Chapter III

Verses 1-3. We are now introduced to one of this class, who believed, because he had seen the miracles of the Lord, and yet he seemed to have a deeper desire than the others; this desire led Nicodemus to interview the Lord personally. He was a Pharisee, which was an honored sect among the Jews, known for their extreme religiousness in keeping the law, as well as the traditions of the elders, the interpretations of that law. How the Pharisees as the religious-ritualistic class hated and opposed the Lord Jesus, and how they finally made common cause with the Saduccees, the rationalistic school, in rejecting Christ, the synoptic Gospels fully reveal. But here is a Pharisee whose heart is touched. And he was a ruler among the Jews, he held a high ecclesiastical position in his nation, a position which demanded a clean, moral character. We find a third description of this man in verse 10. The Lord addressed him as ‘the teacher in Israel.” He had the reputation in his generation of being a leading, deeply educated teacher, to whom the people looked for instruction and guidance. That such a prominent teacher lived in the days of our Lord is confirmed by the Jews. He was a leading member of the Sanhedrim and a man of much wealth. In Talmudical literature he is mentioned as Nicodemus Ben Gorion, an outstanding figure in Jewish economy of the first Century.*

He sought the Lord Jesus by night. Twice more this fact is emphasized in this Gospel (chapters vii:50, xix:39). While he had an earnest longing for the truth, which made him take a great risk, he was at the same time timid, fearing the scorn and condemnation of his co-religionists.

Before he ever made his appearance before the Lord Jesus in that memorable night, the Lord knew him. He knew what burdened his heart; he knew the longing of his heart. The conversation which follows is of great importance and deserves very careful study. Some have asked why only John records this important event. The reason is very clear. He was commissioned to write the Gospel document which shows

*See Jewish Encyclopedia Vol. IX, page 300.

our Lord as the true God and the eternal Life, with power to give eternal Life, a truth which the Holy Spirit held back from the pen of the three preceding Evangelists. ‘The conversation with Nicodemus, the great truths our Lord here teaches concerning the new birth, form the proper starting point for the unfolding of the great theme of the fourth Gospel. Others have asked where John got the correct information from to write an accurate account of the night visit of the great Pharisee, especially since some forty years had gone by since it took place. This question has been well answered by another. “How any one can waste time, as some famous commentators do, in speculating how the conversation between Christ and Nicodemus was reported, is to my mind perfectly astonishing. To hint, as one has done, that Jesus must have told John about the conversation afterwards, or that John must have been present, appears to me to strike a blow at the very root of inspiration. Both here and elsewhere, frequently, John describes things which he only knew by the direct inspiration of the Holy Spirit” (Bishop Ryle).

Nicodemus addressed the Lord as ““Rabbi” — which means “Master” or Teacher, and then said, ““We know that thou art a teacher come from God (literally rendered, ‘From God thou hast come a teacher’”’) for no one can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.” Most likely Nicodemus had a strong impression that Jesus must be the Messiah, yet he was cautious and made therefore an attempt to know more about Him and by private conversation.

And the Lord answered him at once without permitting Nicodemus to continue his address. What was in Nicodemus’s heart? About what did he intend to speak to the Lord? We read how the Lord answered him, and what our Lord said gives us a hint of what was in the heart of Nicodemus. The Lord anticipated his question, and at once touches upon the whole matter which had exercised his mind. “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus came to inquire concerning the kingdom. Messiah and the kingdom were inseparably associated in the Jewish mind. If this Man does miracles, as He did, is He the Messiah, and, if He is,

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN Sys

what about His kingdom? This must have been the supreme thought with Nicodemus. The words our Lord spoke to him indicate this.

The question then arises, What kingdom does our Lord mean when He addressed Nicodemus in this abrupt way? This we must ascertain first, and after that the meaning of being “‘born again,” as well as the mode of this new birth.

The Gospel is often preached, and that rightly so, from the story of Nicodemus. In doing so emphasis is laid upon the great truth that there is only one way into the kingdom, and that is the new birth. But the Gospel preacher generally identifies the kingdom of God with salvation, and speaks of it in the sense of being right with God, getting saved and receiving eternal life, which is all very true. But the original meaning in connection with Nicodemus is quite overlooked. Nicodemus certainly did not understand by the kingdom anything different from that kingdom which the Prophets of his people had predicted. It is the kingdom promised to Israel, the kingdom which is not now, which will come some day and into which Israel will enter. We fully agree with the comment of one of the most spiritual expositors, who knew how to divide the Word of Truth rightly, the late Frederick W. Grant. We quote his words:

“The Kingdom of God was that which the prophets had announced, and for which all Israel waited. We must not think of it in the form it has now taken, the King being away, and its administration being in the hands of men. We must think of it as established by power at the Coming of the Lord, when of Israel alone a remnant will enter it whose character Isaiah explicitly declares (chapter iv:2-4). For ‘in that day shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem shall be called holy; even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem; when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughter of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.”

Then follows the account of the glory of Jerusalem in millennial days.

