New Thoughts (8/7/05-8/16/05)
I feel I should pursue a course more typical of commentaries for this passage, and consider the verses in order. There is, after all, a great deal of material to cover in this longer message from Jesus to Nicodemus. Having read the Amplified Version this morning, one thing that struck me is that tendency to insist that this was spoken to a larger audience. There is the issue, for instance of Jesus’ reproof in v12, which some want to address to ‘all of you.’ Yet, the only ones there, so far as we know are the disciples and Nicodemus. Recall that Nicodemus is trying to keep his visit quiet. He didn’t come to a large gathering to present himself, but sought a more private moment.
With that in mind, I think we must view this whole conversation as a very personal one, even though Jesus doubtless intended for His disciples to learn from what He said as much as Nicodemus. Now, one thing I find myself wondering is what sort of attitudes framed this whole exchange, especially as I look at the beginning of Jesus’ last response here. For Nicodemus’ part, I think it could be said that he remained very serious both in speaking and in listening to this Teacher he had come to visit. I continue to maintain that he must have believed Jesus was more than a simple teacher, for it would have taken something greater than that to convince him to risk his reputation as he had.
What, however, was Jesus’ attitude as he comments on Nicodemus’ understanding? Was this delivered as an attack, or with more of an amused air? Nicodemus is clearly not comprehending what he has been told, yet it is not due to a refusal to accept the truth. He is simply stuck in his own training, as it were. He is sufficiently caught up in his preconceptions of how this whole Messiah thing should work out that he doesn’t hear Jesus with as great a clarity as he ought. We have seen, for instance, that he missed the distinction between birthing and begetting, and this had already led him down the wrong path in regards to rebirth. Now, he has reached a point where his learning is no longer of any help. He has recognized the hopelessness of trying to reason out what he has been told. His reason is no longer serving the need. Now, there is nothing in this that should be taken as indicating a need to leave reason behind, to ‘check our brains at the door.’ Not at all. What I see Nicodemus coming to grips with is the fact that his intellect and learning, great though they were, were simply insufficient to the task. It was beyond him. That’s hardly an insult, for what we are saying is really that God was beyond him, and that really ought to go without saying.
With that in mind, I return to the question of Jesus’ attitude in reacting to Nicodemus’ exasperation. In the face of earnest confusion, I find it very hard to believe that He would respond with an attack. Now, when we witness Jesus confronting the Pharisees in debate, when they are intent on entrapment, we will find Him responding with a very definite edge of attack to His words, but I don’t think we ought to read that later conflict back into this passage. There has been nothing in the record thus far to indicate the conflict that would eventually arise between Him and the religious establishment. Here, I think there is perhaps more of an amused irony in His reply. It is more along the lines of the ribbing that arises between friends, especially between friends who respect each other’s abilities. Indeed, by that ribbing, I see that Jesus is trying to redirect Nicodemus onto the right path for understanding. See, we have found Nicodemus wandering down thoughts of the natural order of things. He has turned his mind towards the life sciences. Jesus is simply saying that he is looking in the wrong direction.
I know we could look at Jesus’ response as questioning Nicodemus’ right to be teaching. I know I have often read it in that sense, a critical, “How can you claim to be a teacher if you don’t understand this.” Yet, that has more to do with my own attitudes than with those of Jesus. No, these words coming from His mouth must, I think, be seen as more concerned with correction. If there’s one thing I know of my Jesus, it is that His correction is never a harsh cut down – not when He is dealing with His siblings. I think we must hear the chuckle of amusement in those first words. I think we must recognize that Jesus is simply telling Nicodemus that his thinking needs to be guided more completely by his chosen field. “Look to the Scriptures, Nicodemus. Therein is the answer to your confusion.”
Now, having pointed Nicodemus to the Scriptures, Jesus pursues an incredible course of action. See, Nicodemus is aware of Jesus’ teachings by this point, else he had no reason to come. Now, listen to the claim Jesus makes. “I have been teaching what I have seen personally. That is why I know what I know.”
Well, here’s a point of application for us. Consider the contrast presented here. The teacher teaches what he has learned from his books and from his training. He can elucidate most eloquently on his chosen topic. He can express his opinions with great flair. Yet the things he teaches are not matters of which he has personal experience. The historian was not present on the scenes of which he writes and teaches. He gathers the facts as best he can, but they must ever and always be matters of secondhand, third hand, or further removed information. The philosopher does his best to explain the things he witnesses, yet his theories are largely based on what he has been taught by others in his field, perhaps adjusted here and there to deal with evidence that doesn’t fit the learning. Yet, he still has no real, personal, experience with the answers. He cannot lay claim to having witnessed the decisions that brought forth life on the earth, that brought forth reason in man, that declared the plan and the purpose for each human being that has come into life. He can only theorize and opine.
So were the teachers of Israel. They no longer had a personal experience of what it meant to be God’s chosen nation. They could read about it. They could pour over the notes left by those who had experienced God’s providence most directly. They could postulate their theories and promulgate their laws based on what they read, but they were not eye-witnesses. They could not bring to it the conviction of personal experience. Their authority in their subject matter did not extend that far.
In contrast to this, Jesus presents as His credentials the fact of His personally having seen the things of which He is teaching! Well, my friend, what things has He been teaching? He has been preaching of the imminent arrival of the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven! “I have seen the kingdom. I have heard from the Ruler of heaven.” But you don’t believe it. Well, I see that the ‘you’ of unbelief is indeed a plural. There should be comfort taken in that. He is not accusing Nicodemus of a personal failure unique to himself. He is speaking of some greater entity, a larger audience of some sort. Yet, I maintain we cannot take this to mean that the larger audience Jesus is speaking to is present in that room. Who, then? We could extend it to include the whole of that particular class to which Nicodemus belongs, namely the temple hierarchy. That would seem natural enough to us, for it is, as I have noted, a conflict that will arise later in Jesus’ story. Yet, I think that remains too restrictive a group. Consider the verdict that Jesus delivers at the end of this conversation, and I think it is reasonable to think that the ‘you’ which opens the conversation is of the same broad application. It is the you of His own, to which He had come. Yet, His own would not receive Him (Jn 1:11). This people convinced of their own security as the sons of Abraham were indeed clothed in darkness. It was that very darkness which convinced them of such foolishness. It was that very darkness that left them miserable sinners however much they thought themselves secure in God. So darkened was their thinking that they could not even recall the lessons of the Exile. “You do not receive our witness.” The whole world lays under the blanket of that conviction.
[8/9/05] Before continuing, I need to leave a record for myself of this dream I have had last night. The dream involved an outdoor event, apparently sponsored by our church and aimed particularly at the youth. In that dream, I came across a group of the youth talking with a young man. I did not immediately notice, but as he turned a certain way, I could see a scar under one eye. That scar turned out to be the name of the enemy carved into his flesh. I recall our pastor being present in that moment, telling him it could be healed, but he replied that no, he owed that one. Pastor seemed to accept this, and walked away. Talk of this scar and its potential healing had got the attention of one of the teens there, and she asked what it said. He began to speak the name of his foul lord, and I was overwhelmed by the need to speak the truth of God into that dark sound. Not surprisingly, my words evoked thoughts of this passage, and the opening passage of John’s Gospel. The Truth of his message: that the light was not ‘comprehended,’ not overcome by the surrounding darkness, was to be not only the core of my response to this young man, but also the necessary understanding for me as I went through what was yet to come.
At any rate, further conversation with this young man revealed that he was a musician. He asked if he could play with the band that was about to perform. Since this would involve no speaking on his part, I saw no harm in it, and acceded. Now, I should point out that at the outreach program we really did have going on a few weekends ago a similar incident really did occur. A man in the crowd came by the place where I was running sound, telling me he was a bass player, although he didn’t play this particular style of music. He mused about going home to get his bass so he could come play, but doubted they would allow him to join in. In fairness, I was rather at a loss as to how I ought to reply. In this dream, however, there was no such debate in me.
Pursuing that dream further, this young man and I went around the back of the stage, arriving to find the band members already on the stage and getting themselves ready. The young man shouted out the name of this band (Rownan, perhaps?) as one surprised to find them here in this setting. I confess I was surprised, as well – surprised because this wasn’t the name of the band we had brought in, surprised also because the Christian band we had hired could hardly be something this man was familiar with. Yet, familiar he was. One of the musicians came to the back of the stage where we were and began hushing him. Indeed, he chided him most soundly for shouting such recognitions, then pointed out that scar we had seen, and told him most plainly that it shouldn’t have been displayed here. However, he then laughed at the audacity of the thing, in that same moment brandishing a blade as though he might do a similar disservice to his own face. But, then he turned and went back to the band’s preparations. It would ruin things. These were clearly the proverbial wolves in sheep’s clothing. He had identified them aright. We had been duped. Still, he would join them to play, yet there was a parting comment from him as I left him that led me to believe he no longer felt the need for the debt that scar had represented.
