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Tell Them of My Love
Verse 3 Jesus can tell that Nicodemus isn’t understanding the real message behind the miracles.
- Nicodemus wanted to try and see everything through a physical lens.
- But Jesus says you must see everything through a spiritual lens.
Verses 4-13 Jesus and Nicodemus have this back-and-forth discussion between the physical world and the spiritual world. Nicodemus just can’t see things from the spiritual perspective that Jesus is talking about.
- Jesus sums it up well in verse six when He says. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
John 3:14 Jesus continues but begins to take the conversation in a different direction.
- He begins to lead the discussion toward salvation and eternal life.
- Jesus is trying to lead Nicodemus to a place beyond his traditions and into a place where he can believe what Jesus is teaching.
Verse 16 In order for Jesus to get Nicodemus to understand the spiritual world He is trying to describe, He first has to get Nicodemus to understand God’s love.
- Nicodemus lived within a tradition that didn’t always see God as all that loving.
- But to understand the spiritual world, you must understand that it all flows out of God’s great love.
- The word love here I a verb.
- Listen to some of the definitions of this verb: To love dearly, to be fond of, to be well pleased, show or prove love, to long for, to place first in one’s affections.
- The word for world here in the Greek is the word Kosmos.
- This how God feels about all of us. But is that how we think and feel about God?
- Jesus continues by saying that because of the Father’s great love He sent Jesus to give us eternal life.
- God also loved us too much to leave us in our sins for the here and now.
- Jesus also came to set us free from sin patterns. see 1 John 3:8
- The reference to the one and only son also speaks of His great love.
- Verse 17 In Nicodemus’ day, and in our day, much of the religious establishment viewed their role as one of condemnation. See for example John 9:1 and John 8:3
- The Greek word here translated as “condemned” is the word to judge.
- Jesus did not come to judge the world, at least not yet.
- Perhaps even more important with this idea of condemnation is what we think in our own minds.
- Often, we don’t even need someone else to condemn us, we do it to ourselves with how we think.
- For God did not send His Son into the world to say it is guilty. He sent His Son so the world might be healed from the repercussions of sin. (NEW Life and Tim Version)
- The verse ends by saying that Jesus came to save us. The Greek word here translated as “save” is the word to heal.
Verse 18 The way out of condemnation is through simple faith in Jesus. It’s ultimately belief in love.
- Complete freedom from that condemnation, from sin patterns, from guilt, from shame is all found is simple belief in Jesus. Because of His great love for us!!