John 3:1–21

¹ 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 are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” ³ Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, 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, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶ That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is 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 the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is 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 know these things? ¹¹ Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. ¹² If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? ¹³ No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. ¹⁴ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. ¹⁷ For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. ¹⁸ “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ¹⁹ And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. ²¹ But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

Commentary

Vs. 1-2 ¹ 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 are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

Now while Jesus was in Jerusalem a man named Nicodemus, who was a ruler of the Jews, came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “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.” Nicodemus then, unlike those in Jerusalem who were only moved to seek signs from Jesus, was moved by an earnest desire to know Him, and so He sought Him out for himself. That Nicodemus came at night is really irrelevant, for all that is relevant to the Lord is that people come to Him with a genuine desire to know Him, and learn from Him. Now Nicodemus in coming to Jesus first acknowledged that he (and others like him) believed that Jesus is a teacher come from God, “for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” That said Nicodemus is still not at salvation, because as Jesus will to point out to him, his faith must move beyond the tangible to the eternal (Heb. 11:1). And in this Jesus will waste no time in revealing to him that in of himself neither he (nor anyone else) can see the Kingdom of God.

Vs. 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Jesus then having just been acknowledged by Nicodemus as a teacher come from God, now replies to him by saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Which of itself is a stunning revelation, for the Jews have always believed that by being decedents of Abraham, or being entrusted with, and keeping the Law of Moses, they had the “right” to enter the Kingdom of God. But here Jesus makes it abundantly clear, before and above all else, one must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God!

Vs. 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?”

Now when Nicodemus heard Jesus say that he must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God he responded to Jesus by saying, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Nicodemus then is only looking at things from a natural person’s viewpoint, for he does not yet perceive, nor understand that he must be transformed into a new person to enter the Kingdom of God. And this only happens when one is born-again, made Spiritually alive, by God’s Holy Spirit.

Vs. 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Now to explain this, Jesus says that one must be born of both water and Spirit. Water signifying our natural birth as we are formed in the womb by the hand of God, and then enter the world through our mothers. And so we must first must enter into the commonality of all humanity, and that is be born naturally, and thus be placed under the condemnation of Adam, the first man God created who sinned, and thus sin entered the world through him, alienating both him, and all of his descendants and creation with him from God. Which is why Jesus was also born naturally, so He could take the place of Adam, as the new Head of the human race, and thus provide an Atonement for all of humanity. Now being born of the Spirit is what being born again is, for it is this birth by God’s Holy Spirit that makes us Spiritually alive, and thus takes us from being spiritually dead in our own sins and transgressions, and thus under the condemnation of Adam, and brings us to new and everlasting life, uniting us with the Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” Because unless one has been born both naturally, and then born again Spiritually, by God’s Holy Spirit, they cannot enter the Kingdom of God. No one then passes from this life into the Kingdom of God unless they have first been born-again. For heaven is for those who are Spiritually alive, not dead.

Vs. 6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

And so, Jesus makes a clear distinction between that which has only been of the flesh is flesh (that is temporal, destined to die), and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (eternal, destined for everlasting life and glory).

Vs. 7-8 ⁷ Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ ⁸ 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.”

Now to illustrate the invisible, yet very tangible nature of the new birth, the Lord Jesus Christ takes an analogy from nature to illustrate this great Spiritual reality. And so, Jesus begins by reminding Nicodemus that just as we can hear the wind, yet we cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes, so too is everyone who is born of the Spirit. For just as God directs the winds according to His own Will, so He directs His Spirit to bring to life everyone who believes in His Son. And just as the wind is invisible, so too is the new life that is inside of us. Yet what is visible (or perceivable) to us and to all is the transformation about us, because having the very nature of God inside us not only has our person been transformed, being brought from spiritual death to eternal life, but also our “appetites” change in accord with the new holy nature inside of us. Thus the very things which we once did and loved and justified when we were dead in our sins and transgressions we now loathe and take our stand against. Similarly, where we once always looked to (or lived in) the past, being chained to it, we now see everything as new born and redeemed children of God whose focus is now forward looking, because everything for us now is future. And so, we are free from our past lives, and all the things that once held us in bondage. Free to live and to love and to enjoy all His grace and His truth (and all the fruits of His Holy Spirit) as we embrace His Righteousness, and what He declares in His Word to be righteous and holy and sound. There is then no life like it!

Vs. 9-10 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 know these things?

