Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus *said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear its sound, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness of what we have seen, and you do not accept our witness. 12 If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 And no one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light lest his deeds be exposed. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been done by God.” John 3: 1-21 LSB
John 3: 17-21
…21Speak up and present your case—yes, let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago? Who announced it from ancient times? Was it not I, the LORD? There is no other God but Me, a righteous God and Savior; there is none but Me. 22Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. 23By Myself I have sworn; truth has gone out from My mouth, a word that will not be revoked: Every knee will bow before Me, every tongue will swear allegiance.… Isaiah 45: 21-23
…6He says: “It is not enough for You to be My Servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the protected ones of Israel. I will also make You a light for the nations, to bring My salvation to the ends of the earth.” 7Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel, to Him who was despised and abhorred by the nation, to the Servant of rulers: “Kings will see You and rise, and princes will bow down, because of the LORD, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen You.” 8This is what the LORD says: “In the time of favor I will answer You, and in the day of salvation I will help You; I will keep You and appoint You to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land, to apportion its desolate inheritances,… Isaiah 49: 6-8
For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world - Sin has already been judged, as evidenced by the Flood, God's punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah, His punishment of Israel, and His punishment of the nations that punished Israel. He has stated very clearly that the wages of sin is death, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. God is Holy and Infinite, His holiness crowns all other attributes, including His love, so in order to save sinful man and yet be what He is eternally in His attributes, then someone must take my place. Since God is eternal and He alone exists independently of His creatures, from a place that does not fit within the box of human understanding, then the sacrifice must be of the same substance, yet also human, for we are the ones who have offended the eternal Being. He sends Christ, not to judge this time, not to end all things at His first advent, but to fulfill all that has been written about Him from God's redemptive history. In fact, one could easily argue that if God had not decreed this, the coming of His Son, the salvation of those who would believe, then He would have passed immediate and final judgement in the garden, and we would not be having this conversation. In Christ, even the promise of Christ, because it was so very certain in the Sovereignty of the Creator, we all live and breathe. History has only moved forward because God has provided a Lamb.
God did not send (apostello) the Son into the world to judge the world - Note repetition of the world. Jesus came not just for Jews but for the world. (see Hendriksen's note below) Jesus came as God's Messenger with a mission and it was not to pronounce sentence on mankind. This truth shows the mercy filled heart of God, Who had every right to send His Son to judge the world which deserved condemnation. Paul writes "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." (1 Ti 1:15) Luke writes "the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Lk 19:10+) That was the purpose for which God sent Him the first time ,but in His Second Coming Jesus will come not as Savior but as Judge (Rev 19:11-16+ = "in righteousness He judges and wages war.", cf Acts 17:31+). John alludes to the future judgment by the Son when he writes "not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son." (Jn 5:22+)
So how do we explain John 9:39 "And Jesus said, “For judgment (MEANS SEPARATION) I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Bultmann calls this the “paradox of revelation.”As the light of the world, Jesus came that the blind might see and those who think they can see will be made blind. Those who profess a clear vision of the ways of God while at the same time denying by their lifestyle its transforming effect will ultimately find that they are blind. In other words there is a "separation," by virtue of His coming. One cannot be "neutral" toward Jesus. The fact that they saw Him (and today hear about Him) and still reject Him results in their own judicial blinding. In other words failure to receive Jesus leaves judgment as the only alternative. Cambridge Bible explains "Since there are sinners in the world, Christ’s coming involves a separation of them from the good (BELIEVERS), a judgment, a sentence." Morris adds "The resolution of the paradox demands that we understand salvation as necessarily implying judgment. These are the two sides to the one coin. Jesus came to bring salvation, but the very fact of salvation for all who believe implies judgment on all who do not. This is a solemn reality, and John does not want us to escape it." (Borrow The Gospel according to John) - Precept Austin
…33So the disciples asked one another, “Could someone have brought Him food?” 34 Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. 35Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest.… John 4: 33-35
…36But I have testimony more substantial than that of John. For the works that the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works I am doing—testify about Me that the Father has sent Me. 37And the Father who sent Me has Himself testified about Me. You have never heard His voice nor seen His form, 38nor does His word abide in you, because you do not believe the One He sent.… John 5: 36-38
…2For in Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set you free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man, as an offering for sin. He thus condemned sin in the flesh, 4so that the righteous standard of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.… Romans 8: 2-4
V. 17B But that the world might be saved through Him - This broadens the scope beyond Israel. Israel is intended to be a light, and though they rebel, yet God has used the story of His relationship with them to bring light regardless. One day, a remnant that has been sprinkled with water and received a new heart, will be the type of light God has intended them to be for the world.
