first class conditional sentence, which is assumed to be true from the author’s perspective or for his literary purposes. The second one is a third class conditional sentence which meant potential action.
“you” The pronoun and the verbs are plural. Nicodemus may have had students or other Pharisees with him as he came to Jesus, or this could be a general statement (i.e., Nicodemus as a representative of a group) to all unbelieving Jews like Joh 3:7; Joh 3:11.
Joh 3:13 This verse is intended to confirm Jesus’ revelation of the Father as true, complete, firsthand, and unique (cf. Joh 1:1-14). This is another example of the vertical dualism in John: heaven versus earth, physical versus spiritual, Nicodemus’ origin versus Jesus’ origin (cf. Joh 1:51; Joh 6:33; Joh 6:38; Joh 6:41; Joh 6:50-51; Joh 6:58; Joh 6:62). This verse asserts (1) the deity; (2) the pre-existence; and (3) the incarnation of the eternal Second Person of the Trinity (for Trinity see Special Topic at Joh 14:26).
“the Son of Man” This is Jesus’ self-designation; it had no nationalistic, militaristic, Messianic implications in first century Judaism. The term comes from Eze 2:1 and Psa 8:4 ,where it meant “human being” and Dan 7:13 where it implied deity. The term combines the paradox of Jesus’ person, fully God and fully man (cf. 1Jn 4:1-3).
Joh 3:14-21 It is difficult to know for certain where Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus stops and Jesus’ or John the Apostle’s later comments begin. It is possible that the Synoptic Gospels record Jesus’ public teaching ministry, while John records His private sessions with His disciples. Joh 3:14-21 can be outlined as follows.
1. Joh 3:14-15 relate to Jesus
2. Joh 3:16-17 relate to the Father
3. Joh 3:18-21 relate to mankind
Remember that whether it is Jesus or John does not affect the truth of the statements!
Joh 3:14 “As Moses lifted up the serpent” This is a reference to Num 21:4-9 which narrates an experience of judgment during the Wilderness Wandering Period. The central truth is that humans must trust and obey God’s word, even when they do not fully understand it. God provided a way for the Israelites to be saved from the snake bites if they would only believe. This belief was evidenced by their obedience to His word/promise (cf. Num 21:8).
“lifted” This Greek word (cf. Joh 8:28; Joh 12:32; Joh 12:34) was often translated “highly exalted” (cf. Act 2:33; Act 5:31; Php 2:9) and is another term John uses in two senses (double entendre, cf. Joh 1:5; Joh 3:3; Joh 3:8). As God promised deliverance from death by snake bite to those who believed God’s word and looked at the bronze serpent, so, too those who believe God’s word (the gospel about Christ, the One lifted up on the cross) and trust in Jesus will be delivered (saved) from the snake (Devil, sin) bite of evil (cf. Joh 12:31-32).
Joh 3:15-18 “whoever” (Joh 3:15) “whoever” (Joh 3:16) “He who” (Joh 3:18) God’s love is an invitation to all mankind (cf. Isa 55:1-3; Eze 18:23; Eze 18:32; Joh 1:29; Joh 3:16; Joh 6:33; Joh 6:51; 2Co 5:19; 1Ti 2:4; 1Ti 4:10; Tit 2:11; 2Pe 3:9; 1Jn 2:2; 1Jn 4:14). The offer of salvation is universal, but its acceptance is not!
Joh 3:15 “believes” This is a present active participle. Belief is an ongoing trust. See note at Joh 1:12 and Special Topics at Joh 1:7; Joh 2:23.
“in Him” This refers not only to facts (theological truths) about Jesus, but to a personal relationship with Him. Salvation is (1) a message to be believed; (2) a person to be received and obeyed; and (3) a life like that person to live!
The grammatical form here is unusual. It is the pronoun with the preposition en which is only found here in John; usually it is the preposition eis. It is just possible that it should be related to “may have eternal life” (cf. The New Testament in Basic English by Harold Greenlee).
Joh 3:15-16 “eternal life” This Greek term (zo ) referred to quality and quantity (cf. Joh 5:24). In Mat 25:46 the same word is used for eternal separation. In John zo (used 33 times, mostly in chapters 5 and 6) usually (the verb used of physical life, i.e., Joh 4:50-51; Joh 4:53) refers to resurrection, eschatological life, or the life of the New Age, the life of God Himself.
John is unique among the Gospels in his emphasis on “eternal life.” It is a major theme and goal of his Gospel (cf. Joh 3:15; Joh 4:36; Joh 5:39; Joh 6:54; Joh 6:68; Joh 10:28; Joh 12:25; Joh 17:2-3).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
these things. See Jer 31:33; Jer 32:39. Eze 11:19; Eze 18:31; Eze 36:25-27. Psa 51:10.
be = come to pass. Reference to Joh 3:4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
9.] The question of Nicodemus is evidently still one of unbelief, though no longer of frivolity: see Joh 3:12.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 3:9
Joh 3:9
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?-He seems not to readily take in how one must be born to enter the kingdom of God. He considered himself already in the kingdom of God. He thought he had been born into it by fleshly birth as a member of the family of Abraham. So he asked, How can these things be?
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Loves Great Gift: Received or Rejected
Joh 3:9-21
Though physically on earth, our Lord was spiritually in touch with the heavenly realities. He was living among them and bore witness to them. Notice that must, Joh 3:14. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, and the divine purpose of redemption would fail unless He fulfilled His part in the eternal compact. That which had been resolved upon before the foundations of the hills were laid must be carried out in all its terrible detail. He must be accounted as a sin offering, and go forth as a scapegoat. He must tread the winepress alone, and pour out His soul unto death. Yet He was not rebellious, nor did He turn back. He rejoiced to do the Fathers will. For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the Cross.
Redemption originated in Gods great love. Notice the pairs in Joh 3:16 : God and the Son; loved and gave; the world and whosoever; believe and have; not perish but have life. The judgment is already in process, and the turning point with each who has known the gospel will be his attitude toward the light he has enjoyed. Evil men avoid the light, as an inflamed eye the sun. No true heart fears Christ, and on coming to Him it discovers that unconsciously it has been wrought upon by God.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
How: Joh 3:4, Joh 6:52, Joh 6:60, Pro 4:18, Isa 42:16, Mar 8:24, Mar 8:25, Luk 1:34
Reciprocal: Jos 7:26 – So the Lord Joh 7:36 – manner Joh 9:10 – General Joh 14:22 – how 1Co 15:35 – How 1Ti 1:7 – understanding
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE PUZZLED INQUIRER
How can these things be?
Joh 3:9
In the interview between our Lord and Nicodemus, we have an early instance of difficulties of belief in a candid and thoughtful mind. The question contained in the text has often been repeated since with the same cautious timidity, and the same hesitating acquiescence with respect to the Christian verities.
I. There is a striking resemblance between the methods of religious inquiry of Nicodemus and the people of the twentieth century.With him the difficulties of faith were prospective; with us they are retrospective. But then, as now, unworthy compromise in the place of courage leads to much vacillating uncertainty in religious thought, and this produces a want of thoroughness and completeness in the religious life; for unsteady conduct is almost sure to follow on infirm convictions. Unless a radical change takes place by Divine influence in the modes of thinking and feeling on religious subjects, the standpoint of seekers after God will remain to be that of fruitless questioning, How can these things be? when no answer is expected where a negative is implied, when, from want of energy and earnest persistence, the true answer is never found. Discovery of truth is impossible when prejudice in favour of uncertainty prevents further search in the inquirer.
II. But the hesitation of Nicodemus forms another instructive aspect of his personality.He is ready to make some admissions favourable to religion, but he does so with considerable reserve. To gain time, he asks questions which savour after intentional misapprehension. For example, How can a man be born when he is old? etc. He will not see the spiritual and deeper significance of the words of Christ, and accepts them only in their bare literal import. Just so candid unbelievers in the present day are but too often satisfied in attacking the weak outworks of the Christian system (as Christian apologists often think they have proved the truth when they have merely upset a false theory of their opponents), and thereby feel themselves justified in remaining in a condition of mental suspense, leaving the ultimate decision as to the acceptance or rejection of the Christian scheme in abeyance, whilst waiting for a less faulty presentation of it on the part of its official advocates. In this way much of precious time and mental tissue are wasted in frivolous wrangling and sophistical hair-splitting concerning terms and phrases.
III. We may imagine the strange transformation in modes of thought and feeling wrought in Nicodemus during that night interview with our Lord, and the mingled feelings of satisfied wonder and discontent with self with which he left at break of day with a new light dawning on his soul. The master in Israel had changed much, even then when began, unconscious to himself, the career of his discipleship of Him Whom he acknowledged as the great Master sent from God. So the presence of Christ in modern life, constant intercourse with Christ in His teaching, may now lead men by degrees from uncertainty to knowledge in Divine things.
Rev. M. Kaufmann.
Illustration
After all the claims of scepticism are acknowledged, a wide margin is left for provisional belief (as opposed to provisional unbelief on principle).
There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds,
says the author of the In Memoriam; hut describing in the same stanza the experience of one perplexed in faith, he adds
He fought his doubts and gatherd strength,
He would not make his judgment blind,
He faced the spectres of the mind,
And laid them: thus he came at length
To find a stronger faith his own:
And power was with him in the night,
Which makes the darkness and the light,
And dwells not in the light alone.
This, too, we think, is the experience of every honest doubter who will not rest satisfied until he has arrived at some conclusion. The danger lies in inconclusive debate, which leads nowhither. If we are not afraid of the light of truth, it will come to us in broken raysperhaps, as Lord Bacon says, all human truth is arrived ator we shall turn to it, dazzled or dazed, though it be sooner or later, as the case may be. Purity of motive is the best equipment for this voyage of discovery.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
9
Nicodemus was still confused about the subject in general. It is as if he said, “I do not see how all of this can be, or what the action of the wind has to do with the Spirit in the new birth.”
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
WE have in these verses the second part of the conversation between our Lord Jesus Christ and Nicodemus. A lesson about regeneration is closely followed by a lesson about justification! The whole passage ought always to be read with affectionate reverence. It contains words which have brought eternal life to myriads of souls.
These verses show us, firstly, what gross spiritual ignorance there may be in the mind of a great and learned man. We see a “master of Israel” unacquainted with the first elements of saving religion. Nicodemus is told about the new birth, and at once exclaims, “How can these things be?” When such was the darkness of a Jewish teacher, what must have been the state of the Jewish people? It was indeed due time for Christ to appear! The pastors of Israel had ceased to feed the people with knowledge. The blind were leading the blind, and both were falling into the ditch. (Mat 15:14.)
Ignorance like that of Nicodemus is unhappily far too common in the Church of Christ. We must never be surprised if we find it in quarters where we might reasonably expect knowledge. Learning, and rank, and high ecclesiastical office are no proof that a minister is taught by the Spirit. The successors of Nicodemus, in every age, are far more numerous than the successors of Peter. On no point is religious ignorance so common as on the work of the Holy Ghost. That old stumbling-block, at which Nicodemus stumbled, is as much an offence to thousands in the present day as it was in the days of Christ. “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” (1Co 2:14.) Happy is he who has been taught to prove all things by Scripture, and to call no man master upon earth. (1Th 5:21; Mat 23:9.)
