You must be born again ...

[x141]

Why should Nicodemus have known this ... and in the terms of the use of it today ... could he have been ...

Though this is very meassured, it's a good starting place.

 

[St_Worm2]

Why should Nicodemus have known this ... and in the terms of the use of it today ... could he have been ...

Though this is very meassured, it's a good starting place.

Nicodemus was a great teacher. He knew passages like Ezekiel 36:24–27 quite well and should have at least noticed a similarity between the OT and what Jesus was teaching in John 3.

--David

 

[LST 1154]

I've often thought that Nicodemus was possibly a "spy" for the rest of the gang, Jesus knew it and that is why Jesus was so hard on him. If you look at the narrative you can see Christ's response to Nic's questions. "You are the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? (John 3:10) By "these things" Jesus meant being born from above. Note Jesus said "the" teacher and not "a" teacher. Ol Nic was evidentally the # 1 teacher in Israel yet he didn't have a clue about things of a spiritual nature. He had head knowledge. He most likely knew how to look, sound and act like a deeply spiritual man and probably had the traditional long flowing robes and he undoubtedly loved being called Rabbi but it sounds to me like the old boy didn't have any heart knowledge of the true things of God.

Actually this is not that unusual. Still today we have religious types that don't understand what being born again means. They attempt to make it all about works such as by eating a wafer they are told they are now born again, or by being baptised or other religious things that those who are born again knows has nothing to do with being born from above.

LST

 

[St_Worm2]

I don't know LST, I think Nicodemus may have had more on the ball than you're giving him credit for. In John 3:2 we find him meeting with Jesus at night (IOW, secretly) saying:

"Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." John 3:2
​

What other Pharisee would have said that .. Then couple all that was going on/being said in John 3 with with his defense of Jesus before the Pharisees in John 7, and the fact that it was he and Joseph of Arimathea who took His body from the Cross, prepared it for burial and buried Him, and I tend to think he may well have been just like Joseph of Arimathea was described, "a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one, for fear of the Jews".(see John 19:38-42)

--David

 

[Clare73]

Why should Nicodemus have known this ... and in the terms of the use of it today ... could he have been ...

Though this is very meassured, it's a good starting place.

Well, Eze 36:25-27, 37:1-14, 18:31 should have familiarized him with the idea of renewal.

 

[shturt678]

I think Nicodemus rests his conviction that Jesus is "a teacher came from God" he himself states, "for no one can do these these signs which thou doest except god be with him." Nicodemus, too, saw "the glory" (1:14) in these signs; what they indicated to him he states. The noteworthy point, however, is that Nicodemus connects these signs with the teaching of Jesus. Nicodemus regards these credentials as proving that this teacher has surely come from God, for who could do such signs "except God be with him?" Nicodemus leans who Jesus was and you now can pick up the ball and roll with it.

 

[x141]

Most believe you could not be born again until the price was paid in full ... How can you know if you have never tasted ...

Jesus spoke of the resurrection in the same manner to Martha, and his oneness with the father in the same manner, even though he was returning to him.

 

[shturt678]

Most believe you could not be born again until the price was paid in full ... How can you know if you have never tasted ...

Jesus spoke of the resurrection in the same manner to Martha, and his oneness with the father in the same manner, even though he was returning to him.

Thank God for IPet.1:19, 20; Rev.13:8, and my special Eph.1:4.