Returning to the crowds in front of the stage, I sought out one or two of the prayer warriors of our church and told them to start praying in earnest, to which they willingly set themselves. However, I could not seem to locate my wife, though I looked everywhere for her, knowing she should be standing in their number. But, then it was too late, the band was starting. The music seemed innocent enough. The lyrics were not overtly antagonistic, and there was some degree of stage-show going on along with the music. The lyrics seemed to be about a young man growing up. From behind the stage, emerged some character with green, rubbery legs, who proceeded down some stairs as the song progressed, finally meeting the lead singer at the base of those stairs. The music built to a crescendo of sorts as the singer sang of the beauty of this young man as everything had been stripped away from him. As those lyrics were being sung, nothing could be seen of this one who had come down the stairs, as he was concealed behind the lead singer. But, with those words the singer turned to face the crowds, holding out in front of him a largish doll, dressed all in black, and with a head that was no more than a skull.
I could hear gasps of surprise, that murmuring reaction of shock from the folks in the crowd, but as I knew more of what these poseurs were in truth, I moved purposefully to confront the singer where he stood. I recall a contemptuous sneer on his face as I came close, and I recall a brief flash of an image – some blue plastic image of a face, mouth gaping with sharp teeth displayed. Then, from the sleeve of his robe, his arm shot forth towards me, but it ended not in the hand of a man, rather in the head of a very live serpent. At that first lunge, I recoiled, taken aback, and I could see the laughter in this man’s face as he felt his power triumphant. But, within me something steeled. This affront to the Almighty God was not to be tolerated. He lunged with that serpentine hand again, but this time, instead of backing away, I grabbed it by its very mouth and pulled. That serpent’s head tore from out of his robe. Whatever life there had been to it was gone, and what I found in my hands was as plastic as much of the rest of this act had proven to be.
I took to the stage at that point. Couldn’t tell you what had become of the band, but whatever power had been there appears to have been broken in that confrontation. I stormed to the microphone, brandishing the torn serpent, and began to speak to that crowd. I can’t recall exactly what words I spoke, but I know as I preached I could see my pastor standing in a cleared space still in prayer, still at peace. I remember twisting that snake about in a knot as I spoke, ending by closing its gaping jaws down upon its own body.
I awoke before I had finished speaking, but two things stuck in my mind particularly strongly. The first was Luke 10:19 – I have given you power to tread upon serpents and scorpions, over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you. The second was once again that wonderful message from John 1:5 – The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. The darkness cannot comprehend the light, cannot envelop it in such a way as to extinguish it. The least flicker of a match can be seen for miles on a dark night because the darkness cannot extinguish the light. The Light of God, as it is manifest in us, is so much more than a flickering match! One lesson for me out of this is that I need to walk in the reality of that power which God has entrusted to me. I need to walk in the understanding that this light I bear is more than sufficient to overcome the darkness, however violent and threatening that darkness might seem. This is not a battle for those who shrink back, it is not a thing to be entered into by those who hesitate in fear when the enemy rises up. It is a matter for the steadfast, and the steadfast can stand only by that knowledge of what God has made them to be. You shall tread upon serpents without concern. You will trample down the enemy regardless of his power and nothing shall injure you. That is the message God gives to His children. That is the army He has raised up out of His kingdom to make their stand on the earth.
Lord, You have shown me the power that is mine in this dream. Now let me stand as firmly in my faith in the light of day. Let me carry this lesson with me, that I need fear no evil, for You, Lord, are with me ever and always.
Returning to John’s Gospel: I have spoken of the irony in Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, the gentle humor in his question. Yet, in verse 11, He has clearly returned to a more serious mood. I think that “Truly, truly,” with which He begins the sentence is in part intended to frame that change in the nature of His talk. Where what preceded contained that grain of jest to it, what follows is in absolute earnest. This which follows is of a certainty, Nicodemus, and it is of absolute importance that you understand it. I teach what I have seen for Myself (and what I teach is the kingdom of heaven). However, if you can’t even follow My teaching on earthly things with understanding, how can you expect to follow My meaning when I turn to heavenly matters?
Now, even in verse 11, Jesus has laid claim to His proper title if one cares to hear it. “I testify to what I have seen.” Again, we need only consider what the clear subject matter of His preaching was to realize what He is claiming by that statement. We have seen His message preached already. He picked up with the message of repentance that John had begun. He moved it, though, from ‘prepare the way,’ to ‘the kingdom is here.’ He preached the kingdom. Nicodemus would be as aware of this as any who had attended to His preaching in person. It may well have been because he was aware of this that he had dared to come see this man in hopes that he was more than merely a man. Did he hear his answer there? “I testify to what I have seen.” “I preach the kingdom I have seen.” Wow!
I sense that the question Jesus poses in verse 12 is perhaps an indication that the implications of His statement had not sunk in. Nicodemus had missed that point. Perhaps he was still too focused on figuring out how this rebirth thing was supposed to work. How many of us fall into that same boat? We’re so caught up with trying to figure out how we are going to work out our salvation, how we are going to put an end to sin in our lives, that we completely miss it when HE declares the answer to us! Oh! It’s all about Jesus, but we just can’t seem to help ourselves. We are so determined to have a hand in things that even as we tell Him it’s all about Him we’re busily trying to deal with things ourselves! That’s the difference between the me of that dream and the me with which I’m familiar. The dream-me recognized that it wasn’t about me. Knowing that it was all about the indomitable Light of Life Eternal, I was able to stand in the face of darkness and walk out victorious. I was victorious precisely because I was nothing in that moment. I was but a vessel to bear the Light, and the Light was all and in all. The real me is still working on this. The real me has been trained too well to think for himself, and has great difficulty not reasoning out the way to go. The real me has far more in common with Nicodemus, busily sorting out the details, piecing together the evidence and trying to come up with the explanation for things while God is practically shouting the answer at me and I don’t hear Him.
Praise God that You are so patient with Your students, Lord! Even as You continued to repeat Your message to Nicodemus until He got it, I know You do with me. Lord, open these ears. Clean them out so I can hear You better. Cast away my distractions, that You might do Your work more readily in me. I know You have brought me far already, Lord. I pray You continue, that You would sensitize me more and more to Your promptings, and that You would create in me the steel that was in my dream, that I would stand fearlessly in the Light that Your glory might be known.
So, Jesus, seeing that Nicodemus hasn’t really heard Him, puts it more plainly. Nicodemus, listen closely: No one has ascended to heaven except this One. He descended from heaven. Hear it, Nicodemus. It’s no longer prophecy, no longer future. He has descended from heaven. Who? The Son of Man. Go back, Nicodemus and search the Scriptures. The answer you came for is in your ears, but you must grasp it. Fear not, that One whose seed is planted in you will give you to understand, though it be not tonight.
That verse is so utterly powerful in its implications, and yet we can read it and feel nothing from it. Yes, Jesus, we hear You. Nobody else has been to heaven from earth but You. No! I tell you it’s so much more important than that. It is an I AM statement! There is only One who descends from heaven to earth, and Jesus has just declared that this One has descended. He declares that only this One has ascended into heaven. Now, the subsequent verse makes clear that His thought is at least in part for the culmination of His ministry in the flesh. However, He doesn’t say that this One who descended will ascend, but that He has ascended. It’s an accomplished thing even in that moment. Why? Because just as the fathers of the Church wrestled out, He is simultaneously man and God in that place. He is still so today, though His fleshly body be long gone. He is more fully man than any man living. He is likewise fully God. He was so even then, as He talked to Nicodemus. “I testify to what I have seen. I teach what I know. I know because I was there.”
Here, Jesus has told Nicodemus something of the basis of His ministry, the foundation which makes it trustworthy. In a later passage, He speaks more to the point of His motivation. In John 6:38, He says that He has come from heaven to do the Father’s will, not His own. Now, there is again in that passage the quiet claim to the office of Messiah, “I have come down from heaven.” Placing that in parallel with what He has just told Nicodemus, the claim becomes stronger. “No one has ascended into heaven except for that One who descended from there: the Son of Man.” There can be no doubt as to His claim to that title as the whole of His testimony is considered. But, it is the reason He gives for having come that I find exciting right now. Again I find the claim He makes in that later passage is powerfully amplified by what He is telling saying in this present section.
