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Welcome back! I hope you’ve had a chance to dig a little deeper into this passage this week. Here’s what the Spirit has revealed to me:

Last Week’s Work

CROSS-REFERENCES

This week (as with my study in Joshua), the Spirit led me to look for other “sightings” of key terms in this passage from John:

• born. I found several references to this concept by the gospel writer himself. In John 1:12-13, he says belief in Jesus’s name enables one to be born of God. A similar requirement exists for eternal life (John 3:16). In his first letter, he expounds on what being born of God looks like: s/he practices righteousness (1 John 2:29), refrains from sinning (1 John 3:9), loves others (1 John 4:7), believes Jesus is the Christ and loves those born of the Father, has overcome the world, and is protected by Jesus from the evil one (1 John 5:1, 4, 18).
• Nicodemus. I wanted to see if the Bible indicates how this conversation impacted Nicodemus. In fact, John records he encouraged fellow Pharisees to give Jesus a chance to explain His actions (John 7:45-52). Of course, they did not. Instead, they fixated on where they thought Jesus had been born (Galilee)!  After his death, Joseph of Arimathea sought permission and removed Jesus’s body from the cross. With Nicodemus, who contributed about 75 pounds of myrrh and other embalming spices, he prepared and entombed the body of Christ (John 19:38-42). From these two incidents it seems to me Nicodemus probably did finally see Jesus as the light (John 3:21).
• Kingdom of God. While looking into this term, I noticed a couple of instances where Jesus took on the Pharisees and “chief priests and elders” directly.
  In Matthew 12:22-27, After they accuse Him of healing a demon-possessed man by the prince of demons, He responds by asking how their sons heal demon possession. If the healing comes from the Spirit of God, He told them, the kingdom of God has come upon you. This reminded me of Nicodemus’s acknowledgement in John 3:2, … no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
  Later in Matthew, Jesus says, … the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John [the Baptist, who told them plainly Jesus was the Son of God] came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him (Matthew 21:31-32).

OTHER TRANSLATIONS

I compared the ESV, AMP, NIV, and Good News translations, but didn’t perceive any real differences among them. Because of that, I decided to have a look at a few commentaries, specifically about the kingdom of God and being born of water and the Spirit.

COMMENTARY

First, I noticed Calvin indicates the kingdom of God refers to the spiritual life which is begun [in this world] by faith. When we are born again God makes us altogether different… this is a renovation of [our] whole nature.

Calvin also mentions being born of water and the Spirit (v5) as a single process of being cleansed and made new by the Holy Spirit. I was eager to learn more about that.

Smith suggested born of water might correspond with our natural birth or being born of the flesh (v6), and we’re born of the Spirit and become a child of God when we acknowledge Jesus is the Christ and let the Spirit’s power govern our hearts and minds, not our own physical needs or wants.

And Barclay notes water is a symbol of cleansing (when Jesus takes possession of our hearts… the sins of the past are forgiven and forgotten), and the Spirit is a symbol of supernatural power that enables us to be and do what we could never be or do by ourselves.

Dig-In Challenges

This coming week, let’s wrap up our study of John 3:1-21 and align with what we’ve discovered in this passage:

1. PRAY: Read the prayer created in Step 1.
2. ALIGN: Review our study notes and other work, focusing specifically on what we’ve learned in this study.
3. ALIGN: Then, considering those “lessons learned,” think about how the Spirit has convicted us through this study. In other words, where has He shown us misalignment between what we’ve discovered and how we practice our faith?
4. ALIGN: Next, let’s look to God’s Word for guidance to correct that misalignment. This is often—but not always—a verse from the study text or from one of the cross-references.
5. ALIGN: And finally, reflect on how we can change our thoughts or actions to align more closely with what we’ve discovered here. To really make this work, I’m committing to changing something and do my best to act on that commitment every day for at least three weeks.

That may seem like a lot to consider in one week. If you’re working with the Spirit, remember it’s okay to work at your own pace. Don’t worry about where you are—just do what you can when you can. I know the Lord will bless any time you spend in His Word!

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