[AI translation] In connection with this Word, the preacher of the Word is almost at a loss as to where to begin to explain it, what to emphasize, what to leave out, because he would not have time. For this verse in particular, verse 16, is a small Bible in itself, it contains the fullness of the whole Gospel. It shows us the source of salvation: the love of God. It shows the extent of this divine love: he so loved that he gave his only begotten Son. He also tells how redemption was accomplished: He gave Christ, even to death. He also tells how we can be saved: by faith in the Son of God. It also tells us who will be saved: all those who believe in Jesus Christ. And finally, it tells us what salvation is: being saved from lostness and receiving eternal life.Let me begin here, where Jesus says to the world, and to all people in it, "Be not lost." It is like a great warning, a cry, an alarm, from above, from heaven, to the world, and to man in it: "Be not lost!" It is as if Jesus were pointing to your soul, your heart, your life, and saying, crying in your ear, "Man, beware, do not lose your soul, your life! Or as if he were to place your child, your spouse, your brother or sister before you and point to them and say: "Do not perish! Have you thought about it, have you done all you can so that the one dear to your heart may not perish? God has done all that man should not perish! God does not want anyone to perish, but He wants everyone not to perish! He wants you not to perish! That is almost what this Word sounds in my ears now, "Woe! Do not let him perish!
Lately, when the ugliness, filth and shame of this world, which makes many people speak of the so-called world with such contempt and hatred, is often exposed, I am reminded of these words of Jesus: 'God so loved the world!' Yes: this filthy, this shameful world is loved by God, this very unlovable world is loved by God! The world on which we, in our often justifiable indignation, wish to set fire to, the world on which, in our imagined moral superiority, we look down with contempt, saying, "How ugly this world is! Do you have the right to despise and hate what God loves?! Have you the right to wish to hell the one for whom God has done everything not to perish?! God did not create the world to perish! God's ultimate purpose for this world and those in it is certainly not to perish, for He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son for it. He would not have given His only begotten Son, He would not have let Him perish on the cross for the world, if this world was to perish anyway! Not in vain did God make such a sacrifice for the world, not in vain did He give His only begotten Son for it! It is all so that this whole world, and your soul in it, may not perish!
"Someone in him, let him not perish!" The Scripture exhorts us all to look up to Jesus, the crucified One. As if to say: 'If you do not want, if you really do not want, and with all your heart you do not want to perish: well, then look up to Him on the cross, there you can see, you can also see that God has not condemned us to perish!' Well, He so does not want you to perish that He Himself goes "to perish" for you. He Himself gives Himself from heaven to go to "perdition" for you! Look to Him, and you will understand, both for yourself and for the world, this divine cry, "Perish not!"
I am so glad to hear from the very lips of Jesus this precious, great truth, so often repeated elsewhere in the Bible! And here, Jesus, to make the mystery and power of His substitutionary atoning sacrifice even clearer to us, reminds us of a well-known story in the history of Israel. That once, during the wilderness wanderings, snakes devoured a murmuring, disobedient people. The camp was ravaged by venomous snakes. People died by the load. It was here that Moses, at God's command, made a copper snake, set it on a pole in the middle of the camp, and let the people know God's saving act, which was that all who looked up to the copper snake would escape the deadly bite and live. The judgment was terrible, the snake bite was certain death, and the deliverance was unheard of simple: to look without saying a word, to look at the snake on the pole. So much power the dying man has, if only he will believe that the Lord's promise is true.
The Gospel of the Lord is incomprehensibly simple: just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up (to the cross, and even further: to glory), so that one who is in Him (looking to Him) may not perish but have eternal life! (cf. Jn 3:14-15) Calvin says: "If our thoughts torment us like serpents, and if thoughts of repentance and self-reproach choke us: let us look to the cross which God has set up in this world. Christ crucified and glorified on the cross assures us of salvation, salvation, healing, peace, salvation, victory. Just one look at the cross: it is for everyone! There is no need to do anything else - just believe that God's Word is true: He does not want the world to perish, that is why He gave His only begotten Son! "They that look on him shall be glad, and their faces shall not blush", says the Psalmist (Psalm 34:6).
Try it, when troubles surround you: take an inner, spiritual look at Jesus, the exalted one! Suddenly, something special happens inside you: the warfare is quieted and His peace is poured out in you. If your conscience is tormenting you, it won't let you rest: again, just one look at Jesus, you are pacified again! If you cannot be at peace with the circumstances of your life: look to Him and you will be cheered, as the Word says. When you see Him, when you look to Him, suddenly everything is good, even if everything remains as it was. Yea, "They that look unto him shall be glad, and their faces shall not flush." To look on Him thus: in other words, it is the same as believing in Him! All who believe in Him shall not perish!