“It is certain, therefore, that, when Israel enters the Kingdom, every one will be born again that does so, and it should be clear that this is what a Jew like Nicodemus would expect, and had a right to expect, if taught of the prophets. Of the Christian form of the Kingdom he could know nothing, and could be expected to know nothing; for it was not yet revealed. Nor could the Lord’s words even apply to the present time, in which, all the parables declare, a mingled condition of things, tares and wheat together, wise and foolish virgins’”’ (Numerical Bible).

Later in the conversation our Lord expressed surprise over the great teacher’s ignorance. “Art thou the teacher in Israel and dost thou not know these things?’ It is clearly revealed in the Old Testament prophetic Word that Israel’s blessing, restoration and entrance into the future earthly kingdom, which will be set up when King Messiah returns to earth, is intimately connected with the new birth of the remnant of the nation. This is clearly stated in the great restoration chapter in the Book of Ezekiel. After the promise, “I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land,” the Holy Spirit promises that for the nation which will be their new birth. ‘Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean; from all your filthiness and from your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments and do them” (Ezekiel xxxvi:4-28).

While this is true of Israel in the future, that they can never enter in and possess the promised kingdom unless born again, it is equally true of the entrance into the Kingdom of His Son, which is now (Colossians 1:13). There is no other way, but the way of being born again. What man is in himself, what he makes of himself, as a religious, a moral nad educated man, such as Nicodemus was, can never bring the soul into the presence and fellowship of a holy God. This is the one unalterable condition for Jew and Gentile, “ye must be born again.”

It has often been remarked with what abruptness our Lord treated Nicodemus, interrupting him as He did, and then laying down this great demand as the one great condition of the kingdom. And what a contrast with her of whom we read in the next chapter, the woman at the well! Both needed the new birth, though the one dressed in the garments of his own pharisaical righteousness (only filthy rags), and the other garbed in that of an abandoned woman. Yet He did not speak to the woman of the absolute necessity of the new birth in order to see the kingdom of God. In fact, our Lord did not make a similar statement and demand of any other person apart from Nicodemus. He selected this one man, the natural man at his best, to emphasize the one great need, the new birth.

Verses 4-8. The question which Nicodemus asked of the Lord, after His emphatic statement concerning the new birth, reveals the ignorance of the natural man, though he may be, like Nicodemus, in the eyes of man a great teacher and religious leader. He was just as ignorant as the Samaritan woman who did not know what the Lord meant by “‘living water.” In answer to Nicodemus our Lord enlightens him as to the new birth, that it is a birth of the water and the Spirit, and repeats once more the absolute necessity of such a birth for entrance into the Kingdom of God.

We examine first the very weighty and important statement ‘‘that which is born of the flesh is flesh.” It was no doubt spoken first of all in answer to the words of Nicodemus: “‘Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Even if this were possible it would not open the way into the Kingdom of God, for flesh, the fallen nature of man, cannot produce anything but flesh. This is the great truth our Lord makes known in this terse statement. Man enters into the world by the natural generation with a nature of sin, a fallen, corrupt nature. The whole race is by nature unfit to be in the presence of God. Both Jews and Gentiles are under sin and on account of sin the whole world is guilty before God. Out of an unclean thing nothing clean can be brought forth (Job xiv:4). Well may we pause here and think of that other statement in the beginning of this Gospel, in which also the word flesh is used — “the Word was made flesh.” If the Son of God was born like any other human being is born (as blasphemers in different colleges and in pulpits of evangelical denominations boldly declare), then He too falls under this statement, that He was born of the flesh and therefore flesh, and hence it would have been impossible for Him to be the Saviour of men. The holy, perfectly holy, sinless character and life of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be explained in any other way than by His virgin birth. We mention this argument here because the destructive critics, with their boast of scholarship, declare that John’s Gospel has nothing to say about the supernatural birth of Christ. But of Him it was never true “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,”’ but He was conceived and born by the Holy Spirit of God and therefore holy, without sin, and without the possibility of sinning. Of every other human being it is sadly true, born of the flesh and therefore flesh, sinful and alienated from God.

And this nature of flesh, this corrupt nature, cannot be changed into something better, because it is not good at all and so evil that it can only bring forth evil. The root is corrupt and so must be the fruit. Of this nature the Spirit of God testifies that “‘they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” It is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Romans viii:7-8). How important is this truth! Whenever it is denied it will affect the w hole Gospel and will lead to the shameful denial of the Truth of God. And because human nature is absolutely corrupt, with nothing good in it, not even the imagined “divine spark” or a faint trace of good, therefore its offspring must be evil and nothing but evil, with no hope of self-improvement; an entirely new nature is needed in order to see the kingdom of God and enter therein. This new nature is the nature produced by the Spirit of God, and therefore a spiritual nature, the divine nature, which only is fit and fitted to be in the presence of Him who bestows it.

This birth is of water and the Spirit, “‘except a man be born of the water and the Spirit.” We could fill many pages with the different views which have been expressed on this sentence. Its application to baptism is the most common and held by many. But this view is totally wrong. The Lord did no more mean baptism in using the term water, than He meant the Lord’s supper when in the sixth chapter He speaks of eating His flesh and drinking His blood. If He meant baptism then it would follow very logically that only those who are baptized can enter the Kingdom, and that all those who are baptized must of necessity possess eternal life. Baptism is the figure of death. Romans vi; Colossians ii and I Peter iii:18 bear witness to this; as Paul writes in the sixth chapter of Romans, ‘‘Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” But our Lord here does not speak of death, nor of His death and the believer’s death in Him, but he speaks solely of the communication of life in the new birth.

