Chapter 3

Nicodemus comes to see Jesus at night...so no one knows he talked to him.  Nicodemus recognizes Jesus as a teacher sent from God, as witnessed by the miracles that only God could send.  (But he does not recognize him as Messiah.  He does, however, want to be part of what Jesus is doing.  That is, Nicodemus wants to be saved, and he recognizes that such salvation will not come from Jewish law.  So how then can he be part of it?  Like the verses about salt and light, this story also shows the stark contrast between the old law and the new covenant that Jesus offers).

2021 - This verse:

2 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." [Jhn 3:2 ESV].  Only God could empower what Jesus was doing.  Nicodemus is missing that Jesus is God.  There is no concept of Trinity at this point.  I would love to explain how the "roles" of God are three, yet God is only One.  How He can be both Father and Son.  But it is not explainable.  It is no wonder Nicodemus has trouble here. 

2020 - This verse:

3 Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." [Jhn 3:3 ESV]  In what way does Jesus mean you cannot "see" the kingdom of God.  If he means physically see it, then it must be something far in the future, that only the saved will see.  That pretty much has to mean the new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem.  There will be lost people during the Millennial, and right up to the end of that last battle at the end of the thousand years when Satan is finally locked away forever.  So if Jesus is being literal here, he means that the Kingdom of God is the New Jerusalem, when perfection is restored to all creation.

But what if he means only those born again - who have the Holy Spirit - can discern the kingdom all around them.  Only the saved can see the stark contrast between saved and unsaved, between truth and lies, between light and darkness.  Only we can see spiritual things, because they are spiritually discerned.  Like understanding the Bible.  You really can't, if you're not saved.  You understand it like Jordan Peterson in "12 Rules....", as a collection of awesome unique stories.  But not as the playing out of God's plan in the history of man.  You just don't see it the same.  Could be either of these.  Could be both.  Jesus told his mother that his time had not yet come.  He will later tell the woman at the well that she will never thirst if she drinks the water that he offers.  This was surely speaking of spiritual things.  You can't really be born all over physically, so this too was speaking spiritually.  So I think probably the second idea is the one Jesus had in mind.  You cannot see spiritually the kingdom of God.  That's my opinion today.  The rest of the verse bears it out.  You cannot see the wind.  But the wind is there.  It is something that you know, as the kingdom of God is something that you spiritually "see".

Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again.  Nicodemus takes the literal route, and denies even the possibility of such a thing.  Jesus clarifies that one must be born of the Spirit also, and that this second birth is the one that matters. 

2024 - These verses:

5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [Jhn 3:5-6 ESV].

You need to look at these two verses together in order to understand either one.  It would have been better if they hadn't divided them...and remember that the division was not there in the original.  Somewhere along the line, people decided to add these numbers for study purposes.  At any rate, as I read it, when you put them together you see that "born of water" and "born of the Spirit" are two distinct births.  If instead this is about water baptism saving us, then it is only about one thing - baptism - and the two facts of that baptism.  We come up out of the water, and we have a new spirit, simultaneously, always together and inseparable.  But there are at least two notable exceptions to this in Acts where people manifested signs of salvation - speaking in tongues, prophesying and so forth - which only THEN led to their baptism.  This was because it was recognized that they must already be saved, and needed to be baptized as Jesus had commanded of his followers.  Read the other way, as two separate events, I think this passage makes better sense.  Born of water is physical birth.  Vs 6 makes it plain - if we'll but look at it - that this is what it means.  The first part of vs 5 - born of water - corresponds directly with the first part of 6 - born of flesh is flesh.  Likewise the second parts - born of spirit in both verses.  As to born of water referring to physical birth, there is no good argument that it means anything but birth.  We are born as humans, in God's image, which is unique to human beings.  We are also all born under the curse of Adam.  We are physically alive but spiritually dead.  When we are born we take our first breath "in the flesh", and we then live in the flesh.  But our spirit is dead because of sin.  We cannot know God until our Spirit is "resurrected", brought back from death, born again to live and breath as spirit in communion with God.  This communion is not possible until our spirits are reborn.  Jesus is saying that we are born of water, by our mothers, and that is a big deal because only man is born in the image of God.  But the bigger deal is when we are born of the Spirit, and life is breathed into our spirits/souls and we become alive also in the spiritual realm. 

I seem to be getting quite redundant...it just seems so obviously to mean this that it is hard to explain.

