Religious people are always thinking that they have what it takes to impress God and gain His acceptance. They like how they are "can do" types that live up to all the religious requirements to earn salvation or secure their place in heaven.
Nicodemus was one of those types. He was a Pharisee, a religious marine, who came to Jesus at night to get the scoop on just what he needed to do to shore up the requirements of God. What we miss in the John 3 story is that Nicodemus wasn't coming looking for salvation, he was coming looking for instruction. Salvation says, "I can't do it - do it for me!" Instruction says, "Give me a few pointers and I will show you what a good student I am!"
Jesus wasn't the least bit interested in teaching Nicodemus, if he was the "Master Teacher" wouldn't have left old Nick so dazed and confused. Jesus was interested in utterly striking him out with sinkers, sliders and spitballs. Jesus wanted Nick to go down swinging and lose his balance and fall face first in the dirt.
His goal is not to shame us but to release us from our shame. Shame hinders the operation of grace in our lives by causing us to hide from God and strive for acceptability. Either way - hiding or striving - we think that our relationship with God is on our terms. If I strive, I've earned God's favor. If I hide, I've presented a false self that has tricked you or never drawn near.
Jesus succeeded in striking out Nicodemus.
"Hey Nick - the Kingdom isn't in your hands just like your birth wasn't in your hands!" STRIKE ONE - "You had no control over your water birth when your mother's water broke and you arrived on the scene. You have to be born once to be born a second time!"
Hey batter, batter swing - "Nico - the second birth is like unto the first - out of your control and you get no vote in the matter. This is the Spirit's job and you can't control it just like you can't control the wind." Whoosh - STRIKE TWO - "Did you feel the breeze of that fast ball flying past you?"
You suck batter! "To make matters worse, my friend Nicky, you are snake bit and don't even know it! The venom is already coursing through your veins and times running out." STRIKE THREE - "Why do you think you are running around trying so hard? You're trying to suck the venom out of you with all your religious busy-ness and you can't do it."
Back to the dugout - "Let me show you how it's done, Nicodemus. Do you remember the story of when the Israelites were overrun with poisonous snakes and were dropping like flies, bitten left and right? They had been complaining about God's lack of help and His intention to harm them? You do remember the story, good. If you recall, God instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and place it on a pole and lift it high in the assembly area. He then instructed the snake-bitten-condemned to look at the snake on the pole and live. What a crazy strategy! Waste time looking at that cursed thing and give up on my own efforts to save myself? That was the plan."
"Oh you with an abysmal batting average, that is the way this whole thing -entering the Kingdom - will work. I will become the snake and be lifted up for the whole world to see. Whoever looks at me won't perish but instead will experience the Kingdom life now."
"I didn't come here as the snake to bite you - you are already snake bit - I came to rescue you from the venomous curse by becoming the curse. If you don't want salvation from death's bite, then all you have is yourself and your sucking strategies to remove your venom by self-effort. Go for it but don't think I will have anything to do with that fiery end - you chose to look the other way instead of looking at me - the accomplisher of new birth."
"This is where the gavel hits the judge's bench Nicodemus, I'm the light that has penetrated the darkness and there are some who will shut their eyes and refuse to let me flood their soul with illumination. They will hate the thought that they can't save themselves and will turn their back to what I'm doing."
"That's what evil really is Nick, ascribing what I'm doing to evil and rejecting grace. Those hell bent on doing it themselves, just wanting instructions not salvation, hate truth and grace because it exposes the futility of cutting and sucking their snake bites. They are too prideful to admit that they can't do it so they keep their eyes tightly shut all the while I'm there right in front of them providing salvation."
"But those who will come to the truth that they can't do it will have their eyes wide open to what it is I'm doing and the light of my grace will flood their soul and rescue them from the venomous condemnation of sin. The snake bites will no longer have the sting - no longer have the ability to separate them from God - they will just look at me when bit and there I will be with arms outstretched demonstrating God's heart. He really does so love the world!"
"The funny thing about those that will be saved from the snake bites is they will realize they weren't the ones who did it. Plain and simple, they will realize that God was the one who did it. No fancy prayers, no promises to avoid the snakes, no commitments to follow God more closely. Nope, Nicodemus my friend, they will just open their eyes to what I have done and will live fully now and forever."
"So what do you want - instructions or salvation?"
Here is the Good News - look and live!
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time."
I Peter 1:3-5
To ALL who read this, listen! You have already been born again by Jesus - done, finished, complete! Open your eyes to the truth and let it do its healing work in your snake bitten soul. God is for you not against you. Your days of striving, cutting and sucking are over. Rest, for He has done it!
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