Day 7 - John 3:9-15
11 Jan 2017
If we are going to get anywhere in our Christian lives we need humility. The humility to admit we know nothing. The humility to recognise that if we are going to know God he needs to speak to us. The humility to listen and believe. The humility to recognise we are in such a desperate situation we can't save ourselves. The humility to look to Jesus. This is not an easy lesson to learn - but it is a vital one.
Nicodemus learnt this as he talked to Jesus. When he began the conversation he came as a Pharisee, respected and probably confident he knew all about God. Yet Jesus showed him he that knew nothing. He didn’t even know the Old Testament he claimed to know - if he did he wouldn’t have been confused about what Jesus has just said about the new birth. Jesus question in verse 10 presumes that everything he is saying to Nicodemus fits with what God has already said. We must not read the Old Testament without seeing Jesus.
Nicodemus needed to be quiet and listen to Jesus - just as we do. After all, he has come from heaven. He is God and reveals God to us (vs 11-13).
But what about Nicodemus’ question? How can these things be? How can people be “born of the Spirit”? Only if Jesus is crucified. Jesus calls himself “the Son of man” in verse 14 - a favourite expression of his to refer to himself. It means literally “human being”, but for those who know it reminds people (like Nicodemus who supposedly knew his Old Testament well) of the great kingly figure prophecies in Daniel 7. He will be “lifted up”. Yes, this can refer to him being seen as great and glorious. But we can also see the double meaning in that phrase - only by being lifted up on a cross to die can people enter the kingdom of God.
Even this event is anticipated in the Old Testament. When the Israelites were in the wilderness they were they sinned against the Lord by grumbling, and as a judgement serpents bit them and made them very sick (and many died). Their only hope was to look to the bronze serpent that the Lord gave as a remedy. Like Nicodemus our sin is so serious we need to die and come back to life. Our only hope is to look to Jesus - the one who is lifted up on the cross to save us.