"You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life" (John 5:39,40).
He came to see Jesus in the middle of the night. He just had to. There was something different about this new teacher from Galilee. And yet, he didn't know why. When he saw Him drive the buyers and sellers out of the temple, he had to wonder, who could He be?
He saw Him heal the sick in the courtyard. He heard their shouts of joy and glad hosannas. Could Jesus be the One they'd been waiting for? Could He be the promised Messiah? Nicodemus had to know, but he also knew what the Sanhedrin thought about Jesus. He certainly couldn't talk with Him during the day--with everyone watching. What would people think? After all, he was a Pharisee; he did have to think of his position!
So Nicodemus came to see Jesus in the middle of the night. He came, thinking to enter a discussion with the new rabbi--maybe to talk about His mission and what He was trying to accomplish. But that's not what Jesus had in mind.
"He said to Nicodemus, It is not theoretical knowledge you need so much as spiritual regeneration. You need not to have your curiosity satisfied, but to have a new heart. You must receive new life from above before you can appreciate heavenly things. Until this change takes place, making all things new, it will result in no saving good for you to discuss with Me my authority or My mission" (Desire of Ages, pg 171).
Jesus looked right into the eyes of the Pharisee and knew exactly what he needed. Not information but transformation. But that's not what Nicodemus wanted! He didn't come to Jesus some empty feeling. He felt he was pretty full and in need of nothing. He knew who he was--he was a conservative Pharisee, a stickler for the Law! Everyone knew how much He gave to the poor! Like any good Pharisee, he gave more than the usual tithes and offerings. But all the time he listened to Jesus, the more uncomfortable he got.
Jesus said, "You must be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3.
Nicodemus felt the sting of those words. No one else was around to hear them. He couldn't believe it! Jesus actually meant him! He expected Nicodemus to be born again!
The pride of the Pharisee was offended. And like many others, when cutting truth is brought home to the conscience, he closed his eyes and began to quibble over words. You can almost hear the sarcasm in his voice when he asks, "How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter a 2nd time into his mother's womb and be born?" This was hardly an honest question. And it clearly shows how the natural heart just can't see the things of God.
Have you ever wondered why a good friend can't understand why you're a Christian? Why can't they see as you do the plainest truths of Scripture? Just like Nicodemus, it has nothing to do with their intelligence or whether they've gone to college or not. But it has everything to do with the condition of the heart. Unless we're transformed by the truth of God, we can't hear the spiritual nature of His words. We can't see beyond what we want to see. This is why so many come to church each week and go out as guilty and comfortable as when they came in. The minister might have given a rousing sermon that drove the truth home, but the words fell to the ground in front of them, because they couldn't hear with spiritual ears. They couldn't see with spiritual eyes. And so the Word of God leaves them unchanged.
Our attitude in how we approach the Bible is so vital that it can mean the difference between life and death. Truth won't be seen and certainly won't be followed unless we come to the Bible with a desire to do it. Jesus said, "If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine" John 7:17. If we want the Bible to be a book of Power in our life, to lead us to greater intimacy with the Lord, then we have to study the Bible in a new way. First of all, we have to approach it with a surrendered heart--because we've already made up our mind to do whatever God says.
Nicodemus wasn't there yet, but he was getting closer. The more Jesus talked, the more Nicodemus longed for this new heart that Jesus was talking about. Finally, he was ready to ask an honest question. How could it happen to him? And Jesus had an answer for that question. He said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:14,15). Nicodemus knew that story! Here was familiar ground he could stand on.
When the children of Israel were dying from poisonous snakes in the wilderess, God told Moses to make a brass serpent and put it on a pole. He said, tell the people that if they look at the snake, they will be healed. Everyone knew that serpent didn't have any healing power. It was a symbol of Christ, for as "the image made in the likeness of the destroying serpents was lifted up for their healing, so One made "in the likeness of sinful flesh" was to be their Redeemer" (Desire of Ages, pp. 174,175).
All his life Nicodemus had been following Israel's traditions, which had as much life in them as that brass serpent. All of the sacrifices that went on in the temple, day after day, month after month, had no saving merit except as they pointed to the real Sacrifice--to the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Both pointed forward to the Messiah, who was sitting before Nicodemus, in the shadows of the night.
"Those who had been bitten by the serpent might have delayed to look. They might have questioned how there could be [any saving power] in that brazen symbol. They might have demanded a scientific explanation. But no explanation was given. They must accept the word of God to them through Moses. To refuse to look was to perish" (ibid).
Jesus opened the eyes of Nicodemus. He now understood how to see what Jesus was saying--how to know what the Bible said. It wasn't through arguments and long-winded discussions. He was to look and live. Nicodemus went away from that night interview with opened eyes. From that day forward, he studied the Scriptures in a new way--not to find a lifeless theory or information, but to find new life for his soul. Not for the souls of his neighbors or to instruct others in the ways of the Lord. But to find new life for himself.
"In His promises and warnings, Jesus means me. God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that I, by believing him Him, might not perish but have everlasting life. The experiences related in God's Word are to be my experiences. Prayer and promise, precept and warning, are mine" (Desire of Ages, pg. 390, italics supplied).
When we read the Bible with that kind of eyesight, the Scriptures won't be a dead book to us anymore. God's Word won't fall on deaf ears. We'll be able to say as the Psalmist once did, "I will never forget Your precepts, for by them You have given me life!" Psalm 119:93.
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Thank God that we can look to Jesus and find new life!
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