Ep. 260. John 3 | You Must Be Born Again

EPISODE 260

YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN: JOHN 3

"Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?" The Pharisees, including Nicodemus, missed the revelation of the Messiah in the Old Testament. They missed the ways that Jesus was fulfilling the OT. They studied the Scriptures and missed the Savior the Scriptures revealed. And these were the leaders of Israel. It makes me wonder how many "leaders" are missing the truth of the Bible today. If the Jews who were experts in the Law could miss it, then anyone could. Of course, it helps us to remember that the knowledge of the truth of God and his Son comes to us only through the power of the Holy Spirit. So it isn't that the Pharisees didn't know the Scriptures, but that they were spiritually blind to them.

And how fantastic is the comparison Jesus makes of himself to the bronze serpent on the pole from Numbers 21? Almost every Christian knows John 3:16, but very few know the two previous verses or the Old Testament narrative they indicate. But now we know that we can only look to Jesus for life. There is life in no one else. When we look to Jesus, the power of sin is broken in us, just as the venom of the serpents had no more power when those who had been bitten looked to the snake on the bronze pole.

ADDITIONAL READING: 1 Corinthians 2:7-9; Numbers 21:4-9; John 9:39-41; John 8:12; John 8:23