These verses show us, secondly, the original source from which man’s salvation springs. That source is the love of God the Father. Our Lord says to Nicodemus, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
This wonderful verse has been justly called by Luther, “The Bible in miniature.” No part of it, perhaps, is so deeply important as the first five words, “God so loved the world.” The love here spoken of is not that special love with which the Father regards His own elect, but that mighty pity and compassion with which He regards the whole race of mankind. Its object is not merely the little flock which He has given to Christ from all eternity, but the whole “world” of sinners, without any exception. There is a deep sense in which God loves that world. All whom He has created He regards with pity and compassion. Their sins He cannot love;-but He loves their souls. “His tender mercies are over all His works.” (Psa 145:9.) Christ is God’s gracious gift to the whole world.
Let us take heed that our views of the love of God are Scriptural and well-defined. The subject is one on which error abounds on either side.-On the one hand we must beware of vague and exaggerated opinions. We must maintain firmly that God hates wickedness, and that the end of all who persist in wickedness will be destruction. It is not true that God’s love is “lower than hell.” It is not true that God so loved the world that all mankind will be finally saved, but that He so loved the world that He gave His Son to be the Savior of all who believe. His love is offered to all men freely, fully, honestly, and unreservedly, but it is only through the one channel of Christ’s redemption. He that rejects Christ cuts himself off from God’s love, and will perish everlastingly.-On the other hand, we must beware of narrow and contracted opinions. We must not hesitate to tell any sinner that God loves him. It is not true that God cares for none but His own elect, or that Christ is not offered to any but those who are ordained to eternal life. There is a “kindness and love” in God towards all mankind. It was in consequence of that love that Christ came into the world, and died upon the cross. Let us not be wise above that which is written, or more systematic in our statements than Scripture itself. God has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God is not willing that any should perish. God would have all men to be saved. God loves the world. (Joh 6:32; Tit 3:4; 1Jn 4:10; 2Pe 3:9; 1Ti 2:4; Eze 33:11.)
These verses show us, thirdly, the peculiar plan by which the love of God has provided salvation for sinners. That plan is the atoning death of Christ on the cross. Our Lord says to Nicodemus, “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.”
By being “lifted up,” our Lord meant nothing less than His own death upon the cross. That death, He would have us know, was appointed by God to be “the life of the world.” (Joh 6:51.) It was ordained from all eternity to be the great propitiation and satisfaction for man’s sin. It was the payment, by an Almighty Substitute and Representative, of man’s enormous debt to God. When Christ died upon the cross, our many sins were laid upon Him. He was made “sin” for us. He was made “a curse” for us. (2Co 5:21; Gal 3:13.) By His death He purchased pardon and complete redemption for sinners. The brazen serpent, lifted up in the camp of Israel, brought health and cure within the reach of all who were bitten by serpents. Christ crucified, in like manner, brought eternal life within reach of lost mankind. Christ has been lifted up on the cross, and man looking to Him by faith may be saved.
The truth before us is the very foundation-stone of the Christian religion. Christ’s death is the Christian’s life. Christ’s cross is the Christian’s title to heaven. Christ “lifted up” and put to shame on Calvary is the ladder by which Christians “enter into the holiest,” and are at length landed in glory. It is true that we are sinners;-but Christ has suffered for us. It is true that we deserve death;-but Christ has died for us. It is true that we are guilty debtors;-but Christ has paid our debts with His own blood. This is the real Gospel! This is the good news! On this let us lean while we live. To this let us cling when we die. Christ has been “lifted up” on the cross, and has thrown open the gates of heaven to all believers.
These verses show us, fourthly, the way in which the benefits of Christ’s death are made our own. That way is simply to put faith and trust in Christ. Faith is the same thing as believing. Three times our Lord repeats this glorious truth to Nicodemus. Twice He proclaims that “whosoever believeth shall not perish.” Once He says, “He that believeth on the Son of God is not condemned.”
Faith in the Lord Jesus is the very key of salvation. He that has it has life, and he that has it not has not life. Nothing whatever beside this faith is necessary to our complete justification; but nothing whatever, except this faith, will give us an interest in Christ. We may fast and mourn for sin, and do many things that are right, and use religious ordinances, and give all our goods to feed the poor, and yet remain unpardoned, and lose our souls.-But if we will only come to Christ as guilty sinners, and believe on Him, our sins shall at once be forgiven, and our iniquities shall be entirely put away. Without faith there is no salvation; but through faith in Jesus, the vilest sinner may be saved.
If we would have a peaceful conscience in our religion, let us see that our views of saving faith are distinct and clear. Let us beware of supposing that justifying faith is anything more than a sinner’s simple trust in a Savior, the grasp of a drowning man on the hand held out for his relief.-Let us beware of mingling anything else with faith in the matter of justification. Here we must always remember faith stands entirely alone. A justified man, no doubt, will always be a holy man. True believing will always be accompanied by godly living. But that which gives a man an interest in Christ, is not his living, but his faith. If we would know whether our faith is genuine, we do well to ask ourselves how we are living. But if we would know whether we are justified by Christ, there is but one question to be asked. That question is, “Do we believe?”
These verses show us, lastly, the true cause of the loss of man’s soul. Our Lord says to Nicodemus, “This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
The words before us form a suitable conclusion to the glorious tidings which we have just been considering. They completely clear God of injustice in the condemnation of sinners. They show in simple and unmistakable terms, that although man’s salvation is entirely of God, his ruin, if he is lost, will be entirely from himself. He will reap the fruit of his own sowing.
The doctrine here laid down ought to be carefully remembered. It supplies an answer to a common cavil of the enemies of God’s truth. There is no decreed reprobation, excluding any one from heaven. “God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” There is no unwillingness on God’s part to receive any sinner, however great his sins. God has sent “light” into the world, and if man will not come to the light, the fault is entirely on man’s side. His blood will be on his own head, if he makes shipwreck of his soul. The blame will be at his own door, if he misses heaven. His eternal misery will be the result of his own choice. His destruction will be the work of his own hand. God loved him, and was willing to save him; but he “loved darkness,” and therefore darkness must be his everlasting portion. He would not come to Christ, and therefore he could not have life. (Joh 5:40.)
The truths we have been considering are peculiarly weighty and solemn. Do we live as if we believed them?-Salvation by Christ’s death is close to us to-day. Have we embraced it by faith, and made it our own?-Let us never rest till we know Christ as our own Savior. Let us look to Him without delay for pardon and peace, if we have never looked before. Let us go on believing on Him, if we have already believed. “Whosoever,” is His own gracious word,-“whosoever believeth on Him, shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
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Notes-
v9.-[Nicodemus answered…how…these things be?] This is the third and last time that Nicodemus speaks during his visit to Christ, so far as it is reported to us. His question here is a striking and instructive instance of the deep spiritual ignorance which may be found in the mind of a learned man. In four different ways our Lord had brought before him one and the same lesson. First, He had laid down the great principle that every man must be “born again.”-Secondly, He had repeated the same thing in fuller words, and brought in the idea of “water,” to illustrate the work of the Spirit.-Thirdly, he had shown the necessity of the new birth, from the natural corruption of man.-Fourthly, He had illustrated the work of the Spirit a second time by the instance of the “wind.” And yet now, after all that our Lord has said, this learned Pharisee seems utterly in the dark, and asks the pitiable question, “How can these things be?” We have no right to be surprised at the vast ignorance of saving religion which we see on all sides, when we consider the history of Nicodemus. We should make up our minds to expect to find spiritual darkness the rule, and spiritual light the exception. Few things in the long run give so much trouble to ministers, missionaries, teachers, and district-visitors, as beginning work with extravagant and unscriptural expectations.
v10.-[Jesus answered and said.] It will be observed, that our Lord does not answer the question of Nicodemus directly, but rebukes him sharply for his ignorance. Yet it ought to be carefully noted, as Melancthon remarks, that before He concludes what He now begins to say, He supplies a complete answer to His inquirer. He shows him the true root and spring of regeneration, namely, faith in Himself. He answers his groping inquiry, “How can these things be?” by showing him the first step in saving religion, viz., to believe in the Son of God. Let Nicodemus begin like a little child, by simply believing on Him who was to be lifted up on the cross, and he would soon understand “how” a man could be born again, even in his old age.
[Art thou a master of Israel.] The English version of this question hardly gives the full force of the original. It should be literally rendered, “Art thou the master of Israel?” i.e., “Art thou the famous teacher and instructor of the Jews?” “Dost thou profess to be a light of them that sit in darkness, and an instructor of others?”-The expression certainly seems to indicate that Nicodemus was a man of established reputation as a teacher among the Pharisees. When the teachers were so ignorant, what must have been the state of the taught?
[Knowest not these things.] These words unquestionably imply rebuke. The things which our Lord had just mentioned, Nicodemus ought to have known and understood. He professed to be a religious teacher. He professed to know the Old Testament Scriptures. The doctrine, therefore, of the necessity of a new birth ought not to have appeared strange to him. “A clean heart,-circumcision of the heart,-a new heart,-a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone,” were expressions and ideas which he must have read in the prophets, and which all pointed towards the new birth. (Psa 51:10; Jer 4:4; Eze 18:31; Eze 36:26.) His ignorance consequently was deserving of blame.
The verse before us appears to me to supply a strong argument against the idea that the expression, “born of water and the Spirit” means baptism. I do not see how Nicodemus could possibly have known this doctrine, as it is nowhere revealed in the Old Testament, and even its own advocates confine it to New Testament times. To blame a man for not knowing “things” which he could not possibly know, would be obviously most unjust, and entirely at variance with the general tenor of our Lord’s dealings.
v11.-[We speak that we do know, &c.] Whom does our Lord mean here when He says “we”? The answers to this question are various.
(a.) Some think, as Luther, Brentius, Bucer, Gualter, Aretius, Hutcheson, Musculus, Gomarus, Piscator, and Cartwright, that “we” means, “I and John the Baptist.”
(b.) Some think, as Calvin, Beza, and Scott, that it means, “I and the Old Testament prophets.”
(c.) Some think, as Alcuin, (according to Maldonatus,) and Wesley, that it means, “I and all who are born of the Spirit.”
(d.) Some think, as Chrysostom, Cyril, Rupertus, Calovius, Glassius, Chemnitius, Lampe, Leigh, Nifanius, Cornelius Lapide, Cocceius, Stier and Bengel, that it means either, “I and the Father,”-or “I and the Holy Ghost,”-or “I and both the Father and the Spirit.”
(e.) Some think, as Theophylact, Zwingle, Poole, and Doddridge, that our Lord only means Himself when He says “we,” and that He uses the plural number in order to give weight and dignity to what He says, as kings do. So also He says, “Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?” (Mar 4:30.) “We,” in that text, evidently stands for “I.”-In John’s First Epistle, the first person plural is used instead of the singular repeatedly in the first five verses of the first chapter.
The last of these five opinions appears to me by far the most probable and satisfactory.-The three first seem to me to be entirely overthrown by John the Baptist’s words in this chapter, (Joh 3:32,) where he mentions it as a peculiar mark of our Lord’s superiority to all other teachers, that “He testifieth what He hath seen and heard.”-The fourth opinion appears to me untenable. The fear of Socinianism must not make us wrest texts in ordor to apply them to the Trinity. There is a fitness in our Lord’s saying, during His earthly ministry, after His incarnation, “I speak and testify what I have known and seen from all eternity with my Father.” But there is no apparent fitness in saying that He and the two other Persons in the Trinity “speak what they have seen.”
