The insufficiency of the law as a means to eternal life is clearly addressed in the third chapter of the book of John. Much more than mere insufficiency of the law, this chapter declares the law is coming to an end. It is not by chance that the revelation concerning the new birth by means of grace should be given to Nicodemus. Notice four things concerning this person:
1) He was a Jew. It is clear that the Mosaic law was given to the Jews. 2) He was a Pharisee. The Pharisees were a sect of the Jews that were separated unto legal and religious self-righteousness. These Pharisees were adamant contenders of the law. 3) He was a ruler of the Jews and a teacher (master) of Israel (John 1:10). He was their instructor in this strict law. Nicodemus was the elite and best example the law could produce. 4) He is also addressed as “a man.” This points to the fact that he was of the seed of Adam, and therefore, spiritual death and condemnation had passed upon him.
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so, death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12). Therefore, he was by the condemnation of the law he knew well guilty, and not fit for heaven. “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (Romans 3:19). This prime example of a “religious” person came to Jesus and said, “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” (John 3:2).
Notice carefully, Nicodemus as a devoted ‘religious man’ approached Jesus Christ with sincere probing questions and could hardly wait for His responses. Jesus had all the answers and could tell him how to have eternal life yet Nicodemus, though highly educated, stood blind, naked, and in need of truth from the God of all truth. For all his life Nicodemus had given his best efforts, but clearly knew it was impossible for him to obtain perfect righteousness by the performance of all good works required by the law. Certainly, Jesus who was a well-recognized Worker of miracles and God sent Teacher could explain all that was required of him, personally. This was a unique opportunity for Nicodemus, and he knew it. Wisely he stopped, looked, and listened well to the real teacher of truth, the Son of God.
How perfectly this depicts the dispensation of the law which Paul wrote about. “But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster before Christ that we might be justified by faith” (Gal. 3:23,24). Nicodemus as a religious Pharisee was required to know and obey at least 613 strict laws before he could be deemed righteous. No one except Jesus Christ had fulfilled this strict requirement. All of their learning and best behavior proved the best of them could not keep the law, and there remained for every Pharisee a certain and sure need for redemption of their empty souls.
“Religion” is man by man’s efforts to seek or obtain the favor of God by means of those best efforts. Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the sole basis of the accomplishments of Jesus Christ on the Cross. It is what God does for man, and not what man does for God. ‘Religion’ is Satan’s ace trump, and all of man’s best-efforts by religion accumulate and total “filthy rags!” “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness’s are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6).
Nicodemus was a well-recognized and superbly trained teacher. The term for him was schoolmaster. His work was to instruct his pupil how to improve himself, but the result of this kind of work is only a development of that which though dormant is already resident in the pupil.
Likewise, the law as a schoolmaster of the natural man could only instruct him regarding how to live and then impose a penalty for any wrongdoing. This strict requirement was overwhelming for mankind. The requirements were great, and man’s erratic obedience could not change his sinful nature. Man could do nothing to remove the death sentence that rested upon him because of Adam’s sin.
In essence, there was no life-giving power in the law. As to the relative human good in Nicodemus all amounted to darkness, and that darkness was even greater the night in which he came to Jesus. The outer darkness was without question symbolic of the darkness within.
It was in this darkness, and with the veil of the law upon his heart, that he came to Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God.” It is only in the glaring light of truth that it is possible to understand the full force of the answer that Jesus gave to him, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
This is the answer of the One by whom came grace and truth to the representative of the law. It is always the answer of grace when compared to law. The old must be entirely set aside. Jesus had not come to teach the sinful human race how to live in a manner acceptable to God. There is no place for a schoolmaster here. What is needed is a new life with a new nature that is acceptable before a living God. Only those who receive this new life by rebirth can see the Kingdom of God. This truth is needed today even as much as it was then needed by Nicodemus.
By this powerful statement Jesus declared once and for all that the law which was given through Moses cannot be a means of entering into the splendors of heaven. But the veil of the law was upon the heart of Nicodemus, and he could not understand. Jesus explained that one must be born of water and of the Spirit. That is, there must be a cleansing from the sin of the old man and a spiritual union with God through Jesus Christ (see Titus 3:5, Eph. 5:26, 1 Pet. 1:23; John 15:3). He must clearly see that this is not a reformation of the old nature but redemption for it. This truth may be seen in the following statement:
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit” (John 1:6). Once again, law and grace are brought side by side and are shown to be mutually exclusive of each other. Flesh is always related to law, and the Spirit to grace. The law was addressed to the flesh but never to the Spirit. “Against the fruit of the Spirit there is no such law” (Gal. 5:23). The veil remained upon the heart and mind of Nicodemus. He questioned Jesus; “How can these things be?” Jesus replied, “Art thou the teacher of Israel, and understandeth not these things?” (John 3:10). Should this well recognized teacher of the law not know how a person might be born of the Spirit? There was a very good reason why he did not know. The law had nothing whatsoever to say on this subject. While the law was a God-given standard of life for man born of the flesh, it knows nothing of a new life born of the Spirit and lived in the power of the Spirit. That is something entirely apart from the law. It belongs to grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ. Before explaining “How can these things be?” Jesus said, “No man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13).