Now upon hearing Jesus’ analogy Nicodemus says to Jesus, “How can these things be?” Which is not a rejection of what he has just heard, but rather it reveals that Nicodemus in of himself (or anyone else in of themselves) cannot understand the things of the Spirit except by the Spirit (1 Cor, 2). Thus, before Nicodemus can understand, he must be born-again by the Spirit, yet this cannot happen as the Lord Jesus Christ has not yet been Crucified, nor Risen from the dead, nor the Holy Spirit been poured out. And so, for now Nicodemus’ inquiry of Jesus is going to be a catalyst through which Jesus will bring forth great Spiritual truths that will later lead to untold numbers of people’s eternal redemption and salvation. Now Jesus in answering Nicodemus marvels that though Nicodemus is a teacher in Israel, yet he does not know these things (vs. 10). Which is a condition not unique to him, as many teachers and pastors, and Christian leaders, both now and down through the ages, have also found themselves in roles that they were not yet equipped to fulfill. Nonetheless salvation is available to them, and to all who repent and believe.

Vs. 11-12 ¹¹ Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. ¹² If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

The Lord Jesus Christ now declares that what He speaks He knows, because before eternity began He has known God, and He knows all these realities because He is them, and yet Nicodemus like all who are carnally minded does not receive His Witness, because the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit, for they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14). Therefore, Jesus says to him, “If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” ^{vs. 11} Thus, if Nicodemus does not believe the things that take place on earth, that Jesus has just told him about, how will he believe if Jesus tells him about heavenly things. For you don’t get more revelation from God unless you believe what you have already heard and received. Thus, you can’t get to the one unless you first believe and receive the other. 

Vs. 13 "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven."

The Lord Jesus Christ now declares both His Sovereignty as well as the Omnipresence of His very Person. For He came down from heaven as the Son of Man, yet He is still in heaven, which is a declaration that no man ever made before Him.

Vs. 14-15 “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵ that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

Here the Lord Jesus Christ draws an analogy from the Israelites during their 40 years in the wilderness, from a time when fiery serpents were sent amongst them, and so God commanded Moses to make a serpent and place it on a wooden rod, so that when anyone was bitten they were to look to the serpent on the rod and then they wood be healed. And so that event in some ways foreshadowed the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of Man being lifted up on the Cross, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life! For we have all been “bitten” by the serpent, who is Satan, who first deceived Adam and Eve in the garden, and continues to deceive mankind to this day!

Vs. 16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

Jesus Words here are the most important Words that any human being can hear and must here! For expressed here is the way to everlasting life, and thus the way to escape the condemnation of hell! For there are only two options for us all, either eternal life, or eternal condemnation!

Again, God so loved the world…, and not just the Godly people, or the righteous people, or the “good” people, or His own people, but all people everywhere! So much so that He gave His only begotten Son to suffer and die on the Cross to make the Atonement for all our sins and transgressions, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life! Therefore, the expressed Desire of God for us all is to believe and be saved by faith in His Son from the Wrath and Judgment to come.

Vs. 17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”

Jesus didn’t come into the world then to Judge and Condemn the world, (for the world and all of creation with it is already under the judgment and condemnation of sin). Therefore, God sent His Son into the world so that the world through Him could be saved! Therefore, Jesus Christ came as the Word of God bringing God’s Word and Work of eternal life through His Gospel, so that everyone who believes in Him will have remission of all their sins and everlasting life! For that is God’s desire for us all, to first be reconciled to Himself through His Son, and then we will be a part of His New Creation.

Vs. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Again, Jesus reiterates the truth that everyone who believes in Him is not condemned! For the Sacrificial Work and Atoning blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross cleanses us from all of our sins and transgressions, thus we are washed pure and made holy clean (in the sight of God) by our faith in Him! Thus, everyone who believes in Jesus Christ is not condemned. However, “he who does believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” For to not believe in the Name of the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ, is not to believe in God Himself! Therefore, such an individual is condemned already because they have not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God. There is then no remedy or atonement for that, because one must believe in the Name of the only begotten Son of God to have His Atoning Word imputed to them!

Vs. 19-20 “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. ²⁰ For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

Now the condemnation (of the world), that is all in it who do not repent and believe, is that Lord Jesus Christ came into the world as the light of the world (John 8:12), preaching, teaching and working righteousness in the world, and by so doing making God and His Will plainly known to one and to all. However, when mankind saw this, who Jesus was, and what He did, instead of forsaking their sinful, wicked, evil, sinister, or scheming ways, they kept to them, because they loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”

And so, though the Gospel is for sinners of every sort and type it does not bring grace and truth to those who want to continue on in their sinful and evil ways! Rather it brings the wrath and the righteousness judgment of God against such things. Therefore, they hate the light, and do not come to the light lest their deeds should be exposed. That is laid bare before the eyes of Almighty God who righteously judges (and repays) in the heavens and the earth. Because for them the Gospel is only a precursor of the wrath to come!

Vs. 21 “But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

In contrast then to those who hate the light (thus who turn away from it) because their deeds are evil, are all those who do the truth, they come to the light, so their deeds maybe be clearly seen, that they have been done in God!

Scripture Quotations 

New King James Version (1982): Thomas Nelson.