There, He says that He has come to do the Father’s will, even should it conflict with His own. This is not to say that He finds absolutely no motivation in Himself, but only that He will ever ignore any motivation within Himself that is in conflict with the Father’s will. Well, that’s a tall order, is it not? It’s not a claim I could make with confidence, certainly. I might approach it in areas of ministry, but in those more mundane matters of daily life? I rather doubt it. I tend towards just acting, doing what seems right in my own sight. So many decisions come in the course of a day. Do I really deliberate those decisions with a deep concern for God’s will in each case? Honesty requires that I answer in the negative. Why is that?
Simply put, I must say that I am not, in my own mind, settled on the fact that I am here to do His will, not mine. This is a fault in my own perception. We are, each one of us, here to do His will. That is most especially true of those of us who have accepted the redemption He has offered us, who have laid hold of the adoption papers that make God our Father, and further declared Him to be our Lord and Master. What did we think that meant, Lord and Master? How can I call Him ‘Master’ if I am not taking His plans and desires into consideration in every act of my life? I can point to the example of that parable of the talents, and notice how He has left His servants largely to their own devices. Yet, His response to the activities of those servants makes clear that their own devices are fully expected to serve His interests.
Isn’t it interesting, with this in mind, to think about these family roles that God places us into. We enter the world He created as children, subservient to our parents. We are not ensured of good parents, necessarily. We are not promised competent parents, well versed in their role. Indeed, for many if not most of us, the parents we were born to had absolutely no experience in their office. Neither, as we grew older and became parents ourselves, did we have experience. The baby came and guess what? We were parents!
In between these to points, we have of course grown older. In most cases, this has meant that we somewhere along the way began to challenge the authority of these inexperienced parents of ours. Moreso in some cultures and upbringings than others, we had been given no reason not to question that authority. What has perhaps shaped us more than anything is how these inexperienced parents of ours responded to that challenge. Did they come down on us like some totalitarian dictator? Did they just capitulate in the face of our fierce independence, allowing us to go feral? Or were we fortunate to have parents who were comfortable in their authority, comfortable enough to allow us our explorations? Comfortable enough to be firm in enforcing their will upon us while yet allowing us the freedom to explore our own decision making processes? These things shaped our own behaviors as we stepped into the various roles of adulthood.
For many, one of those roles has been that of spouse. As a husband, I find I have been thrust into a role requiring ever more decisions of me. God has blessed me with a wife who gives me good counsel, yet that blessing has also meant that she rather insists that the final decision come from me. In plain truth, that can drive me nuts at times. Some of these decisions really don’t require my attention, and I find I get a little offended that she felt it necessary to ask. The possibility that I might answer in a fashion differing from her own view, if it really existed in her thinking, would be an insult to my character, so far as my own thinking goes. Oh, but she goes to great lengths to assure me that it’s not the possibility of disagreement that leads her to ask, but merely self-discipline. What a lesson for me!
Here I am, in the role of husband and father, and I must be careful not to be offended when every least decision comes before me for attention. Things I don’t really have any preference about, things about which I may have strong personal reactions that have nothing to do with sound decision making, as well as things of greater import. I can, as I have said, become annoyed with these petty matters, see them as nothing but a drain on my time, or I can recognize the motivation behind it and be blessed. I can also learn from that example how it is between me and my Father. No, He is not likely to become annoyed with me as I pepper Him with requests for opinions on this, that and the other. He is not a man that He should behave so. Rather, He is blessed to see some signs of true submission out of this one who has claimed to be His servant. He is pleased to see signs of discipline and growth in this son He has adopted.
Herein lies the core of the problem. I do not do His will in all things because I have foolishly convinced myself that so many things are not worthy of His attention, that they are so trivial that He would be annoyed were I to bother Him with such matters. A cold? Come on! Is that really worth pestering God for? He’s a busy God, trying to uphold all of creation, and you come to Him with this? No, that’s not the perspective of my God, that’s my own nature creeping in, corrupting my view of heaven! Do you really expect me to consult the Holy Spirit on which way I should go to get to work, on whether or not I should get some coffee, on any of the myriad little choices that I make in the day?
Though He leaves His servants to act on their own, still I think the answer is ‘yes’ in more cases than we suspect. I can look at the “What Would Jesus Do?” craze that’s swept through our Christian counter-culture, and see at least some propriety to its premise. We really ought to carry in our thinking that constant check on our flesh. How ought we to react to this situation? What ought we to say? Which of these choices will further the advance of the kingdom? Which of these is the will of Him who is my Lord? Sometimes, the choice will be easy. Sometimes, the right choice (and making the right choice) will not require any great deal of thought on our behalf. As we continue to train ourselves up in righteousness, more and more of the decisions of our daily life really should become almost automatic. That’s what training and practice are for, after all! We train with the goal of becoming proficient. We become proficient when we no longer have to think about how to do a thing, but simply do it because it has become natural to us. When I type, for instance, I no longer think about where my fingers must go to find the letters I would put on the page. My fingers, as it were, think without me.
In my work life, there is a particular editor I use to do my duties. There are many commands and such that require this combination of control-this, shift-that or alt-the other. I have been using this particular editor for so many years now that the majority of these commands are, like normal typing, simply part of finger memory. I don’t really think about what my fingers need to do to make that command happen. I think about the command itself. Now comes a co-worker asking how I got that command to happen, and I really have to stop and think! If I just try and tell him the proper keystrokes from memory, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll tell it to him incorrectly. I really have to stop and let my fingers go through the motion while I pay attention.
In large part, that’s how our Christian walk is supposed to be as we mature. Making right decisions, pursuing the things God wants pursued ought to be part of our spirit-memory, our finger-memory, whatever memory may be in charge of a particular operation. We should be so full of the goodness of God, so saturated in His Word, that we no longer have to deliberate and agonize over every little decision. We ought to reach a point where we don’t really have to ask Dad about every little thing, just as we eventually matured to the point where we didn’t need to consult with our parents on every little matter. We now know what to do for those little cuts and scratches and rashes and what-not. We have learned the difference between friends who are good choices for us and those who are best left behind. We have hopefully figured out the difference between junk food and real food, and opted for the latter. What applies in the flesh applies in the spirit, for we are created in His image. Spiritual growth must include in its growing an ability to figure out spiritual things for ourselves, to discern for ourselves the will of the Father in our situations. There will remain more than enough reasons to pray, more than enough new situations that really do require consultation with Him to properly address. It is a sign of our maturity, I think, that in those places where we don’t need to ask any more, we choose rightly, and that we also recognize when things are beyond us before we choose wrongly. In sum, we should be approaching that point where we can join Jesus in that claim He has made: I do what is the Father’s will. If ever there is a conflict between my desire and His will, I will gladly set aside my desire in favor of His.
[8/11/05] It occurs to me this morning that what Nicodemus asks in the opening of the section is a question that has now been heard three times in this study of the Gospels. The first was that question that Zacharias asked, which led to his months as a mute: “How shall I know you speak truly?” Shortly after, a similar question came from the lips of Mary: “How can this be, since I remain a virgin?” Now comes Nicodemus, asking, “How can these things be?” I recall, when considering Mary, that I saw such a difference between those first two questions, though the words were similar. Both seemingly expressed disbelief, a questioning of what was heard, but as subsequent events would show, Mary’s question was an expression of faith, not disbelief. Zacharias expressed doubt as to what he was hearing. He needed convincing. Mary, in contrast, had already accepted the truth of the angel’s statement. She was simply curious as to how it would come about. Now, I find myself wondering which of these two Nicodemus more closely resembles as he asks Jesus how this rebirth thing is supposed to work. Jesus’ response leads me to think that he was more in line with Zacharias, for Jesus states His concern that Zacharias didn’t believe Him.
This leads me to a fresh understanding, in fact, of that comment in verse 12. Jesus wonders aloud how Nicodemus is going to believe what He is about to say on heavenly matters when he doesn’t even believe what has already been said of earthly matters. Now, Jesus was just talking about the Spirit, and those born of the Spirit, which would seem to be a heavenly matter. So, how does He say He has spoken of earthly matters? The answer, I believe, lies in whose birth it is He speaks of. Previously, He was testifying to what made His followers special, what it was they had found in Him. He has spoken of the rebirth by the seed of the Spirit as a requirement for any son of man who would reach heaven. He has testified to the central hope of every religion, I suppose, that man has devised, let alone of Judaism and Christianity. But, as He proceeds, His focus changes from those who would have hope to He who is our Hope. He now turns to His claim to the Messianic office, a heavenly matter indeed. He turns from the hope of every son of man to the Son of Man, the Hope of Israel. In Him alone is the rebirth not necessary, because the Spirit-seed was His from the beginning. He alone enters heaven not as an adopted son, but as the only-begotten, the true Son of God; eternally so, for there was never a time when He was not the Son. He alone enters heaven as One who departed for a time, but has come home. Yes, and He does not return as the prodigal, but as One who has completed the business for which His Father bade Him go.