“Christian Baptism was not instituted, nor did the facts exist which it symbolizes, till the Lord died and rose. How, then, could Nicodemus by any possibility anticipate them or understand what the Lord gives as the clearing up of this difficulty as to being born again? Yet the Lord reproached him as “‘the teacher in Israel” with his slowness of intelligence. That is, he should have known these things, which he could not possibly know if the Lord alluded to a Christian institution as yet undivulged” (W. Kelly). Bishop Ryle of the Church of England, which more or less holds the view that water means baptism, gives a number of excellent reasons why this view is erroneous. We give his six reasons. (1) There is nothing in the words of the text which necessarily requires to be referred to baptism. (2) The assertion that “‘water’ must mean baptism is an assertion utterly destitute of Scripture proof. It is a mere gratuitous assumption and must fall to the ground. (3) If water means baptism it follows as a logical consequence that baptism is absolutely necessary to salvation, and that all who have died unbaptized since these words were spoken have been lost. (4) If we accept the theory that baptism is the means of regeneration, that all baptized persons are necessarily regenerated we are irrestibly involved in the most dangerous and pernicious consequences. (5) If it means baptism it is difficult to understand why our Lord rebuked Nicodemus for his ignorance. (6) If water means baptism, it is most extraordinary that there is so little about baptism in the Epistles of the New Testament. Paul thanked God that of the Corinthians he had baptized none but Crispus and Gaius. He would surely never have said this, if all whom he baptized were at once born again. Imagine Paul saying, “‘I thank God I renegerated none of you.”

Baptism as an ordinance cannot communicate life, nor is it essential to salvation. Water here is figurative of the Word of God as it is also in the thirteenth chapter, in connection with the feet washing of the disciples, and in Ephesians v:26: ““The washing of water by the Word.” Then there are three passages which show conclusively that the Word of God is meant: 1 Corinthians iv:15, ‘‘for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel,” James i:18, “Of His own will begat He us with the Word of Truth,” and 1 Peter i:23. In the last named passage Peter writes: “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” This Petrine statement is sufficient to silence the view that water baptism is an agent in the new birth. And this is so much more remarkable because Peter is the Apostle through whom ritualistic Christendom claims to have received its authority and doctrine. The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to bring about the new birth. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing cometh by the Word of God. The Word believed and accepted, the Holy Spirit accomplishes by His power the new birth, and the new nature, the eternal life is received. We may well call the Word of God the mother of all those who are begotten again, while the Holy Spirit is the Father. For this reason Peter exhorts new-born babes, those just born again, to desire the sincere milk of the Word to grow thereby (1 Peter ii:2). This is the only meaning of the word water, the written, the living and abiding Word of God.

This new birth by believing the Word of God, and through the Holy Spirit as the agent of life and power, is absolutely necessary for entrance into the Kingdom of God. It is this which delivers from the power of darkness and translates us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. And, as stated before, Israel cannot enter that coming Kingdom, the Kingdom which will come with the coming of the King, except by the new birth. The remnant of Israel will be born again in that coming day, and a great national regeneration is in store for that nation (Ezekiel xxxvi).

The Lord then said again, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” He bids him to stop wondering, and the repeated emphasis confirms the great importance of the new birth. No matter how this age may progress in educational and scientific matters (it can not progress in righteousness for it is an evil age) the demand of the Son of God can never be changed — ‘“‘Ye must be born again.” Dean Alford adduces from this statement an argument of the supernatural birth of our Lord. “The Lord could not say of Himself what he said to Nicodemus. He said ‘Ye’ and not ‘We’ must be born again. Why? Because in the full sense in which the flesh is incapacitated from entering the kingdom of God, He was not born of the flesh.... Therefore He includes not Himself in this necessity for the new birth.”

Furthermore, our Lord said, ‘“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (verse 8). This applies to the mysterious and incomprehensible operations of the Spirit of God in the new birth.

Verses 9-13. For the third time Nicodemus speaks; it is the last time he answered the Lord. He had first addressed - the Lord expressing his faith in Him as a teacher come from God. When our Lord had told him of the new birth as the only way into the kingdom, Nicodemus answered foolishly, and now after he had heard from the lips of the Son of God all the great truths concerning man’s corrupt nature, the necessity of the new birth by water and the spirit, and about the agent in the new birth, the Holy Spirit, in His incomprehensible operations, he asks, How can these things be? What an evidence of the blinded condition as to spiritual things this great teacher in Israel revealed! It is the blindness of the natural man which is the condition of all of us. After our eyes are opened we realize it as the blind man did whom the Lord healed — “‘one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (Chapter ix:25).