2021 - 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' [Jhn 3:7 ESV].  An ESV footnote says that "You..." is plural here.  Jesus wasn't just telling Nicodemus what was required of him, but is saying that all - all Jews, all Gentiles, any who want to see the kingdom - must be born again.  This is the message of Jesus, this is his evangelism.  He does not say "If you want to be saved...." but "If you want to see the kingdom."  I think he makes that plainer in the next verses, he gives us some insight into this kingdom.

Then Jesus talks about the wind, and not understanding how that works, and says the Spirit is the same way.  It does what it does, and is not dependent on our understanding in order to do it.  So...you don't have to understand all about the Bible to be saved.  You have to do what the words say to do.  You have to believe and be baptized.  This rebirth will be a beginning of understanding, that will continue to grow so long as we follow.  So long as we are nourished by the Word the Spirit will lead us.  Jesus is asking Nicodemus to surrender to the unknown.  People have a really hard time doing that.  Like strapping into the seat of a "ride" at Six Flags without knowing what the ride is going to do.  You have to "trust".  Or bungee jumping or sky diving.  You don't know, but you trust.  We do it all the time when it really doesn't matter - though even there we can have a hard time with it - but we hesitate even more to trust the Bible.  

2021 - Here is the verse:  8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." [Jhn 3:8 ESV]  I think this implies that the kingdom is an invisible thing on earth.  I think those in this kingdom - those who are born again of the Spirit - are connected/part of/residing in this earthly but invisible kingdom.  And because of that, we understand things on a gut level, a level we cannot really explain, that give us faith, and assurance and peace when all about us are in fear and panic.  We are changed inside, in our souls perhaps, and through that part of us - that science cannot discern - our souls connect us to His kingdom.  But the connection is still "through" the corrupting physical body, and so is still imperfect.  At the resurrection, the physical body goes and is replaced by a new spiritual body connected directly to the Kingdom of God, unfiltered, and only then is his full power and glory discernible to man.

2020-This verse, and the MSB explanation of it:

13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. [Jhn 3:13 ESV]  This phrasing is found elsewhere, in the OT, here:  4 Who has ascended to heaven and come down? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name? Surely you know! [Pro 30:4 ESV]  I think Jesus is clearly referring to this passage, so not just that first phrase, but the whole verse - perhaps the whole Psalm.  MSB says that Jesus is saying that he is the ONLY first hand witness of the things of heaven.  He is distinguishing himself from Mohammad, from Joseph Smith, from Buddha (?), from those who claim near death experiences - and how many others who claim to have some special revelation?  Jesus cuts out the middle man because he was there himself!  Jesus is saying that he came down from heaven and can testify to heaven.  Jesus didn't start on earth, go up to heaven for revelation, and then come back down to tell what he saw.  Jesus STARTED in heaven, before time began, and is now come down to man as a witness to the truth.  I never understood this before, but I always wondered what that verse in Proverbs was about.  There is also an MSB note on Pro 30:4.  It says all these questions that are posed can only be answered by revelation from God.  We can observe and to some extent understand the "what" of creation, but we cannot learn the "who" by observation.  Only by revelation, in the scriptures where God has chosen to reveal Himself to us.  MSB gives a list of references where this conclusion is reached over and over:  The conclusion was reached by Job (Job 42:1-6), Solomon (Ecc 12:1-14), Isaiah (Is 40:12-17; 46:8-11; 66:18, 19), and Paul (Ro 8:18-39).  His son's name, Jesus Christ.  Cf Jn 1:1-18.

This is a very profound thought for a FB post. If I can condense it down and make it plain.  Perhaps this is the last post before Christmas?

Next day - it occurred to me that Mohammad claims to have ridden this white horse up to heaven and seen things up there and presided over a prayer meeting with Moses, Noah, Jesus, and so on while there.  They put him in charge over all of them to lead the prayer.  (2022 - Oh my...so the one who came after had the preeminence!  Mohammad insinuates himself into the prophecy of John the Baptist, and so makes himself THE Prophet!).  So 600 years after Jesus said no one has ascended except he who descended, Mohammad stakes a claim that he too ascended.  (2022 - But as far as I know, Mohammad never claims to have descended...never claims he came from heaven, never claims to be deity.)  This is his claim to prophethood over and above even Moses.  AND, this says that Islam MUST view Jesus as a mere prophet - who's claim here would have to be false, right? - or else it would have been Jesus leading Mohammad in prayer, not the other way around, and if they do that, then the NT, with its insistence on the one way would have to be incorporated into Islam.  They can't allow that.  This is the claim of Islam that I don't believe any other religion makes. This is their "refutation" of the uniqueness of Christ.

