Picture: Nicodemus Comes to Jesus at Night 3TC 102.1
This chapter is based on John 3:1-17.
Nicodemus, a highly educated and honored member of the national council, had been stirred by the teaching of Jesus. Though rich and well-read, he had been strangely attracted by the humble Nazarene. The lessons from the Savior’s lips had greatly impressed him, and he wanted to learn more. 3TC 102.2
Christ’s use of His authority in cleansing the temple had ignited the hatred of the priests and rulers. They felt they should not tolerate such boldness from an obscure Galilean. But not all agreed about putting an end to His work. Some feared to oppose One whom the Spirit of God so evidently moved. They knew that the Jews were subjects of a heathen nation because they had stubbornly rejected God’s reproofs. They feared that in plotting against Jesus the priests and rulers were following in the steps of their ancestors and would bring fresh disasters on the nation. Nicodemus shared these feelings. In the Sanhedrin, Nicodemus advised caution and moderation. He urged that if Jesus really carried authority from God, it would be dangerous to reject His warnings. The priests did not dare to ignore this counsel. 3TC 102.3
Nicodemus had anxiously studied the prophecies relating to the Messiah. The more he searched, the stronger was his conviction that Jesus was the One who was to come. He had been distressed by how the priests had profaned the temple. He witnessed Jesus driving out the buyers and the sellers. He saw the Savior healing the sick, and he saw their looks of joy and heard their words of praise. He could not doubt that Jesus of Nazareth was the One sent from God. 3TC 103.1
He greatly wanted to talk with Jesus, but he was unwilling to go to Him openly. If the Sanhedrin heard about this visit, they would scorn and denounce him. He decided to try for a secret meeting. By special inquiry, he learned where the Savior went for the night on the Mount of Olives. He waited until the city was hushed in sleep, and then he went looking for Jesus. 3TC 103.2
In Christ’s presence, Nicodemus felt strangely timid, and he tried to conceal this. “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” He chose his words to express and to invite confidence, but they really expressed unbelief. He did not acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah, but only a teacher sent from God. 3TC 103.3
Jesus gazed at the speaker, as if reading his very soul. He saw before Him someone who was seeking after truth. Wanting to deepen the conviction already in His listener’s mind, He came directly to the point, saying kindly, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” John 3:3, NRSV. 3TC 103.4
Nicodemus had come to enter into a discussion, but Jesus laid open the foundation principles of truth. He said, “You don’t need to have your curiosity satisfied, but to have a new heart. You must receive a new life from above before you can appreciate heavenly things. Until this change takes place, discussing My authority or My mission with Me will result in no saving good.” 3TC 103.5
Nicodemus had heard John the Baptist’s preaching about repentance. Yet the heart-searching message of the Baptist had not brought him to conviction of sin. He was a strict Pharisee and prided himself on his good works. People thought highly of him for his acts of kindness, and he felt sure of God’s favor. He was startled at the thought of a kingdom too pure for him to see in his present state. 3TC 104.1
The figure of the new birth was not completely new to Nicodemus. Converts from heathenism were often compared to children just born. So he must have understood that Christ’s words were not literal. But as an Israelite, he felt that he needed no change. This is why he was surprised and irritated by the Savior’s words. The pride of the Pharisee was struggling against the honest desire of the seeker after truth. 3TC 104.2
Surprised out of his self-composure, he answered in words full of irony, “How can a man be born when he is old?” Like many others, he revealed that nothing in the natural heart responds to spiritual things. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. 3TC 104.3
Raising His hand with quiet dignity, the Savior applied the truth even more closely and with greater assurance: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus knew that Christ was referring to water baptism and the renewing of the heart by the Spirit of God. He was convinced that he was in the presence of the One whom John the Baptist had foretold. 3TC 104.4
Jesus continued, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” By nature the heart is evil. See Job 14:4. No human invention can find a remedy for the sinning soul. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Romans 8:7; Matthew 15:19. The fountain of the heart must be purified before the stream can become pure. Those who try to reach heaven by their own works in keeping the law are attempting the impossible. The Christian’s life is not a modification of the old but a transformation of nature, a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can come about only by the Holy Spirit. 3TC 104.5
Nicodemus was still perplexed, and Jesus used the wind to illustrate His meaning. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 3TC 105.1
We hear the wind rustling the leaves and flowers, yet it is invisible. So with the work of the Holy Spirit on the heart. A person may not be able to tell the exact time or place or trace the process of conversion, but this does not prove that he is unconverted. By an agency as unseen as the wind, Christ is constantly working on the heart. Little by little, the Spirit makes impressions that tend to draw the heart to Christ. These may come through reading the Scriptures or hearing the Word from the living preacher. Suddenly, as the Spirit comes with more direct appeal, the heart gladly surrenders to Jesus. Many call this “sudden conversion,” but it is the result of long wooing by the Spirit of God—a patient, protracted process. 3TC 105.2