Nicodemus revealed ignorance even in the elementary things he should have known as the teacher of Israel. “Art thou the teacher of Israel, and knowest not these things?” As such he should have known through the study of the Scriptures, at least in a general way, that Israel before entering and possessing the kingdom promised to them, must be an Israel not only circumcized in the flesh, but in the heart as well. The Lord had spoken to Nicodemus of these earthly things and not of heavenly things at all, not of this present dispensation and a Church with a heavenly calling, but of that kingdom of blessing and glory, an earthly kingdom, promised to Israel.

The Scriptures make it very plain that only the born-again remnant of Israel will enter the land and enjoy the millennial glories. “I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me. I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel, and ye shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezek. xx:38). ‘‘And it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; they shall call on my name, and I will hear them; I will say it is my people, and they shall say, the Lord is my God” (Zech. xiii:8-9). The ungodly, the apostate in Israel cannot enter the kingdom. In the Psalms and in the Prophets the necessity of a spiritual re-birth of Israel is often brought forth in connection with the coming kingdom. For instance in Psalm xv which begins with the questions — ‘“‘Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in Thy holy hill?” The answer is the demand of righteousness, the result of the new birth. Or in Psalm Ixxili, God will be good to Israel, fulfill all his promises to them, “to such as are of a clean heart.” The new covenant which is yet to be made with all Israel mentions the new-birth. ‘‘But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.... I will forgive their iniquities, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jerem. xxxi:33). But the clearest prophecy on this line is the one to which we referred before — (Ezekiel xxxvi:23-36). Long before that the Lord had announced through Moses the world-wide dispersion of the nation, their return in repentance and their new birth. ‘And the Lord thy God will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live” (Deut. xxx:6).

Of these earthly things, the earthly kingdom and the conditions to enter therein, the Lord had spoken, and Nicodemus did not know these simple things revealed in the Hebrew Scripture. Of ‘“‘the heavenly things” the Lord did not speak to Nicodemus, and these heavenly things concern the fullness of redemption, the believer’s identification with Himself, the gift of the Spirit, the Church as the body and fullness of Christ. From this we learn conclusively two important facts. First, the Kingdom of God has an earthly and heavenly side; the earthly side is the kingdom promised to Israel (called in Matthew ‘“‘the Kingdom of heaven’’); the heavenly side is the Church with her heavenly calling and destiny. The second fact is that the Lord speaks of the earthly things of the kingdom, the heavenly things were made known after the Holy Spirit came to earth.

In the next place He who spoke thus to Nicodemus reveals Himself, who He is, not “‘a great teacher,” but One who came down from heaven, and though in the form of man, is in heaven. The words He spoke to Nicodemus demand our careful attention.

“No man hath ascended up to heaven.” Some have looked upon this statement as a contradiction and point to Enoch and Elijah, who went to heaven without dying. It just depends what one understands by “heaven.” The heaven of which our Lord speaks is the third heaven, where the dwelling place of God is., Into this heaven no man ever has ascended (Acts ii:34). Nor have the Saints of God since the Lord Jesus ascended into heaven to take His place at the right hand of God, gone into that heaven. The day will come when the redeemed will be brought into that heaven. The Lord speaks of Himself. ‘He that descended is the same also who ascended far above all heavens, that He might fill all things” (Ephes. iv:10). We may well connect this statement of our Lord with Proverbs xxx:4 — “Who hath ascended up into heaven or descended? Who hath gathered the wind into his fists? Who hath bound the waters into a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is His Name, and what His Son’s Name, if thou canst tell?” But why does He speak here first of ascending into heaven, and afterward mentions His descent? He speaks prophetically, that is in anticipation, as elsewhere in this Gospel, especially in His prayer in the seventeenth chapter. There He said, “I am no longer in the world,” yet He was still in the world. So here He anticipates His ascension. And He descended, came down from heaven first. It is another precious evidence of His pre-existence and Deity. Equally so are the words, “the Son of Man whois in heaven.”

This is a sublime statement with which Unitarians and others have meddled. That so-called Twentieth Century New Testament, which claims to be a translation from the Greek, when in reality it is nothing but a perverted paraphrase, against which we have repeatedly warned the people of God, translates and gives verse 13 as follows: “There is none gone up to heaven, except the one who came down from heaven — the Son of Man Himself.” These men who are responsible for this Twentieth Century New Testament have taken an astonishing liberty with one of the greatest statements which came from the lips of our Lord — they have taken out the declaration of the Son of God that as Son of Man He is in Heaven, though He walked upon the earth. It shows what kind of a spirit is behind these attempts to modernize the Word of God.

Others have tried to correct this statement by saying “the Son of Man who was in heaven.” While this is perfectly true, it does not say so in the text. “The Son of Man who is in heaven” reveals His omnipresence, the omnipresence of God. While living on earth as Man, He was at the same time in heaven; as God He dwelt in heaven; as Man He dwelt on earth. Every moment between His coming down from heaven, and His going back, this statement was true of Himself. It shows us that He did not relinquish His Deity when He appeared in the form of a servant. This Gospel shows us His three great attributes of Deity, omnipotence, omniscience, and here omnipresence.