2023 -  ....and ALL false religions teach a different Christ than the one in the gospel.  It is foundational to a false religion to make Jesus other than he really was.

2023 - Muslims sort of "believe" the OT because Mohammad told them to do so.  Start with the verse in Proverbs and show that it was about an expected one.  They would agree to that point.  Then show the error in thinking that says Mohammad is the expected one.  It is wrong because he did not begin in heaven as eye witness.  And Mohammad, even in the Quran, did not gather the wind or wrap up the waters.  This is not just about visiting, but about having power in heaven.  In fact, this is about STARTING there.  What is his name, and what is his Son's name?  Only God can do these things, that is his name.  Surely you know His Son's name - Jesus, NOT Mohammad. 

Then tie John to it.  Jesus says NO ONE has done this ascending thing but the Son of Man.  When Jesus says this, he has not yet ascended himself...has he?  Perhaps it should be understood as saying no "man" can ever ascend and stay in heaven, witness and understand all that heaven is about, and THEN come back down.  The only way to understand heaven is to be FROM heaven in the first place.  Then you can come down, and go back.

I would really like to get this "straight" in my head so that I could talk about it to a Muslim.  So I could show that the book they believe ties directly to the words of Jesus saying HE is THE PROPHET.  HE is the one foretold.  Jesus is the one with preeminence not because he was a "better man" than John the Baptist, but because he was NOT just a man, but a divine incarnation of God AS Man.  It's here...the connection that makes Jesus THE Prophet instead of Mohammad is here.  It I could state it correctly, it should create either doubt or rage in any Muslim.

2023 - You would need to know all the prophecies of THE Prophet in the OT, and be able to link them unequivocally to Christ, and not to Mohammad.  Thereby you could show that Mohammad was a usurper, trying to BE one who had in fact already been.  Does he ever say, in the Quran, that he is THE Prophet, or is that title always assigned to him by others?  This is important too. 

These verses conclude the section:

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. [Jhn 3:14-15 ESV]

Jesus example for Nicodemus, to help him understand, is not about parachutes or bungee jumps, but refers back in Jewish history to the wandering in the desert.  God had cursed Israel, and the curse took the form of poisonous snakes.  The people were dying for their sins - of snakebite.  The only cure for this was to look up at the brass serpent up on the pole.  You had to trust in something that could not work.  You had to believe in something outside logic, outside rationality.  You had to believe that even though B was wholly unconnected with A, you could do B and make A disappear.  Belief, and trust that you literally "bet your life" on.  Bungees and parachutes are like that.

2021 - We do trust things in this life that can kill us if our trust is misplaced.  Yet we trust.  We believe in things we cannot begin to explain.  Kids - that is, little children - trust their parents this way.  When Daddy throws them in the air, they have complete trust that he will catch them.  They aren't cringing in fear at the top of the throw, but squealing with abandon, with no doubt of their safety.  This is how we must trust in order to have eternal life.  And that is really what salvation is about - eternal life, being a child of God, and being in His Kingdom, here on earth, and forever in heaven.  This is the "flow" of it all.  To quote from another note, faith is not about saying you trust something that you really don't trust.  Faith is truly trusting though we cannot explain logically why we trust.

2021 - There is an ESV note saying that some interpreters end Jesus' quote at the end of vs 15.  They say the print should not be red but black beginning in 16.  So it is John saying "Whosoever...", not Jesus.  They see vs 16 as John's explanation of what Jesus said to Nicodemus, not a continuation of Jesus' words.  Interesting also that only Jesus and Nicodemus were in the room for this meeting, yet we have the word for word.  Could be John and Nicodemus became friends, knew each other.  Could be inspired text.

2022 - Or, as in "Chosen", it could be that John was waiting outside the room and was writing down the conversation, which he preserved, and then included in his gospel 50 or more years later.

Then probably the most memorized verse in the New Testament:

16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. [Jhn 3:16 ESV]

This is the answer to "why".  Because God loved, he did it this way.