Not only not to perish, but the Lord wants much more: to live, and live eternally! So God wants us to live! And by this he means much more than a short stay on earth and in time. He wants us to live forever! And it is from the perspective of eternal life that we can truly understand what it would mean to be lost! For example, one can imagine enjoying this life on earth and yet being lost. And vice versa: it is also conceivable that one could enjoy this earthly life and yet belong to those who are not lost. So, it is not death that is the worst thing for our children, our elders, ourselves, that can happen to them - but it is indeed the worst, the most terrible thing, if one does not have eternal life, if one lacks eternal life, whether in life or in death. But only if and only if we have eternal life will we not be lost! And this eternal life is not a mere prolongation of earthly life in time, in the direction of eternity, but a participation in the life of God, and in the life of Christ, who is Life, and a participation in the glory of Christ.
But immediately there is the big question: how does one come to possess this eternal life? How is it possible to obtain it if one does not have it? The very first answer to this question, which follows from our fundamental doctrine, is that no one can give this eternal life to himself, no one can obtain it in his own power. Just as at that time we did not give ourselves this earthly, transitory life, so we do not give ourselves eternal life. Just as we had to receive this earthly life from the hand of God through two parents, so we receive eternal life as a gift from someone. As we are born into this life, so we must be born into eternal life. So, too, eternal life comes to man by birth. That is why Jesus says: "You must be born again." (Jn 3,7b) You must be born again, once more, because it is not possible to be born into eternal life, to be woven into it, to be raised up, but to be put into it by a second birth. The Greek word translated "new birth" in the Hungarian Bible is ambiguous. It can also be translated as: birth from above. So it is not a new birth, which would be a refreshing of the sense of life (as they say after a good bath, I am almost born again), but a birth from above, born of God, to receive life from Him, to become a child of God by receiving Jesus Christ. Being born from above is therefore a gift from God, a gift that radically renews our being, a completely new way of life!
No wonder Nicodemus asked in amazement, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?"
And here I think Nicodemus did not mean physical birth, but he understood very well that Jesus was talking to him about spiritual things. Perhaps what he meant here was that the only way to become spiritually different was to literally start all over again. For it seems impossible to throw off the traces of years and decades, to get rid of the traces of the past, of the power we have tied on ourselves, and to begin life anew as if we were starting now, as if we were writing our future on a clean slate. Impossible, of course it is. It is impossible for us! But it is precisely this impossibility that is happening in us as a result of the work of God's Holy Spirit! It cannot be understood, and I don't want to explain it - I don't know - but the new birth is not to be understood, it is to be won! To receive it as a gift!
Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the secret of the work of regeneration: 'Verily, verily, I say unto thee: Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5) To be born of water, says Jesus. Jesus offers old Nicodemus water, not water to drink, but water for washing. This is the water with which John the Baptist baptised him: the bath of repentance and conversion, the cross-water of forgiveness of sins. And how striking that the Lord should say this to Nicodemus, a man who had spent a long life studying the Word of the Old Testament, a servant of the Lord, a Jewish man, a chief of the chosen people, who had grown old in the highest respect and esteem. It is to this Nicodemus that Jesus says it is necessary for him to wash, to repent, to receive forgiveness of sins. Yes, Nicodemus is someone who needs to be cleansed, he too is the son of death if he is not cleansed by the blood of Christ on the cross. He is also dead and will never see the kingdom of heaven unless he is born again through the forgiveness of his sins.
"Verily, verily, I say unto thee: If any man be not born of water" - yes, of water, and that is still not enough, but: 'From the Spirit also. Do you know what it means to be born of the Spirit? Let us suppose that all that I have told you, someone who knows it, knows it already, could say the same thing. You even say yes, you know why Christ died and was resurrected, and what is the consequence? He knows everything, but he only knows, that is, everything is only in his head, everything is only a theoretical truth for him, but even if he does something, he will never be able to turn this theoretical truth into a real experience, into a personal faith experience. This is what is no longer up to me, what I can no longer do, but what God does in me and through me by His Holy Spirit. This means that everything I already knew before about Jesus, about forgiveness of sins, about eternal life, is suddenly brought to life in me, comes to life in me, begins to work in me. So: unless one is born of water and the Spirit, one cannot enter the kingdom of God!
And here again we repeat what we have just said: Look at Jesus! Upwards, to the cross, still higher to Christ risen and exalted in glory. There, in the mystery of the cross, in the mystery of the resurrection and ascension, there we seek our rebirth to eternal life. There, from above, we are born again. Look up there, not at yourself! If you look to yourself, you can do nothing but always doubt again eternal life. So: look to the one whom God has given so that, if "anyone believes in him, he will not perish but have eternal life."
Would that not only from your lips but from your heart the song might rise:
My faith now looks to you, my Saviour, my God on Calvary;
Hear my prayer, and take away my sin;
From now on, let me be yours alone.
Canto 466, verse 1
Amen
Date: 15 October 1950.
Lesson
Jn 3,1-15