The meaning of the sentence appears to be this, “I declare with authority, and bear witness to truths, which from all eternity I have known and seen, as God in union with the Father and the Holy Ghost. I do not speak (as all merely human ministers must) what I have been taught by others. I do not testify things which I have received as God’s servant, as ordinary prophets have, and which I should not have known without God’s inspiration. I testify what I have seen with my Father, and knew before the world began.” It is like the expression, “I speak that which I have seen with my Father.” (Joh 8:38.)
Melancthon thinks that our Lord, in this verse, contrasts the uncertain traditions and human inventions which the Pharisees taught, with the sure, certain, and irrefragable truths of God, which he came to preach.
Bucer remarks that the verse contains a practical lesson for all religious teachers. No man has a right to teach, unless he is thoroughly persuaded of the truth of what he teaches.
[Ye receive not our witness.] This sentence corresponds so exactly with John the Baptist’s words, at Joh 3:32, that it confirms me in the opinion that our Lord, in this verse, only speaks of Himself. The words before us, as well as those of John the Baptist, must be taken with some qualification: “The greater part of you receive not our testimony.”-The object of the verse is to rebuke the unbelief of Nicodemus and all who were like-minded with him among the Jews. The use of the plural number “ye,” makes it probable that our Lord in this verse refers not merely to what He had just been saying to Nicodemus, but to all His public teaching at Jerusalem, from the time of His casting out the buyers and sellers in the temple. If we do not adopt this theory, we must suppose Him to mean, “What I have spoken and testified to you about regeneration, is what I continually say to all who come, like you, to inquire of me; and yet neither you nor they believe what I say. You all alike stumble at this stumbling-stone, the new birth.”
Calvin remarks on this expression, that we ought never to be surprised at unbelief. If men would not receive Christ’s testimony, it is no wonder if they will not receive ours.
v12.-[If I have told…earthly…heavenly things?] To see the full force of this verse, we should paraphrase it thus. “If ye do not believe what I say when I tell you, as I have done, things that are earthly, how will you believe if I go on, as I shall do, to tell you of things that are heavenly? If you will not believe when ye hear my first lesson, what will ye do when ye hear my second? If ye are stumbled at the very alphabet of my Gospel, what will ye do when I proceed to show you higher and deeper truths?”
The difficulty of the verse lies in the two expressions, “earthly things” and “heavenly things.” Our Lord does not explain them, and we are therefore left to conjecture their true meaning.-I offer the following explanation with some diffidence, as the most satisfactory one.
By “earthly things ” I believe our Lord means the doctrine of the “new birth,” which He had just been expounding to Nicodemus. By “heavenly things” I believe He means the great and solemn truths which he was immediately about to declare, and which he does declare in rapid succession from this verse down to the end of the conversation.-These truths were His own divinity,-the plan of redemption by His own death on the cross,-the love of God to the whole world, and His consequent provision of salvation,-faith in the Son of God as the only way to escape hell,-and man’s wilful rejection of light, the only cause of man’s condemnation.
But why does our Lord call the new birth an “earthly thing”? I reply that He does so, because it is an “earthly” thing compared with His own divinity and atonement. Regeneration is a thing that takes place in man, here upon earth. The atonement is a transaction that was done for man, and of which the special effect is on man’s position before God in heaven. In regeneration God comes down to man, and dwells in him Upon earth. In the atonement Christ takes up man’s nature as man’s representative, and as man’s forerunner goes up into heaven.-Regeneration is a change of which even the men of this world have some faint inkling, and which can be illustrated by such earthly figures as water and wind. Almost every one allows, as Bucer remarks, that he is not so good as he should be, and that he needs some change to fit him for heaven. Christ’s divinity, and the incarnation, and the atonement, and justification by faith, are such high and heavenly things that man has no natural conception of them.-Regeneration is so far an “earthly” idea that even irreligious men borrow the word, and talk of regenerating nations, and society. Salvation by faith in Christ’s blood is so entirely a “heavenly thing,” that it is constantly misunderstood, hated, and sneered at by unconverted men.-When therefore our Lord calls the new birth an “earthly thing,” we must understand that he does so comparatively. In itself the new birth is a high, holy, and “heavenly thing.” But compared with the doctrine of the incarnation and the atonement, it is an “earthly thing.”
v13.-[And no man hath ascended, &c.] This verse, according to my view, contains the first “heavenly thing” which our Lord displays to Nicodemus. But the sentence is undeniably a difficult one, and commentators differ widely as to its meaning.
Some think, as Calvin. Musculus, Bullinger, Hutcheson, Poole, Quesnel, Schottgen, Dyke, Lightfoot, Leigh, Doddridge, A. Clarke, and Stier, that our Lord here shows to Nicodemus, in highly figurative language, the necessity of divine teaching, in order to understand spiritual truth.-“No child of Adam has ever reached the lofty mysteries of heaven, and made himself acquainted with its high and holy truths, by his own natural understanding. Such knowledge is only possessed by the incarnate Saviour, the Son of man, who has come down from heaven. If you would know spiritual truth, you must sit at His feet, and learn of Him.” This view of the text is supported by Pro 30:3-4. According to this view, the verse must be taken in close connection with the preceding one, where the ignorance of Nicodemus is exposed.
Some think, as Zwingle, Melancthon, Brentius, Aretius, Flacius, and Ferus, that our Lord here shows to Nicodemus, (and again in highly figurative language,) the impossibility of human merit, and the utter inability of man justifying himself, and obtaining an entrance into heaven by his own righteousness.-“No one can possibly ascend into God’s presence in heaven, and stand perfect and complete before Him, except the incarnate Saviour, who has come down from heaven to fulfil all righteousness. I am the way to heaven. If you would enter heaven, you must believe on the Son of man, and become a member of His body by faith.”-This view of the text appeals for support to Rom 10:6-9. According to this view, the verse must be taken in close connection with the following verse, in which the way of justification is explained.
The true view of the text, I venture to think, is as follows. The words of the text are to be taken literally. Our Lord begins His list of “heavenly things” by declaring to Nicodemus His own divine nature and dignity, He reminds him that no one has ever ascended literally into that heaven where God dwells. Enoch, and Elijah, and David, for instance, were doubtless in a place of bliss, when they left this world, but they had not “ascended into heaven.” (Act 2:34.) But that which no man, not even the holiest saint, had attained, was the right and prerogative of Him in whose company Nicodemus was. The Son of man had dwelt from all eternity in heaven, had come down from heaven, would one day ascend again into heaven, and in His divine nature was actually in heaven, one with God the Father, at that very moment.-“Know who it is to whom you are speaking. I am not merely a teacher come from God, as you say. I am the Messiah, the Son of man, foretold by Daniel. I have come down from heaven, according to promise, to save sinners. I shall one day ascend again into heaven, as the victorious forerunner of a saved people. Above all, I am as God in heaven at this moment. I am He who fills heaven and earth.”-I prefer this view of the verse to any other, for two reasons. For one thing, it gives a literal meaning to every word in the text. For another, it seems a fitting answer to the first idea which Nicodemus had put forward in the conversation, viz., that our Lord was only “a teacher come from God.” It is the view which is in the main held by Rollock, Calovius, and Gomarus, and expounded by them with much ability.
The Greek word which we render “but,” I am inclined to think, ought to be taken in an adversative rather than in an exceptive sense. Instances of this usage will be found in Mat 12:4; Mar 13:32; Luk 4:26-27; Joh 17:12; Rev 9:4; Rev 21:27. The thought appears to be, “Man has not, and cannot ascend into heaven. But that which man cannot do, I the Son of man can do.”
“Heaven,” throughout this verse, must be taken in the sense of that immediate and peculiar presence of God, which we can conceive of and express in no other form than by the word “heaven.”
The expression “which is in heaven,” deserves particular notice. It is one of those many expressions in the New Testament which can be explained in no other way than by the doctrine of Christ’s divinity. It would be utterly absurd and untrue to say of any mere man, that at the very time he was speaking to another on earth he was in heaven! But it can be said of Christ with perfect truth and propriety. He never ceased to be very God, when He became incarnate. He was “with God and was God.” As God He was in heaven while He was speaking to Nicodemus.
The expression is one which no Socinian can explain away. If Christ was only a very holy man and nothing more, He could not have used these words. The Socinian explanation of the former part of the verse, viz., that Christ was caught up into heaven after His baptism, and there instructed about the Gospel He was to teach, would be of itself utterly absurd, and a mere theory invented to get over a difficulty. But the conclusion of the verse is a blow at the very root of the Socinian system. It is written not only that Christ “came down from heaven,” but that “he is in heaven.”
It admits of a question whether the Greek words which we translate “which is,” do not, both here and in Joh 1:18, point to that peculiar name of Jehovah, which was doubtless familiar to Nicodemus, “The ever existing One; the living One.” It is the same phrase which forms part of Christ’s name in Revelation, “Him which is.” (Rev 1:4.)
Much of the difficulty of the verse is removed by remembering that the past tense, “hath ascended,” admits of being rendered with equal grammatical correctness, “does ascend, can ascend, or will ascend.” Pearce takes this view, and quotes in support of it Joh 1:26; Joh 3:18; Joh 5:24; Joh 6:69; Joh 11:27; Joh 20:29.
Whitby thinks that throughout this verse our Lord has in view a Rabbinical tradition, that Moses had been into heaven to receive the law,-and that He declares the falsehood of this tradition by saying, “no man, not even Moses, has ascended into heaven.”
v14.-[As Moses lifted…serpent…so must, &c., &c.] In this verse our Lord proceeds to show Nicodemus another “heavenly thing,” viz., the necessity of His own crucifixion. Nicodemus probably thought, like most Jews, that when Messiah appeared, He would come with power and glory, to be exalted and honoured by men. Jesus tells him that so far from this being the case, Messiah must be “cut off” at His first advent, and put to an open shame by being hanged on a tree. He illustrates this by a well-known event in the history of Israel’s wanderings, the story of the brazen serpent. (Num 21:9.) “Are you expecting me to take to myself power and to restore the kingdom of Israel? Cast away such a vain expectation. I have come to do very different work. I have come to suffer, and to offer up myself as a sacrifice for sin.”
The mention of Moses, of whom the Pharisees thought so much, was eminently calculated to arrest the attention of Nicodemus. “Even Moses, in whom ye trust, has supplied a most vivid type of my great work on earth-the crucifixion.”
[The Son of Man must be lifted up.] The expression “Son of Man” was doubtless intended to remind Nicodemus of Daniel’s prophecy of the Messiah.-The Greek word rendered “must,” signifies ”it behooveth that,” “it is necessary that.” It is necessary in order that God’s promises of a Redeemer may be fulfilled,-the types of the Old Testament sacrifices be accomplished,-the law of God be satisfied,-and a way for God’s mercy be provided. In order to all this Messiah must suffer in our stead. The phrase “lifted up,” appears to me most decidedly to mean “lifted up on the cross.” For one thing we find it so explained in this Gospel. (Joh 12:32-33.) For another the illustration of the brazen serpent makes it absolutely necessary to explain it so. To apply the phrase, as Calvin and others do, to the “necessity of lifting up and exalting Christ’s atonement in Christian teaching,” seems to me a mistake. It is needlessly dragging in an idea which the words were not intended to convey. It is truth no doubt, and truth abundantly taught in Scripture, but not the truth of this text.
The main points of resemblance in the comparison,-“As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,”-form a subject which requires careful handling. The lifting up of the serpent of brass for the relief of Israel when bitten by serpents, is evidently selected by our Lord as an apt illustration of His own crucifixion for sinners. But how far may we press this illustration? Where are we to stop? What are the exact points at which the type and antitype meet? These questions require consideration.
