7/16/06         You Must Be Born Again: Nick at Night: (New Birth): III

John 3:19-21

"And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. [20] For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. [21] But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God."

Men are judged or condemned because they have not believed that Jesus is the Son of God, the Perfect Lamb of God, the Savior, who died on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for your and my sins, and that God raised Him from the dead.  Men are condemned because they do not see their need of a savior.  Men do not see their sinfulness.  Men do not see their spiritual deadness.  You see, one only comes to that awareness when they are made alive. 

Before I was born again, I only had one choice and that was to live out in a spiritual way the fruit of my spiritual deadness.  A dead tree produces nothing that is alive.  A spiritually dead person produces only that which is dead because that is all he is able to do.  There are no other options available to him.  It is for that reason that it is impossible for one dead in their trespasses and sins to choose God.  On any number of occasions the Pastor has been absolutely right when he has said it that we do not choose God, but He, rather, chooses us.  The spiritually dead person has only one choice: to sin, to rebel, to be hostile toward God.  He cannot do anything that represents spiritual life until he has been made alive by the power working in him by the Holy Spirit.  In a very clear sense, as Jesus and Paul said, we are actually prisoners to our own sin. 

Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. [35] "And the slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. [36] "If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:34-36)

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

(1 Peter 3:18)

Once a person has been made alive in Christ, he then has the ability to make a choice.  It doesn’t mean that I am freed from the capability to sin, but I am not bound to sin.  I am free to live for the glory of God—something I could not do before I was made alive together with Christ, through faith in Him. 

Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. [12] Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts, [13] and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. (Romans 6:11-13)

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. (Romans 8:2)

And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. (Romans 8:10 )

even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (Ephesians 2:5 )

 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions,

(Colossians. 2:1 )

Jesus uses another term to give fuller meaning to Nicodemus about his need to be born again.  It is practical in the sense that Nicodemus came to Jesus at night.  I don’t think it is at all a coincidence that Jesus took this avenue of explanation.  Jesus says that man’s condemnation or judgment is in the fact that they are in darkness and love it.  I don’t think that Nicodemus could have missed the analogy of light and darkness.  Coming in darkness in an attempt to hide his actions could only have to acute to his thinking when Jesus said, “For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light.” 

Jesus did not talk to Nicodemus in oblique terms—Jesus never beat around the bush with anyone.  This may have caught Nicodemus off-guard, but at what point in this conversation could he have felt comfortable at all?  Anyone who reads the words of Jesus should feel uncomfortable.  Jesus does not soft pedal sin.  All that which stands against the character and nature of God is sin.  God’s attributes are absolute.  His holiness has been, from the foundation of the world, that which is non-negotiable.  The issue of God’s holiness was at the forefront of the Reformation. 

The Light Jesus talks about in our verses today really speak about His holiness.  It could be said that this teaching actually refers to man not wanting to be like God, in the way that God demands.  Light represents holiness…darkness represents the opposite (man’s desire to be like God…to rule his own life, to have what he wants without any restraint.  When we think of the darkness and the sinfulness of man, it is terribly difficult not to mention three of Paul’s most powerful propositions that concern sin:

[18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness (synonyms of God’s holiness) of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, [19] because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. [20] For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. [21] For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks; but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [22] Professing to be wise, they became fools, [23] and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.

    [28] And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, [29] being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, [30] slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, [31] without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; [32] and, although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1:18ff)

[10] as it is written, “ There is none righteous, not even one;  [11] There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; [12] All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. [13]Their throat is an open grave, with their tongues they keep deceiving, the poison of asps is under their lips; [14] Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; [15] Their feet are swift to shed blood, [16] Destruction and misery are in their paths, [17] And the path of peace have they not known. [18] There is no fear of God before their eyes." Romans 3:10-18

“ And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, [2] in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. [3] Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Ephesians 2:1-3

It is this stark contrast between God and man that demanded the Perfect Sacrifice.  It was for this reason that Jesus told Nicodemus that his way of righteousness would not suffice.  The implication made by Jesus is that man just doesn’t have a different view point than God, but that man stands violently opposed to the righteousness, holiness and glory of God.  God never agreed to merely live as a co-habitant in a world that He created for His glory.  His creation is supposed to give glory to Himself.  All of His creation, other than that of t mankind, has cooperated with His design.  It is this “anti-God” mentality that demands God’s judgment.  The judgment is based upon His Perfect Lamb.  The Perfect Lamb is, in one sense, His grandest creation.  Though Jesus existed before there was anything, as a co-equal part of the Trinity, He became God’s Begotten One, born of a woman.  Jesus “became” the eternal essence of God’s ultimate revelation of Himself.  People of darkness do not want to hear that there is One that declares that all of their goodness is naught.

This is the essence of darkness.  Jesus declared that He was the Light and the Apostle John continued the thought by adding “and in Him there is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5) 

For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

"And I said, 'Who art Thou, Lord?' And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. [16] 'But arise, and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; [17] delivering you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, [18] to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.'” (Acts 26:15-18)

 “Again therefore Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12)

The scope of this dialog with Nicodemus was to say: (1)  Man must have the initiatory work of God in his life if he is to have relationship with God; (2) There is a condemnation upon mankind because of his iniquitous life; (3) This condition of a need for God in one’s life and his condemnation is the result of a darkness…the absence of the truth; (4) Since we were at one point all under the condemnation, the grace of God is all the more marvelous and amazing. 

Jesus made a strong statement that reveals that the unquickened heart is full of darkness and under condemnation.  Since the darkened heart loves the dark state of its heart and hates the light and will not come to the light, we can know that unless God quickens the heart man will never come to the light.  We can also know that those who come to the light have been quickened.  One way that a person can know that they have been born again is that they practice the truth and do not mind their deeds are manifest before God.