I am all the way up to John 3! It's been a snail's pace progressing through these first few days of my discipline leading to the commemoration of Jesus' resurrection on Easter Sunday morning!
John 3 introduces us to Nicodemus. He was a ruler of the Jews - - and since the majority of the Pharisees were against Jesus, Nicodemus snuck out to see Him covertly under the cover of darkness. I have no idea to whom he is referring in his editorial "we know", but he infers that there are others who agree with him that Jesus has to be a teacher sent from God because no one could do those signs unless God was with Him....
While Nicodemus tries to broach the subject he really wants to talk about, Jesus has no such need for circling around the big issues. He leaps right into it - and gives us the foundation for what we also know to be true, based on this teaching. "You must be born again!"
Jesus brazenly declares his deity, and what He was sent to accomplish, then tells Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."
The 'good news' that Jesus shared with Nicodemus is the gospel in a nutshell.
In the conclusion of Chapter 3, we return to see the ministry of John the Baptist winding down.... "He (speaking of Jesus) must increase, but I must decrease," declares John....And John the Baptist reiterates a variation of the message Jesus proclaimed, "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him."
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