Wind produces effects that we can see and feel. So the work of the Spirit on the heart will reveal itself in every act of the person who has felt its saving power. The Spirit of God transforms the life. We put away sinful thoughts and renounce evil deeds. Love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness. When by faith we surrender to God, the power that no human eye can see creates a new being in the image of God. We may know the beginning of redemption here, through personal experience. Its results reach through eternal ages. 3TC 105.3
While Jesus was speaking, some gleams of truth penetrated the ruler’s mind. Yet he did not fully understand the Savior’s words. He said wonderingly, “How can these things be?” 3TC 105.4
“Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?” Jesus asked. Instead of feeling irritated over Jesus’ plain words of truth, Nicodemus should have had a humble opinion of himself because of his spiritual ignorance. Yet Christ spoke with such solemn dignity and earnest love that Nicodemus was not offended. 3TC 106.1
But as Jesus explained that His mission was to establish a spiritual kingdom instead of a temporal one, Nicodemus was troubled. Jesus saw this and added, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” Not grasping the nature of Christ’s work on earth, Nicodemus could not understand His work in heaven. 3TC 106.2
The Jews whom Jesus had driven from the temple were eager to maintain an appearance of holiness, but they neglected holiness of heart. While they insisted on the letter of the law, they were constantly violating its spirit. Their great need was for the change that Christ had been explaining to Nicodemus—a new moral birth, a cleansing from sin, and a renewing of holiness. 3TC 106.3
There was no excuse for Israel’s blindness regarding the work of regeneration. David had prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Through Ezekiel God had promised, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes.” Psalm 51:10; Ezekiel 36:26, 27. 3TC 106.4
Nicodemus now began to comprehend the meaning of these scriptures. He saw that the most rigid outward obedience to just the letter of the law could entitle no one to enter the kingdom of heaven. 3TC 106.5
Nicodemus was being drawn to Christ. As the Savior explained the new birth to him, he longed for this change in himself. How could it take place? Jesus answered his unspoken question: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” 3TC 106.6
The symbol of the uplifted serpent made the Savior’s mission plain to Nicodemus. When the people of Israel were dying from the sting of the fiery serpents, God directed Moses to make a serpent of bronze and place it high in the middle of the congregation. All who would look at it would live. The serpent was a symbol of Christ. As the image made in the likeness of the destroying serpents was lifted up for their healing, so One made “in the likeness of sinful flesh” was to be their Redeemer. Romans 8:3. God wanted to lead the Israelites to the Savior. Whether to heal their wounds or pardon their sins, they could do nothing for themselves but show their faith in the Gift of God. They were to look and live. 3TC 106.7
Those who had been bitten by the serpents might have demanded a scientific explanation of how looking would heal them. But no explanation was given. To refuse to look was to die. Nicodemus received the lesson and carried it with him. He searched the Scriptures in a new way, not for discussion but to receive life for the soul. He submitted to the leading of the Holy Spirit. 3TC 107.1
Thousands today need to learn the same truth Nicodemus learned from the uplifted serpent. “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12. Through faith we receive the grace of God, but faith is not our Savior. It earns nothing. It is the hand by which we lay hold on Christ, who is the remedy for sin. We cannot even repent without the aid of the Spirit of God. The Scripture says of Christ, “Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” Acts 5:31. Repentance comes from Christ as truly as does pardon. 3TC 107.2
How, then, are we to be saved? “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29. The light shining from the cross reveals the love of God. His love is drawing us to Himself. If we do not resist this drawing, we will be led to the foot of the cross in repentance for the sins that have crucified the Savior. Then through faith the Spirit of God produces a new life in the soul. He brings the thoughts and desires into obedience to Christ. He creates the heart and the mind anew in the image of Jesus, who works in us to subdue all things to Himself. Then He writes the law of God in the mind and heart, and we can say with Christ, “I delight to do Your will, O my God.” Psalm 40:8. 3TC 107.3
In the conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus unfolded the plan of salvation. In none of His later instruction did He explain so fully, step by step, the work necessary to be done in the hearts of all who wish to inherit the kingdom of heaven. At the very beginning of His ministry, He opened the truth to a member of the Sanhedrin, an appointed teacher of the people. But the leaders of Israel did not welcome the light. Nicodemus hid the truth in his heart, and for three years there was little apparent fruit. 3TC 107.4
But the words Jesus spoke at night on the lonely mountain were not lost. In the Sanhedrin council, Nicodemus repeatedly defeated plans to destroy Jesus. When at last He was lifted up on the cross, Nicodemus remembered, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” The light from that secret meeting illuminated the cross of Calvary, and Nicodemus saw in Jesus the world’s Redeemer. 3TC 107.5
After the Lord ascended, when persecution scattered the disciples, Nicodemus came forward boldly. He used his wealth to sustain the infant church that the Jews had expected to disappear at the death of Christ. In the time of danger, he who had been so cautious and questioning was firm as a rock, encouraging the faith of the disciples and furnishing funds to carry forward the work of the gospel. He became poor in this world’s goods, but he never hesitated in the faith that had its beginning in that nighttime conference with Jesus. 3TC 107.6
Nicodemus told John the story of that interview, and John recorded it for the instruction of millions. The truths taught there are as important today as they were on that solemn night on the shadowy mountain, when the Jewish ruler came to learn the way of life from the lowly Teacher of Galilee. 3TC 107.7