Even as Jesus posits this question, I feel sure He is speaking to His Father, asking that He would open Nicodemus’ ears to hear with understanding what would follow. The answer to his real question lies so near the surface in what Jesus proceeds to say, and yet, unless God grant understanding, those words will pass right by His hearers. If follows immediately on the heels of this question. Jesus immediately turns to His claim. Nobody has ever gone up to heaven except this One, the One who came from heaven, the Son of Man. Oh! What a distinction He lays claim to there! Messiah has come from heaven. He is in the land. Yes, but He will return to His heavenly home in time. He then proceeds to explain just how Messiah will return thence, and this must shock any man who hears it with a knowledge of the Scriptures. He must be lifted up exactly in the same fashion as that serpent Moses raised up in the wilderness.
Consider that. What had happened in that time, that led Moses to do as he did? The people of God had rebelled, accusing God of duplicity, of having brought them out here simply to die in misery (Nu 21:5-8). So incensed was God by this that He sent ‘fiery serpents’ amongst them. Those bitten soon died. This had its desired effect. The people recognized their sin, and came to Moses the he might seek the Lord for them, which he did. God’s response was to have Moses make a serpent in the very image of those which plagued the people, and raise that up. Then, those who looked at it – nothing else was required but that look – even though bitten, they would live.
Now, forward to the end of Jesus’ ministry. What had happened in the course of that ministry? The people of God had rebelled, they again accused God of duplicity, of having left them here to die at the hands of the Romans. They had given up on being God’s people, and sought to pursue the course of the Gentiles among and around them. No, better yet, let us return in time to the start of it all. Adam and his wife had rebelled against the one simple rule God had laid down for them. One rule alone they had been asked to abide by, and they would not. In this, of course, we have record of the first sin of mankind. The punishment for their rebellion was that they were largely abandoned to their sins. This is exactly what Paul writes of. The sinner, he notes, refuses to accept God’s rule over him, rejects His claims upon his life. Since they reject God’s rule, God rejects them. How? By no longer countering the impulses of their depraved minds in any way; by leaving them to pursue every impropriety their imagination provides them (Ro 1:28). The presence of sin in our lives, the constant challenge we face in battling that sin or else succumbing to it, this is the curse that is upon the people of the earth, the people of God.
When Moses raised up the serpent, he raised up an image of the curse. He didn’t raise up an image of the cure, but of the sickness. When Jesus was raised up on the cross, He remained innocent of any sin. Well, surely that bronze serpent Moses had made was likewise innocent of the death being caused by the thing it resembled! Jesus went up on that cross resembling the sinner, yet He was not the sinner. He went up there and showed every man alive what the cost of sin was, what they were bringing upon themselves, and every man who was willing to look upon the wreckage of this innocent Man, he would live in spite of having been bitten by sin. That’s exactly what this was all about. Now, I ask you: Who could make such a claim but Messiah? Who but Messiah could possibly cause it to be that those who believed would have eternal life in Him? Who but Messiah could possibly hold the authority to give life to man? Who, indeed, but the very One who breathed life into man at the beginning!
Now, it is interesting, having considered once again the “how can it be” that brought on this reply, to see that the question arose again a few years later. In that instance, the cause and the effect are reversed, though. Rather than Jesus speaking of His death in response to the question, the question came in response to Jesus speaking of His death. He had just indicated that as He was lifted up from the earth, all men would be drawn to Him (Jn 12:32). John finds it necessary, even there, to explain that Jesus was talking about how, specifically, He was to die. Yet, the reaction of the crowds seems to indicate pretty clearly that they understood His meaning. After all, their reaction makes it clear that they understood Him to at least be claiming the office of Messiah. “We were taught,” they say, “that Messiah would remain with us for eternity. If You are saying You are to die shortly, how can You be Messiah” (Jn 12:34)? “How can this be? We thought You were saying You were Messiah, but apparently You mean something else by this ‘Son of Man’ You speak of. Who is this Son of Man, then?”
It’s funny, I suppose, how that same message was the dawning of hope for Nicodemus, and yet, when the time came, it was the crushing of hope in so many. So many had their settled ideas as to how God would unfold their salvation. They had it all planned out, all reasoned out. They were so certain of their understanding of the Scriptures that they could not even see any other possibility any longer. Beware, my friends, of certainty when it comes to understanding the unfolding of prophetic visions! Beware of telling God how to do what He is planning to do. So many have failed of salvation for the simple reason that they insisted on their own ideas of what salvation must look like. When God was standing in their very midst, they missed it because He wasn’t doing what they expected. He was pursuing His own plan, not theirs. He who breathed the Scriptures is surely the most certain interpreter thereof! For the rest of us, who still see but dimly, as in a mirror, let us take care that we not presume greater knowledge than is ours.
There would come a time when that serpent which Moses made would cease to be a source of life to the dying in Israel, and would become instead a deadly trap. They would forget that it was but a sign indicative of the God who was their life, and would begin worshiping the symbol itself instead of God. In the end, it became necessary to destroy the idol which that serpent had become, because it was bringing death once again to God’s people. If we are not careful in pursuing the Messiah who is, if we begin impressing our own ideas and agendas on the faith, rather than impressing God’s ideas upon our own thinking, we run a very great risk of making that which is Life and Light to all men into just another deadly trap. An honest review of the history of the Church in the world will show up any number of times when men have done just that, and the Church as it was, just like the serpentine idol, had to be crushed, destroyed so that it could no longer lead God’s people astray. I fear that in many corners of the Church, that very necessary crushing must lay in the near future. When the pulpit is defiled, and preaches what is diametrically opposed to the Word of the Lord, how long do we suppose the Lord of the Word will remain silent? How long do we think He will suffer His people to be so poorly served by those who claim to lead them on God’s authority? How long will He suffer imposters to speak as though they spoke with His approval? It was not tolerated amongst the prophets of old. It shall not be tolerated amongst the preachers and prophets today.
[8/12/05] Before moving on, I just want to reiterate that this is a personal conversation that we have been given to hear. Jesus really is specifically addressing Nicodemus in all that He says here. He has been drawing Nicodemus back into thinking about the Scriptures, since that poor man had been stuck in trying to figure out the physical mechanisms of this rebirth Jesus taught. It was the fact that he was stuck on this physical issue that was preventing him from seeing the answer. Since verse 9, I see that Jesus has been trying to get him to think more in keeping with his training. “You are a teacher of Israel, a student of Scripture. Well, search those Scriptures so that you might understand. What is said of this Son of Man? Do you remember? What happened out there in the desert when Moses was commanded to make that bronze serpent and raise it up in the camp?”
Already, as He has reminded Nicodemus of these things, He has also spoken in terms that left it reasonably clear Who He is. Now, having announced the Son of Man has already arrived, He makes that wonderful declaration of God’s love. God’s love for man is so great that He gave His only Son to pay for their sins, so that those who believe in the Son need not perish, but may inherit eternal life (v16). Again, as He did in speaking of the Son of Man, Jesus places God’s action in this verse in the past. He already gave His Son. Stop waiting for Him, He is here.
This has got to be the most well-known verse in the New Testament, if not the Bible. Even unbelievers are familiar with it. It has become one of the most central messages of Christianity, this fact that God’s love for us is so great that He gave Himself, essentially, to save us. It’s the core of our purpose, is it not? Yet, we have now heard it so often that I wonder if it hasn’t lost much of its power in our thinking. You know, that original message was so powerful that a word had to be made to describe God’s love. That love of God was so much greater than what man could muster up that even though there were so many terms to distinguish just what sort of love was being spoken of in a given situation, this new word must be added. It was simply beyond the range of human experience this love.
We all know the term, now. It’s that agape love of God, the distinctly Christian love. But, what characterizes it? Many will say that it’s an unconditional love, will note that God’s love for us came even while we were yet His enemies. He loved us in spite of our sins. Others will point to the older translation of ‘charity’ which is given to that word. Yes, it’s the way God does for us, the way He sees to our needs. What is there, though, in either of these concepts, that is so beyond the range of human experience? Any number of parents are familiar with unconditional love. Any number of folks have done charitable acts, and that without any great familiarity with God and His love. There must be more to it than this.
There is more to it than this. There is another aspect of agape that we don’t hear so much about, yet it has always struck me as one of the most powerful things to know about God’s love for us. You see, God’s love is also of a nature that is willing and able to do for us what we really needed to have done for us even when that is not something we particularly wanted done for us. Again, this is not something completely out of the realm of human experience. Parents know this love for their children. Children may not necessarily see it as love, but that is what it is. When we insist that a child wear their seatbelt even when they don’t want to, knowing it can save lives, this is love. When we require our children to eat good meals even though they’d far prefer a diet of chocolate and cookies, this is love. When we refuse them their desires, when we correct them in their mistakes, when we punish them in their rebellion, this all remains a vital display of real and active love for them.
