Exodus 24; John 3
Daily Catechism
QUESTION 48: WHAT IS THE SUM OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS?
Answer: The sum of the Ten Commandments is to love the Lord our God, with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength, and with all our mind; and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Scripture: Matthew 22:36-40; Mark 12:28-33.
John 3
Ready:The previous chapter included the wedding at Cana where Jesus performed his first sign in causing the water to become wine. It also included the early account of the cleansing of the temple (there is debate over whether this was the first of two instances in Jesus’ ministry or if this is simply way out of place chronologically).
Seeing what’s there:
This chapter contains the only record of the giant conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus regarding the new birth. He first presents the unqualified need for new birth. He then expounds on the reason this should be plainly understood as a necessary thing and he explains some things about this new birth and it’s qualities and it’s result. John the baptist speaks of Jesus’ ministry eclipsing his own rightly and necessarily.
Key Verses:
John 3:3, 5, 14-15, 16, 17, 30, 33, 35-36
Theme:
The Spirit of God who blows where he chooses must grant a new birth, a spiritual birth by the will of God, so that we will be enlightened and believe and call on the name of Jesus unto salvation.
Thinking about the message:
v1-15. Jesus hits this pharisee with a shocker by indicating that there can be no entering into the kingdom of God without regeneration (another birth or spiritual birth). Jesus makes it clear that this should not be news to him and that the scriptures speak plainly of the Spirit of God granting this new birth and that it alone is the cause of true obedience (Eph 1:17-18; 2:5; Ezek 36:26-27; Rom 2:29). It becomes plain that Nicodemus had not understood the scriptures in this manner. He had not understood the degree of change that must happen within the human heart. Jesus clarifies that one their own, without this new birth, nobody can hope to ascend to God (by their efforts at obedience to the law) but only Jesus is able to ascend to God on his own merit. Therefore, it is required (if we are to be saved) that Jesus be lifted up as a sacrifice so we may look upon his work and trust that what he has accomplished has secured our right standing with God apart from anything in ourselves. Jesus compares the type of simple trust to the account of the Jews looking to the bronze serpent in the wilderness to survive the poisonous snakes (Num 21:8-9).
v16-21. Here it seems that the narrator (but maybe Jesus) give further account as to the reason that the Son of Man would perform this saving work. He does not come and die to condemn that world. Not believing in Jesus and his work is not the condemnation that brings the wrath of God, but it is the thing that must remove it (John 3:36). So without Jesus we stand condemned already. We do not merely become condemned when or if we do not believe in Jesus…the condemnation is what we were born with. We are born wicked and hating the light as enemies of God (Rom 5:10; Eph 2:1-4) and it is by new birth that we come to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus (2 Cor 4:6) such that our coming to the light is the work of God (John 3:21). So there is a need for a complete rebirth that is foreign at this time to Nicodemus.
v22-36. So there are two groups baptizing before the time John was arrested. This detail helps us know that this whole description of the ministry of Jesus and the calling of Andrew and Peter and Nathaniel and Philip predates any of what it documented in the synoptic gospels, which all talk of the ministry of Jesus after the arrest of John the Baptist (Mark 1:14; Matt 4:12-13). This means there was some period of time between the very first calling of the disciples and the arrest of John and the apparent falling away of Peter and Andrew back into their profession such that Jesus came to them and called them out again as I noted in earlier comments another day. This text makes it sound like Jesus might be baptizing with water, but John 4:2 clarifies that it was only his disciples baptizing. Remember that Jesus will baptize with the Spirit as the real deal and not a sign or a symbol, like water baptism is (John 1:33). There is a beautiful transition here from the Baptist to the Baptism. From John to Jesus. From the voice in the wilderness to the bronze serpent in the wilderness. From the preparation to the consummation. From the warning of danger to the deliverance from it. From the sign to the substance. The Baptist declares that Jesus must increase and he must decrease! Then the narrator seems to take over at verse 31 and speaks of receiving the testimony of Jesus and that without this there is no eternal life. So receiving his testimony and new birth are both required and we have discussed the new birth being required in order to come into belief. Verse 36 shows a link between faith and action. The one who believes obeys and the one who obeys is the one who believes. We cannot see the believing but we can see some of the obeying. Obedience does not save but it does show up if indeed we are saved (1 John 2:4).
Soli Deo Gloria!