“‘The expression ‘who is in heaven’ is one of those many expressions in the New Testament which can be explained in no other way than by Christ’s Deity. It would be utterly absurd and untrue to say of any mere man, that at the very time he was speaking 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 spoke with Nicodemus. The expression is one which no Unitarian can explain away. If Christ was only a holy man and nothing more, He could not have used these words. The explanation of the former part of this 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 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.’”’*

Verses 14-17. In the previous verse the Lord had spoken of Himself as the Son of Man who is in heaven, and now He speaks of Himself as the Son of Man to be lifted up. Nicodemus must have remembered as the teacher in Israel that the Prophet Daniel spoke of the Messiah as the Son of Man. He saw Him in the night vision coming in the clouds of heaven to receive the kingdom (Dan. vii:14). Nicodemus, in common with the nation, expected the coming of the Messiah to set up His kingdom, and overlooked the fact that the same prophet who beheld Him coming to receive the kingdom, also records the rejection of the Messiah.

*Bishop Ryle.

‘ “Messiah shall be cut off and have nothing” (Dan. ix:26). Our Lord therefore points out to him that before the glory can come there must be suffering first. The Son of Man, who will receive the throne of His Father David, and the promised kingdom, must first be lifted up.

This is the second “must” in the third chapter of this Gospel. If man must be born again in order to see and enter the kingdom of God, the Son of Man must be lifted up so that man dead in trespasses and sin, destitute of eternal life, may receive such life and not perish. The words of our Lord give the answer to the question Nicodemus had asked, “How can these things be?” — The Son of Man must be lifted up.

What our Lord means by the sentence “the Son of Man must be lifted up” is His death by crucifixion. The twelfth chapter makes this plain. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all to Me. This He said signifying what death He should die’ (Verses 32-33). ‘The incident in the wilderness, Moses lifting up the serpent, demonstrates the same fact. This is recorded in Numbers (xxi:4-9). God had sent into the camp of Israel fiery serpents as a judgment. ‘The bite of these serpents was deadly. But when they cried “We have sinned”? God provided a remedy. He told Moses to make a serpent of brass and set it upon a pole, with the assuring promise that everyone who is bitten and looks upon the brazen serpent should live. And Moses made the serpent and put it upon the pole, and whenever an Israelite was bitten, and he looked, he lived. This serpent of brass was carefully preserved by the people Israel and finally became an object of idolatry (like the cross in the Romish “church’’) till King Hezekiah destroyed it (2 Kings xviii:4). In spite of this fact a Romish church in Milan, Italy,claims to have the original brazen serpent Moses made.

The use of this incident to illustrate the wonderful truth of redemption, manifests the heavenly wisdom of our Lord. It also confirms the typical teaching of Old Testament events, that“all these things happened unto them for types, and they are written for our admonition” (1 Cor. x:11). |. The condition in the Camp of Israel is a picture of the ravages of sin, and the wages of sin, which is death. The fatal poison of sin is working in the race and man is spiritually dead. The brazen serpent lifted up on a pole is the type of Christ in His sacrificial work on the cross. That serpent was the very image of what was destroying the Israelites, but the brazen serpent had no poisonous fangs; there was no poison in it. Though it bore the likeness of the serpent, the emblem of sin, it was harmless. Thus the Son of God appeared in the form of man, in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. viii:3), but He was without sin; He knew no sin. And when He was lifted up on the cross, on that cross He who knew no sin was made sin for us, and by the offering of Himself for sin, He put away sin. Hanging on that cross He bore the curse and redeemed those who believe on Him from the curse, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree (Gal. iii:13). Looking up to the brazen serpent, the Israelite saw the very thing which had put death and ruin upon them, triumphed over, completely conquered. And so as we look to Christ crucified, made a curse, bearing sin, we see sin judged, condemned, triumphed over, robbed of its power and stripped of its strength.

And as the Israelites looked to the lifted up brazen serpent, and beheld there a representation of God’s power over that which wrought death, and beheld thus God’s ability to save, to end death and to give life, the power of God was blessedly manifested in their salvation — ‘‘when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.” — Even so, when we turn our eyes to the cross of Calvary, we behold the power of God in salvation. The old man has been crucified with Christ, that the body of sin might be annulled, that henceforth we may not serve sin. We see ourselves redeemed from the guilt and power of sin; death is ended and life is given, even eternal life. Let us also notice that the death-stricken Israelite was not saved by a natural process of improvement or by a gradual restoration, but by a sudden supernatural manifestation of divine power. ‘That life by which they lived was miraculous in its character. How blessedly and fully all this foreshadows and illustrates the Gospel of our salvation! The question Nicodemus asked as to the “how” of the new birth is wonderfully answered. Christ died for the ungodly and believing on Him means salvation from eternal perdition and the gift of eternal life. What is it to believe? It is the same that the Israelites did when in simple faith they accepted God’s Word, believed it true and then looked to the brazen serpent on the pole. This is the way to salvation, as announced long before our Lord spoke these words of life to the teacher in Israel — “‘Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth” (Isaiah xlv:22). There is life in a look at the crucified One; There is life at this moment for thee;

Then look, sinner — look unto Him and be saved — Unto Him who was nailed to the tree.

His anguish of soul on the cross hast thou seen? His cry of distress hast thou heard?

Then why, if the terrors of wrath He endured,
Should pardon to thee be deferred?