Still, it seems there must be more. For, once again, we are left with a definition of God’s love that seems attainable in man. Well, one thing I see that pushes it beyond our ken is the combination of what we have seen so far. As a parent, I know that there are things my child can (and does) do that push me beyond my capacity to continue loving unconditionally. Sure, I can tell her that such love is in me, and it will return shortly, but in that moment, I would be hard-pressed to provide any evidence of love in any form. I can surely be charitable towards the needs of others, be they family, friend, or even stranger, yet there are limits to what I will give, if I am honest with myself. I am not at a point where I am willing to give everything I have. Does this put me in a class with the rich young ruler? I don’t know. I suspect that if it does, it puts pretty much all of us in his class. On the other hand, I have not heard the Savior’s voice asking me to do so. He has often asked me to give more than I thought I could, to do more than I thought I could, and though I have struggled with it on many occasions, yet I have done as He said, and found out it really was possible. See, there’s that love in action, giving me to do what needed doing even when it wasn’t what I wanted to do! Yes, and I can express that parental love-by-restraint towards this daughter of mine, yet even that has its limits, as she well knows. There comes a time when I tire of dealing with the reaction that a ‘no’ will bring. There comes a time when the sorrow of having to deny every request, even if every request has been of a nature that really ought to be denied, that I begin searching for opportunities to allow something, anything, even if it’s on somewhat shaky ground.
God never reaches that point! God has never found a limit to His willingness to give to our need. Even when it cost Him the life of His own Son, even when it cut like a knife into the most intense and intimate relationship which Father and Son have shared through all eternity, even then, He was willing. He was willing to give, as the Father, and He was willing to die most horribly, and most horribly alone as the Son. Shall we look for an example of unconditional love? Look to Him! While we were His enemies, doing everything in our power to thwart His purposes, it as into that very situation that He came reconciling us to Himself through the voluntary death of His own Son (Ro 5:10)! We have difficulty even pursuing Jesus’ directions to bless our enemies, to pray for our persecutors (Mt 5:44), and He has done this for us! Here, too, is the greatest example of that parental love in action. There was not a one on the earth that truly wanted the Messiah that God sent. Many wanted a Messiah, but it was a Messiah of their own imagining, one who would come crush their enemies and raise them back up to the glory that they had known in former years. Man did not really want salvation, and yet Salvation was sent to man, because it was his greatest need. Yet, even with all this, the definition of God’s love, agape love, is not close to exhausted.
There remains to its definition a matter I had never taken note of before, in all the times I have looked at the definition of that word, this part had eluded my attention. There is that piece of the definition which speaks of desire, a desire so strong that it will not go on without its object. Suddenly, with that definition, I find this verse speaking more strongly to me than ever it did before. Indeed, apart from this fresh insight, the verse had slipped into the regions of ‘Christianese’ by its overuse. Now, it is made new to me. God’s desire for the world He created was so great that He was unwilling to go on without it. As marred by sin as it is, He still knows what lies beneath all that sin, He still knows because it was His handiwork. So long as sin remains in the world, He cannot abide to have the world with Him, for God in His goodness cannot, will not tolerate sin in His presence. Our God, it seems, is stuck in a paradox. He cannot abide sin in His presence, and He will not go on without a world that has been steeped in sin.
What is a good God to do? Where is there a solution to His dilemma? Somebody, it seems, must suffer the punishment that sin demands of a Just God. Yet, were that punishment to be meted out upon every man that deserved it, there would be no man left alive. If no man remains, how is God to know His greatest desire satisfied? There remains no world to go on with. He is required to go without the one thing He longs for more than any other. But, God is wise beyond all wisdom. He knew from before the moment of creation that this need would arise. He knew before Adam fell that there would be a corrupting of His great work. He knew that it would be beyond the power of His creation to rescue itself from the trouble that came upon it, so He provided, even before the world became the world, the solution. He provided the Redeemer in His own being. Shall we say in His own person? I believe that the meaning as we would understand it of ourselves fits the case, however it becomes a bit more difficult when we speak of the God in three Persons. Understand, then, that it was God Himself who came to stand as the Son of Man, the One who came down from heaven. Jesus, Whom we read of has having ascended to heaven from whence He came, and Whom we are told is now sitting at God’s right hand, is that Son of Man. He is the Atonement to which all the sacrifices had pointed. He is the Redeemer that Israel yet seeks. He is the Savior of the world that the world still will not accept.
God’s desire for you, for me, is so strong that He is unwilling to go on through eternity without us! His desire is so strong that He was willing to invest the whole of Himself in the world, in the Son, to come suffer the pains of the life His creation lived, to die in the place of the well-deserved death of every man who ever has been or ever will be, to take on the punishment of every sin, though He had in Himself sinned not at all. He was willing to die for a people who, as He tells us in the subsequent verses, rejected Him, who preferred to just go on in their sins and neglect the very God whose love for them was so incredibly great. Why did He do this? How could He bear to die? True, He knew that His death was but a momentary thing, yet the agony of that separation, that rift in an eternal fellowship, the incredible shame and sorrow of bearing the sins of a thousand generations of mankind in that one moment, however short it may have been; how could He bear it, if not for love? God so desired you and I, God so desires the eternal company of you and I – restored to the pure plan of our creation – that He was willing to go through even that, even the anguish of bearing our punishment, of standing up as the Willing Sacrifice for our sins, just to ensure that we could come dwell with Him. “Whoever believes in Him may have in Him eternal life.” What an awesome gift!
Shortly, and I mean shortly as in one or two days, before I began looking at the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, I had had a conversation of my own. I had met with a brother of mine, for prayer and mutual uplifting. I spoke to him of a particular struggle that I am even now continuing to fight with, a matter of sin which seems never to relent, over which I have had victory for a time only to find it has returned. This I could not understand. I could no longer discern a means of combating it, could no longer find sufficient hope for a victory that would last.
This brother turned my attention to that time when Jesus had seen in a fig tree which was in leaf and appeared as though it ought to be laden with fruit though the season was not right. He came to it, for the leaves it sprouted promised fruit, but no fruit was to be found (Mk 11:13). As my brother spoke of the story, he noted that Jesus did not, on this occasion, strike the tree. He did not cause the branches to be trimmed away. He did not in any discernable way cause the least physical damage to this deceptive tree. He merely cursed it. But, He cursed it most thoroughly. It was not temporary punishment that He delivered, but He declared that none would ever eat from that tree again. What had He done? He had cursed the root. He had ignored, as it were, the symptoms of the problem and gone straight to the source of the problem.
As this applies to my present struggle, the issue has been that I have put all my energy into combating the symptoms. I have never looked to find the root, that it might be dealt with. What is it that leads to this recurring sin? What is it that leads to so much that is a challenge to my proper, fruitful growth in Christ? This very question I took to God in prayer, and shortly thereafter found myself contemplating this whole opening section of John 3. It was in the midst of this that I first saw that definition for agape: desire. In the course of time, and quite probably in the course of a shower, God suddenly made the root clear to me. So much that shaped my development, so much that continues to shape my decisions and activities, is wrapped up in that very thing: desire.
It is not, as one might have suspected, that desire for things that are not right had led to pursuit of those things. Quite the opposite. It was a longing to be desired, to be found desirable by those around me. Now, I know that years ago, as I was studying Romans, it became clear that Augustine had a very solid point in declaring that pride lay at the root of most, if not all of our sinful ways. It strikes me, though, that this still falls short of the root. In pride, we have come, perhaps, to the trunk of that tree of sin, but the root remains hidden beneath. Here, in this longing for desire, I think perhaps I have reached the root of the problem. It is that need to be desired that causes us to act out in foolish, even reprehensible ways. Why? Because we have become convinced that we will appear ‘cool’ to those around us by acting so. Why do we find teens, even preteens, wearing makeup and clothes that cause them to look more like prostitutes than children? It is because they have become convinced that this will make them desirable to those who see them. Why, are we told, do kids join gangs? Because they want to be desired by somebody, and they don’t feel that their home life is satisfying that need in them. Why do we join in with crude jokes in the workplace, why do we allow ourselves to become workaholics, why do we take part in the office politics? Because we want to be seen as desirable by those around us. Do you see how pervasive this motivation is in us?