…5For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave Himself as a ransom for all— the testimony that was given at just the right time. 7For this reason I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a faithful and true teacher of the Gentiles. I am telling the truth; I am not lying about anything.… 1 Timothy 2: 5-7
1My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. 3By this we can be sure that we have come to know Him: if we keep His commandments.… 1 John 2: 1-3
…4But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,… Ephesians 2: 4-6
V. 18A He who believes in Him is not judged - So when I stand at the Judgment seat, instead of seeing me, the sinner, the Father will see His Son who purchased me with His own life. I will have a clean ledger, paid in full by the only sacrifice pleasing to God, His Son.
Steven Cole on believes - Believing in Jesus requires understanding who He is (the unique Son of God) and what He came to do through His death and resurrection. Based on that knowledge (which we get from the Bible), believing in Jesus means to entrust your eternal destiny to all that He did in dying for your sins on the cross. It means that you cease trusting in your own goodness or good deeds as the way into heaven. Rather, you trust entirely in Jesus and His shed blood. A helpful illustration that I’ve used before is that of the famous tightrope walker, Blondin. Perhaps you can relate to this story in light of Nik Wallenda’s walking across the Grand Canyon on a cable last week. Blondin would walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope. He did it blindfolded! He did it on stilts! Once he carried his manager across on his shoulders. After they got safely to the other side and the applause died down, he turned to a man in the crowd and said, “Sir, do you believe that I could do that with you?” The man was about the same build as the manager who had gone across on Blondin’s shoulders, so he shrugged, “Yes, I believe that you could do it.” Blondin said, “Fine, hop on!” The man quickly replied, “No way!” He “believed” intellectually, but he wasn’t willing to commit his life to Blondin. In the same way, many say that they believe in Jesus, but they have not committed their eternal destiny to what He did for them on the cross. Some want to try to help Him out by adding their good deeds to Jesus’ shed blood. But that’s like telling Blondin that you want to help him out by holding his hand as you walk behind him! It doesn’t work! Faith that brings eternal life responds to God’s shocking love by entrusting yourself totally to what Jesus did for you when He died on the cross. (God's Shocking Love)
The object of faith is the only begotten (unique) Son of God Who Alone is "the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through (Him) "(Jn 14:6) because “there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12), and there is only “one Mediator...between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Ti 2:5). - Precept Austin
…23so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. 24Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life. 25Truly, truly, I tell you, the hour is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.… John 5: 23-25
V. 18b He who does not believe has been judged already - They would not accept correction, will you? Like we discussed before, sin has already been judged, but God has sent His Son calling all men everywhere to repent through Him. This is the very spirit of unbelief, that God has spoken and we do all else, we reject what He says and therefore cling to our sin, to that which is being judged. Men who die in their sin never do so unfairly, they did not want God, did not want His Word, refused Him as Lord, trusted in their own fallen minds. When He says this is sin, this is the way of death, this is eternal separation, My way is better, far above yours, repent and be saved, yet some will say He does not exist and yet others will cling to their sin and invent another gospel that condones that which God has condemned.
…28Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will earnestly seek me, but will not find me. 29 For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the LORD. 30They accepted none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof.… Proverbs 1:28-30
V. 18c Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God - Begotten not created. He has not acknowledged Jesus for Who He is, Lord and Savior, one cannot make God that, but that is the truth of Who He is, and so to not obey is a very strong case of delusion. This man has sought his own autonomy, to be his own God, to put much weight upon his own thoughts and evil desires.
…11He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— 13children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.… John 1: 11-13
They are already under a sentence of condemnation to hell. They do not only justly deserve to be cast down thither, but the sentence of the law of God, that eternal and immutable rule of righteousness that God has fixed between him and mankind, is gone out against them, and stands against them; so that they are bound over already to hell. “He that believeth not is condemned already. ”(John 3:18) So that every unconverted man properly belongs to hell; that is his place; from thence he is, John 8:23. “Ye are from beneath,” and thither he is bound; it is the place that justice, and God’s word, and the sentence of his unchangeable law, assign to him.....
Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock. Were it not for the sovereign pleasure of God, the earth would not bear you one moment; for you are a burden to it; the creation groans with you; the creature is made subject to the bondage of your corruption, not willingly; the sun does not willingly shine upon you to give you light to serve sin and Satan; the earth does not willingly yield her increase to satisfy your lusts; nor is it willingly a stage for your wickedness to be acted upon; the air does not willingly serve you for breath to maintain the flame of life in your vitals, while you spend your life in the service of God’s enemies. God’s creatures are good, and were made for men to serve God with, and do not willingly subserve to any other purpose, and groan when they are abused to purposes so directly contrary to their nature and end. And the world would spew you out, were it not for the sovereign hand of him who hath subjected it in hope. There are the black clouds of God’s wrath now hanging directly over your heads, full of the dreadful storm, and big with thunder; and were it not for the restraining hand of God, it would immediately burst forth upon you. The sovereign pleasure of God, for the present, stays his rough wind; otherwise it would come with fury, and your destruction would come like a whirlwind, and you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor. (See Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God) - Precept Austin quoting Jonathan Edwards
V. 19 Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil - People always tell me they love the Lord, know the Lord, have an understanding with the Lord, some strange sort of agreement, but this is the crux of the matter, He isn't your Lord, you are, your fallen passions are, you pick and choose what you want, and for the love of all that God has called sin men hide themselves from the light.
…9These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to obey the LORD’s instruction. 10They say to the seers, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions. 11Get out of the way; turn off the road. Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”… Isaiah 30: 9-11
…9If anyone claims to be in the light but hates his brother, he is still in the darkness. 10Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no cause of stumbling in him. 11But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness. He does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.… 1 John 2: 9-11
John Phillips - This is a fine Christmas text. "Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." At Bethlehem, light invaded this darkened world. A classic illustration of men loving darkness rather than light is seen in King Herod, whose deeds were evil indeed. Herod-who murdered his wife's brother, his favorite wife, and both his sons. Herod-who murdered the rank and file of the Hasmoneans, whose favorite sport was to watch while several hundred of his subjects were crucified before him as he was getting drunk, who had every leading citizen in his realm arrested just days before his death and gave instructions that, immediately upon news of his own death, every one of them was to be murdered. If ever a man's deeds were evil, it was Herod's. If ever a man loved darkness rather than light, it was Herod. And when the light came into the world and he heard about it, he sent and murdered the babes of Bethlehem in an effort to overcome light with the "power of darkness." (Exploring John)
Charles Spurgeon - The dislike of Christ is caused by a love of sin. If men did not hug their sins, they would embrace the Saviour. You see why men do not come to Christ; they do not want to give up their sin; they do not want to be made uneasy in it; they are afraid of being reproved. You see why saintly men do come to Christ, for they take a delight in beholding him, and in having their faith and their grace made manifest, both to themselves and to onlookers....Those who love their sins cannot at the same time love the Saviour; they must love the one, and hate the other; and it is a terrible choice when they deliberately reject the only Saviour; “the Light of the world,” and choose the darkness of sin, the darkness of woe, the outer darkness, where there shall be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. - Precept Austin
V. 20 And does not come to the light lest his deeds be exposed - I have watched people who intellectually ascent to there being a God, yet knowing this puts them quickly upon the path of trying to reconcile God to their way of thinking. I tried this when I was young and then decided it was just easier to be an atheist since reading the Scriptures only begged questions against what I wanted God to be like. But I watch these people still today, they tell pastors not to preach on certain subjects because it offends them. They pick churches that preach very little in the way of conviction, places that put them at ease in their sin. Any church that follows Scripture's teachings on confronting sin, accountability, examining the fruit of one's life, they call those places and people, legalistic. They hate the light, not because they truly fear God Who sees the very source of their sin, but only because of what people might think, and then the jig will be up, everyone will know. It's easy to fool men, but you will ultimately stand before God.
…11Have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that is illuminated becomes a light itself.… Ephesians 5: 11-13
V. 21 But he who practices the truth comes to the light, so that his deeds may be manifest as having been done by God - You will know them by their fruits. People who love the truth come to the light to be exposed, to be convicted of their sin, to see the long shadow it cast and plead to have it removed.
…1Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. 2But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. 3He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.… Psalm 1: 1-3
…11O LORD, Your hand is upraised, but they do not see it. They will see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame. The fire set for Your enemies will consume them! 12O LORD, You will establish peace for us. For all that we have accomplished, You have done for us. 13O LORD our God, other lords besides You have had dominion, but Your name alone do we confess.… Isaiah 26: 11-13
…9For I am the least of the apostles and am unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them— yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.… 1 Corinthians 15: 9-11
11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the favor shown us in answer to their prayers. 12And this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God— not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God. 13For we do not write you anything that is beyond your ability to read and understand. And I hope that you will understand us completely,… 2 Corinthians 1: 11-13
…10So if I come, I will call attention to his malicious slander against us. And unsatisfied with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers and forbids those who want to do so, even putting them out of the church. 11Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God. 12Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also testify for him, and you know that our testimony is true.… 3 John 10-12
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