“There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:1-3
Are you aware that anyone who does not believe and receive the LORD Jesus Christ is spiritually dead having inherited that death from Adam?
Nicodemus came to the LORD Jesus at night because he was genuinely seeking the truth about how to enter the kingdom of God. We can see this in the way he addressed Jesus. He called Him “Rabbi,” which means teacher. By calling Jesus his Rabbi, Nicodemus was acknowledging Him as a teacher of the Word of God. What makes this remarkable is that Jesus had not spent His life within the formal system of the scribes and Pharisees. He had not been trained in their schools or recognized by their religious institutions. Many people who had seen Jesus grow up, including the Pharisees are astonished and marveled questioning themselves where did Jesus received His wisdom and authority. saying,
“When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas? And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?”” Matthew 13:54-56
“Now about the middle of the feast Jesus went up into the temple and taught. And the Jews marveled, saying, “How does this Man know letters, having never studied?”” John 7:14-15
They were all amazed and astonished at the LORD Jesus teaching and Nicodemus himself had seen and heard His teaching. The people viewed the LORD Jesus as uneducated and without formal training, yet God wisdom and authority that dwell in Him could not be denied. Nicodemus, however, was the complete opposite in background. He was a Pharisee and a rabbi. He had been taught the Scriptures from childhood and was deeply trained in the law. He was also a ruler of the Jews and a teacher in Israel (John 3:1, John 3:10). In today’s terms, Nicodemus was a man who had spent many years in seminary studying the things of God.
Yet this man came to someone with no formal seminary background and acknowledged Him as his teacher. This was radical. In our time, many people question a pastor’s authority simply because he has not attended seminary, assuming that formal training alone qualifies someone to teach the Word of God. Nicodemus did not think that way. Despite his background and position, Nicodemus had a heart that was not centered on his credentials, but on God. He was willing to set his status aside and humble himself in order to seek the truth. He acknowledged that the LORD Jesus was sent and led by God, saying, ‘ …We know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him’ (John 3:2).
This is where we should all learn from Nicodemus. He used what he had learned from the Scriptures to discern whether the teaching he was hearing truly came from God. As a man trained in the Word, he examined both the signs and the teaching, and he recognized that God was at work through the LORD Jesus. Nicodemus did not come to Jesus to argue or to defend his position. Unlike many of the Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees, who questioned Jesus in order to test Him and justify their own traditions, Nicodemus came with a humble heart. He came to verify, to understand, and to seek the truth about the kingdom of God. That is what all of us should be doing.
We are called to search the Scriptures to test whether what we are being taught is true. We should never place our confidence in our credentials, our education, or our position. These things should never lift us up or cause us to think that we already know everything. That mindset is often the very thing that keeps us from learning. The Scriptures warn us about relying on our own knowledge or confidence, saying,“And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. (1 Corinthians 8:2). Nicodemus did not come to Jesus thinking he already had all the answers. Even with all his training, he came humbly, willing to learn, willing to be corrected, and willing to seek the truth. That posture is what allows God to teach us. As it is written, … God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” (James 4:6)
When Nicodemus says, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. I want you to be aware also that signs can be deceiving, especially when a person does not have a deep and grounded familiarity with the Word of God. When someone does not have a genuine relationship with God, that person lacks the discernment that comes from Him. Because of a lack of knowledge of God and His Word, many are unable to rightly discern whether something is truly a sign from God or not. Scripture warns us clearly, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). This is why signs alone are never enough. Discernment comes from knowing God and knowing His Word. However, the miracles of the LORD Jesus were different. They could not be imitated by devils. His works were continuous, powerful, and unmistakable. When Jesus appeared, evil spirits begged, cried out, and fell before Him, because the presence of God flowed from Him with divine power and authority (Mark 1:23–26; Luke 4:33–35).
The works of Jesus were so many and so profound that they could not be fully recorded. John testifies to this when he writes, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written” (John 21:25). Even when John the Baptist found himself in a moment of doubt and sent his disciples to ask if Jesus was truly the Messiah, the LORD did not answer with arguments or explanations. Instead, He pointed to His works that manifest the power and authority of the kingdom of God. Jesus said, “Go and tell John the things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matthew 11:4–5, Luke 7:22). These were not deceptive signs, but clear demonstrations of the kingdom of God.
Beyond the miracles, the teaching of the Lord Jesus was unlike that of anyone else. His teaching was centered on God and grounded in absolute truth. He spoke with divine authority. Scripture says, “And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Matthew 7:28–29).
