Born Again (0)

Coming up is a revised and expanded transcript of an exposition on John 3:1-21:

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, "Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him."

In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"

Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.

"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven — the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life."

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

Although the Gospel of John contains as many deep teachings and points of interest for Christians as any other biblical book, John tells the reader that the Gospel is written "that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name" (20:31). For this reason, it is a mistake to always expound the Gospel of John as if we are speaking only to believers, that is, to confirm and mature their faith. Rather, we must speak from this Gospel with the unbelievers in mind as well. This does not imply that there must be no in-depth expositions of the passages, since as God draws his elect, even some unconverted individuals will take interest in hearing the Gospel thoroughly expounded.

We can find an example of a technical issue even from the verse just quoted (20:31). There is a variant in the text so that the phrase "that you may believe" is either in the aorist subjunctive or the present subjunctive. Now, even an unbeliever might tolerate a sermon or an article that mentions this point, but to discuss technical details like these one after another will soon make the whole presentation unbearable to one who is still dead to the things of God. Moreover, many preachers and commentators discuss technical issues in the text in such a manner as to rob from their message — and to the unbelievers as well as the believers with weak faith, from the biblical text itself — all power and certainty.

My point is that it is desirable and even necessary to have different kinds of expositions, dealing with the biblical text from various perspectives and on various levels. This is true, of course, not only of the Gospel of John, but of the whole Bible. A preacher can, as I do, take comfort in the fact that he is not the only one who has expounded the passage, but many others have addressed the text and many others will address the text. Otherwise, we might be crushed by the pressure to offer an exhaustive exposition, as if this is possible, or failing that, we might be gripped by a sense of overwhelming inadequacy. I say "overwhelming" because a sense of inadequacy is always there, or should always be there. Thus the only reason why we stand up to speak at all is because God has called us and filled us with his Spirit. God has made us adequate and competent (2 Corinthians 3:5-6).

The first part of this series on John 3 will appear on Tuesday or Wednesday.