Michael's Abbey Bible Study - Gospel of John Chapter 3

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; Nicodemus is identified as a ruler of the Jews and a Pharisee. Being a ruler does not necessarily mean being part of the Sanhedrin. However, being a Pharisee does mean he was not a Herodian, meaning his authority comes exclusively from Jews and not the Romans.
At the time of the New Testament there were three Jewish sects that held the majority of power, both religious and political. The Pharisees were the leaders of scholarship and teaching, the Sadducees were leaders in civil matters, and the Herodians were allied with the Romans. While some Pharisees were priests, the majority were not.
After the war with the Romans when the temple was again destroyed and Jerusalem was sacked, the Pharisees wrote down the Mishna, effectively codifying Pharisaism as the new Judaism.
2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." There is no explanation for why Nicodemus came to Jesus at night. The implication is that this kept it secret. In 12:42 John writes that many rulers were secret disciples of Jesus because they feared being put out of the synagogue. This was the Jewish near-equivalent to excommunication. And the Apostle John does not condemn Nicodemus or Joseph of Arimathea for keeping their discipleship a secret.
Nicodemus opened by calling Jesus Rabbi, meaning teaching authority or master of teaching, which is significant for a Pharisee who take teaching and scholarship very seriously. And as their scholarship was on theocracy and the TaNak, for them to call someone Rabbi was to acknowledge their religious credentials. He then affirms that Jesus must be from God as are the signs He was doing.
3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Here the phrase "born again" is explicitly used by Jesus. Jesus states that it is a requirement for entry into heaven. Cannot see is a strong euphemism for not being allowed in.
The word again in born again is anothen in Greek. This word has a dual and simultaneous meaning of again and from above. In other words, to be born again means to become a child of God, and for Him to become our Father.
The term "born-again Christian" is used as derogatory phrase by secular society today. However, it is actually both a complement and redundant as there is no such thing as a Christian who isn't born again.
4 Nicodemus *said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Nicodemus didn't seem to hear what Jesus said, but only picked out the things that fit in with his own imperfect knowledge. His reply is appropriate for one who does not know scripture. However, Nicodemus is certainly a teacher's teacher in his position and ought to know better, especially since Jesus' use of the word anothen should have made the connection for him. This is what happens when a teacher or student reads or studies scripture with a subjective and non-analytical approach. Thus their study has no impact on their beliefs or life, making it a futile effort.
5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus restates what he said in verse 3 more explicitly. Some take part of this verse out of context to argue that one must be baptized in water to be saved. However, the context is clear before and after this verse that baptism is not the subject. There are two births being discussed, not three. The first is the birth of water which is the natural birth from a person's mother. This birth is often announced by the breaking of the water that protects the baby inside the amniotic sack. The second birth is the spiritual birth. This cannot be the baptism of the Spirit as scripture is clear that those who came before Acts did go to heaven. While here it is clear that those who are not born of the Spirit do not enter heaven, the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. This makes it clear that the two births are the one of the flesh, which is being born from one's mother, and being born of the Spirit which is becoming a child of God.
7 Do not be amazed that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' This is a rebuke of Nicodemus. While the terminology may be new and the concepts more explicit, he ought to have been familiar enough to connect the dots as a teacher of Judaism. But at least he had the sense to know what is Godly even if it appears outside the normal or expected channels.
8 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." In the analogy of this verse, both wind and Spirit are the same word in Greek, pneuma. We know which is meant in each case by the context as it is the wind that blows, not the Spirit. And one is not born of wind.
The meaning of the analogy is that Christians come from God and we go to God in the end. All this is as invisible to those who are only of this world, (only born of water and flesh,) as the wind itself. But they can hear and see the effects of the unseen wind and the unseen move of God in Christians, even if they choose to ignore it.
9 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be?" For all his ignorance in this subject, Nicodemus is honestly seeking God and the truth. Thus he is willing to admit his ignorance. Those who arrogantly hang onto their wrong and/or incomplete thinking will never understand reality.
