John

Chapter 3
{Verses 1:15 - Personal Attack by Religion - Nicodemus}
1~~There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus,
a ruler of the Jews.

{Note: Nicodemus means 'ruler of the people. He was sent to put Jesus down and to find out how he is able to do miracles and be so successful in his ministry. This is an a religious attack by one man.}

2~~The same one {Nicodemus} came to Jesus by night
and said to Him, "Rabbi {Doctor/Master},
we know {Pharisees 'especially ME' type thing}
that You are a teacher . . . come from God.
For no one can do these signs
that You do unless if - maybe He is, maybe He is not -
with him {3rd class condition - expressing his own doubt}."

3~~Jesus answered {interrupting} and said to him,
"'Most assuredly'/'Point of doctrine',
I {Jesus} say to you,
unless one is 'born again/'born from above' {anothen},
he cannot see the kingdom of God."

{Note: Usually here it is translated 'born again'. But the Greek word 'anothen' means 'born from above' . . . a spiritual birth.}

{Note: Those who possess eternal life can 'see'. After death, the soul has eyes, so can see out of the body.}

4~~Nicodemus said {smart-alecky} to Him,
"How can a man be born when he is old?
Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"

{Note: Nicodemus is being sarcastic here; he is being a smart-aleck! Jesus ignores his sarcasm.}

{Jesus makes the Distinction between the Physical and Spiritual Birth}
5~~Jesus answered,
"Point of doctrine/Most assuredly,
I say to you,
unless one is born of water {physical birth}
and the Spirit {spiritual birth},
he cannot enter the kingdom of God."

{Note: Jesus takes the vocabulary of this man to make His point - to make the distinction between religion and the spiritual life. He takes the ritual of the water from the laver in the temple, which Nicodemus knows has a spiritual connotation/analogy. Water has 3 analogies in the bible 1) Salvation - Isaiah 55:1; 2) the Word - Ephesians 5:26, I Peter 1:23; and 3) the Holy Spirit - John 7:39.}

6~~"That which is born of the flesh is flesh {from the mother's womb} . . .
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit
  {born by the Spirit -see also Titus 3:5}."

7~~"Do not marvel/don't be shocked
that I {Jesus} said to you {Personally to Nicodemus},
"You must be 'born again'/'born from above'."

8~~"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it,
but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.
So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

9~~Nicodemus answered and said to Him {Jesus},
"How can these things come to pass?"

{Note: Nicodemus demonstrates that though he is a religion man - a top religious man of the day as a Pharisee, he is actually an unbeliever and does not have the ability to understand spiritual matters.}

10~~Jesus answered and said to him,
"Are you the teacher of Israel {his religious degree},
and do not know these things?"

{Note: Jesus is now using sarcasm against the religion of Nicodemus. He is not being soft on him, but being sarcastic and blunt to try and wake him up! You are a religious scholar and don't know this???}

11~~"Most assuredly/Point of doctrine,
I {Jesus} say to you,
we keep on communicating with authority {Jesus and the disciples}
what we keep on knowing
and keep on testifying/witnessing
what we have seen {in the Word and keep on doing so},
and you {Nicodemus}
do not receive {negative volition} our witness."

{Note: Because Nicodemus is negative toward the gospel at this time, Jesus is being brief and to the point with His answers.}

12~~"If - and it is true {1st class condition} -
I {Jesus} tell you things {doctrines} on the earth {right now!}
and you do not believe them {negative volition - an unbeliever},
how shall you believe these things
if - maybe I will, maybe I will not {3rd class condition} -
I tell you things in heaven?
  {means Nicodemus may not make it to heaven unless he shapes
  up!}"

{Note: Jesus is saying, "Hey look, if you won't believe the truth of the gospel, when I am telling you how to get to heaven, then you may not even make it to heaven! You have to believe the things I am telling you on earth, before you can believe the things you will learn in heaven.}

13~~"No one/man has ascended to heaven
  {no humans in heaven until after the Resurrection},
but He Who came down from heaven . . .
even/that is . . . the Son of Man . . .
Who is and keeps on being . . .
in heaven {as the God-man, Jesus is in Both locations}."

{Note: Jesus is talking to Nicodemus right now on earth, but at the same time His deity is in heaven with the Father and the Holy Spirit.}

14-15~~"And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness . . .
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up {on a pole/cross} . . 15~~ for the purpose that whoever believes in Him {Jesus}
should not perish . . .
but keep on having everlasting life."

{Note: This verse tells us that salvation is, always was, and always will be by faith in Christ.}

{Note: The venom of the snake is a picture of sin. The solution to sin is the cross. Looking up is belief in the Son of God on the Cross Who took away the sins of the world, through faith . . . no works. In the Exodus Generation, those who looked at Moses' pole of brass lived, those who were negative, died - picture that salvation is on the cross.}

{God's Perfect Gift, The Lord Jesus Christ - Verses 16 -19 }
{Salvation - Faith Alone in Christ Alone - a non-meritorious act}
16~~For The God
so loved the world/cosmos
with the result that . . .
He gave {didomi} the Son . . .
the only/uniquely born one {monogenes} . . .
with the purpose that
whosoever believes {pisteuo} in Him
shall not perish/'destroy yourself from the ultimate source of yourself' {apollumi} . . .
but shall keep on having and holding everlasting life.

