"Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again” (John 3:7).
Nicodemus was a Pharisee. This party found its origins in the period preceding the Maccabean wars when Jewish groups reacted strongly against the secularism of the Hellenistic world. Those Jews who abhorred the idolatrous customs of the Greeks in the second century B.C. and who remained true to their faith under persecutions led by the wicked Antiocus Epiphanes were called Pietists—forerunners of the Pharisees.
Although the Pharisees were right in separating themselves from paganism, they began to externalize religion. What began upon good motives evolved into a strict system of works righteousness. This error continued to progress until it became the standard mindset of many Jews in Jesus’ day. They could conceive of no other religious system except one in which works salvation was central.
It was to this salvation-by-works party that Nicodemus belonged. He occupied a very prominent position among the Pharisees, and he wanted more clarification on the teaching of Jesus. He, like others, recognized the signs and knew that this man from Nazareth had to be a prophet of God. Nicodemus, therefore, visited Him by night—either because this was the only time he could see Jesus alone or because he was afraid of his peers who might have been critical of Jesus.
Jesus saw into Nicodemus’s heart, knowing that he really wanted to know what he could do to gain everlasting life. So Jesus said, “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Jesus’ proclamation concerning entry into the kingdom of God (another term for eternal life) perplexed Nicodemus. Basically, Jesus told him that he could do nothing to gain eternal life. It was a work of God, not a work of man. Nicodemus, who was so accustomed to thinking in terms of man’s works, could not fathom this declaration of God’s sovereignty and grace. He, like many today, saw things only in external forms: religious rites, man’s choice, obedience to the law. But Jesus proclaimed to him, and He proclaims to us today, that salvation is a gift of God, by His will alone, not by works so that no man can boast (Eph. 2:8–9).
Consider the pride and legalism of the Pharisees. Do those problems exist in the church today? Where? Why do you think it is so difficult for sinners to understand or submit to the idea that salvation is by grace, not works?