Some see a meaning in the “brass” of which the serpent was made, as a shining metal, a strong metal, &c., &c. I cannot see it. Our Lord does not even mention the brass.
Some see in the “serpent” hanging on the pole, a type of the devil, the old serpent, bruised by Christ’s death on the cross, and openly triumphed over on it. (Col 2:15.) I cannot see this at all. It appears to me to confound and mingle up two Scriptural truths, which ought to be kept distinct. Moreover, there is something revolting in the idea, that in order to be healed, the Israelite had to look at a figure of the devil.
Some see in “Moses” lifting up the serpent, a type of the law of God requiring payment of its demands, and becoming the cause of Christ dying on the cross. On this I will content myself with saying that I am not satisfied that this idea was in Christ’s mind.
The points of resemblance appear to me to be these,-
(a.) As the Israelites were in sore distress, and dying from the bites of poisonous serpents, so is man in great spiritual danger, and dying from the poisonous effects of sin.
(b.) As the serpent of brass was lifted up on a pole in the sight of the camp of Israel, so Christ was to be lifted up on the cross publicly, and in the sight of the whole nation, at the Passover.
(c.) As the serpent, lifted up on the pole, was an image of the very thing which had poisoned the Israelites, even so Christ had in Himself no sin, and yet was made and crucified ”in the likeness of sinful flesh,” and counted sin. (Rom 8:3.) The brazen serpent was a serpent without poison, and Christ, was a man without sin. The thing which we should specially see in Christ crucified, is our sin laid upon Him, and Him counted as a sinner, and treated as a sinner, and punished as a sinner, for our redemption. In fact we see on the cross our sins punished, crucified, borne, and carried by our Redeemer.
(d.) Finally, as the one way by which Israelites obtained relief from the brazen serpent, was by looking at it, so the one way to get benefit from Christ, is to look at him by faith. The feeblest look brought cure to an Israelite, and the weakest faith, if true and sincere, brings salvation to sinners.
It should be carefully noted, that it seems impossible to reconcile this verse with that modern divinity which can see nothing in Christ’s death but a great act of self-sacrifice, and which denies Christ’s substitution for us on the cross, and the imputation of our sins to Him. Such divinity withers up such a verse as this entirely, and cuts out the life, heart, and marrow of its meaning. Unless words are most violently wrested from their ordinary signification, the illustration before us points directly towards two great truths of the Gospel. One of them is that Christ’s death upon the cross was meant to have a medicinal, health-conferring effect upon our souls, and that there was something in it far above a mere martyr’s example. The other truth is, that when Christ died upon the cross, He was dealt with as our Substitute and Representative, and punished, through the imputation of our sins, in our place. The thing that Israel saw on the pole, and from which they got health, was an image of the very serpent that bit them. The object that Christians should see on the cross, is a Divine Person, made sin and a curse for them, and allowing that very sin that has poisoned the world to be imputed to Him, and laid upon His head.-It is easy work to sneer at the words “vicarious sacrifice,” and “imputed merit,” as nowhere to be found in Scripture. But it is not so easy to disprove the fact that the “ideas” are constantly to be met with in the Bible.
The use of the brazen serpent in this verse, as an illustration of Christ’s death and its purpose, must not be abused, and made an excuse for turning every incident of the history of Israel in the wilderness into an allegory. It is very important not to attach an allegorical meaning to Bible facts without authority. Such things as the manna, the smitten rock, and the brazen serpent, are allegorized for us by the Holy Ghost. But where the Holy Ghost has not pointed out any allegory, we ought to be very cautious in our assertions that allegory exists. Bucer’s remarks on this subject deserve reading.
v15.-[That whosoever believeth…not perish…life.] In this verse our Lord declares to Nicodemus the great end and purpose for which the Son of man was to be “lifted up” on the cross, and the way in which the benefits of His crucifixion become our own. In interpreting the verse, we should carefully remember that the comparison of the serpent lifted up in the wilderness must be carried through to the end of the sentence. The Son of man must be lifted up on the cross, that whosoever believeth on Him, or looks to Him by faith, as the Israelites looked to the brazen serpent, should not perish in hell.
The expression “whosoever,” deserves special notice. It might have been equally well translated “every one.” It is intended to show us the width and breadth of Christ’s offers of salvation. They are for “every one,” without exception, that “believeth.”
The expression “believeth in Him,” is deeply important. It describes that one act of man’s soul which is needful to give him an interest in Jesus Christ. It is not a mere belief of the head that there is such a Person as Jesus Christ, and that He is a Saviour. It is a belief of the heart and will. When a person, feeling his desperate need by reason of sin, flees to Jesus Christ, and trusts in Him, leans on Him, and commits his soul entirely to Him as his Saviour and Redeemer, he is said, in the language of the text, to “believe on Him.”-The simpler our views of faith are, the better. The more steadily we keep in view the Israelites looking at the brazen serpent, the more we shall understand the words before us. “Believing” is neither more nor less than heart-looking. Whosoever looked at the brazen serpent was made well, however ill he was, and however feeble his look. Just so, whosoever looks to Jesus by faith, is pardoned, however great his sins may have been, and however feeble his faith.-Did the Israelite look? That was the only question in the matter of being healed from the serpent’s bite.-Does the sinner believe? That is the only question in the matter of being justified and pardoned.-Looking to Moses, or looking to the tabernacle, or looking even to the pole on which the serpent hung, or looking to anything except the brazen serpent, the bitten Israelite would not have been cured. Just so, looking to anything but Christ crucified, however holy the object looked at may be, the sinner cannot be saved.
The expression, “should not perish, but have eternal life,” is peculiarly strong. As the Israelite who looked to the brazen serpent not only did not die of his wounds, but recovered complete health, so the sinner who looks to Jesus not only escapes hell and condemnation, but has a seed of eternal life at once put in his heart, receives a complete title to an eternal life of glory and blessedness in heaven, and enters into that life after death.-The salvation of the Gospel is exceedingly full. It is not merely being pardoned. It is being counted completely righteous, and made a citizen of heaven. It is not merely an escape from hell, but the reception of a title to heaven. It has been well remarked, that the Old Testament generally promised only “length of days,” but the Gospel promises “everlasting life.”
v16.-[For God so loved the world, &c.] Our Lord, in this verse, shows Nicodemus another “heavenly thing.”-Nicodemus probably thought, like many Jews, that God’s purposes of mercy were entirely confined to His chosen people Israel, and that when Messiah appeared, He would appear only for the special benefit of the Jewish nation. Our Lord here declares to him that God loves all the world without any exception, that the Messiah, the only begotten Son of God, is the Father’s gift to the whole family of Adam, and that every one, whether Jew or Gentile, who believes on Him for salvation, may have eternal life.-A more startling declaration to the ears of a rigid Pharisee it is impossible to conceive! A more wonderful verse is not to be found in the Bible! That God should love such a wicked world as this and not hate it,-that He should love it so as to provide salvation-that in order to provide salvation He should give, not an angel, or any created being, but such a priceless gift as His only begotten Son,-that this great salvation should be freely offered to every one that believeth,-all, all this is wonderful indeed! This was indeed a “heavenly thing.”
The words, “God loved the world,” have received two very different interpretations. The importance of the subject in the present day makes it desirable to state both views fully.
Some think, as Hutcheson, Lampe, and Gill, that the “world” here means God’s elect out of every nation, whether Jews or Gentiles, and that the “love” with which God is said to love them is that eternal love with which the elect were loved before creation began, and by which their calling, justification, preservation and final salvation are completely secured.-This view, though supported by many and great divines, does not appear to me to be our Lord’s meaning. For one thing, it seems to me a violent straining of language to confine the word “world” to the elect. “The world” is undoubtedly a name sometimes given to the “wicked” exclusively. But I cannot see that it is a name ever given to the saints.-For another thing, to interpret the word “world” of the elect only is to ignore the distinction which, to my eyes, is plainly drawn in the text between the whole of mankind and those out of mankind who “believe.” If the “world” means only the believing portion of mankind, it would have been quite enough to say, “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that the world should not perish.” But our Lord does not say so. He says, “that whosoever believeth, i. e., that whosoever out of the world believeth.”-Lastly, to confine God’s love to the elect, is taking a harsh and narrow view of God’s character, and fairly lays Christianity open to the modern charges brought against it as cruel and unjust to the ungodly. If God takes no thought for any but his elect, and cares for none beside, how shall God judge the world?-I believe in the electing love of God the Father as strongly as any one. I regard the special love with which God loves the sheep whom He has given to Christ from all eternity, as a most blessed and comfortable truth, and one most cheering and profitable to believers. I only say, that it is not the truth of this text.
The true view of the words, “God loved the world,” I believe to be this. The “world” means the whole race of mankind, both saints and sinners, without any exception. The word, in my opinion, is so used in Joh 1:10, Joh 1:29; Joh 6:33, Joh 6:51; Joh 8:12; Rom 3:19; 2Co 5:19; 1Jn 2:2; 1Jn 4:14. The “love” spoken of is that love of pity and compassion with which God regards all His creatures, and specially regards mankind. It is the same feeling of “love” which appears in Psa 145:9; Eze 33:11; Joh 6:32; Tit 3:4; 1Jn 4:10; 2Pe 3:9; 1Ti 2:4. It is a love unquestionably distinct and separate from the special love with which God regards His saints. It is a love of pity and not of approbation or complaisance. But it is not the less a real love. It is a love which clears God of injustice in judging the world.
I am quite familiar with the objections commonly brought against the theory I have just propounded. I find no weight in them, and am not careful to answer them. Those who confine God’s love exclusively to the elect appear to me to take a narrow and contracted view of God’s character and attributes. They refuse to God that attribute of compassion with which even an earthly father can regard a profligate son, and can offer to him pardon, even though his compassion is despised and his offers refused. I have long come to the conclusion that men may be more systematic in their statements than the Bible, and may be led into grave error by idolatrous veneration of a system. The following quotation from one whom for convenience sake I must call a thorough Calvinist, I mean Bishop Davenant, will show that the view I advocate is not new.
“The general love of God toward mankind is so clearly testified in Holy Scripture, and so demonstrated by the manifold effects of God’s goodness and mercy extended to every particular man in this world, that to doubt thereof were infidelity, and to deny it plain blasphemy.”-Davenant’s Answer to Hoard, p. 1.
“God hateth nothing which Himself created. And yet it is most true that He hateth sin in any creature, and hateth the creature infected with sin, in such manner as hatred may be attributed to God. But for all this He so generally loved mankind, fallen in Adam, that He hath given His only begotten Son, that what sinner soever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And this everlasting life is so provided for man by God, that no decrees of His can bring any man thither without faith and repentance; and no decrees of His can keep any man out who repenteth and believeth. As for the measure of God’s love exhibited in the external effect unto man, it must not be denied that God poureth out His grace more abundantly on some men than on others, and worketh more powerfully and effectually in the hearts of some men than of others, and that out of His alone will and pleasure. But yet, when this more special love is not extended, His less special love is not restrained to outward and temporal mercies, but reacheth to internal and spiritual blessings, even such as will bring men to an eternal blessedness, if their voluntary wickedness hinders not.”-Davenant’s Answer to Hoard, p. 469.