{Note: God loved us in eternity past with agape mental attitude of love. He loves those born without the capacity to love. God loves the unlovely. God loved us when we were dead spiritually . . . unable to have a relationship with Him. We do not have the equipment to love God. That is why 'cosmos' was used here - translated 'world'. 'Cosmos' is the word from which we get cosmetics. It actually means 'an organized system'. So, the world refers to us as we are born in a state of spiritual death - more than being separated from God - we don't even have the ability to love God. We lack the tools to love God - apart from His imputed Righteousness, which He gives us at salvation.}

{Note: Didomi is the basic verb of grace meaning to give. The mental attitude of love always gives. Mental attitude determines our productivity . . . our activity in anything.}

{Note: Pisteuo means "believe". Pisteuo is a present active participle form of the verb pistis. It is a dramatic present tense . . . active voice (you must believe - no one can do it for you) . . . a participle of precedence (means every person who was ever saved was saved in exactly the same way - faith in Jesus Christ - as he is revealed in that time and language - as Jehovah, the burning bush, 'Adonay, 'Elohiym, Lamb of God, etc. However He is revealed, He is always the object of faith in salvation). And, this is a dramatic event - we believe and we are saved.}

{Note: Apollumi means to destroy from the ultimate source of yourself - perish. You choose to destroy yourself, from your own free will. Every human being is given the opportunity to be saved eternally. Salvation was provided for all and all are in the Book of Life up until death (Rev. 20). Man perishes from his/her own free will, from the ultimate source of self. Every person chooses to go to hell, separated from God for all eternity, bases on the rejection of the love of God, which is made available to all mankind, through the saving work of Jesus Christ. It is His will that none shall perish, but that all come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. GOD NEVER SENDS/SENT ANYONE TO HELL. EACH PERSON CHOOSES FROM THE ULTIMATE SOURCE OF SELF to reject the love of God - their so great salvation. The entomology of the verb, "apollumi" tells us, all members of the human race have a chance to believe -- not to perish from the ultimate source of self at the final judgment/lake of fire. It is God's purpose and plan the all be saved (Romans 8:1).}

17~~ For The God
did not send the Son -
from the ultimate source of Himself -
into the world to condemn/judge the world,
but that the world
through the instrumentality of Him
might - once and for all - receive salvation
 {saved in a point of time, when you believed, perpetuated for ever}.

18~~He who believes . . . {in Christ}
is not judged . . .
but he who believes not
has been judged already . . .
because he has not believed
in the Person/Name of the uniquely born Son of God.

{Note: In view here is the human free will/volition to believe or NOT believe!}

19~~This is the act of judging . . .
that the Light {Jesus Christ and His Doctrine}
has come into the world {John 8:12} -
in the past with the result that the Light is always there -
and 'generic mankind'/men loved 'moral darkness' {skotos}
rather than Light,
because their deeds were evil.

{Note: Men loved the cosmic system that they were born under -- skotos is the word for moral darkness and the Old Sin Nature (OSN). This is saying that men love their OSN from which springs the lust pattern of the soul. They love the stimulation that comes from their area of strength. They love approbation lust, power lust and evil deeds of human good, rather than divine good from the source of God and His divine viewpoint -- Isaiah 64: 6.}

20~~For everyone
practicing evil/'ethical worthlessness' {human works/good}
hates the Light {Christ/Doctrine}
and does not come to the Light,
lest his deeds {works} should be exposed.

21~~But he who does/produces the truth {poleo}
comes face to face with the Light
in order that his deeds
should be made manifest/exposed
that his deeds are to be produced
in the sphere of God.

{Note: Truth is something YOU DO! Poleo means 'to produce the truth' through the Holy Spirit + doctrine = divine good production - face to face with the light. Christian way of Life - production from applying doctrine.}

22~~After these things {after the end of the talk with Nicodemus},
Jesus and his disciples came unto the land of Judea,
and there He remained/'spent time' {diatribo} with them
and kept on baptizing.

{Note: Diatribo - which has been translated 'tarry' - means 'to wear away the friction' or to spend time explaining things to the disciples. They grew up respecting the Pharisees so they were vibrating that Jesus handled Nicodemus so roughly. Jesus spent time teaching/explaining the evil of religion to them.}

{John the Baptist Answers the Religious crowd - John decreasing and Jesus Increasing}
23-24~~Now John {The Baptizer} also was baptizing
in Aenon near Salim {miles from Jesus},
because there was much water there.
And they came and were baptized . . . 24~~
for John had not yet been thrown into prison.

{Note: The disciples of John the Baptist are jealous because of John's diminishing ministry and the Sanhedrin knows this. Therefore the Sanhedrin set out to create a riff between the followers of John and the followers of Jesus . . . and between John and Jesus as well. In their attempt to do so, John refused to succumb to the subtle temptation and obvious attack of the religious attack of the religious crowd to start a division between John and Jesus. John refused to succumb to mental attitude sins of envy and jealousy, but rejoiced in Jesus Christ. John answered the religious Jews by 1) A life of stability in his soul 2) Words of divine viewpoint and 3) Straightening out his own disciples . . . as Jesus the same to His followers.}

25~~Then there came into existence
a 'meticulous dispute'/'theological debate' {zetesis}
between {some of} John's disciples
and the Jews about purification {a ritual - at a charge}.

{Note: The word for question or dispute is 'zetesis' meaning meticulous dispute or really here a theological debate. John's disciples got in to a debate with the Sanhedrin over purification. The Jews had developed over some 400 years a series of rituals connected with water . . . baptizing by sprinkling . . . which was to be only accomplished by the clergy - the Rabbi. This however, was not authorized from the Old Testament. None the less the practice was done by the Rabbi . . . the one by whom the theological degree was held. These religious leaders were not teaching the people doctrine, but were instead enslaving the people under systems of ritual. They would walk into a town with a big golden pot of water, and for a price, the people could name their sins, have water sprinkled on their heads (out of the water pot) and declared to be 'cleansed'. This business made enough money for the Rabbi so he could take it easy the rest of the year! So, when Jesus and John came along baptizing the people, this cut into the Rabbi's income considerably!}

Continued

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