And here, in this verse, I begin to understand just why it has become a problem. See, Jesus tells us that God’s desire for us is so great that He will not suffer anything to keep us from being with Him. He finds you and I so desirable that even in our present state, He reaches out, He does Himself harm (were such a thing possible) that we might be made right. He dies that we might live. Find me any one person in this fallen world who would do that for you. Find me anything you could do to cause anybody to desire you as strongly as God already does! Don’t you see? This is why so much of the enemy’s energy has been put into conditioning us to desire desire. He has filled the airwaves with his counterfeit offers. It’s like those imitation Rolex offers that keep showing up in my email. He can’t offer you the real thing. In fact, you don’t need any offers because you already have the real thing. But, Satan’s managed to convince us that we don’t. He’s managed to convince us that we have this incredible need in us that we just can’t seem to fill. He offers us all manner of things to satisfy the need that isn’t there, and he knows full well that none of it will ever really satisfy. How can you satisfy what isn’t there? How can you satisfy an imagined need? You can’t even imagine it ever being satisfied, and the longer you go on, the more convinced you are that it can’t be done. Yet, you go on trying. You go on trying to look cool for the cool crowd, to look phat for the phat crowd, to look hot for the hot crowd, to look sharp for the sharp crowd, and all the while you’re just looking more and more foolish.
I recall years ago, when I had far more issues to be dealt with and no sense of God by which to deal, I was embarking on a sailing trip with some acquaintances of mine. Oh, the beer would flow, the joints would be plentiful, and there would be other damages we could do to ourselves beyond that. It would be a high time on the high seas. A dear friend of mine tried to convince me to do this one thing: to take one evening to remain straight and sober and just observe the folks around me from that perspective. Truth be told, I did not take her up on that plan at the time. Yet, God in His mercy has dealt with all of those things in me in subsequent years. That desire to drown my thoughts in such fashion has gone away, and I have seen what she wanted me to see at that time. The only reason we appeared cool to each other is because we were all being equally idiotic. There was nothing cool about it. The coughing and wheezing, the loss of control, the incapacitated speech centers: what was cool about that? Nothing! What was desirable in that? Nothing! Who was impressed by it? Nobody. We were all just caught in the same deception, and don’t we know: misery loves company.
But, God was faithful to me even then. In spite of me, He came to me. In spite of me, He rescued me. By ways I in no way recognized or acknowledged at the time, He preserved me until my eyes should be opened to His presence, His love, His desire for me. Shall I consider those times when I was driving at highly unreasonable speeds, through weather that no sane man would venture into sober, yet off I sailed high as a kite, and He saw me through. Why? Because I deserved it? I think not. Shall I speak of that time when I was all for shooting up because, after all, everybody else was into it. It was the latest cool thing to be doing. I was ready, I was willing, but the needle just couldn’t seem to find a vein. Sorry, dude. Nothing we can do about that. You’ll just have to skip the experience for now. Sorry? Thank You, Lord! Where would I be without that intervention You undertook? So many things He prevented from happening, so many relationships He made sure did not come about. All because He had a plan and a purpose for that life that I barely even valued. All because His desire for me was so great that He was thoroughly and utterly unwilling that He should find Himself required to go on without my company. That’s desire!
That’s a desire I am only coming to recognize in myself, but it’s a very real desire. It’s a very real desire to seek after God as faithfully as He has sought after me, to love Him even as strongly as He loves me, to know Him as He has ever known me. I am so far from that goal, and there are times when deception still clouds my vision for a time, but the desire is there, and it’s building day to day. Light has shone in my darkness, and that Light cannot be extinguished. Life has come into my death, and death could not hold Him. There is this, which Fausset’s has to say in regard to such desire, although it comes from an article on light: “Where real desire after the Savior exists, it will in the end overcome the evil of the heart.” This, though the words are Fausset’s, is the promise of God to every believer. Though we see in part, understand in part, and – if we are truthful with ourselves – are victorious only in part; we have this certain promise, this certainty of hope, that in the end, the Savior who abides in us will overcome every evil of our heart. We will, in the fullness of time, attain to the mature image of our Brother, our Lord, in Whose image we were made.
We can know in the here and now that we are saved. Salvation is yours in the name of the Lord. It has been bought and paid for by a God whose desire for you exceeds your every imagination. It may not feel that way in this moment. We may feel nothing but our failures. Oh, but this is no cause to give up! This is cause to pick ourselves up and try all the harder. Look back to who you were, that you may see the hand of God working upon your life. See what He has accomplished already. Look forward to the promises of God, to see where you will be. He sees the end from the beginning. He looks upon you and I and sees not the mess we are even today, He sees not the worse mess we were when we first realized He was calling upon us. No, He sees the finished project. He sees the perfection of salvation worked out in each one of us, every error corrected, every spot of sin washed clean, every misunderstanding worked out, every scar healed, until we stand before Him a pure and spotless bride.
Listen, I hear a lot these days about how God is seeking a pure and spotless bride. Of course He is! I hear this said over and over again to excite His children to greater effort in steering clear of sin. This is right and proper, so far as it goes. Yet, we must never so push for holiness that we despair. We must ever recognize that our greatest efforts, necessary though they be, will never bring us to the place we seek, to the condition that God seeks. Yes, God is seeking a pure and spotless bride. He is seeking a bride who does everything in her power to remain in that pristine state. Yet, He is no fool. He knows that the very bride that He wants to be pure and spotless was stained beyond recognition before ever He called upon her. Oh, He is most pleased to see her begin to clean up her act, begin to do all she can to correct for that past, yet the stains of the past will remain beyond her to remove. He seeks a pure and spotless bride, and He will surely have her, for He it is who will remove every spot, restore that purity. His will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. His will shall be done in His bride. “The zeal of the LORD shall perform this” (2Ki 19:31). “I have spoken; I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, I will assuredly do it. […] I bring My righteousness near. My salvation will not delay. I grant salvation, My glory for you” (Isa 46:11,13).
Do you know what is required of us in all this? Are we called to struggle and fight and battle and grow weary, never knowing victory? How are we to do so? I tell you, the answer is so shockingly simple, we miss it every time. “He has told you what is good, and what does the LORD require of you in all this? He asks only that you be just, be kind, and walk humbly before your God” (Mic 6:8). Jesus put it this way: “This is the work of God: Believe in Him whom God has sent” (Jn 6:29). That was His response to those who wondered how they might work the works of God. What is the work of God? To prepare that pure and spotless bride. What is her part in that work? To believe in Him whom God sent, to believe in the Son of Man, the Son of God, Who Was and Is and Is to Come. That’s all. He has begun the work. He will complete it. Rest in that, walk in that Do your utmost to walk worthy of the gift He has given, remembering always that you are not your own, but one purchased by great price. Here is strength for today and hope for tomorrow, HE has said it, and HE will do it!
[8/14/05] Before I move on from verse 16, I do want to note an event that occurred a little over a week ago. We have just hosted an event at our church for a ministry called Chain Reaction. It was a great thing, as our kids became involved in a week of missions work right in their own city. The group that came to train our kids for this had gone on to New York for a week after that, and then home to Pennsylvania. I don’t know that I’ve yet heard an accurate account of what happened back there, other than to know that one of the sons of that ministry’s leader was killed, having been thrown from the van in which his whole family was riding when they lost control and rolled the vehicle. Now, I’ve heard many things in regard to this, most of which I consider less than trustworthy. What I do trust, and what I know the parents of that young boy trust, is that Jesus meant what He said. I have no doubt that in the midst of the sorrow that cannot help but surround their hearts in this time of loss, they are clinging to these very words, that the one who believes in Jesus will live even if he dies (Jn 11:25).
This is what it means to belong to the One who is the Resurrection and the Life. This is why He came, why He faced so great a trauma, why He was able to will to go to the cross, knowing the pain, knowing the incredible agony that was to be His. This is why even at this time three years prior to the event, He could minister with full awareness that the cross was His future. It was so that parents facing the loss of their children could know that their children yet live. It was so that we, facing our own mortality could rejoice rather than tremble, knowing that whatever might lead to the death of this flesh, we yet live in Christ. Paul declared it boldly. “For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Php 1:21). I recall hearing those words sung by a young man who had just lost his own child before it even had a chance to be birthed into the world. So much sorrow was in that young man and his wife, and yet the words resounded with an earnestness that only faith in the midst of sorrow could provide. From any other, it would have been just words. From this young man, it was a confession of a faith that will not be shaken.
As Jesus continues His message, we find Him answering a stumbling block that has been set up repeatedly in the history of the Church. “I did not come to judge, but to save” (v17). We, by our nature, are given over to judging things. We are constantly judging, constantly reaching our own conclusions, and more often than not, reaching them without sufficient evidence to conclude anything. There have been times in our history when the teaching of the Church fell to judging men rather than saving them. There have been such blemishes on our record, and we must face those blemishes unless we wish to add to them. If we allow our presentation of God to the world to consist solely of condemnation, if we present the wrath of God and neglect to display His mercy, what service have we done for God or man? In truth, the error has just as often been the reverse of this situation, that God’s mercy was presented with no mention of His just wrath. We relish the God who is Love, but we’re not real keen on the God who is Jealous. We long for His all-encompassing embrace, but we’d just as soon leave out His all-consuming fire.