2021 - 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. [Jhn 3:17 ESV]  In this verse, we see "salvation", the word not the concept, mentioned for the first time.  Christians use this word a lot and I think it often puts people off.  I have heard the word thrown out with 5 or 6 syllables, sarcastically making fun of it as a nonsense word.  But here is where it comes from - at least one of the places.  Would we be better asking people if they want to be part of the Kingdom of God?  Or maybe ask if they want to be a child of God?  I've not really seen it done this way in any "tracts".  But maybe it has.  Also in this verse, Jesus...or maybe John...makes clear that Jesus is God's Son, and that this is part of the belief that saves.  You have to believe in the Son to believe in the Father, because they are one and the same.  You cannot believe in God the Father and reject God the Son.  They are the same, they do different things but are the same.  They cannot be separated at the belief level.  John will emphasize this to a great extent in Chapter 8.

2022 - Could we say that this first time, the Son was sent to save the world, but when he comes again, it will be to condemn the world - at least the sinners - and to destroy them?  He sits on his throne on earth at that time, and he will judge the world.  There will be only sheep and goats, no middle ground at all.  So is John explaining that Jesus is the suffering servant in the first century, come to save all who come to him, but when he comes back, he will be the conquering king.  Did John just leave out the words "this time" after "Son" in vs 17?  I think it's a real possibility.

2024 - I think the 2022 verse is right.  Jesus is telling Nicodemus that there are two epiphanies, not just the one that the Jews believed in at that time.  First, Jesus comes to take away our sins - to save us from eternal death through belief in him.  Then he will return to rule according to all the promises of a Jewish State to which all the world looks for peace.

2024 - Here is an interesting thought:

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. [Jhn 3:18 ESV], but compare this to the 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. [Jhn 3:18 NASB95].

The word translated "condemned" or "judged" is the Greek word krino.  It is used in the KJV 114 times, and in 88 of those it is translated "judged".  But ESV didn't do that.  In fact, the KJV didn't do that.  First point, translating this word as "condemned" is the exception not the rule.  Condemned is a deviation from the usual interpretation of the word.  So why did they do that here?  Is this about interpretation being "pushed" into translation?  I ask because if we read it as judged and not judged, we have an argument that as saved people, we will not have to be judged "again" because that judgment is a done deal the moment we are saved.  By the same token, those who reject Christ are already judged...but is it necessarily a permanent state?  Is Jesus here separating those under the law, who will be judged, from those under the New Covenant, who are all judged already?  This is consistent with the verses that say if you are guilty of breaking one law you are guilty of all.  This is how it works under the Mosaic.  But the problem with going here - to a sort of dispensational view - is that there indeed ARE two ways to be saved, but they are divided chronologically rather than according to our choice.  Under the Old Covenant, you couldn't just go through the motions but had to belief - to have faith as Abraham did - in the God to whom you were sacrificing.  Only a vague awareness of Jesus would even have been possible.  Perhaps you believed in a Messiah, but that was so often brought down to a "deliverer" from first the Assyrian, or the Babylonians, and even invading Egyptians rather than as a spiritual deliverer from our sins.  But once Jesus came, and made his purpose clear, as he did to Nicodemus - that he came to save the Jews, and subsequently the Gentiles - then our direct belief and faith must be in HIM and his sacrifice ON OUR BEHALF.  If this is the case, I like "judged" here much better than I like "condemned".

In these next verses, Jesus overhauls Jewish law, making the sacrifices the law required, and the rules contained in the law, of NO EFFECT WHATEVER in reconciliation with God.  Belief alone is required.  Just this.  No wonder the Pharisees were upset.  Their entire way of life and teaching was being thrown out like dirty dish water.  Jesus was setting aside the Mosaic law in favor of the gospel, the new covenant in HIM!  The Law had to go, completely.  Beyond radical.  So the covenant is to work this way:

19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. [Jhn 3:19 ESV]

Come to the light, or love the darkness and die.  This is the new covenant.  Jesus, the man, the incarnate God, is the one and the only light.

2021 - Not only that, but here is why rejecting Christ sends you to hell.  God has judged the whole world, and His judgement is that we love the Light, or we are condemned.  He has not left room here for works, for the Law, or for any other way.  God Himself has judged and only those who love the light will be saved.