We are healed by His stripes. Wouldst thou add to the word? And He is our righteousness made;

The best robe of heaven He bids thee put on;
O couldst thou be better arrayed?

Then doubt not thy welcome, since God hath declared There remaineth no more to be done; Christ once in the end of the world hath appeared, And completed the work He begun.

How needful it is in these days of apostasy to declare and to defend this one great truth concerning our salvation. In the very midst of the evangelical denominations, which generations ago preached this salvation by grace, men have arisen who boldly say that man is not saved by one act of faith, who deny the great and eternal truths of real salvation as they came from the lips of our Lord. But it is worse than that. The modern theology sees nothing in the death of Christ but an act of self-sacrifice, the martyr’s death, and it denies Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice. There is a veritable sneer in apostate Christendom at the words “vicarious sacrifice.” And that masterpiece of Satan ‘‘Christian Science’? does the same. It denies the reality of sin and death, and hence has only words of contempt for redemption by blood. Whoever it is who denies the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ as the only means of salvation, whether he is a professor or pulpiteer in some Protestant denomination, a Christian Scientist, a Spiritualist, or whatever other name he may bear, is a deluded, lost soul, the instrument of the powers of darkness, a blind leader of the blind, a hypocrite, of whom the Son of God has spoken His just words of condemnation: ‘Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matthew xxiii:33). If an apostate should read these lines, be warned, there is no escape for any man or woman who denies the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But who is able to give an exposition of John iii: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.’ We do not say too much when we say, this is the most wonderful verse in the Bible. Luther said, “I love this text beyond measure.’ And so do we. Every Christian, who knows the Gospel, presses this precious utterance to his heart, and prizes it more than the riches of the whole world. Dr. Martin Luther’s comment on this verse written four hundred years ago is still one of the best. We can do nothing better than to pass it on in translation to our readers, most of whom have no access to Luther’s works.

“The Person of the Giver. In the first place, the Giver is not a man, an emperor, or an angel, but the high, eternal Majesty, God Himself, in comparison with whom all men are dust and ashes. He is no task-master, who only demands from us, nor is He now a devouring and consuming fire, but a rich, flowing, eternal fountain of grace and gifts.

“Secondly, the cause. What was the cause and motive of the giving? Nothing but pure, unspeakable love; for He does not give from obligation or duty, but from His own goodness, as such a Lord who likes to give, and takes His pleasure and joy in giving; He gives purely and freely, without the asking.

“Thirdly, the gift itself. What, then, does He give? Not heaven and earth and all they contain, but His Son, who is as great as God Himself. This is an eternal, an incomprehensible gift, which is a well and fountain of all grace, goodness and kindness; yet, the possession and ownership of eternal goods and treasures. When God gives His Son, what does He retain and what does He not give? Yea, He gives Himself entirely. (Rom. viii:32.)

‘‘Fourthly, how and in what manner is the Son given? Look upon Him and see what He does and suffers, in that He must take upon Himself the fury and rage of the devil and sin and contend with them; this means to “give” in the highest sense.

‘“Fifthly, the recipient to whom all this is given is also painted in the text. In one word it is called “World.” This is wonderful, extraordinary loving and giving. For what is the world, but a great mass of people who do not fear, trust or love God; in addition, also, the disobedient, murderers, whoremongers, thieves and knaves, transgressors of all the commandments, and opposers of them in all respects, clinging to the very devil, the arch enemy of God.

“Sixthly. Now follow the fruit and the benefit of this gift, “Should not perish but have everlasting life.’ That is, I shall not remain in sin, I shall not have a bad conscience, nor be under the law. This grace shall effect this, that it shall extinguish hell for me, cast the devil under my feet, and in place of a frightened, despondent and deadened heart, I shall receive a joyful, living heart; in short, an eternal, imperishable life, instead of eternal destruction and death.

“Seventhly, the manner in which such treasure and gift is to be received, and the purse or casket into which it is to be laid is faith alone. Faith holds out her hands, opens the bag and receives abundant grace. Faith may be only a small, diminutive casket, but it contains such a noble, precious jewel, a pearl or an emerald such as the world does not contain.”

But all these explanations are but the stammering lips of a child. Could Luther speak from the glory, he would own the insufficiency of these words. We believe that the world God loved, means the world just as Luther explained it. The view of Electionists, that the world means only the elect, whom God loved and predestinated before the foundation of the world, while the rest is predestinated to damnation, is unsound. The term ‘“‘world” means the whole race of mankind. “To confine God’s love to the elect, is taking a harsh and narrow view of God’s character and fairly lays open Christianity 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 besides, how shall He 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 John iii:16.” — Bishop Ryle.

Even John Calvin endorses the true meaning of the word “world.” He says on this text, “Christ brought life, because the heavenly Father loves the human race, and wishes that they should not perish. 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.’”

And who is able to give even a full comment on the smallest word in this text, which is the word “so”? No tongue nor pen can tell out the full meaning of these two letters. And then the words ‘He gave.” How unsearchable and inexhaustible they are!