“No divine of the Reformed Church, of sound judgment, will deny a general intention or appointment concerning the salvation of all men individually by the death of Christ, on the condition if they should believe. For the intention or appointment of God is general, and is plainly revealed in holy Scripture, although the absolute and not to be frustrated intention of God concerning the gift of faith and eternal life to some persons, is special, and limited to the elect alone. So I have maintained and do maintain.”-Davenant’s Opinion on the Gallican Controversy.
Calvin observes on this text, “Christ brought life, because the heavenly Father loves the human race, and wishes that they should not perish.” Again he says, “Christ employed the universal term whosoever, both to invite indiscriminately all to partake of life, and to cut off every excuse from unbelievers. Such also is the import of the term world. Though there is nothing in the world that is worthy of God’s favour, yet He shows Himself to be reconciled to the whole world, when He invites all men without exception to the faith of Christ.”
The same view of God’s “love” and the “world,” in this text, is taken by Brentius, Bucer, Calovius, Glassius, Chemnitius, Musculus; Bullinger, Bengel, Nifanius, Dyke, Scott, Henry, and Manton.
The little word “so,” in this verse, has called forth many remarks, on account of its depth of meaning. It doubtless signifies “so greatly, so much, so dearly.” Bishop Sanderson, quoted by Ford, observes, “How much that ‘so’ containeth, no tongue or wit of man can reach: nothing expresseth it better to the life, than the work itself doth.”
[That he gave his only begotten Son.] The gift of Christ, be it here noted, is the result of God’s love to the world, and not the cause. To say that God loves us because Christ died for us, is wretched theology indeed. But to say that Christ came into the world in consequence of the love of God, is scriptural truth.
The expression “he gave,” is a remarkable one. Christ is God the Father’s gift to a lost and sinful world. He was given generally to be the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Friend of sinners,-to make an atonement sufficient for all,-and to provide a redemption large enough for all. To effect this, the Father freely gave Him up to be despised, rejected, mocked, crucified, and counted guilty and accursed for our sakes. It is written that He was “delivered for our offences,” and that “God spared Him not, but delivered him up for us all.” (Rom 4:25; Rom 8:32.) Christ is the “gift of God,” spoken of to the Samaritan woman, (Joh 4:10,) and the “unspeakable gift” spoken of by Paul. (2Co 9:15.) He Himself says to the wicked Jews, “My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.” (Joh 6:32.) This last text, be it noted, was one with which Erskine silenced the General Assembly in Scotland, when he was accused of offering Christ too freely to sinners.
It should be observed that our Lord calls Himself “the only begotten Son of God” in this verse. In the verse but one before this, He called Himself “the Son of man.” Both the names were used in order to impress upon the mind of Nicodemus the two natures of Messiah. He was not only the Son of man but the Son of God. But it is striking to remark that precisely the same words are used in both places about faith in Christ. If we would be saved, we must believe in Him both as the Son of man and the Son of God.
[That whosoever believeth, &c….life.] These words are exactly the same as those in the preceding verse. Why our translators should have rendered the same Greek word by “everlasting” in one place, and “eternal” in the other, it is hard to say. In Mat 25:46, they did just the same.
The repetition of this glorious saying, “whosoever believeth,” is very instructive. For one thing it serves to show that mighty and broad as is the love of God, it will prove useless to every one who does not believe in Christ. God loves all the world, but God will save none in the world who refuse to believe in His only begotten Son.-For another thing it shows us the great point to which every Christian should direct his attention. He must see to it that he believes on Christ. It is mere waste of time to be constantly asking ourselves whether God loves us and whether Christ died for us; and it argues gross ignorance of Scripture to trouble ourselves with such questions. The Bible never tells men to look at these questions, but commands them to believe. Salvation, it always teaches, does not turn on the point, “did Christ die for me?” but on the point, “do I believe on Christ?” If men do not “have eternal life,” it is never because God did not love them, or because Christ was not given for them, but because they do not believe on Christ.
In leaving this verse, I may remark, that the idea maintained by Erasmus, Olshausen, Wetstein, Rosenmuller, and others, that it does not contain our Lord’s words, and that from this verse down to the 21st we have John’s comments or observations, appears to me utterly destitute of foundation, and unsupported by a single argument worth noticing. That our Lord would not have used the third person in speaking of Himself is no argument. We find Him frequently speaking of Himself in the third person. See, for instance, Joh 5:19-27. There is literally nothing to be gained by adopting the theory, while it contradicts the common belief of nearly all believers in every age of the world.
Flacius observes that this verse and the two preceding ones comprise all the causes of justification: 1. The remote and efficient cause, God’s love. 2. The approximate efficient cause, the gift of God’s Son 3:1-11. The material cause, Christ’s exaltation on the cross. 4. The instrumental cause, faith. 5. The final cause, eternal life.
v17.-[God sent not….condemn….world.] In this verse our Lord shows Nicodemus another “heavenly thing.” He shows him the main object of Messiah coming into the world. It was not to judge men, but to die for them; not to condemn, but to save.
I have a strong impression that when our Lord spoke these words, He had in view the prophecy of David about Messiah bruising the nations with a rod of iron, and Daniel’s prophecy about the judgment, where he speaks of the thrones being cast down, and the Ancient of days judging the world. (Psa 2:6-9; Dan 7:9-22.) I think that Nicodemus, like most Jews, was filled with the expectation that when Messiah came He would come with power and great glory, and judge all men. Our Lord corrects this notion in this verse. He declares that Messiah’s first advent was not to judge but to save people from their sins. He says in another place, “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” (Joh 12:47.) The Greek word for judging and condemning, it must be remembered, is one and the same. Judgment and the condemnation of the ungodly, our Lord would have us know, are not the work of the first advent, but of the second. The special work of the first advent was to seek and save that which was lost.
[That….world….through Him….saved.] This sentence must clearly be interpreted with some qualification. It would contradict other plain texts of Scripture, if we took it to mean, “God sent His Son into the world, that all the world might finally be saved through Him, and none be lost.” In fact, our Lord Himself declares in the very next verse, “that he that believeth not is condemned already.”
The meaning of the sentence evidently is, that “all the world might have a door of salvation opened through Christ,-that salvation might be provided for all the world,-and that so any one in the world believing on Christ, might be saved.” In this view it is like the expression of John, “The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” (1Jn 4:14.)
The expression, “God hath sent,” in this verse, ought not to be overlooked. It is very frequently applied, in John’s Gospel, to our Lord. At least thirty-eight times we find Him speaking of Himself as Him “whom God hath sent.” It is probably from this expression that Paul derives the peculiar name which he gives to our Lord, “The apostle of our profession.” (Heb 3:1.) The apostle means simply, “The sent one.”
The readiness of natural man everywhere to regard Christ as a Judge much more than as a Saviour, is a curious fact. The whole system of the Roman Catholic Church is full of the idea. People are taught to be afraid of Christ, and to flee to Mary! Ignorant Protestants are not much better. They often regard Christ as a kind of Judge, whose demands they will have to satisfy at the last day, much more than as a present personal Saviour and Friend. Our Lord seems to foresee this error, and to correct it in the words of this text.
Calvin observes on this verse, “Whenever our sins press us,-whenever Satan would drive us to despair,-we ought to hold out this shield, that God is unwilling that we should be overwhelmed with everlasting destruction, because He has appointed His Son to be the salvation of the world.”
v18.-[He that believeth on Him….is not condemned.] In this verse our Lord shows Nicodemus another “heavenly thing.” He declares the privileges of believing, and the peril of not believing in the Son of God. Nicodemus had addressed Him as a “teacher come from God.” He would have Nicodemus know that He was that high and holy One, whom to believe on was life eternal, and whom not to believe on was everlasting destruction. Life or death was before men. If they believed and received Him as the Messiah, they would be saved. If they believed not, they would die in their sins.
The expression, “He that believeth,” deserves special notice. It is the third time that our Lord speaks of “believing” on Himself, and the consequence of believing, within four verses. It shows the immense importance of faith in the sinner’s justification. It is that one thing, without which eternal life cannot be had.-It shows the amazing graciousness of the Gospel, and its admirable suitableness to the wants of human nature.-A man may have been the worst of sinners, but if he will only “believe,” he is at once pardoned. Last, but not least, it shows the need of clear, distinct views of the nature of saving faith, and the importance of keeping it entirely distinct from works of any kind, in the matter of justification. Faith, and faith only, gives an interest in Christ. The old sentence of Luther’s days is perfectly true,-paradoxical and startling as it may sound, “The faith which justifies is not the faith which includes charity, but the faith which lays hold on Christ.”
The expression, “is not condemned,” is equivalent to saying, “he is pardoned, acquitted, justified, cleared from all guilt, delivered from the curse of a broken law, no longer counted a sinner, but reckoned perfectly righteous in the sight of God.” The presentness of the phrase, if one may coin a word, should be specially noticed. It is not said, that the believer “shall not be condemned at the last day,” but that “he is not condemned.” The very moment a sinner believes on Christ, his iniquities are taken away, and he is counted righteous. “All that believe are justified from all things.” (Act 13:39.)
[He….believeth not….condemned already.] This sentence means that the man who refuses to believe on Christ is in a state of condemnation before God, even while he lives. The curse of a broken law, which we all deserve, is upon him. His sins are upon his head. He is reckoned guilty and dead before God, and there is but a step between him and hell. Faith takes all a man’s sins away. Unbelief keeps them all on him. Through faith a man is made an heir of heaven, though kept outside till he dies. Through unbelief a man is already a subject of the devil, though not yet entirely in his power, and within hell. The moment a man believes, all charges are completely wiped away from his name. So long as a man does not believe, his sins cover him over, and make him abominable before God, and the just wrath of God abides upon him.
Melancthon remarks that the sentence of God’s condemnation, which was passed at the beginning, “Thou shalt surely die,” remains in full force and unrepealed, against every one who does not believe on Christ. No new condemnation is needful. Every man or woman who does not believe, is under the curse, and condemned already.
[Because….not believed….name….Son of God.] This sentence is justly thought to prove that no sin is so great, and so damning and ruinous to the soul as unbelief. In one sense it is the only unpardonable sin. All other sins may be forgiven, however many and great, and a man may stand complete before God. But if a man will not believe on Christ, there is no hope for him; and if he persists in his unbelief he cannot be saved. Nothing is so provoking and offensive to God as to refuse the glorious salvation He has provided at so mighty a cost, by the death of His only begotten Son. Nothing is so suicidal on the part of man as to turn away from the only remedy which can heal his soul. Other sins may be scarlet, filthy, and abominable. But not to believe on Christ is to bar the door in our own way, and to cut off ourselves entirely from heaven. It Has been truly remarked that it was a greater sin in Judas Iscariot not to believe on Christ for pardon, after he had betrayed Him, than to betray Him into the hands of his enemies. To betray Him no doubt was an act of enormous covetousness, wickedness, and ingratitude. But not to seek Him afterwards by faith for pardon, was to disbelieve His mercy, love, and power to save.
The expression “the name,” as the object of faith, is explained in Joh 1:12. Here, as frequently, it stands for the attributes, character, and office of the Son of God.
