Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The text for this meditation is written in the 3rd Chapter of the Gospel according to St John: Verses 1–17:
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus1 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 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 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 its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Nicodemus, as a Pharisee, was a member of an exclusive group who considered that the first five books of the bible were the perfect Law of God, and took a sacred oath to uphold and live out every letter of the law as written in those five books. In their efforts they were incredibly self-righteous and, in their attempt to do the impossible, they changed God’s Law into a harsh set of legalistic rules that they imposed on the people.
It is astonishing that Nicodemus came to Jesus at all; but he did under the cover of night. He had heard about this young rabbi from Galilee and he had genuine curiosity. He really wanted to understand this young rabbi’s teachings. So he went to meet Jesus when He was in Jerusalem.
Nicodemus came to Jesus with a great deal of respect. He wasn’t convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, but He saw Him as a great prophet, and as a prophet, Jesus’ words would be God’s words. In this conversation, as John records it, we have the opportunity to learn about the work that each member of the Trinity has in our salvation. The Father loves us and sends His Son. The Son saves the world and offers forgiveness, life and salvation to all. The Holy Spirit establishes and maintains the faith that receives and holds the gifts that the Son offers to us. The Holy Spirit delivers these gifts through the Word of God – as we hear it and read it – as it comes to us in the water of Baptism – and as it comes to us in Christ’s very body and blood as we eat the bread and drink the wine of the Holy Supper.
As Jesus began answering Nicodemus’ questions, He actually worked His way from the end of the process of salvation back to the beginning. He began with the Holy Spirit’s activity of establishing faith in us. We call this process conversion. The Holy Spirit converts people from spiritual death to spiritual life. Jesus said this process of conversion is a spiritual birth. After Nicodemus introduced himself, Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Later, after Nicodemus asked for more explanation Jesus started over and added more details. Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” The spiritual birth of conversion is like physical birth.
Ask any mother or anyone who has assisted with the birth of a baby, “Who does all the work?” The baby endures quite a bit in the birthing process, but the baby does not provide the work. The work comes from mum. The baby experiences the work, but provides none of it. It is mum who does the work of giving birth. The baby passively experiences the birth.
Things are the same in the spiritual birth of conversion. Although a great deal is happening to us during this life changing process, we do absolutely nothing to make it happen. We do not decide to follow Jesus. We do not give ourselves to God. Just as mum does all the work of physical birth, so God does all the work of Spiritual birth. We do nothing. When Jesus answered, “… That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” He was telling Nicodemus and us that just as mum brings a baby into this physical world with a physical birth, so also, the Holy Spirit brings the Christian into the spiritual World with a spiritual birth.
So then, this faith, this new birth, this new spiritual life is a gift and work of the Holy Spirit. It is a miracle of God that He works in us. That is the reason that we can baptise anyone – especially babies. In fact, if you think about it, the miracle might be greater in adults since the Holy Spirit must work to undo a lifetime of false belief before He can work the true faith in them. A baby, on the other hand, is a blank slate – less likely to put up a fight. Faith is always a miracle of the Holy Spirit, but I wonder if this miracle might be a little greater in an adult.
So faith is a miracle of the Holy Spirit, but what are its benefits? Why does God go through all the effort to produce this faith in us?
This faith receives the work that God does for us. Here Jesus talks about Himself for He is the one who earned the benefits of faith for us. Jesus often called Himself “The Son of Man,” and He had this to say about that Son of Man: “No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” The first thing He told Nicodemus about Himself was that He was descended from heaven – a very clear indication that the Son of Man is also the Son of God. When Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God, He talked about Himself for He is truly God. The first benefit that Jesus revealed to Nicodemus was the knowledge that Jesus is both God and man – He is the Kingdom of God.
The benefit of conversion becomes even clearer when Jesus moved on to tell of the work He would do as God and Man: “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” Here is the chief benefit of the faith that the Holy Spirit works in us through conversion – eternal life. Whoever believes has eternal life. Each time we speak the words of the Apostles Creed, we confess that we believe that Jesus was lifted up on the cross just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness and by His suffering and death; Jesus won eternal life for us. He offers it as a gift to us and we receive that gift by faith, the gift that the Holy Spirit works in us by the new, spiritual birth.
Here Jesus tells Nicodemus that only faith in Him can save. Nicodemus can try to keep the laws of Moses until he perishes from the effort, but that will not earn him eternal life. It is the same for us. God’s only standard is perfection. It only takes one sin to doom us forever. As humans, we sin every day and cannot save ourselves. What a marvellous salvation and comfort it is that whoever believes in Jesus Christ receives all the benefits that Jesus earned for us on the cross – forgiveness, life, and salvation.
Jesus then reassures Nicodemus that his god of law is also the almighty God of love: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Here is the work of the Father. He loves us and sacrifices His only begotten Son to die for us. We cannot understand this kind of love. We are after all, weak human sinners and in the terms of Nicodemus’ harsh uncompromising law, entirely unlovable. Never the less, God loves us. His love forced Him to act on our behalf. In His love, He sent Jesus into this world to become our substitute – He sent His Son into the world to be lifted up on the cross in order that the world might be saved through him.
In this conversation, Jesus gave Nicodemus a lot to think about – more than we have time to consider today. He explained that it is the new birth by the Holy Spirit that gives us the gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation that the Son earned for us on the cross. He proclaimed the Father’s love that He sacrificed His only begotten Son for us. With these words Jesus explained that the Kingdom of God does not come to Nicodemus because he is a descendant of Abraham, but because the Holy Spirit gives him the same faith that Abraham had.
In his conversation with Jesus, Nicodemus heard the Word of God, the same Word we come to worship services to hear; the same Word we read in our Bibles. The next we hear of Nicodemus is recorded in John 19, where he assisted Joseph of Arimathea to take Jesus body down from the cross and prepared it for the tomb with large quantities of expensive spices and linen, as was the Jewish burial custom. These are not the actions of a hardhearted legalistic aristocrat; not at all. These are the actions of a man who has experienced a new birth as the Holy Spirit established faith in him. As we read in James 2, true faith can only be demonstrated by deeds.
Nicodemus helped Joseph place Jesus’ body in the tomb and what a joy it must have been when Nicodemus learned that the body he had laid in Joseph’s tomb was no longer there – that his saviour Jesus Christ had risen from the dead. What a joy it is for Nicodemus that he will forever enjoy the Kingdom of God that he received through the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith. What a joy it is for us who have the Holy Spirit’s gift of the new birth that the day will come when we shall join Nicodemus around the throne of God in the eternal joy of everlasting life. Amen.
The love and peace of God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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