10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Nicodemus was a leader of the Pharisees. The majority of Pharisees were not priests. But they were teachers, leaders in scholarship. Jesus scolds Nicodemus for not understanding what he ought to being a teacher of Israel, especially one so highly placed. However, we should keep in mind that we would likely do no better ourselves if we were in his place.
It is notable that the priest and teacher roles were separate. In Judaism at the time the chief priests were the leaders, and the Pharisees were the teachers. This is a parallel to the division of duty in the church of Acts. James, half-brother of Jesus, was the leader of the church. Others including the Apostles were the teachers of the church. And the deacons ministered to the church. The vast majority of western churches roll all these up into one role and call it pastor. No one can do all of those well. And it seems very rare, if ever, that the Spirit gives the gifts needed for all those roles to one person. It is likely that this is the cause of many of the problems in western churches.
11 Truly, 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. Now Jesus turns His focus from just Nicodemus to all who were there at the time. The "you" is now in the plural form in Greek.
Jesus uses "we" at this point rather than "I". This could be distancing language because at this point in His ministry His role as the one who reveals the Father to us has not been revealed. Or it could be that this is a trinitarian "we". Regardless, Jesus is the witness who has personally been in Heaven with the Father and can testify about Him to us. The witness of all Christians comes from the root source which is Him. But most do not accept His witness.
12 If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? As this is not a pronouncement of heavenly knowledge, Jesus uses I instead of we.
There is some debate about what Jesus meant referring to telling of earthly things. The answer that fits best is that this is a reference to His use of parables and metaphors of earthly things to relate heavenly things we have no frame of reference for. But people can fail to get analogies and then fail to grasp the heavenly subject. For example, Jesus used a heavenly birth analogy with Nicodemus who couldn't make the transition to the heavenly principals because he got stuck in the weeds about birth itself.
13 No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man. Jesus switches back to distancing language when referring to Himself.
Only someone who has actually been in heaven and seen the Father can be a witness of it. But the Son of Man is from heaven. Son of Man is a title for the Messiah in the prophecies of Daniel 7:13 and Psalm 80:17. Thus He is the best witness being a native of this place that is unknown and foreign to us.
14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. In Numbers 21 the Israelites became impatient and spoke against Gad and Moses, grumbling about their life. Because of this, God sent poisonous serpents among them, and many died. When the people repented, God told Moses to make a serpent and put it on a sign/post so that anyone who is bitten could look at it and live. This seems strange considering God's prohibition against idolatry. Especially since in 2 Kings 18:4 King Hezekiah destroyed it because some Israelites had begun to worship it.
In these two verses we are given the reason for the snake on a stick. It was a symbol of and sign of the coming Messiah. Both had to be raised up, one on a sign and one on a cross, in order to save God's people. In both cases, the people had to turn to the one lifted up to be saved.
16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. This is the most famous verse of the Bible. As such it is constantly taken out of context. But it must be read in the context of the verses around it and the book as a whole.
That the Son of Man and Son of God are interchangeable is explicit in this verse. The Father gave up the Son for the world. How He gave Him up is by the crucifixion as illustrated before this verse. That the world can be saved through Jesus is in the next verse.
The word belief is the most misused word in these verses. It is not enough to merely believe that God exists. Verse 36 makes it clear that mere belief without qualification is not sufficient. Thus James 2:19 agrees with this chapter when it tells us even the demons believe but it does them no good. Unqualified belief doesn't work. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that one who comes to God must believe He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. In other words, we must believe that Jesus is the path to salvation. A true belief in Jesus will result in the believer seeking Him as His disciple, which means to obey Him.
Verses 15 and 16 do not support a doctrine of annihilation for those who are not saved. That doctrine is that those who are saved are the ones who get eternal life, and others face punishment and eventual annihilation, being wiped from existence. However, a view that heaven is eternal life and hell is eternal death would easily fit this text, particularly since the word perish, apoletai in Greek, also means to be lost or separated from a normal connection. And total separation from God is the definition of hell.
