I have sympathy for the figure of Nicodemus. He was not the typical Pharisee. He didn’t tow the party line in rejecting Jesus. He was, rather, intrigued by Him because of His miracles and teaching, exactly what was meant to happen as the Israelites witnessed these at the hands of Christ. Going on from Part 1 of this article, Jesus said that a man (human) must be born again in order to:
- see the kingdom of God (John 3:3)
- enter the kingdom of God (John 3:5)
Jesus told Nicodemus what he must do in order to be born again – “believe”.
John 3:14-15 (NASB) 14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; 15 so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.
The quote referring to Moses comes from Numbers 21:
Numbers 21:9 (NASB) 9 And Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on the standard; and it came about, that if a serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.
As the OT Israelites were to look to the bronze serpent to keep them safe from snakes in the wilderness biting and killing so many of them, looking being an act of faith in God, so we as the people of God today look to Christ as our Saviour. We believe. The result is to be born again, a gift from God. How Jesus’ OT quotation would have come to life as Nicodemus later witnessed Jesus raised up on the cross!
God asks us to DO something in order to be ‘born again’, another way of saying ‘attain to eternal life’. John 11:26 is saying just this:
John 11:25-26 (ESV) 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Also see:
John 6:47 (NASB) 47 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes has eternal life.
Belief precedes the gift of eternal life. Those outside of the faith may be judged differently by God but I think how they are judged will have to do with how they live. See:
Genesis 18:25 (NASB) 25 Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
Matthew 19:23-26 (NASB) 23 And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” 26 And looking at them Jesus said to them, “With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Mark 9:40-41 (ESV) 40 For the one who is not against us is for us. 41 For truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.
John 15:22-24 (NASB) 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well.
Romans 2:14-16 (NASB) 14 For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, 15 in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, 16 on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus.
1 Corinthians 5:12 (NASB) 12 For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? 13 But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.
Matthew 12:31-32 (ESV) 31 Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
Blasphemy against the Spirit (the “unforgivable sin”) is an outright rejection of the goodness and divinity of the Source of all deliverance from demons, death and sickness that Jesus performed. That Source is the Holy Spirit. It is impossible for Satan to do good. Therefore to attribute Jesus’ working of miracles to Satan is both illogical, as Jesus points out in the wider passage, and wicked and leads to eternal unforgiveness.
Matthew 12:28 (NASB) 28 But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
A decisive action of disbelieving when the gospel is preached will result in God’s condemnation. No comment is made here on those who do not hear and therefore cannot believe in Him:
Mark 16:16 (NASB) 16 He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.
John 3:18 (NASB) 18 He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 (NASB) 6 For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, 8 dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Those who chose to disbelieve the gospel when presented with it persecuted the Christians. These are the ones to whom God will be “dealing out retribution”. In other words, those who “do not believe” refers to those who reject the gospel, not to those who have never heard it. “Those who do not know God”, in its context here, I believe refers to those who do not know God out of choice.
I close with the words of Jesus as recorded by the Apostle John:
John 21:21-23 (ESV) 21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” 23 So the saying spread abroad among the brothers that this disciple was not to die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he was not to die, but, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you?”
The relevance of these verses to our topic is that extrapolation beyond what Christ has said or what we have been told by other texts in Scripture can lead us to wrong conclusions. There are a truckload of texts that can be used for this or that theological position thus there is a need to clearly understand what a text means in any given context. This is where a study Bible is invaluable. Regardless of whether or not we agree with every word in any particular study Bible, even on huge topics, it is an essential item to own because it can bring so much clarity on the text and historical background of Scripture. Ultimately, God is in control of all things and all people. As Christians, of course we care about the eternal destinies of all people but we can misunderstand words that God has uttered about others – others being those outside of the Church. Their destiny is in His hands and we cannot make certain pronouncements about them. Our call is to follow Him – live the Christian life of integrity as much as we can and listen to God’s voice to us, usually through Scripture. The destiny of non-believers, like John’s destiny, is to be left to God rather than to make pronouncements about them. I do not think we can know with certainty how God deals and will deal with unbelievers who have never heard the gospel. For those who continually choose to reject it, I believe these people come to the point of having their hearts hardened by God because they themselves first choose or chose to harden them against God. They have come to the point of no return.
Our World Our Faith 