“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. iv:25; viii: 32). Christ is the ‘gift of God,’ spoken of to the Samaritan woman (John iv:10), and the ‘unspeakable gift’ spoken of by St. Paul (2 Cor. ix:15). He Himself says to the wicked

Jews, ‘My Father giveth you the true bread from heaven’ (John vi:32). This last text, be it noted, was oné 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.”’*

The greatest statement in this verse, which we cannot exhaust, is in the words, that he whosoever (it means you) believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. No human knows what it means to “perish,” that awful destiny which is ours by nature, an endless, conscious existence in the outer darkness, with the load of sin unlifted, perishing and no end to this perishing. Nor do we know the fullest meaning of what the Glory is for which God has saved us and to which He brings His own. Only when we shall know, as we are known, when no longer we look into a glass darkly shall we measure the heights and depths of John iii:16.

Furthermore, the Lord told Nicodemus, that God did not send Him into the world that the world should be judged (the meaning of the word “condemned”) by Him, “but that the world through Him might be saved,” Later our Lord spoke words to the same effect. ‘I came not to judge the world, but to save the world” (John xii:47). The Old Testament prophetic Word shows Messiah as the Judge of the nations and of the ungodly, both among Israel and the Gentiles. His Coming means judgment and for the earth the rule of righteousness, when righteousness will reign through Him as King of kings. Nicodemus and the Jews who expect the promised Messiah and His kingdom, therefore expected Him to come as Judge. They overlooked the fact that His second Coming will bring the judgments

*Notes on John announced in the Prophets and the establishment of the throne of righteousness. His first coming is not for the fulfillment of promises to establish His Kingdom. While the Jews were blind as to the purpose of His first Coming, the professing church of today is even more blind as to His Second Coming. The purpose of His first Coming is that all the world might have a door of salvation opened through Himself; that Salvation might be provided for all the world, and that those who believe on Him might be saved. But it does not mean, that all the world will be saved in this age. When those who believe are gathered out, when the Church, the Body of Christ, is complete, His Second Coming takes place, and then He will judge the world in righteousness.

“The readiness of natural men 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 the Virgin 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.”

Verses 18-21. While it is true that the Son of God was not sent to condemn the world, yet in another sense the world is condemned already, for the world which lieth in the wicked one, yea the whole world is guilty before God and under condemnation. (Romans iii:19.) But the sinner who believes on the Son of God is no longer under that condemnation. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into comdemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” (Chapter v:24.) But what a solemn truth it is that “he that believeth not is condemned already,” he remains in his guilty condition before God, with wrath abiding upon him (verse 36); he is judged because he does not believe on the Son of God. Unbelief then is the sin which damns. Well has it been said, ‘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 ag 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 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, was to disbelieve His love, mercy and power to save. Luther said on this passage, ““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 Christ. If I do not believe on Him, sin and condemnation must continue.” With this tremendous, never changing utterance of our Lord before us, let us think of the masses about us. Every man and woman, though they make some kind of a religious profession, who does not believe on the Son of God, is condemned and lost. A Unitarian, a Christian Scientist, a Universalist and the vast majority of Ritualists and professing Protestant Church members, who have only the outward form of godliness and are destitute of real salvation, are all under the sentence of condemnation; they are lost. How well for us to remember that we owe to them the Gospel, and that we must witness to them concerning this solemn truth.

And this is the condemnation that He, the Light, came into the world, and through His coming it has been manifested what the heart of man is. Because man has an evil heart and evil deeds, he loves darkness rather than light. It was so with the Jews; it is so still. The light of the Gospel is here; it has been shining for nineteen hundred years, yet man continues to love darkness and refuses the light. And has the rejection of the Gospel-light ever been greater than it is now! Rejecting the Light, the Gospel, the Cross, is the greatest tragedy of human existence for it seals an eternal doom.

“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 thts 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.’’*

But he that doeth truth, who in sincerity believes, cometh to the light, and walks in that light, and thus it will be manifested that his deeds are wrought in God, the fruits of that new nature he received in believing on the Son of God.

Verses 22-36. ‘‘After these things came Jesus and His disciples into the land of Judea; and there He tarried with them, and baptized. And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there; and

*BishopRyle.

they came and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into prison” (verses 22-24). The conversation with Nicodemus ended with the previous verse. We shall find Nicodemus mentioned twice more in this Gospel. After the conversation, perhaps the next morning, our Lord left Jerusalem and went into Judea, that is the surrounding country, where he tarried for some time with His disciples. There also the disciples baptized. The next chapter makes it clear that our Lord did not baptize Himself (iv:2) but His disciples baptized. We do not know anything else of this baptism, which must have been of the same character as John’s baptism unto repentance. And John also continued in his ministry, baptizing in Aenon near Salim. He had not yet been cast into prison.

“Then there arose a question between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou bearest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all come to him” (Verses 25-26).

What the question was between the disciples and the Jews is not fully stated. It probably concerned the question of baptism, which of the baptisms, that by John, or the disciples’ baptism, was the most valuable and purifying. It is evident that the unrecorded dispute brought the disciples of John to their master in a spirit of jealousy; they were sectarians and were disturbed by the action of the disciples of the Lord in baptizing the people. But this brought out a most wonderful testimony to Christ from the side of John.

