The Kingdom's Administration
Jesus remained in Jerusalem some little time after the temple incident. We find him working miracles in the presence of the crowds who were present during the days of the feast of the Passover (John 2:23). We are not informed what the miracles were, they were probably of the same character as those he afterwards performed in Galilee, of which we read that he healed "all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people" (Matt 4:23).
Whatever they were, they produced the effect they were calculated to produce: many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. They were mostly the common people of whom this is testified. Had Jesus been of the character imagined by some who, wishing to get rid of his divinity, invent theories that bring him into the category of human aims and errors, he would have laid eager hold of the popular faith thus created by his miracles and would have fanned and encouraged it.
Instead of that "Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man" John 2:24. He knew that the newly-born faith of the "many" referred to was a mere effervesence of sensationalism – the admiration of the marvellous and the excitement of novelty, and not the appreciation of the divine aims with which the miracles were wrought: an empty, ugly thing compared with the fear, faith and obedience of God in righteousness, holiness and love which it was the aim of Jesus to induce in the people who were to be taken out for his name. He therefore stood irresponsively apart from the popular enthusiasm, aiming merely to do the work God had given him to do in the laying of the foundation of the coming glory of God on the earth.
The ruling class stood aloof altogether. But there were some among them who could not close their eyes to the extraordinary things that were being enacted before them. Though not convinced that this man, introduced by John the Baptist, was "the very Christ", they could not help thinking the hand of God was in the matter in some way.
Among these was Nicodemus, a man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews. His earnest curiosity desired a closer view, but not in public. He did not wish to compromise himself with an affair of which he was in doubt, and which was odiously regarded by his class. He came to Jesus "by night". By what means he obtained an introduction and where the interview took place, we are not informed: and it is not important. Such particulars bulking large in human narratives are kept in their true insignificant place in a divinely written record. We may be sure that a man of Nicodemus� position would have no difficulty in finding his way to the presence of a carpenter. Seated before him, by the light of a flickering eastern lamp, Nicodemus, probably after some unrecorded preliminaries, unburdens the leading feeling of his mind: "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him."
The presence of this complacent and purely human view of the situation would account for the abrupt and apparently otherwise irrelevant rejoinder by Christ: "Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God." Nicodemus was hoping to see the Kingdom of God, as a Jew according to the flesh and perhaps as a result of lending his official influence to the Messiah, if this were he. Christ's declaration was therefore very pointed. But Nicodemus did not understand it. He thought he was speaking literally: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Jesus explains that this is not what he means, but that nevertheless there is a second birth which a man must be subject to before he can inherit the kingdom. "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."
If we suppose Nicodemus here asking, Why? we may see the point of Jesus next observation: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again". But again a question: Why is this fact (that that which is born of the flesh is flesh) going to show the necessity for being born again? It is as if Jesus had said, "No wonder you must be born again, seeing that having only been born of the flesh, you are only flesh, which cannot inherit the Kingdom of God."
Paul, indeed uses these latter words: "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God." (1 Cor. 15:50). If we ask Why not? he answers, "Corruption doth not inherit incorruption." If we ask "Is man corruption?" we do not require an answer: we know it. If we ask,"Is the Kingdom of God incorruption?" though, we have to wait for the answer which is equally clear and certain.
The prophets tell us that the Kingdom which the God of heaven will set up on earth when human kingdoms have run their course, is to be given to the
"saints of the Most High", (Dan 7:27), and that it is not to be left to other people, Daniel 2:44 � but will last for ever, shall not pass away, (Dan 7:14). Consequently for a man to inherit the Kingdom he must be immortal. Jesus says its inheritors will be so in saying, "They shall not die any more" (Luke 20:36). Now a man merely born of the flesh is mortal and corruptible as we all know. He has no element of immortality in him. Therefore he must be the subject of a great change before he is fit to enter the Kingdom, which requires a change to immortality.
This great change Jesus describes as being "born of water and of the Spirit". Why should he so characterise it becomes apparent only when certain first principles of the truth are understood. It is one of those first principles that men are not born children of God, but children of Adam and heirs of the death that came by him, Romans 5:12-19, Ephesians 2:3, 12. It is another, that God purposes to generate, from among this death-doomed race, a family for himself, whom he will glorify with salvation. Acts 15:14, 1 Peter 2:9, 1 Thess 5:9. It is another, that the mode he has chosen in the development of this family is to present the gospel for acceptance, and to require the assumption of the name of Christ in baptism, 1 Cor. 1:21, Acts 10:48, Rom. 6:3-4, Gal. 3:27. It is another that those submitting to faith in Christ Jesus are considered as having entered the new family for the first time, 2 Cor. 6:17-18, Gal. 3:26, Eph. 2:13.
Begotten by the word brought to bear upon their mind, they have, in baptism, been "born of water", but are not yet finally incorporated into the family of God. At this stage they may perish, as Paul recognises 1 Cor. 8:11. At the return of Christ, they have to appear before him for judgement to be dealt with according to the state of the account they will be called upon to render. 2 Cor. 5:10, Rom. 14:12. If this is not acceptable they are rejected and depart to death. If it be such that the Lord can approve, they become the subject of that change which Paul calls the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body, Rom. 8:23.
As a result of this physical change which is effected by the Spirit in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, they become finally and unalterably sons of God. They are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection, Luke 20:36. This consummation of their adoption is figuratively compared to a birth as in the case of baptism. Baptism is not a literal birth, but as it is the act by which a man, not a child of God becomes such, it is a natural figure, which speaks of it as a birth of water, so the operation of the spirit of God upon the mortal nature of the accepted saints, Rom. 8:11, 1 Cor. 15 vs.51-52, Phil.3:21 is not a literal birth, but it is the act by which a son of the earth becomes a son of heaven, 1 Cor.15:49, so it is natural to speak of it as a birth, a being born of the spirit. Without this divine birth in two stages, it is impossible that any man can enter upon the possession of the Kingdom which the Lord will establish at his coming.
The administration of that Kingdom will require powers that do not belong to mortal man. It will require such a knowledge of the thoughts of men as Jesus evinced, and such a capability of eluding human observation and control as he manifested after his resurrection. The rulers of the age to come must be as independent of man as the wind. As Jesus added: "the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit." John 3:8.
With the ideas that Nicodemus had of a Kingdom of God, to be administered by mortal men, it is not wonderful that he was surprised at such doctrine. "How can these things be?" said he. Christ answered as if he had said "How can they not be?" – "Art thou a master in Israel and knowest not these things?" As much as to say that as a man in Israel whose position presumed an acquaintance of the Scriptures of Moses and the prophets, he ought to have known these things.
There is much more in Moses and the prophets than people are aware of. It requires close and constant reading to become acquainted with all that they reveal. The majority of people read them scarcely at all and those who do read them mostly do so without discernment. Nicodemus, from his position, must have been a reader, but evidently, he was in the position of those rulers of Jerusalem described by Paul when he said that "they knew not the voices of the prophet which were read in their synagogues every Sabbath day." Acts 13:27. Jesus found the resurrection proved in part of Moses where the priests could not discern it, viz. in God's declaration that he was the God of three men who were at the time dead, Luke 20:37.
Bro John Richard Chulu (Lundazi, Zambia)