Luther, quoted by Brown, remarks, “Henceforward, he who is condemned must not complain of Adam, and his inborn sin. The seed of the woman, promised by God to bruise the head of the serpent, is now come and has atoned for sin, and taken away condemnation. But he must cry out against himself for not having accepted and believed in the Christ, the devil’s head-bruiser and sin-strangler. If I do not believe the same, sin and condemnation must continue.”
v19.-[This is the condemnation, &c.] In this verse our Lord shows Nicodemus one more “heavenly thing.” He unfolds to him the true cause of the ruin of those who are lost. Primarily, I think, our Lord had in view the unbelieving Jews of His own day, and the real reason of their rejection of Himself. It was not that there was any want of evidence of His Messiahship. They had evidence enough and to spare. The real reason was that they had no mind to give up their sins.-Secondarily, I think, our Lord had in view the future history of all Christians, and the true cause of the ruin of all who are not saved in every age. It is not because there is any want of light to guide men to heaven. It is not because God is wanting in love and unwilling to save. The real reason is that men in every age love their own sins, and will not come to Christ that they may be delivered from them.
The expression “this is the condemnation,” is evidently very elliptical, and the full meaning must be supplied. It is probably equivalent to saying “this is the cause of the condemnation, this is the true account of it.” The following elliptical expressions are somewhat similar, and all found in John’s 1st Epistle. “This is the promise,” “this is the love of God,” “this is the victory,” “this is the confidence.” (1Jn 2:25; 1Jn 5:4; 1Jn 5:14.)
[That light is come into the world.] It is a question in this sentence whether “light” means Christ Himself, or the light of Christ’s Gospel. I am inclined to think that our Lord meant to include both ideas. He has come as a light into the world, and the Gospel that He has brought with Him, is, like its Author, a strong contrast to the ignorance and wickedness of the earth.
[Men loved darkness rather than light.] The darkness in this sentence means moral darkness and mental darkness, sin, ignorance, superstition, and irreligion. Men cannot come to Christ and receive His Gospel without parting with all this, and they love it too well to part with it.
[Because their deeds were evil.] This sentence means that their habits of life were wicked, and any doctrine which necessitated a change of these habits they naturally hated.
Throughout this verse I am inclined to think that the past tense “loved,” ought to be taken in a present sense, (proleptically, to use a grammarian’s phrase,) as is frequently the case in the New Testament. See Joh 15:8, and Rom 8:30. The meaning will then be, “men have loved, do love, and always will love darkness, in consequence of the corruption of human nature, as long as the world stands.” The sentence then becomes a solemn description of a state of things which was not only to be seen among the Jews, while our Lord was on earth, but would be seen everywhere to the end of time.
The verse is one which deserves special notice, because of the deep mystery it unfolds. It tells us the true reason why men miss heaven and are lost in hell. The origin of evil we are not told. The reason why evil men are lost, we are told plainly. There is not a word about any decree of God predestinating men to destruction. There is not a syllable about anything deficient or wanting either in God’s love, or in Christ’s atonement. On the contrary our Lord tells us that “light has come into the world,” that God has revealed enough of the way of salvation to make men inexcusable if they are not saved. But the real account of the matter is that men have naturally no will or inclination to use the light. They love their own dark and corrupt ways more than the ways which God proposes to them. They therefore reap the fruit of their own ways, and will have at last what they loved. They loved darkness and they will be cast into outer darkness. They did not like the light and so they will be shut out from light eternally. In short, lost souls will be what they willed to be, and will have what they loved.
The words, “because their deeds were evil,” are very instructive. They teach us that where men have no love to Christ and His Gospel and will not receive them, their lives and their works will prove at last to have been evil. Their habits of life may not be gross and immoral. They may be even comparatively decent and pure. But the last day will prove them to have been in reality “evil.” Pride of intellect, or selfishness, or love of man’s applause, or dislike to submission of will, or self-righteousness, or some other false principle will be found to have run through all their conduct. In one way or another, when men refuse to come to Christ, their deeds will always prove to be “evil.” Rejection of the Gospel will always be found to be connected with some moral obliquity. When Christ is refused we may be quite sure that there is something or other in life, or heart, which is not right. If a man does not love light his “deeds are evil.” Human eyes may not detect the flaw; but the eyes of an all-seeing God do.
The whole verse is a deeply humbling one. It shows the folly of all excuses for not receiving the Gospel, drawn from intellectual difficulties, from God’s predestination, from our own inability to change ourselves, or to see things with the eyes of others. All such excuses are scattered to the winds by this solemn verse. People do not come to Christ, and do continue unconverted, just because they do not wish and want to come to Christ. They love something else better than the light. The elect of God prove themselves to be elect by “choosing” the things which are according to God’s mind. The wicked prove themselves to be only fit for destruction, by “choosing, loving, and following” the things which must lead to destruction.
Quesnel says on this verse, “The greatest misfortune of men does not consist in their being subject to sin, corruption, and blindness; but in their rejecting the Deliverer, the Physician, and the Light itself.”
v20.-[Every one that doeth evil, &c., &c.] This verse and the following one form a practical application of all that our Lord has been saying to Nicodemus, and are also a logical consequence of the preceding verse. Like the preceding verse, these two verses apply primarily to the Jews in our Lord’s day, and secondarily to every nation to which the light of the Gospel comes. They are a most remarkable appeal to an inquirer’s conscience, and supply a most searching test of the sincerity of a man in Nicodemus’ state of mind.
The words “every one that doeth evil,” mean every unconverted person, every one whose heart is not right and honest in God’s sight, and whose actions are consequently evil and ungodly. Every such person “hateth the light, neither cometh to the light.” He cannot really love Christ and the Gospel, and will not honestly, and with his whole heart, seek Christ by faith and embrace His Gospel, until he is renewed. The reason of this is, that every unconverted person shrinks from having his ungodliness exposed. He does not wish his wicked ways to be discovered, and his utter want of true righteousness and true preparedness for death, judgment, and eternity to be put to shame. He does not “like his deeds to be reproved,” and therefore he shrinks from the light, and keeps away from Christ.
The application of this verse must doubtless be made with caution. In the case of many unconverted persons, its truth is plain as noon-day. They love sin and hate true religion, and get away from the Gospel, the Bible, and religious people as much as they possibly can. In the case of others, its truth is not so apparent at first sight. There are many unconverted persons who profess to like the Gospel, and seem to have no prejudice against it, and to hear it with pleasure, and yet remain unconverted. Yet even in the case of those persons the text would be found perfectly true if their hearts were really known. With all their seeming love to the light they do not really love it with all their heart. There is something or other which they love better, and which keeps them back from Christ. There is something or other which they do not want to give up, and do not like to be discovered and reproved. Man’s eyes may not detect it; but the eyes of God can. The general principle of the text will be found true at last of every hearer of the Gospel who dies unconverted. He did not thoroughly love the light. He did not really want to be changed. He did not truly and honestly seek salvation. All this was true of the Jews in the time of Nicodemus, and it is no less true of all mankind to whom the Gospel comes in the present day. Right hearts will always come to Christ. If a man keeps away from the light, his heart is wrong. He is one who “doeth evil.”
There is a curious difference between the Greek word translated “doeth” in this verse and the one translated “doeth” in the next verse. Stier and Alford think the difference instructive and meaning. They say that the Greek word used for “doeth evil,” means the habit of action without fruit or result. On the contrary, the Greek word for “doing truth,” signifies the true doing of good, good fruit, good that remains.
v21.-[He that doeth truth, &c.] This verse, it is needless to say, is closely connected with the preceding one. The preceding verse describes the unconverted man. The verse before us describes the converted man.
The expression, “He that doeth truth,” signifies, the person whose heart is honest, the man who is truly converted, however weak and ignorant, and whose heart and actions are consequently true and right in the sight of God. The phrase is frequently found in John’s writings. (See Joh 18:37; 1Jn 1:6-8; 1Jn 2:4; 1Jn 3:19; 2Jn 1:1; 3Jn 1:3-4.) Every such person will always come to Christ and embrace His Gospel when it is brought near him. He will have an honest desire that “his deeds may be made manifest,” and that his real character may be discovered to himself and others. He will have an honest wish to know whether his habits of life are really godly, or “wrought in God.”
The principle here laid down is of great importance, and experience shows that the assertion of the text is always confirmed by facts. I believe there was not a truly good man among the Jews in our Lord’s day, who did not at once receive Christ, and welcome Christ’s Gospel, as soon as it was brought before him. Nathanael was an example. He was a man “who did truth” under the obscure light of the law of Moses, as ministered by Scribes and Pharisees. But the moment the Messiah was brought before him, he received Him and believed.-So also, I believe, when the Gospel comes into a church, a parish, or a congregation, it is always gladly received and embraced by any whose hearts are true. To be a truly godly man, and yet to refuse to come to Christ, is an impossibility. He that hears of Christ and does not come to Him, and believe on Him as God’s appointed way of salvation, has something fatally wrong about him. He is not really “doing truth.” He is not a converted man. Gospel light is a mighty magnet. If there is any one that has true religion within its sphere, it will attract to itself that person. To be truly religious and not to gravitate towards Him who is the great center of all light and truth, is impossible. If a man refuses Christ, he cannot be a godly man.
The application of the two last verses to the case of Nicodemus and those Jews who were in the same state of mind as Nicodemus, is plain and obvious. Our Lord leaves on the Pharisee’s mind a solemn and heart-searching conclusion. ”Think not that you can stay away from me after hearing this discourse and be saved. If you are a really earnest inquirer after truth, and your heart is honest and sincere, you must go on, you must come to the light and embrace the light, and you will do so, however great your present ignorance. If on the other hand you are not really desirous to serve God, you will prove it by keeping away from my Gospel, and by not confessing me as the Messiah.” It is a pleasant reflection, that after events proved that Nicodemus was one who “did truth.” He used the light our Lord graciously imparted to him. He came forward and spoke for Christ in the council. And at last, when he boldly helped to bury Christ, he made it manifest to all Israel that “his deeds were wrought in God.”
Let it be noted, that the two verses which conclude our Lord’s address to Nicodemus are a most instructive test of the sincerity and reality of persons who appear anxious inquirers in religion. If they are honest and true they will go on, and come to the full light of Christ. If they are not honest and sincere, but only influenced by temporary excitement, they will probably go back from the light, and will certainly not close with Christ and become his disciples. This should be pressed by ministers on all inquirers. “If you are true you will come to the light. If you are not true, you will go back, or stand still; you will not draw near and close with Christ.” The test will never be found to fail. Those who wish to see how exceedingly weak the beginnings of grace may be in a heart, and yet be true, as it proved in the case of Nicodemus, will find the matter most skilfully treated in a small work of Perkins, little known, called “A Grain of Mustard Seed.” A man may have the beginning of regeneration in his heart, and yet be so ignorant as not to know what regeneration is.
In concluding these long notes, for the length of which the immense importance of the passage must be my apology, I think we should remark that we never hear a word about Nicodemus being baptized! This fact is a strong incidental evidence to my mind, that the baptism of water was not the subject which our Lord had in view when he told Nicodemus that he must be born of water and the Spirit.
One other thing ought to be remarked, in leaving this subject of our Lord’s conversation with Nicodemus. That thing is the singular fulness of matter by which the whole of our Lord’s address is characterized. Within the space of twenty verses we read of the work of all Three Persons in the Trinity,-the Father’s love, the Son’s death on the cross, and the Spirit’s operation in the new birth of man,-the corruption of man’s nature, the nature of regeneration, and the efficacy of faith in Christ,-the way to escape perishing in hell, the true cause of man’s condemnation if he is lost, and the true marks of sincerity in an inquirer. A fuller sermon was never delivered than that which was here preached to Nicodemus in one evening! There is hardly a single important point in divinity which is left untouched!