17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Jesus will judge the world. But that is not until eschaton, (the end times, second coming, and judgment day.) In this first coming, Jesus is sent to make possible the salvation of the world. That this is a possibility and not a certainty is clear. Universalism is rejected by these verses.
18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Those who believe in Jesus, seeking after Him as His disciple are not judged. The judgment referred to here is the condemning judgment of sin, not all judgment. 2 Corinthians 5:10 makes it clear that we all face judgment. But for those who follow Christ we are judged on what we did so we will be rewarded for the good we did. (Good being defined by God's standards, not man's.) For Christians our sin is wiped away by Jesus' blood leaving only the good.
For those who reject Jesus, they are already judged. That is, all have sinned and deserve the proper penalty which is death. Thus, Jesus does not condemn us to hell. We do that to ourselves when we sin. Jesus saves us from what we have earned and deserve when we seek Him.
19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. The judgment we bring on ourselves when we reject Jesus, the light that has come into a dark world. That we have the free will to choose between light and darkness, good and evil, is very explicit.
The problem of choosing the darkness is our fallen nature gets to like it. The more we sin the more our conscience is seared and the easier it is to repeat.
20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. On the flip side, the other reason people choose the darkness is out of fear of their sins being exposed. These are two sides of the same coin that keep us from following Jesus.
21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." Practicing the truth is the antidote. Doing good begets more good. And those who do good are drawn to the light because their godly deeds will be revealed. (Revealed is a better translation in today's English than manifested.) Following Jesus makes us want to follow Him more. Verses 19-21 are the spiritual version of Newton's First Law of Motion. The path we choose tends to lead us further into the same direction.
Reading into these verses, some try to assert that they support a theology of justification by works, or a works plus faith salvation. This is based on a reading that works precede faith here. However, none of that is even in these verses. Not to mention that salvation involving works in any way is explicitly contradicted by scriptures such as Ephesians 2:9 and Romans 11:6. Instead, verses 19-21 are talking about the tendency of humanity to continue down the same path like inertia keeping an object moving in the same direction. Thus the real conclusion is that it takes a conscious effort to change directions towards Jesus.
22 After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. Jerusalem is in Judea. The meaning of this narrative is that they left the metropolis of Jerusalem for the more rural parts of Judea. In spending time with His disciples there is no doubt that this involved a lot of teaching.
This verse states that Jesus was baptizing. But 4:2 states that it wasn't Jesus Himself, but His disciples. This verse really means that His disciples were doing the actual baptizing under him and his authority. Ascribing the actions of a subordinate to the leader is commonplace both then and today.
23 John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized- John the Baptist had continued to baptize. The exact location of Aenon is not known except that it was west of the Jordan river and not close to the river itself. The purpose of John's baptism of the Jews was to be a sign that the Messiah was here. As this was not yet universally known, this part of his ministry continued.
24 for John had not yet been thrown into prison. This side note foreshadows John the Baptist's future, being imprisoned by Herod because he spoke out against Herod's sin in taking the wife of his own brother.
25 Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purification. An unnamed Jew was discussing purification with John the Baptist's disciples. It is very likely this was a common occurrence for them. Baptism was for converts to Judaism, and was a ritual purification of the gentile for them to become part of God's people. It was not for those born Jews. However, the messianic prophecy in Ezekiel 36:22-32 talks about the nation of Israel being cleansed by baptism. John the Baptist fulfilled that prophecy. Thus, it would be natural to debate whether Jews really needed this ritual purification or not.
26 And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him." It appears that the discussion in verse 25 is where John the Baptist's disciples heard that Jesus was baptizing like John was. They report what they've heard to John, identifying Jesus by where they were at the time, on the east bank of the Jordan, and the fact that John testified about Him. The hyperbole used, that "all" are coming to Jesus instead of John the Baptist makes it clear that they were objecting to this, and that they felt Jesus was usurping John's ministry. At the least, they were jealous that the ministry they were part of was not the most popular as it was before Jesus started His ministry.