We do not suffer much from the preaching of condemnation these days. We are far more likely to be presented with a God who doesn’t particularly care what we do. He’s going to save us anyway, so just try and be good, ok? It’s an unconditional love, right? So it clearly can’t matter how we act. He’ll love us anyway. Oh! That we would be faithful to declare the whole counsel of God! Oh! That we would stop being afraid of how folks will react if we present them with God as He really is. God doesn’t need press agents and advertising agencies, He needs preachers! God doesn’t need talking heads spouting their opinions of Him, He needs teachers teaching His opinions.
Look to what He says. Why does He not come to judge? Well, there is this to be said on that subject: The one who does not believe in Jesus the Christ has already been judged for his unbelief. There is no reason to judge one who has already heard the verdict. Likewise, the one who does believe is not judged, for the crimes that called for judgment have already been tried, and the penalty paid by the Judge Himself! The Judge enters into a courtroom where every decision required of the bench has already been rendered. There need be no sentencing phase, for there is only the one sentence to be passed down in the case of sin. The guilty will ever hear the sentence of death, of eternal separation from the very God who so desired their company. Needless to say, that would mean every last one of us could expect to hear that sentence passed upon us. We could expect it were it not for this one thing: There is a balm in Gilead. There is a Redeemer for Israel. There is One who loved so much that He was willing to die to save the ones He loved. That One came to dwell as a man, that He might more fully relate with His loved ones, that He might more effectively serve as their eternal High Priest, familiar with their weaknesses and afflictions, and thereby able to intercede more accurately (were it possible for God to be more accurate).
This One speaks to Nicodemus, to His disciples gathered in that room, and to us today, with this message regarding God’s justice. The believer has been judged and found wanting, but the Redeemer God provided, the Redeemer God had planned for from before time, He has paid your fines and you are free to go in peace. The unbeliever, having rejected the paying of his redemption must therefore pay it himself. He has refused to allow this One who would have mercy on him to show mercy. He has denied that God is mercy. He insists that he make it on his own strength, and so it shall be. He shall make it on his own strength, or not at all. But, how shall the greatest strength of man bear the penalty of death, except to die?
“And this is the judgment.” This is the crisis for every man. The judgment of which Jesus speaks here is krisis, the root from which our English word crisis arises, but let me consider that Greek word first. Interestingly, that word seems to speak more of the sentence proclaimed than to the deliberations that led to the sentence. More specifically, it is used of that sentence which carries condemnation and punishment. With that in mind, this verse (v19) suddenly seems a bit different. It’s not Jesus simply saying, these are the facts of the case, He is saying this is the punishment that is meted out. Wow! What a difference in reading that creates. This is the punishment decreed: that although the very Light of Life has come into the world, those who stand condemned shall prefer their present darkness because of their evil deeds. It is shocking to read it so, and yet, it is fitting. It corresponds to that teaching of Paul’s that I have already looked at in this study. So often, in fact, we find an exquisite justice in God’s punishments, and quite often that justice is simply to allow the condemned to continue on the course they have chosen. As they chose to ignore God, so He chooses to now ignore them, and allow them their headlong rush towards the pit.
Now, that this does not encompass every sinner is exceedingly clear, for every man is a sinner by birth and by nature. If it were not so, there would have been no Christ, no Redeeming Savior come to rescue lost creation. There would have been no need, for there would have been a remnant that had held itself clean, saved itself from the general morass. This was not the case, however. God looked for a righteous man and found there was not even one to be found, so He had to send His man, the Man of His own choosing, of His own right hand. This One had come to rescue fallen man, but everyone knows that there are those who are drowning who will resist every effort at rescue. There are those who are so determined about doing things their way that they cannot be given advice, however needful. There are those who are so sure of their course that they will not receive direction from any quarter. Jesus has already spoken of these poor souls. They do not believe that the Messiah is come, that the Son is truly the Son, and for this they have been judged already. The just punishment for their unbelief is to leave them in the darkness they prefer. See, had they any concern for Messiah, they would surely have risen up to grasp at this hope that stood before them. Had they any thought for Messiah, had they sought Him even in the most minute degree, He would willingly have been found. He has no desire to send a man to his death. That does nothing to satisfy His aching desire for the fellowship of His creation. No, but that one who has rejected Him, who has heard His message, seen His credentials, and still will insist that there is no Messiah; such a one has been judged already, and the darkness in which he continues to wander in spite of the Light that shines to guide him to safety is the beginning of the sentence for unbelief.
God, even as I write that, my heart sorrows for those who I know personally, who have indeed heard the evidence, seen the witness You provided for Yourself, and yet rejected You outright. I know so many, Holy Father, who foolishly declare that there is no God. They are blind, blinded by an enemy they don’t even suspect exists. Holy Spirit, is the verdict truly so firmly set as to place them beyond hope? I pray that it is not so, though I must trust myself to Your perfect wisdom. I pray that You would find it in Your desire and purpose, Holy Father, to send Your own sweet Spirit to them, that they might open their hearts to You, open their minds to Truth, and find Life even in this late hour. God, I am just beginning to understand the depth of Your own desire for me, and in understanding that, I am beginning to understand, just a little, the loss I should feel if I come home and find these brothers of my flesh missing. I am just beginning to realize how empty shall be the place they ought to have stood. Oh, Lord, that Your desire for them would so outshine my own as You outshine me in every other way. Oh, that You would let Your desire for them cause Your mercy to flow towards them as it has flowed to me. God, send them the one whose words can reach into their darkened thinking. Though Your judgment upon them be just and true, yet I know there is hope of Your mercy. Let Your mercy glorify You, Lord, amongst these lost souls. Shall the dead praise You? Yes, I know Your justice and righteousness glorify Your Holy Name just as much as Your mercy and goodness, but, Lord, which will satisfy Your own great desire? Which will bring You the fellowship for which You long? Don’t let them be lost to Your kingdom, Holy Father! Oh, I pray that You will hear my own prayers, Lord, and find them resonating with Your sweetest of thoughts. Oh, I pray that You would answer me in this, Holy One, that these whom You have placed on my heart this morning would know You and be saved.
Before I leave the underlying Greek of this word, I think it worth noting this rather apropos aside that is made about that word. For, I find that this same word krisis was used as the name of the Jewish high-court prior to the governance of Rome. This was the Jewish court that held the power to pronounce a death sentence, a council of 23 men. Does this sound familiar, yet? This was one of the functions of the Sanhedrin; the Sanhedrin of which Nicodemus was a member. Now, that power to pronounce a death sentence had assuredly been lost under the pax romana, but this was, in an off-hand way, a declaration of authority, was it not? In Jewish eyes, the Sanhedrin continued, no doubt, to have claim to the sole authority to issue such a verdict, such a sentence, even if Rome had usurped the right. But, here was One who declared that just such a verdict lay upon many in Israel, though the Sanhedrin had not so much as heard their case! Do you see, then, that He has declared Himself the greater authority? Who was in authority over the Sanhedrin? There was but One, insofar as the Jew was concerned, and He was not seated in the governor’s palace, nor was He seated in Rome. He was enthroned in heaven, where He ruled then as He rules now over every authority, every principality, every power. There, again, is that claim to the title, the claim to Messiah’s office, hidden just below the surface of the conversation. One who sat upon such a council must surely have recognized it.
Now, I will turn to that English word of which I spoke: crisis. For, it, too, is a word fit for the man confronted with Messiah. There is, indeed, a crisis come upon such a man. We have just seen how terrible that crisis truly is in the things Jesus has said. He is face to face with his only real hope. He is faced with that choice Joshua set before Israel: choose you this day (Jos 24:15). If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the LORD, than choose whom you will serve (for you will assuredly serve something). The man who thinks he has chosen to serve no man, no thing, has fooled himself. Every man is a slave by birth, either to sin, or to righteousness (Ro 6:16). There is no ‘none of the above’ for us to choose. So, we come face to face with the Light of Life, and HE looks upon us to choose. There can be no putting it off. The time is now come. Whom will you serve?
Is this a crisis point? Allow me to lay before you a few of the definitions that Webster’s Dictionary provides for this word. It is a ‘turning point for better or worse.’ It is ‘a paroxysmal attack of […] distress.’ It is ‘the decisive moment.’ It is – and this is the key thought for me – a ‘radical change of status in a person’s life.’ There remains, of course, the ‘distinct possibility of a highly undesirable outcome’ in that moment. Yet, the control has been placed in your hands by that question. This is precisely what makes the world so crazy in responding to the Christian God. We see it all around us. No other God arouses the ire of the atheist, because no other God is real, and they know it, in spite of their protestations. If they did not, then in what way can the pronouncing of God’s name, God’s word, have any impact upon them at all? Are they equally offended by fairy tales and children’s stories? Does every work of fiction lead them to file court briefs? Not at all. How can this be, except that they make a distinction in God’s case? What distinction can there be, except that He, unlike all the rest, is real, and has a real claim on them?
