John 2:23–3:10 Unless You Are Born from Above

Podcast: Download (30.5MB)

Download

Unless One Is Born from Above

John 2:23–3:10

Introduction: We have mentioned before a pattern that is evident in the first few chapters of the Gospel. Look at it from the beginning of the book:

• John began with the Creator coming to the earth. He brought light to dispels the darkness. He brought life so that all mankind can have life in him. And he displayed the very fullness of God so that “grace upon grace” is given to man.
• Therefore, John is introducing a new creation patterned after the original creation, which becomes evident in chapters 2-4 when Jesus brings new and abundant wine, foretells of a new temple as the old is destroyed, and now he presents a new kingdom which requires a new birth.

1. Initial Observations: Preparing Our Minds for the Text
   1. The conversation with Nicodemus is introduced by 2:23-25. Throughout his treatise, John repeatedly differentiates between believers. Many are believe but in some way or another they are not fully committed. In John 12:42, there were those who believed but would not confess Him. In 19:38, Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple, “but secretly.” In this text, there are those who believe based on the signs Jesus performed. They believed in his name, his power, but they aren’t trustworthy believers. Notice how the HCSB translates: “Many trusted in his name…but he did not entrust himself to them.” The same Greek word is used for both.
   2. Next, we need to be aware of the phrase, “born again,” or as the margin and NRSV, NET, “born from above” – the Greek implies both. This should remind us of John 1:13, “…born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” The rebirth necessary to enter the kingdom cannot be accomplished by anything man can do. It must come from God, from above. (Cf. 3:31; 19:11, 23).
   3. Jesus emphasized the point again in verse 6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh…” Flesh implies human weakness; Spirit implies the power of God. Therefore, if entering the kingdom cannot be done by the flesh, the way we think about being a kingdom citizen/disciple has been completely changed. 
      1. First, the whole Jewish system has been superseded by a greater kingdom. Every worldly kingdom is entered by the will of the flesh. This kingdom is not entered by being a descendant of Abraham.
      2. Second, we cannot simply “follow a formula” of obedience to a set of commands. That would still be “of the flesh” and fit the very system of works Jesus and the apostles condemned. 
   4. Therefore, Nicodemus is John’s introduction to why there are believers without full commitment. John specifically notes that Nicodemus came by night and was not yet in the kingdom. He has not yet arrived. He must be born from above.
   5. One other important observation: Nicodemus was a teacher or rabbi (10), and Jesus said he should have understood the concept of being born from above, and should have understood what it meant to be born of the Spirit. This is an important clue for our understanding. We cannot see the word “water” and simply think baptism. And we cannot read the word “Spirit” and shrug our shoulders in confusion. The OT is the key.
2. The Primary Message
   1. What do you think about the response of Nicodemus in verse 4? Nicodemus is not “dense.”  Nicodemus seems to understand that Jesus is talking about a new start. A new birth gives us a new beginning. How many times do we mourn our failures and wish we could go back and change our past? That is what Nicodemus can’t figure out. How can that happen? It is the reason Jesus specifies in verse 6 that it is not the flesh that needs to be born again, it is the spirit that needs rebirth, and only the Holy Spirit can do that.
   2. Therefore, first note what the message is not. The message is not that baptism is necessary to enter the kingdom. While baptism into Christ is clearly necessary for salvation, that isn’t what Jesus is talking about. 
   3. Let’s illustrate. What if I told you of a person who recognized his sins and needed forgiveness and therefore was baptized? What if I also told you that he came to church regularly, sang, prayed, took the Supper and was committed to scriptural worship? So far, you might be feeling good about his response to the gospel. But what if I also told you that the bulk of all his conversations were about his job, his investments, his position, and his love for sports, but he never talked about or showed any passion for God? Would you think he was born again? Would you think he was born from above? 
   4. Let’s make it even more clear. In Luke 7:36ff, we read about Simon the Pharisee and the sinful woman. Simon is meticulous in his law-keeping. The woman is such a bad sinner that everyone knows about her. Who was born from above? Who was born again? Do we have people like Simon in our churches? They are disgusted with the sinners of the world but not disgusted by their own sin!
   5. The message is, entrance into the kingdom does not happen by the will of man or the will of the flesh, it only happens by the power of God. Let’s take a brief journey through scripture to better comprehend this:
      1. The heart of the Jews had not changed in centuries:  Deut. 29:2-4 “And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. But to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.”Just as in the days of Jesus, even though God had done great signs, their heart did not change. That’s John 2:23 – they believed, but they aren’t changed!
      2. Add to this that for 1500 years to the time of Jesus, Israel as a whole never changed. Further, all of mankind languished in sin. Man simply could not conquer his inclination to sin. Clearly, something had to be done about man’s inclination to sin. 
      3. This first hint is in Deut. 30:6, “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” God promised that he would change their hearts so that they would love him. 