John answered and said, “‘A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. Ye yourselves bear me witness, that I said I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly on account of the bridegroom’s voice; this my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease” (Verses 27-30).

Blessed statement! It bears witness to the great spirituality and humility of John the Baptist. How else could it be? For of him it is written, “He shall be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb” (Luke i:15).

And whenever the Spirit fills, He produces humility, lowliness of mind and exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He rested in the will of God, perfectly content and assured that all is well. What then does it matter if more men came to Him, concerning whom he had borne witness, than to himself. He was fulfilling his mission as the herald of the King. Another one filled with the Holy Spirit manifested the same humility and contentment, Paul in the prison of Rome. He knew nothing of the spirit of jealousy, though some preached Christ out of contention, to add affliction to his bonds. But he rose above it all, when he wrote: “What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached, and I therefore do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice” (Phil. i:18).

John then speaks of Christ as the Bridegroom. He that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom. But who is the Bride? Not Israel, who nationally held the position of the married wife (symbolically), being unfaithful, she was divorced, which is her present condition. A day is coming when Israel will be re-instituted and become once more married unto the Lord in earthly glory (see Isaiah Ixii:4 and Hosea ii:16). But a divorced wife taken back into favor can hardly be called a Bride. The Bride of which John the Baptist speaks is the Church, gathering now to the heavenly Bridegroom, destined to be the Lamb’s wife and to share with Him all His heavenly glory. John calls himself only the Bridegroom’s friend. As such he greatly rejoiced to hear the Bridegroom’s voice. Thus Christ was all his joy, to exalt Him the business of his ministry. Therefore he was content to decrease and see Christ increase. ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.” This is the third “must” in this chapter. Even so it should be in the individual experience of every believer. Christ must ever increase and we decrease.

“He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: He that cometh from heaven is above all. And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth; and no man receiveth His testimony. He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him” (Verses 31-36).

The Spirit-filled John exalts Christ and bears witness to His Deity. He is from above and therefore He is above all. Having come from above, He speaks of the heavenly things He has seen and which He knows. The words of Christ therefore are the unchangeable, the unchanging, the ever-abiding words of heavenly truth. He is the Truth and His Word is Truth. With Him whom he thus exalts he compares his own inferior ministry; he is of the earth and his conception earthly, weak and imperfect, as all earthly things are. The sentence, “‘no man receiveth His testimony” anticipates His rejection. But if any one believes the testimony of Him who is above and who has made known heavenly things, he hath set to it his seal that God is true. The seal is attached to a document to confirm and to attest it; even so he who receiveth the testimony of Christ, believes on Him, trusts in Him, declares thus his belief that God is true to His Word, and has kept His promises as to Christ and salvation. On the other hand “‘He that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son” (1 John v:10).

The Son of God, sent by God, One with God, speaketh the words of God. How could it be otherwise? And there is another great statement: ‘“‘For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” In Him the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell. Prophets in the Old Testament received the Spirit by measure, not so He who is very God. He in whom the Father dwelt was also the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit. And those who are in Him receive the Holy Spirit not by measure, but He Himself comes as the abiding guest, so that believers are the temples of the Holy Spirit. Verse 35, “The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand,” means that the Father, in anticipation of the redemption work of His Son has given Him the pre-eminence in all things. All things belong to Him in His essential Deity; but as the incarnate Son of God who finished the work, He alone could finish, the work of the vie He has been made the heir of all idee The final testimony of John is a very solemn utterance.

It is a fit termination of this great chapter. Eternal life is the possession of all who believe on the Son. This great truth we shall find more fully developed in the next chapters. Here John the Baptist states the way to life, to receive eternal life as a present possession (hath), which is faith in the Son of God. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. What an important statement this is! Many are today disbelieving the revelation of God’s word concerning the wrath of God and the eternal punishment of all those who do not accept the Lord Jesus Christ and who do not believe on Him. Some deny altogether that the sinner is by nature a child of wrath. Others say that the wicked man dies like the beast; they persuade themselves that somehow in some way, the wicked are annihilated and have no immortality, and that only those who believe on Christ possess immortality. Others have invented a second chance theory; others believe, or say they believe, in universal salvation, while others call it restitution or restorationism. All these theorists deny that there is such a thing as the eternal, never ending wrath of God. All of them juggle with the Hebrew and Greek words translated ‘‘forever” and “‘everlasting”’ as if these are terms of limitation. The one sentence, the final testimony of this Spirit filled man of God answers all their delusions and hallucinations. ‘He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Here we learn that man is by nature a child of wrath (Eph. ii:3), for the wrath of God in order to abide upon the natural man, who does not believe in the Son, must be upon him already. In the second place annihilationists are proven to be liars, for if sinners are annihilated the wrath of God cannot abide upon them. Russellites, California Restorationists, Universalists and all others are completely answered by this solemn declaration ‘‘the wrath of God abideth on him.” It is IMPOSSIBLE to say that this statement means anything less than timelessness and endlessness. It is clear cut an

permits no deceitful handling. And may we all realize a never before what an awful thing it is to reject the Son of God and to neglect so great salvation. And knowing this may we go forth and give a dying world the Gospel of His grace.