(When you go sky diving, you choose to do something that could result in your death.  Jumping out of an airplane at 10,000' will surely kill you.  BUT, you trust that parachute on your back to mitigate the consequences of your decision.  That parachute will save you from the certain death that awaits you otherwise.  To reject Jesus is to take the parachute off and jump anyway.  There is only one end to this sad story.  You are required to jump out of the plane.  Your only decision is whether or not to strap on a parachute, and trust it.  This could be worked into an invitation.  But the plane has to be crashing too.  If you don't choose to jump, you still die when the plane crashes.  You will eventually die, we all do.  No...not a good analogy.  Stick with the first one.  Don't add too much to the story.)

2022 - These verses:

20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." [Jhn 3:20-21 ESV]

These seem pretty difficult to understand.  I get that bad people don't like daylight.  I understand that.  What I'm having trouble with is that last phrase.  "...his works have been carried out in God."  What does that mean?  Is that Calvinism?  The only good we do is the good that God puts in us, and that makes us seek the light?  That doesn't seem right.  MSB doesn't even have a note about these verses.  Look at the sequence implied...You are already doing what is true, and so you come to the light (to salvation?)...why?  So that God is shown to be the author of all that is good and true?  I am not getting this at all...

Vs 22 is a change of narrative.  From the Passover, Jesus and his disciples go into the countryside and start baptizing people.  This verse clearly says that Jesus was baptizing.  I think there's another gospel where it says he himself didn't do any baptizing.  MSB note says that's in John 4:2.  Jesus baptized no one, but his disciples did, and John the Baptist was at another place, and he also was baptizing people.

John reiterates that he is not Messiah, but Jesus is.  John says he came to announce, not to be.  And now that Jesus is here, he will gain in prominence and John will decline.  This is as it should be.  It is the bridegroom that is celebrated, not the best man.

2022 - This verse:

26 And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness--look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him." 27 John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. [Jhn 3:26-27 ESV].

Why is this the answer to that question in 26?  And does 27 tie right back to 21, in that those doing good seek the light?  Is this about irresistible grace?  The called must be saved? 

They are asking John if he is jealous or resentful of the fact that his disciples are leaving him and following Jesus instead.  Ahhh...and his answer is that Jesus is receiving them because God has given them to him.  Why would he be jealous of Jesus on account of the disciples that God sends to him? 

So...keeping vs 21 in mind...those who were previously following the Baptist were repentant, and seeking truth and light.  That's why they came to John in the first place.  John had told them to keep looking, because John was clear to them (as he reminds them in the next verse:  28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' [Jhn 3:28 ESV]) that he was not Christ, but was FORERUNNER to Christ.  So they were to keep looking, and to follow the greater one when he came.  BECAUSE John, as prophet, had led them to the truth.  That is what prophets do. 

So back to 20, 21, a prophet, a preacher, begins the process, and motivates those who, through God's election and grace, are to be saved, and this craving that arises in them for something better  - this search for the light - leads them to the Son, who is the light of the world.  BECAUSE they want to do the works ordained by God.  I think it works very well when understood that way.

2022 - Note also in vs 28 that John tells them he is not the Christ.  He is also pretty clear that he is not the forerunner of the Kingdom of God - which was the role of the long awaited Prophet discussed in Cullman's book.  John the Apostle is showing that John the Baptist himself denied being THE Prophet, and denied that he was Christ.  What he says he really is is the forerunner of one greater, of the Christ.  John's understanding of his own place, his own role, is pretty clear here.

Look at 29b:  29 ...Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. [Jhn 3:29 ESV].  The Baptist is saying - is quoted as saying - that with the appearance of Jesus, his purpose is accomplished.  The one who's appearance he prophesied is now here. 

Isn't that interesting...if this was so, then what would John have done with the rest of his life, had he not be beheaded?  His work was all done, so God brought him home.  Not in a way that we perhaps would consider best, but in view of Jesus' evaluation of John, his reward in heaven surely outweighed the death he suffered on earth.  I had never seen this before, that John's death came at the appropriate time, at the completion of what God sent him to accomplish.

Possible FB post.

2020-Here is another connection I have not see before.  John the Baptist also understood that verse in Proverbs.  He says this:

32 He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony. 33 Whoever receives his testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true. [Jhn 3:32-33 ESV]  I have never really thought of Jesus as "bearing witness".  But Jesus was a flesh and blood man, but a man who came from heaven, had been in the presence of God, and knew firsthand God's thoughts and plans.  He came down to earth to say "Hey, all this scripture stuff about a God in heaven is real, I know because I came from there and I have seen it myself!"  No one else can say that.  Jesus was a unique kind of preacher.  What Jesus knew of God was not revelation through scripture, but first hand knowledge.  Only the Son of God could claim such a thing, and THAT is why belief in Jesus is saving.  To believe the witness is to believe what he testifies about.  This is new...this is a seed...this I need to think about a lot more.

