Born Again or Born From Above? The Hidden Meaning of John 3 Explained (DCLC 1984)

Nicodemus said, “How can these things be?” And Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you a teacher of Israel and you don’t know these things?” Yes, I’m a teacher of Israel when I don’t know these things. Verily, verily, I say to you, we speak what we know. What’s this? Who’s we? Who are we?

The Father and the Wind. Oh, wow. Just the Father and the wind? How about that’s the Holy wind, brother. All right. Maybe it’s three. We are the Father and the Son, and possibly the holy wind. Yes, the Holy Spirit. We’re going to have a new doctrine born before this day is over for sure. I can feel it. Somebody’s getting one out there. We know. We speak what we experientially know, and we testify what we have seen.

You people are not accepting our witness, our witness. For it’s something that the Lord has just seen here, and he’s testifying to it. If I told you earthly things and you believe not, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? How will you believe it if I were to tell you what’s going on in the heavens right now? That’s in the Bible. And no one has ascended into the heavens, but he who came down out of the heavens. This term born from above makes perfect sense in relationship to this verse. No one has ascended into the heavenlies, but he who has come down out of the heavenlies, the Son of Man…and the translator lost his nerve. Right here in the brackets, he lost his nerve. He flatfooted lost his nerve, and in so doing, he has deprived us once more of insight into the ways of a God who is I am.

I will read it the way it appears in the original. The reason nobody ever translated it as written in the original is that it doesn’t make any sense. Not to our mentality. Here we go. No one has ascended into the heavenlies but He who is in the heavenlies. The Son of Man who is in the heavenlies. Who is in the heavenlies. Work on it a moment and then say amen. No one has ascended into the heavens but He who came out from the heavens. The Son of Man who is in the heavens. You can only draw one conclusion from that, and that is the man who’s standing there speaking to Nicodemus is at that moment in heavenly places. That’s the only conclusion you can come up with. Otherwise, you have to translate it some other way to get out of it. And of course, he can’t possibly be in the heavens because he’s standing right there in time and space.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes upon Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believed upon Him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world that He should condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes upon Him is not condemned. But he who believes not is standing condemned; already condemned. He has been condemned forever previous to this moment. But because he has not believed upon the name of God’s only begotten Son.

And the condemnation is this, that the light has come into the world, but men love the darkness rather than light, because the deeds were evil. For everyone making a practice of evil hates the light and does not come into the light, lest his deeds be disclosed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made evident that they have been wrought in God.

A question here, before I go any further. I think I’ll even quit there. Was Nicodemus saved at the moment this incident took place? Now, was Simon Peter? John? Okay. Nobody was saved at that time. So, actually, Nicodemus is on the same plane as everyone else. Well, we’re going to get a vote here. Do you believe Nicodemus was ever converted to Christ? Make up your mind. We’re going to vote. Don’t influence the crowd. Alright, everybody who believes he eventually became a believer and was converted, raise your hand. Oh, Nicodemus has friends. Alright, put it down. Those of you who really don’t believe he made it, raise your hands. Nobody? I think that’s kind of wonderful.

The Lord is actually at the beginning of His ministry here. He hasn’t even given the Sermon on the Mount yet. He hasn’t called forth His 12, and, in fact, Nicodemus is one of the first people who show up and say anything kind to him from the outside. Four years later, that same man has got the blood of God all over his hands. Four years later, he and one other man are the only two people burying him. I would have a hard time believing that man did not eventually become a believer. That would be hard for me to believe. Maybe he didn’t, but we’re going to have to imagine that he did. And I think it will help us to see this more clearly. Robert, what’s the question back there?

Audience: When you were asking if he was saved, I was thinking, actually yes and no, he was, you know, if he became saved later on, then he had in mind God from all eternity.

Yes. I have a friend who was asked, “When did you get saved?” And he said, “I got saved on the day the Lord was crucified.” And that’s true. But more accurately, I got saved on the day that God marked me off in Christ Jesus. That’s the day I got saved. And in fact, there’s a portion of me that’s never been lost. There’s a portion of me that has been dead, but there’s a portion of me that has been part of the Lord forever.

Now, let’s find out what this passage is talking about. Remember that within it is fellowship with the Father, and remember the first night I talked to you: the center of our Gospel is Christ, and the headwaters of our faith are Christ’s fellowship with an eternal, indwelling Father. And I also said that when you begin looking at the Christian faith this way, you’ll be overwhelmed by how much is mentioned about another realm.