The slaves, when they were liberated in the south, fled for fear that those they encountered might restore them to their master. Their flight did not end until they found themselves in a place that they could be sure no man would seek to return them. The atheist is not unlike this. The unrepentant sinner is not unlike this. They have rebelled against their Master. They have seen His right to them, they are aware of the price He paid to make them His own possession, but they refuse His lordship. They run away from Him, and they will continue to run away until they come to that place where there is no chance of being returned. Now, it may seem distasteful to compare my Lord to a slave master, and yet, that is a comparison He uses richly in His Word. Indeed, to a man, the Apostles were proud to declare themselves slaves to Christ, ruled utterly by His Word. Why? Because they fully understood that freedom in man was but a delusion, that every man was enslaved to whatever they chose to obey. Those who choose to obey that urge to flee the Christ who would save them have chosen the bonds of sin. They have rejected the testimony set before their own eyes, and chosen the darkness to hide their sins. That darkness hides nothing, yet their own darkened thinking, the depravity of their corrupt minds, leads them to think it does. And they will indeed keep running until they come to that place where none will trouble them any longer to seek the Savior.
Do you see, this is just what Jesus was getting at when He declared why it was the world would hate Him. It was because He gave true testimony against the world, declaring the very sins they have worked so hard to hide. Buddhism will not do this. The Hindu will not accuse you of those things you have worked so hard to hide. The Muslim could, quite frankly, care less about what you have been doing, just so you bow to Mecca with sufficient frequency. You won’t find the atheists suing these folks, because they have not said anything that matters to him. They cannot pierce the darkness in which he’s wrapped his sins. That darkness, in many a man, has even hidden his sinfulness from himself until Jesus comes and rends the darkness. Oh! What offense rises up in the man confronted with himself! Oh! How he will struggle and fight to escape that sight and return to his dark ignorance. Oh! How he hates the One who turned on the lights and left him with no escape.
Yet, the Judge stands before them with His hand upon the light switch. He cries out to them, “Wake up, sleeper! Rise from your death! Let My Light shine on you” (Eph 5:14). You need not continue on this road. There is another way. Face yourself, and then, come, face Me, and let Me heal you. Come, repent of those things you have done in darkness. There has been time enough for that. Come out of the dark now and taste of Life. Taste of that very life you have been running from and see that it is so good, so utterly delightful, that there can be no other desire. Is it slavery to which you are being called? Oh, indeed it is, just as every love call is a call to slavery. Yet, it is a service most sweet, a labor most light, and it shall reward you so wonderfully. You have worked so hard to arrive only at death and an end of every prospect. Come labor in the vineyards of life! The One who holds the keys of life and death stands before you, welcoming you into His own household to dwell at peace forever, if you will but come. Don’t choose the darkness any longer. It never did hide anything, nor will it. Come, confront yourself and know victory over the self you have loathed, the self you have hidden from your sight. Come and be all that you were created to be. Come, while there is yet time to choose.
Now, it is fit that I turn to my own condition, and to those who, like me, have put their faith in Christ. It would be easy for us to look at the last two verses of this section and see it as applying primarily to those outside the gates. Everyone who does evil hates the light. Clearly that’s not us! We’re here in the church, seeking to meet with our God, how could it be? Well, let me ask myself, and you can ask yourself, have we really come to stand in the light? Or, are we hanging back, wanting to be seen in the house, but not wanting to get overly close to the Owner of the house?
When the opportunity comes to draw nigh to the altar of God, how often do I hurry forward to stand in His light so that my deeds might be shown to have been His doing? How often do I instead hang back, coming to the edges but no closer, lest I be exposed? See, I know from my own experience that even for those of us who really do love God, who really do know the experience of salvation, who really do stand among the elect, there remains the problem of sin. There remain those things that we battle, sometimes with great strength and sometimes with the feebleness of a newborn, that remain with us seemingly no matter what we do. There are those things that I fight that I really don’t have any desire for my brothers and sisters to be aware of. Were there to be an altar call specifically for that very battle which is mine, I know full well that I would not respond to it. I know from experience, you see. Why is that? Quite simply because sin is evil. The one who does such things, even though he be ever so desirous of God, will not gladly suffer them to come to light. So long as the sin remains, in that degree will we avoid the full light of Christ.
Here is another aspect of the problem of sin, the problem that keeps us in the dim shadows. We don’t really want to face the fact of sin. It’s a sin, I suppose, if somebody else is doing it. This tends to hold particularly true of those things we’ve had victory over, doesn’t it? If I, weak as I am, have conquered that problem, then surely you must be a reprobate to be found continuing in that same thing! Oh, but don’t come and tell me of my own sins! No! I am a righteous man, and I will not hear such things said. Oh, how the flesh rejects the light of Truth! We really don’t want to hear about the next thing God is working on in us. We will gladly teach, gladly preach, gladly prophesy in His name, but please don’t bring it home to us.
A good brother of mine, the one of whom I wrote regarding the message of the fig tree, has also said in the past that the teacher who is not being taught his own lessons is a powerless teacher. It really is God’s way to teach His teachers first, that they might know most fully what it is they are teaching. For myself, I can say I notice a great difference between those truths I merely come away from His Word with, and those that I have had to walk through. Indeed, until I have walked a lesson, it is little more than an intellectual curiosity, a powerless thing.
This is one of those matters that really is in the walk-through. I know from my own walk how great is the desire to deny the sinfulness of my own sins. They’re not sins, just bad habits. They’re not sins. You won’t find them in the commandments. If they are condemned, it is but by the words of man, and these are not binding upon me. They are matters of conscience, and mine is sufficient. However, when the light shines, I must ask myself: if I am so confident that these are not sins, why am I so careful to keep them out of sight? Why am I so careful about the eyes of man, yet so forgetful at the same time when it comes to the eyes of God? Why am I so unwilling that even my own family, my own flesh and blood, should know, if it is really as innocent as I like to believe?
Shall I blame it on generational curses? On my upbringing? Oh! Whom shall I find to point the finger at? The one who provides for my habits? The ones who profit by a trade they know can only be harmful? All of these approaches have their grain of legitimacy, I suppose, but they have a much larger ear of denial. All of them amount to nothing more than an attempt to skip about the edges of the light. No, don’t let it touch me. Don’t let me have to declare my sin a sin! Don’t, dear God, make me look at myself honestly! I’ve spent so long creating this image. Oh, I’ve applied my spiritual make-up, and my holy eye-shadow. My lips, I have painted with humility. Don’t make me scrub it all off now, I’d be undone!
Yet, this is exactly what my Lord and Savior wants from me. He wants me to wash away all that nonsense, to stop putting on the disguises of pride, because they aren’t really for the audience anyway. They’re there for me. Because I know, deep down, what I am capable of being, I carefully place these things between me and myself, so that I can be more pleased with what I see. God doesn’t see that intervening self-image. He sees the real thing. Yes, but He, too, chooses to look at it differently, for He sees, in spite of the me that stands before Him, the finished product of His own workmanship. Artist that He is, He sees the final outcome of His sculpting even in this rough, unfinished lump of clay. He sees the end from the beginning, and therefore, He is patient in waiting for those things to drop off of me which are not part of His image.
God, I know that I am guilty before You, guilty of pretending that I am doing better than I am, guilty of avoiding You when I ought not. Lord, I am not willing to continue a hypocrite in Your courts, nor are You willing that I should continue so. You know my battles, Lord. You know the things that tear at me in the secret places. You know every truth I seek to hide. Oh, Lord, don’t let it continue so. I invite Your light. Give me the courage, Lord, to allow Your exposure to come and clean out the dark places. No, I don’t come with foolish expectations that it will be some easy thing. It has been a struggle to date, and I am sure struggle and godly sorrow yet await me. But, I so desire, Lord, to be fully in the Light of Your love. I so desire to be the me that You desire so much, and I know this is not part of Your image. Oh, God! Even as I type, I feel the urge. Even as I type, I know in some sad part of me that there will remain failures, even today. Yet, in spite of the thoughts of my mind and my foolish heart, I know You are faithful. I know You are able. I know that, when I’m with You, when I steadfastly remain where You have placed me, then I shall find that all things truly are possible.
Lord, how You have ingrained that in my soul this last year or so! It is so much a part of my thinking anymore, and yet I know that too often I continue to wander out of position. Help me. There is nothing more I could ask of You. Help me.