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Joh 3:9. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things come to pass? The tone of this answer is very different from that of Joh 3:4. Here, as there, the question is, How can? But there the added words show that the meaning is, It is impossible(comp. Luk 1:18); whereas in this verse the chief stress lies on the first word How(comp. Luk 1:34). The offended astonishment of Nicodemus (Joh 3:7) has yielded to the words of Jesus. He now understands that Jesus really means that there is such a thing as a new spiritual birth, in contrast with that natural birth which had ever seemed to him the only necessary condition of entrance into the kingdom of Messiah. Still, as Joh 3:12 shows, the victory over unbelief is not yet complete.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. How Nicodemus, consulting only with carnal reason, persists in his apprehension concerning the absurdity and impossibility of our Saviour’s notion of regeneration, or being born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said, How can these things be?
Learn hence, That the great cause of men’s ignorance in matters of salvation, and the mysteries of religion, is consulting their own natural reason without submitting their understandings to the authority of divine revelation. Till they can give a reason for every thing they believe, they cry out with Nicodemus, How can these things be?
Whereas, though we cannot give a reason for all gospel mysteries which we believe, we can give a good reason why we believe them, namely, because God hath revealed them. No man can be a Christian who refuses to submit his understanding to the authority of divine revelation.
Observe, 2. How our Saviour reproves Nicodemus for, and upbraids him with, his ignorance, ver. 10, and his infidelity, ver 12. First his ignorance is reproved, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? As if Christ had said, “Ignorance in any, as to the fundamentals of religion, is shameful, though but in a common learner, much more in a teacher and master, and he a teacher and master in Israel: now thou art one of them, and yet knowest not these things!
Learn hence, 1. That a man may be very knowing himself, and take upon him to teach and instruct others. and yet be very ignorant of the nature, and much unacquainted with the work, of regeneration upon his own soul: a man may be very sharp-sighted , as the eagle, in the mysteries of art and nature, and yet blind as a mole in the things of God.
2. That ignorance, in the fundamentals of religion especially, is very culpable and shameful in any that enjoy the means of knowledge, but especially in those that undertake to teach and instruct others. Art thou a teacher, thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?
Next, our Saviour upbraids him for his infideltiy, ver. 12. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not. This infidelity received its aggravation from the facility, and perspicuity of our Saviour’s doctrine. I have told you earthly things; that is, I have set forth spiritual things by earthly similitudes, not in a style suitable to the sublimity of their own nature.
Let the ministers of Christ learn from their Master’s example, in all their discourses to accommodate themselves, and descend as low as may be, to the capacities of their people: I have told you earthly things.
2. That even spiritual things, when they are shadowed forth by earthly similitudes, and brought down in the plainest manner to the capacities of their people, yet are they very slow to understand them, and very backward to believe them. I have told you of earthly things, and ye believe them not.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Joh 3:9-10. Nicodemus answered, How can these things be? Christs explication of the doctrine of regeneration, and its necessity, made it no clearer to him. The corruption of nature, which renders it necessary, and the operation of the Spirit, which renders it practicable, were as great mysteries to him as the thing itself. And though he had acknowledged Christ to be a divine teacher, he was unwilling to receive his doctrine when it did not agree with his preconceived notions. Thus the things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to the natural man, and he is not only estranged from them, but prejudiced against them. Jesus said, Art thou a master , a teacher, or rather, the teacher, of Israel, as Dr. Campbell renders the expression; observing, The article here is remarkable; the more so, because there does not appear to be a single Greek copy which omits it. As a member of the sanhedrim, Nicodemus had a superintendency in what concerned religious instruction, and might on that account have been called a teacher of Israel; but it is probably in order to intimate to us his distinguished fame for abilities in this respect, that he is styled by way of eminence, the teacher. And knowest thou not these things When so much is everywhere said in the Scriptures of Gods circumcising mens hearts, creating in them clean hearts, renewing in them right spirits, and of the quickening and purifying operations of his Spirit on their souls? See Deu 30:6; Psa 51:10; Jer 4:4; and Jer 31:33-34; Eze 36:25-27. Could it be proved. says Dr. Doddridge, that the Jewish rabbis, so early as Christs time, called a baptized person one born again, or born of water, that would strongly illustrate the passage before us. But though several learned commentators give the words this turn, the fact, he thinks, is not proved. However, it is strange to me, says he, that any should doubt whether proselytes were admitted into the Jewish church by baptism, that is, by washing, when it is plain from express passages in the Jewish law that no Jew who had lived like a Gentile for one single day could be restored to the communion of their church without it. Compare Num 19:19-20; and many other precepts relating to ceremonial pollutions, by which the Jews were rendered incapable of appearing before God in the tabernacle or temple till they were washed, either by bathing or sprinkling. It is probable, however, that the reproof conveyed in this verse does not so much relate to the forementioned figures of speech, supposed to be in use among the rabbis, representing the baptism of proselytes as a new birth; as to Nicodemuss being so entirely unacquainted with the doctrine of the Old Testament, respecting the necessity of a change of heart being experienced by all who would be the true people and spiritual worshippers of God; and respecting that effusion of the Spirit which the prophets had so clearly foretold would take place under the Messiah.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 9, 10. Nicodemus answered and said unto him: How can these things be? 10. Jesus answered and said unto him: Thou art the teacher of Israel, and thou knowest not these things!
Nicodemus does not deny; but he acknowledges himself a stranger to all experience of the action of the Spirit. It is Jesus’ turn to be astonished. He discovers with surprise such spiritual ignorance in one who, at this moment, represents before Him the teaching of the old covenant. Something of bitterness has been found in this reply; it expresses nothing but legitimate astonishment. Ought not such passages as Jer 31:33; Eze 36:26-28; Psa 143:10-11, to have prepared Nicodemus to understand the power of the divine breath? But the Pharisees set their hearts only on the glory of the kingdom, rather than on its holiness.
The article before , the teacher has been interpreted in the sense: the well-known, illustrious teacher (Winer, Keil.) The irony would, thus, be very strong. This article, rather, designates Nicodemus as the representative of the Israelitish teaching office, as the official personified. Comp. the Mar 14:18.
The tenth verse forms the transition to the second part of the conversation. That which externally marks this part is the silence of Nicodemus. As Hengstenberg observes, he seems to say, like Job before Jehovah: I am too small; what shall I answer? I have spoken once; but I put my hand upon my mouth. On His part, Jesus treats him with a touching kindness and condescension; He has found him humble and docile, and He now opens Himself to him without reserve. Nicodemus came, as we have seen, to interrogate Him respecting His Messianic mission and the mode of the establishment of the divine kingdom so long expected. He did not by any means preoccupy his thoughts with the moral conditions on which he might himself enter into that state of things. A faithful Jew, a pious Pharisee, a holy Sanhedrist, he believed himself saved by the very fact that he was such. Jesus, as a consummate educator, began by reminding him of what he forgot,the practical question. He taught him that which he did not ask for, but that which it was more important for him to know. And now He reveals to him kindly all that which he desired to know: He declares to him what He is (Joh 3:11-13); what He comes to do (Joh 3:14-17); and what will result for humanity from His coming (Joh 3:18-21).
The first part of the conversation is summed up thus: What will take place? Answer: Nothing, in the sense in which you understand it. The second means: And yet something really takes place, and even a thing most unheard of: The supreme revelator is present; redemption is about to be accomplished; the universal judgment is preparing. Such are the divine facts which are displayed before the eyes of Nicodemus in the second part of the conversation. The conduct of Jesus with this man is thus in complete contrast with that which had been mentioned in Joh 2:24. Hetrusts Himself to him; for He has recognized his perfect uprightness; comp. Joh 3:21.
The positive teaching does not, properly, begin until Joh 3:13. Joh 3:11-12, are prefatory to it.
This passage Joh 3:11-13 is clearly joined to Joh 3:2; Nicodemus had spoken in the name of several: We know… (Joh 3:1); Jesus addresses himself to these absent interlocutors: You receive not…; if I told you … (Joh 3:11 b and 12a). Nicodemus had called Jesus a teacher come from God (Joh 3:1). Jesus shows him that he has spoken more truly than he thought; He reveals Himself to him as the Son of man, descended from heaven to bear witness of heavenly things (Joh 3:13). This relation between Joh 3:1 and Joh 3:11-13 proves that the whole of the beginning of the conversation, Joh 3:3-10, was called forth accidentally, and is in reality but an episode; and that now only do the revelations, which Nicodemus had come to seek, properly speaking, begin.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
3:9 {3} Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
(3) The secret mystery of our regeneration which cannot be comprehended by man’s capacity, is perceived by faith, and that in Christ only, because he is both God on earth, and man in heaven, that is to say, man in such a way that he is God also, and therefore almighty: and God in such a way that he is man also, and therefore his power is made manifest to us.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Nicodemus betrayed his ignorance of Old Testament revelation with his question (cf. 1Sa 10:6; Isa 32:15; Eze 36:25-28; Jer 31:33; Joe 2:28-29). Jesus’ answer shows that Nicodemus’ question implied that he did not believe what Jesus had said (cf. Joh 3:11-12). He had undoubtedly taught many Jews about getting right with God, but what Jesus now suggested was something new to him. Jesus responded with a question that expressed dismay that Nicodemus did not understand this biblical revelation. His deficiency was the more serious because Nicodemus was the leading teacher in Israel. At least that was his reputation. His study of the Scriptures should have made him aware that no one can come to God in his or her own strength or righteousness without the necessity of God’s spiritual cleansing.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 8
THE BRAZEN SERPENT.
Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou the teacher of Israel, and understandest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and bear witness of that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you heavenly things? And no man hath ascended into heaven, but He that descended out of heaven, even the Son of man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth may in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through Him. He that believeth on Him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For every one that doeth ill hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved. But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God.- Joh 3:9-21.
There are two great obstacles to human progress, two errors which retard the individual and the race, two inborn prejudices which prevent men from choosing and entering into true and lasting prosperity. The first is that men will always persist in seeking their happiness in something outside themselves; the second is that even when they come to see where true happiness lies they cannot find the way to it. In our Lords time even wise and godly people thought the permanent glory and happiness of men were to be found in a free state, in self-government, lightened taxes, impregnable fortresses, and a purified social order. And they were not altogether wrong; but the way to this condition, they thought, lay through the enthronement of a strong-handed monarch, who could gather round his throne wise counsellors and devoted followers. This was the form of worldliness which our Lord had to contend with. This was the tendency of the unspiritual mind in His day. But in every generation and in all men the same radical misconceptions exist, although they may not appear in the same forms.
In dealing with Nicodemus, a sincere and thoroughly decent but unspiritual man, our Lord had difficulty in lifting his thoughts off what was external and worldly and fixing them on what was inward and heavenly.[10] And in order to effect this, He told him, among other things, that the Son of man was indeed to be lifted up-yes, but not on a throne set up in Herods palace. He was to be conspicuous, but it was as the Brazen Serpent was conspicuous, hanging on a pole for the healing of the people. His lifting up, His exaltation, was secure; He was to be raised above every name that is named; He was destined to have the pre-eminence in all things, to be exalted above all principalities and powers; He was to have all power in heaven and in earth; He was to be the true and supreme Lord of all,-yes; but this dignity and power were to be attained by no mere official appointment, by no accidental choice of the people, by no mere hereditary title, but by the sheer force of merit, by His performing services for men which made the race His own, by His leaving no depth of human degradation unexplored, by a sympathy with the race and with individuals which produced in Him a total self-abandonment, and suffered Him to leave no grievance unconsidered, no wrong unthought of, no sorrow untouched. There is no royal road to human excellence; and Jesus could reach the height He reached by no swift ascension of a throne amidst the blare of trumpets, the flaunting of banners, and the acclamations of the crowd, but only by being exposed to the keenest tests with which this world can confront and search human character, by being put through the ordeal of human life, and being found the best man among us; the humblest, the truest; the most faithful, loving, and enduring; the most willing servant of God and man.