27 John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. John the Baptist's response to his disciples shows that he took their remarks as criticism of Jesus. He corrects their attitude by pointing out that his ministry was given to him by heaven. It is not his own, but belongs to God. This was most likely a reminder of teachings rather than a harsh rebuke.
28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent ahead of Him.' Next John informs them of a specific teaching that he was not the Christ, (which is Greek for Messiah,) but was sent ahead of Him. Implied is that John's role was to prepare the way for the Messiah to come. John the Baptist said this in 1:20 and 1:34. He specifically states that they had heard this themselves. Essentially, John is telling them that Jesus is the Messiah, and things are as they should be.
29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. John illustrates his correct attitude for his disciples with a metaphor. Jesus is the bridegroom. And John the Baptist is the friend of the bridegroom. The bride is only mentioned to identify the bridegroom. This is not the church as the bride of Christ. Although that is a good analogy, this is not that one. This is merely using the analogy of being happy for a friend who just got married, especially when hearing the joy in their voice. This is in contrast with a jealous person who envies the bridegroom and wishes he had the bride for himself. John is not selfish, but is full of joy with the circumstances.
30 He must increase, but I must decrease. For John the Baptist to remain the rockstar of the day would mean his ministry was a failure. The whole point was to prepare the way for Jesus. Thus John's success would be Jesus becoming the focus. To the worldly eye this would be a negative thing. But John did not judge with the world's values.
31 "He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. The trump card is that Jesus is from above, which is heaven. And John is of the earth and has an earthly point of view. Jesus, being God from heaven is above all both in point of view and authority. Therefore it is foolish to be jealous of Him.
32 What He has seen and heard, of that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. This verse is both hyperbolic and completely accurate. It is accurate because everyone is in rebellion against God, and rejects the testimony of the Son. But it's also hyperbolic because some turn away from rebellion and to Jesus, accepting His testimony.
33 He who has received His testimony has set his seal to this, that God is true. Those who believe in Jesus are believing in God. Accepting what Jesus said and taught is to accept the word of God. Receiving the gospel is to confirm God.
34 For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. Jesus was sent by God, and is God. Therefore what He says is the word of God.
Humans who have had the Holy Spirit upon them in both testaments only had it in a limited measure. By this they could speak and teach, perform many miracles, and accomplish the will of God. But Jesus is fully God as well as fully man. So it was a limitless measure of the Spirit upon Him as He and the Spirit are one God.
We should not get too into the weeds on the Spirit being upon Jesus, trying to discern the source of Jesus' miracles. To say that Jesus could only do miracles by the Spirit is to deny His divinity. While scripture does seem to teach that there was some difference in Jesus incarnate, it was by His own will choosing to operate as a human experiencing our temptations and trial. Yet His divinity was clearly fully in play as he would calm a storm out of reflex rather than appealing to the Spirit to operate. However, the Father, Son, and Spirit are one and are also separate persons. This means they are always in a relationship that is intimate on a level we cannot understand. Regardless, we do not even have a frame of reference to fully understand this, let alone that we don't have all the facts.
35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. As God is love, and as it is only the three persons of the trinity that always existed, the focus of their love was for each other until creation.
All things were given into the Son's hand both in authority and responsibility. Everything was created through Jesus.
36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." This echoes 3:16, but with important differences. While the requirement for eternal life is still belief in the Son, what constitutes belief is more specifically defined. One who truly believes obeys the Son. Some translations use believe for both verbs. However, two different verbs are used. In the first instance pisteuon is used, which is belief without qualification. However, the second verb is apeithon, which is to disobey. Disbelief is a subtext of the meaning, but cannot be separated from disobedience.
Disobeying means not seeing life. The wrath of God will remain on the one who does not obey. Abide, menei in Greek, is better translated as remain in current English. God's wrath is against sin. For those who believe and obey, our sins are wiped clean.

Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation.

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