      4. Ezekiel 36:24-27 follows up with a similar promise. The emphasis is on what God would do that man had not done, nor could do on his own. Notice the terminology of how this change takes place: “I will sprinkle clean water on you…” And again, “I will give you a new heart…” Again, “I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to be careful to obey my rules.” This is exactly what Jesus was telling Nicodemus. The contrast is between man profaning God’s name and God doing what man could not do – change the very inclination of his heart toward God. 
      5. Ezekiel 37:14 At the end of the vision of the Valley of Dry Bones, God explains how he will bring his people back to life: “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live.” 
      6. [Ezekiel 20:32, 39-40, 43-44]
   6. All of the above is what Jesus is talking about when he said, “You must be born from above.” Your “flesh” is worthless and weak. You cannot do it yourself! But you say, How does God do it? I feel like I’m doing it on my own and I often fail!
      1. Romans 2:28-29 Notice the words, “circumcision is the matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.” That’s what the OT said. God is the one who changes the heart, and it is done by the Spirit. But it is not done “by the letter,” that is, done by our own strength or ability to keep the law and be righteous before God. 
      2. But what changes the inclination of our heart? What “causes us to love him and be careful to obey him?” Romans 5:5-6, 10. The Spirit worked on our hearts through what Jesus did while we were still weak! The implication is, we are not longer weak. The great “sign of Jonah,” the power of a the death and resurrected Christ while were still enemies, has deeply penetrated our hearts, creating a love that he “poured into our hearts,” and empowered us through forgiveness to live for him. Now we are strong! 
      3. Finally, consider Romans 8:1-3. We have now been set free from that vicious cycle of sin and death. God did what we could not do in the flesh, that is, attain to a righteous life because we now rely on the work of the Spirit instead of relying on the flesh. This gives us strong motivation to “set our mind on the things of the Spirit” not on the flesh. The Spirit’s work now controls our life–– which is just another way of saying, “I love him with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul, and all my might” (Deut. 30:6; Ezek. 36:25-27). We are now completely dependent on him, not self.
3. The Message for Us
   1. Many of us grew up just like Nicodemus, just like Simon the Pharisee. Your salvation is based on your careful obedience to every command. And so we tried and tried to do better, to do our best! But we kept failing. There was that nagging feeling that there was simply something wrong with our hearts. Paul said it! “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate…Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death” (Rom. 7:15, 24)?
      1. And what are we to say? There are hundreds of passages telling us to obey! We get that! And we want that! But in order to attain it, we needed more than LAW. Law was dominating us. Law was reigning over us, and thus sin was winning. Therefore we read in Rom. 6:14, “For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.” 
      2. And because grace is reigning, and the flesh no longer has dominion over us: “So then brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh…For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom. 8:12, 15).
   2. This is the reason we don’t baptize children or teach people that baptism is the magic bullet to salvation, or that born again means getting baptized. Yes, they can understand the need to obey a law, a command, especially a command as simple as baptism. But they are not understanding born from above – God sprinkling clean water on them, giving a new heart and a new spirit, putting his Spirit within them so that they want to be careful to obey him. And when all of that is done, causing them to “loathe themselves for their sins and iniquities.”
   3. Read with me Romans 10:5-10. Most of you know the context. Now look at the contrast of righteousness by Law and righteousness by Faith:
      1. Vs. 6-8: We know we can’t do the impossible. In Christ, the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart [that you can do it, Deut. 30]. 
      2. Vs. 9-10: Confessing with the mouth and believing in the heart – What? 9:30-33 – “The Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is a righteousness that is by faith.” But Israel did not attain it. “Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works… Whoever believes [trusts] in him will not be put to shame.” 
      3. That is not a “faith only” doctrine. That is a heart change that confesses Jesus as Lord who has taken away the dominion of sin, made grace reign, and by that gave us a new heart and a new spirit so that we can succeed in obeying God and in being righteous before God.
   4. What then was Jesus teaching Nicodemus? God’s new kingdom would not be filled with the old rebellious Jews who based their salvation on a physical connection to Abraham and profaned his holy name among the nations. God’s new people would be those whom he cleansed, gave a new heart, and put his Spirit within them so that they loathed their sins and were careful to obey him. These are the ones who have entered the kingdom!

Conclusion: Believe because of the signs? Not good enough. Look at the words of Jesus: “Unless one is born from above…born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Final word: did you see the “Truly, truly?” It means, “Amen, amen.” Only John uses the double “truly.” It is an affirmation that is confirmed and cannot be changed. It is decreed from heaven and is absolutely incontrovertible.

Berry Kercheville