It was this which Christ sought to suggest to Nicodemus, and which we all find it hard to learn, that true glory is excellence of character, and that this excellence can be reached only through the difficulties, trials, and sorrows of a human life. Christ showed men a new glory and a new path to it-not by arms, not by statesmanship, not by inventions, not by literature, not by working miracles, but by living with the poor and becoming the friend of forsaken and wicked men, and by dying, the Just for the unjust. He has been lifted up as the Brazen Serpent was, He has become conspicuous by His very lowliness; by a self-sacrifice so complete that He gave His all, His life, He has won to Himself all men and made His will supreme, so that it and no other shall one day everywhere rule. He gave Himself for the healing of the nations, and the very death which seemed to extinguish His usefulness has made Him the object of worship and trust to all.
This is certainly the point of analogy between Himself and the Brazen Serpent which our Lord chiefly intended to suggest-that as the serpent was lifted up so as to be seen from every part of the camp, even so the death of the Son of man was to make Him conspicuous and easily discernible. It is by their death that many men have become immortalized in the memory of the race. Deaths of gallantry, of heroism, of self-devotion have often wiped out and seemed to atone for preceding lives of dissipation and uselessness. The life of Christ would have been inefficient without His death. Had He only lived and taught, we should have known more than was otherwise possible, but it is doubtful whether His teaching would have been much listened to. It is His death in which all men are interested. It appeals to all. A love that gave its life for them, all men can understand. A love that atoned for sin appeals to all, for all are sinners.
But though this is the chief point of analogy there are others. We do not know precisely what the Israelites would think of the Brazen Serpent. We need not repeat from the sacred narrative the circumstances in which it was formed and lifted up in the wilderness. The singularity of the remedy provided for the plague of serpents under which the Israelites were suffering, consisted in this, that it resembled the disease. Serpents were destroying them, and from this destruction they were saved by a serpent. This special mode of cure was obviously not chosen without a reason. To those among them who were instructed in the symbolic learning of Egypt there might be in this image a significance which is lost to us. From the earliest times the serpent had been regarded as mans most dangerous enemy-more subtle than any beast of the field, more sudden and stealthy in its attack, and more certainly fatal. The natural revulsion which men feel in its presence, and their inability to cope with it, seemed to fit it to be the natural representative of the powers of spiritual evil. And yet, strangely enough, in the very countries in which it was recognised as the symbol of all that is deadly, it was also recognised as the symbol of life. Having none of the ordinary members or weapons of the wilder lower creatures, it was yet more agile and formidable than any of them; and, casting its skin annually, it seemed to renew itself with eternal youth. And as it was early discovered that the most valuable medicines are poisons, the serpent, as the very personification of poison, was looked upon as not only the symbol of all that is deadly, but also of all that is health-giving. And so it has continued to be, even to our own days, the recognised symbol of the healing art, and, wreathed round a staff, as Moses had it, it may still be seen sculptured on our own hospitals and schools of medicine.
But whatever else the agonised people saw in the brazen image, they must at any rate have seen in its limp and harmless form a symbol of the power of their God to make all the serpents round about them as harmless as this one. The sight of it hanging with drooping head and motionless fangs was hailed with exultation as the trophy of deliverance from all the venomous creatures it represented. They saw in it their danger at an end, their enemy triumphed over, their death slain. They knew that the manufactured serpent was only a sign, and had in itself no healing virtue, but in looking at it they saw, as in a picture, Gods power to overcome the most noxious of evils.
That which Moses lifted up for the healing of the Israelites was a likeness, not of those who were suffering, but of that from which they were suffering. It was an image, not of the swollen limbs and discoloured face of the serpent-bitten, but of the serpents that poisoned them. It was this image, representing as slain and harmless the creature which was destroying them, which became the remedy for the pains it inflicted. Similarly, our Lord instructs us to see in the cross not so much our own nature suffering the extreme agony and then hanging lifeless, as sin suspended harmless and dead there. All the virus seemed to be extracted from the fiery, burning fangs of the snakes, and hung up innocuous in that brazen serpent; so all the virulence and venom of sin, all that is dangerous and deadly in it, our Lord bids us believe is absorbed in His person and rendered harmless on the cross.
With this representation the language of Paul perfectly agrees. God, he tells us, made Christ to be sin for us. It is strong language; yet no language that fell short of this would satisfy the symbol. Christ was not merely made man, He was made sin for us. Had He merely become man, and thus become involved in our sufferings, the symbol of the serpent would scarcely have been a fair one. A better image of Him would in that case have been a poisoned Israelite. His choice of the symbol of the brazen serpent to represent Himself upon the cross justifies Pauls language, and shows us that He habitually thought of His own death as the death of sin.
Christ being lifted up, then, meant this, whatever else, that in His death sin was slain, its power to hurt ended. He being made sin for us, we are to argue that what we see done to Him is done to sin. Is He smitten, does He become accursed, does God deliver Him to death, is He at last slain and proved to be dead, so certainly dead that not a bone of Him need be broken? Then in this we are to read that sin is thus doomed by God, has been judged by Him, and was in the cross of Christ slain and put an end to-so utterly slain that there is left in it not any so faint a flicker or pulsation of life that a second blow need be given to prove it really dead.
When we strive to get a little closer to the reality and understand in what sense, and how, Christ represented sin on the cross, we recognise first of all that it was not by His being in any way personally tainted by sin. Indeed, had He Himself been in the faintest degree tainted by sin this would have prevented Him from representing sin on the cross. It was not an actual serpent Moses suspended, but a serpent of brass. It would have been easy to kill one of the snakes that were biting the people, and hang up its body. But it would have been useless. To exhibit one slain snake would only have suggested to the people how many were yet alive. Being itself a real snake, it could have no virtue as a symbol. Whereas the brazen serpent represented all snakes. In it each snake seemed to be represented. Similarly, it was not one out of a number of real sinners that was suspended on the cross, but it was one made in the likeness of sinful flesh. So that it was not the sins of one person which were condemned and put an end to there, but sin generally.
This was easily intelligible to those who saw the crucifixion. John the Baptist had pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. How does a Lamb take away sin? Not by instruction, not by example, but by being sacrificed; by standing in the room of the sinner and suffering instead of him. And when Jesus, Himself without sin, hung upon the cross, those who knew His innocence perceived that it was as the Lamb of God He suffered, and that by His death they were delivered.
Another point of analogy between the lifting-up of the serpent and the lifting-up of the Son of Man on the cross is to be found in the circumstance that in each case the healing result is effected through a moral act on the part of the healed person. A look at the brazen serpent was all that was required. Less could not have been asked: more, in some cases, could not have been given. If deliverance from the pain and danger of the snake-bite had been all that God desired, He might have accomplished this without any concurrence on the part of the Israelites. But their present agony was the consequence of their unbelief, and distrust, and rebellion; and in order that the cure may be complete they must pass from distrust to faith, from alienation to confidence and attachment. This cannot be accomplished without their own concurrence. But this concurrence may be exercised and may be exhibited in connection with a small matter quite as decisively as in connection with what is difficult. To get a disobedient and stubborn child to say, I am sorry, or to do the smallest and easiest action, is quite as difficult, if it be a test of submission, as to get him to run a mile, or perform an hours task. So the mere uplifting of the eye to the brazen serpent was enough to show that the Israelite believed Gods word, and expected healing. It was in this look that the will of man met and accepted the will of God in the matter. It was by this look the pride which had led them to resist God and rely upon themselves was broken down; and in the momentary gaze at the remedy appointed by God the tormented Israelite showed his reliance upon God, his willingness to accept His help, his return to God.
It is by a similar act we receive healing from the cross of Christ. It is by an act which springs from a similar state of mind. Every one that believeth,-that is all that is required of any who would be healed of sin and its attendant miseries. It is a little and an easy thing in itself, but it indicates a great and difficult change of mind. It is so slight and easy an action that the dying can do it. The feeblest and most ignorant can turn in thought to Him who died upon the cross, and can, with the dying thief, say, Lord, remember me. All that is required is a sincere prayer to Christ for deliverance. But before anyone can so pray, he must hate the sin he has loved, and must be willing to submit to the God he has abandoned. And this is a great change; too difficult for many. Not all these Israelites were healed, though the cure was so accessible. There were those who were already insensible, torpid with the heavy poison that ran through their blood. There were those whose pride could not be broken, who would rather die than yield to God. There were those who could not endure the thought of a life in Gods service. And there are those now who, though they feel the sting of sin, and are convulsed and tormented by it, cannot bring themselves to seek help from Christ. There are those who do not believe Christ can deliver them; and there are those to whom deliverance weighted with obligation to God, and giving health to serve Him, seems equally repugnant with death itself. But where, there is a sincere desire for reconcilement with God, and for the holiness which maintains us in harmony with God, all that is needed is trust in Christ, the belief that God has appointed Him to be our Saviour, and the daily use of Him as our Saviour.
In proceeding to make a practical use of what our Lord here teaches, our first duty, plainly, is to look to Him for life. He is exhibited crucified-it is our part to trust in Him, to appropriate for our own use His saving power. We need it. We know something of the deadly nature of sin, and that with the first touch of its fang death enters our frame. We have found our lives poisoned by it. Nothing can well be a fitter picture of the havoc sin makes than this plague of serpents-the slender weapon sin uses, the slight external mark it leaves, but, within, the fevered blood, the fast dimming sight, the throbbing heart, the convulsed frame, the rigid muscles no longer answering to our will. Do we not find ourselves exposed to sin wherever we go? In the morning our eyes open on its vibrating fangs ready to dart upon us; as we go about our ordinary employments we have trodden on it and been bitten ere we are aware; in the evening, as we rest, our eye is attracted, and fascinated, and held by its charm. Sin is that from which we cannot escape, from which we are at no time, nor in any place, secure; from which, in point of fact, no one of us has escaped, and which in every case in which it has touched a man has brought death along with it. Death may not at once appear; it may appear at first only in the form of a gayer and intenser life; as, they tell us, there is one poison which causes men to leap and dance, and another which distorts the face of the dying with a hideous imitation of laughter. Is that not a diseased soul which has no vigour for righteous and self-sacrificing work; whose vision is so dim it sees no beauty in holiness?
Of this condition, faith in God through Christ is the true remedy. Return to God is the beginning of all healthy spiritual life. Faith means that all distrust, all resentment at what has happened in our life, all proud and all despondent thoughts, are laid aside. To believe that God is loving us tenderly and wisely, and to put ourselves unreservedly into His hand, is eternal life begun in the soul.
[10] In saying, Art thou the teacher of Israel, and knowest not these things? our Lord hints that it is bad enough for an ordinary Israelite to be so ignorant, but for a teacher how much worse. If the teacher is thus obtuse, what are the taught likely to be? Is this the state of matters I must confront? And in saying that the subjects of conversation were earthly (Joh 3:12) He meant that the necessity of regeneration or entrance into the kingdom of God was a matter open to observation and its occurrence a fact which might be tested here upon earth.