Nicodemus was deeply interested in the truth about entering the kingdom of God. We understand this by the way the Lord Jesus responded to him. Jesus did not answer Nicodemus with general teaching or surface explanations. Instead, He spoke directly to the very thing Nicodemus was seeking. Nicodemus came to Jesus acknowledging Him as Rabbi and recognizing that God was with Him. He understood that the signs and works Jesus performed were not ordinary, but were manifestations of the promises and prophecies concerning the Messiah that they had long studied. That is why Jesus spoke directly to what Nicodemus truly wanted to know, for the LORD knows what is in man (John 2:24-25). He knew that this man was not testing Him, but genuinely searching for understanding.
This is what made Nicodemus different from the rest of the Pharisees. He humbled himself and came to examine whether what he had learned was truly leading him into the kingdom of God. He did not rest in his position, his training, or his religious knowledge. Instead, he sought the presence of Jesus to know whether the truth he had been taught was truly from God. This should be the character of every Christian. We should continually seek the presence of the LORD Jesus and ask Him whether what we have received truly comes from God and whether it is truly leading us to Him and to His kingdom. Scripture exhorts us to examine our spiritual condition: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (2 Corinthians 13:5).
We are also warned not to accept teaching blindly, but to test what we hear saying, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1). When this humility is missing, many Christians become confident in what they have been indoctrinated with rather than remaining dependent on God. Knowledge replaces relationship, and tradition takes the place of truth. The apostle Paul gives a sober warning about this danger, saying, “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Colossians 2:8).
At that time, it was widely taught among the Jews that because they were descendants of Abraham, they were automatically assured of heaven. John the Baptist confronted this false confidence when the Pharisees came to him to be baptized. He warned them clearly not to trust in their lineage, saying,
“But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.” Matthew 3:7-9
Here we learn from John the Baptist that being a Jew and coming from the lineage of Abraham according to the flesh was not enough to enter the kingdom of God. If that was not enough for them, how much more is it not enough for us who are Gentiles, who were outside of God’s covenant?
Now we are ready to look at the response of the Lord Jesus to Nicodemus. He begins by saying, ‘Most assuredly,’ which in the Greek is ‘amen, amen.’ The Lord Jesus used two amens to emphasize the importance and certainty of what He was about to say. By using this phrase, He was asserting His authority and the absolute truthfulness of His words. It showed that what followed was not an opinion, a debate, or a tradition of men, but a foundational truth that must be received as it is spoken.
Then the LORD Jesus says, “I say to you, unless one is born again.” The word again comes from the Greek word anōthen, which means “from above.” Jesus was speaking not about a second physical birth but about a spiritual rebirth that comes from God. John uses this same word to describe what comes from above when he says, “He that cometh from above is above all” (John 3:31). The requirement is clear. For us to be born again means we all need to be born from above. This spiritual rebirth only we can receive is through the Spirit of God.
But the question is, why must we be born again?
The answer goes back to Adam. When Adam sinned, death entered the world. As it is written, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Romans 5:12).
Death was the direct result of sin saying, “For the wages of sin is death …(Romans 6:23). From the moment Adam sinned, death took hold of him. Although he continued to live physically, he died spiritually. That fallen condition was passed on to all his descendants. We inherited not only a sinful nature, but a state of spiritual death. This is why every person is born physically alive, yet spiritually dead.
Paul emphasized the importance of understanding our condition before Christ. In his letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians, he taught that our trespasses brought spiritual death to us. We were dead and unable to give ourselves life. As Jesus says, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:6-7)
But how can a person be born again? Jesus answered this question when speaking to Nicodemus. He took Nicodemus back to Israel’s history, to a moment recorded in the wilderness. The people of Israel had been bitten by fiery serpents, and the poison was bringing death to them. God instructed Moses to lift up a serpent of brass, and anyone who looked upon it in faith would live. Jesus explained that this event pointed directly to Him. He said,
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:14-16)
In the same way that the Israelites were dying from the poison of the serpent, all humanity was dying from the poison of sin and the deception of Satan, that old serpent. But when Jesus finished the work on the cross, He paid for our sins in full. When He rose from the dead, He conquered both sin and death. Therefore, all who believe in Him receive life. Just as the Israelites lived by looking in faith, we are born again by believing in the Son of Man who was lifted up for us. This is how God brings the spiritually dead to life.