2023 - This again ties back to Proverbs.  Jesus did more than just say "Hey, I rode this horse through heaven and met some cool people!"  Jesus says "I lived in heaven, I was there from the beginning.  I know how the wind works, how the water works, how the planet works, because I was there, in communion with the one who had all that done."  Mohammad was a visitor to heaven.  Jesus was a resident!  And yet the Quran claims that Jesus bowed to Mohammad.  There is no way that is right.  I really need to condense all this and put together a "speech", a "sermon", that I can deliver in a clear statement, and I need to teach it, preach it.  I need to be bold and risk the backlash.

2022 - We keep seeing that his testimony is rejected.  It keeps saying that "no one" receives his testimony.  Is this rejected message that he is Messiah?  Or that he is the Son of God, or the Son of Man?  That he is Christ?  Jesus message is what is in view, but specifically, what is it that they keep rejecting?  He bears witness to the things of heaven, things he has seen in heaven that no man on earth can see or has seen.  That is what is in view.  No  man has ascended and come down, the one who came down was there at the beginning.  The word was with God and the word WAS God.  I think that is what is being rejected.  That Jesus was himself God.

This would stand to reason if the Apostle is refuting the sect of the Baptist in this book.  Certainly John the Baptist never ever claimed to be God incarnate.  But the Apostle is saying that Jesus did exactly that, and no one believed him.

2023 - So...if John is here refuting the claims of the Sect of John the Baptist because they  have wrongly made John "The Prophet", doesn't it stand to reason that these are equally good arguments to refute Mohammad as "The Prophet"?   That is why these are hitting home so solidly.  They refute the same false claim!

2021 - These verses:

35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand. 36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. [Jhn 3:35-36 ESV]

Again, this is why it is belief in the Son that matters.  Because God has "transferred" all things to this earthly manifestation of Himself.  God is still God, and Jesus is His earthly, fleshly manifestation.  Jesus, at that time, was "sight", not faith.  Those people, in a way, saw God.  And because man is the way man is, it is that visible manifestation of God that we are to believe in.  That is the one who could be seen and touched and heard.  It should be easier to believe in Jesus than to believe in a wholly spiritual God.  People had an easy time believing in idols, but Jesus walked, talked, and breathed.  He was more real than idols, and He is God incarnate, imbued with all the judgement and power of the living God.

2022 - The Apostle drives home his point in this last verse of the chapter.  The Son is the key.  If you don't believe in the Son - if you reject the witness of the Son, if you don't believe that he is who he says he is and continue to elevate the Baptist to the preeminent position, then you are not saved, and God is against you. 

If we see Chapter 3 in this light, then why the Nicodemus story?  What facet of the beliefs of the sect of the Baptist does the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus refute?  It would have to be introduction of the idea of a spiritual kingdom in contrast with the physical kingdom the sect expected, based on their belief that John was the eschatological prophet.  They could have been asserting that if Jesus was the Christ, the kingdom would be established, and look around, it ain't here.  Their assertion based on that would be that Jesus was not the Christ, and that John's position as eschatological prophet was unchallenged by Jesus.  So John the Apostle tells them that Jesus, this time, established a spiritual kingdom, populated by those born again in spirit - the church in fact.  That this kingdom is invisible, and yet exists, just as the wind exists.  The physical kingdom, when the Christ is sent to judge the world rather than to save it, is yet future, and another prophet, another Elijah, will come then, and be the forerunner of the physical kingdom.  I keep remembering that verse where he says: 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, 17 and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared." [Luk 1:16-17 ESV].  John came in the spirit of Elijah to announce the spiritual kingdom.

2024 - I think the above is on the right track, and I would add that the conversation with Nicodemus, about being born of both water and spirit, is also a vital part of that conversation.  Jesus told Nicodemus that there would be two epiphanies of the Messiah.  One before the establishment of his spiritual kingdom, that would have nothing at all to do with world power or defeating the Romans or ANYTHING along those lines, and a second to establish Jesus as King of the created universe with his throne in Jerusalem.  This message was vital in understanding who Jesus was, and for understanding just exactly  how much MORE was Jesus than John the Baptist.