Paul continues to help us understand that only through Jesus Christ can we escape the condition of spiritual death. No one else can give life. Only Christ has the power to make the dead live, saying, “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). He repeats the same message later, saying, “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved” (Ephesians 2:5).
Paul emphasizes this same truth again when writing to the Colossians, because it is vital for all of us wither Christians or not to understanding how anyone enters the kingdom of God. He says, “And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses” (Colossians 2:13). We are made alive only through believing in the LORD Jesus Christ. This new birth is possible because of our union with Him. When Christ died, we died with Him. When He rose from the dead, we rose with Him. As it is written, “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).
We cannot obtain this new life without the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. This is why Jesus instructed and commanded His disciples to wait for the promise of the Father. After Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, He did not tell them to go immediately, but to wait. He commanded “And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). This word of the LORD is the fulfillment of what God promised long ago through the prophet Ezekile when He said, And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them” (Ezekiel 36:27). We must receive the Holy Spirit, because only the Spirit of God produces spiritual life within us. Without the Spirit, there is no new birth, no spiritual understanding, and no power to walk in God’s ways. That is why Jesus said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”
The importance of the Holy Spirit to every believer cannot be overstated. Without the Spirit of God, we cannot truly know God. As it is written, “the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). How can anyone know God apart from His Spirit? It is the Spirit who reveals who God is and opens our understanding to His truth. This is why God promised through the prophet Ezekiel that when His Spirit dwells within us, we would be able to walk in His ways. God does not only give us strength to walk in His statutes and commandments, but He also gives us understanding. Through the Holy Spirit, we learn why we must walk in His ways and how to live in obedience to Him. This is because it is the Spirit who gives life within us. Jesus said, ““It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63).
The same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now gives life to us as well. Scripture declares, “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Romans 8:11). This is why we must first believe in Jesus Christ. What Jesus accomplished on the cross paid for all our sins. He bore them, nailed them to the cross, forgave us, and conquered both sin and death. Through His finished work, the barrier that separated us from God was removed, making it possible for us to be born again as children of God and to cry out, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15).
After we believe in Christ and are united with Him, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit brings reconciliation, restores fellowship with the Father, and produces His fruit in our lives, fruit against which there is no law (Galatians 5:22–23). This is why every one of us must believe in Jesus Christ and be born again. Without the new birth, spiritual life never begins within us. Without spiritual life, we cannot truly understand God, and we have no entrance into the kingdom of God. Jesus made this truth clear when He said, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).
Think about this for a moment. How can you, or anyone you are witnessing to, hear the word of God, see His truth, sense His presence, or enter into the kingdom of God if you are spiritually dead? A dead person cannot hear, see, or respond. In the same way, a person who is spiritually dead cannot perceive spiritual truth.
If we cannot truly see or understand the Word of God, which teaches us how to enter His kingdom, how could we ever enter it? How would we know what God requires of us? How would we recognize His truth or respond to His call? This is why Jesus said so plainly, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Before a person can enter the kingdom, they must first be able to see it. And spiritual sight only comes through spiritual life.
The apostle Paul helps us to grasp this reality when he writes, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). Without spiritual life, there is no spiritual understanding.
If we cannot spiritually see or understand God’s truth, how can we ever walk toward His kingdom? Scripture is clear that there is no unrighteousness in the kingdom of God. As it is written, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?” (1 Corinthians 6:9). Apart from Jesus Christ, all men are unrighteous and stand condemned before God. As it is written, “He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already” (John 3:18).
How can anyone enter a kingdom they do not know, do not understand, and do not even desire? How can a person live in a place where they have no knowledge of God, no love for His truth, and no relationship with Him?
This is why being born again is not optional. It is an absolute requirement.
Only through a willing heart that comes to Jesus and asks, “Lord, give me new life,” can anyone be changed. Jesus alone is the only One who can baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. As it is written, “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Matthew 3:11). Only Jesus can give spiritual life, spiritual sight, and spiritual understanding. He alone can give us a new heart that is able to hear His Word, respond to His truth, and desire His presence. This is the work of God, not the work of man. Through this new birth, we are finally able to truly know God, walk in His righteousness, and move toward His kingdom. This is why the LORD Jesus spoke so plainly, simply, and directly to Nicodemus. He did not soften the truth or make it complicated.
And this is why He speaks the same truth to all of us today. If we want to see the kingdom of God and enter into it, we must be born again.
This new birth only comes through believing in Jesus Christ. Scripture says, “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (John 1:12).
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