The man who is not born again cannot enter the kingdom of God by reaching up to heaven, but by God reaching down to him. In this statement is contained the difference between law and grace. Under the law man tries to reach up to heaven and fails miserably. Under grace God reaches down to fallen man and never fails.
Nicodemus was well informed of the wanderings of Israel, and Jesus used a reference in Num. 21:5-9 to explain how it is possible to be born again. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:14,15).
It will be difficult to understand the full meaning of these two verses without realizing that they are based entirely on legal authority. Moses, whose name stands for the law, lifted up the serpent, so also by the law must the Son of Man be lifted up. This important element within these verses must not be overlooked. The children of Israel had sinned against God. As punishment, God sent death through fiery serpents among them. “Therefore, the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned. Pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looks upon it shall live” (Num. 21:7,8).
It was by means of fiery serpents that death entered the camp of Israel. It was by sin, through the serpent’s tempting, that death entered the human race. The fiery serpent made by Moses is a symbol for sin. Brass is typical of judgment. Therefore, the serpent of brass speaks of judgment of sin. This judgment of sin was set upon a pole that all who had been bitten might look upon it and live. All of this information points to the Son of God on the cross who was “made sin for us” and the judgment of death passed upon Him. He therefore, by His death, fulfilled the demands of the law for mankind so that “whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:15).
There is only one condition that is placed upon man in order to escape everlasting death and receive eternal life. That exclusive condition is to believe on the Son of God, who on the cross, paid the full penalty of the law and thereby satisfied the demands of God’s justice and righteousness. Righteousness demands justice, and justice must satisfy righteousness. These exalted attributes of God were fully satisfied by Jesus Christ on the cross, and no one in the history of humanity is capable of satisfying these perfect requirements.
Faith is man’s means of depending upon God’s plan, provision, and perfection. A particular and specific act of faith is the means whereby a person accepts the Son of God as the propitiation for his sin and is clearly an act demanded by the law and God’s justice. It is required of man to believe in God’s own provision in the Son of God to satisfy the demands of his righteousness and justice. To comply with His demands the believer must acknowledge the demands of the law, that it is holy and that the penalty from it is just. This acknowledgment indicates the recognition of an individual’s guilt under the law. To acknowledge the law as one guilty under it and to depend upon the Son of God as having satisfied all the demands of justice is to establish and adhere to the law of God. This kind of response to His justice is to establish the law through faith, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yes, we establish the law” (Romans 3:31).
Please be admonished. The righteousness of God as mentioned above is not an attribute of God nor the changed character of a believer, but it is Christ Himself who was made unto us perfect righteousness, “But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor. 1:30). When God’s righteousness and justice have been satisfied and the law through faith has been established, then that which has hindered a full and free operation of grace has forever been removed. God is free to act in sovereign grace, and that is the clear message in John 3:16.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
This gracious act of God emanated from His infinite love and operated in conformity and satisfaction of His righteousness and justice. While the giving of the Son of God made possible and includes the lifting up of the Son, it provided something for mankind that was far greater than the satisfaction of the demand of God’s justice. By means of this glorious provision whosoever believes on Him, at the same time, receives Him and in so doing becomes the possessor of eternal life.
“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12).
By believing fully in the Son of God the individual is cleared from the guilt of the broken law and becomes partaker of the eternal life of the Son of God Himself. He is born again; he is brought forth from above and not from beneath where the lowly works of man reach for but never obtained that which may only be appropriated by faith in the person of Jesus Christ. The matchless grace of God has imparted a new divine spiritual life to the redeemed one who has been delivered from the penalty of the law. He has come from a lost and natural man to a saved child of the most high God. As a result, grace reigns unto eternal life by Jesus Christ. Therefore, grace has become sovereign. This amazing grace is extended by our gracious God without the slightest strain on His holiness because the believer has been placed in union with the perfect Son of righteousness. The believer is no longer seen as he was, but as he now is. Forever and ever positioned in the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.
God not only looks for righteousness in the believer; He provides the very thing He requires. It is impossible for man to provide the perfect righteousness that God requires as he is most imperfect and all of his righteousness are as filthy rags in God’s sight. The looking stops when the believer is positioned in Christ, and Christ indwells him. When Christ indwells the believer that person has the life of the one who indwells him and His life is eternal. The eternal Son of God is the exclusive One who paid a debt He did not owe for those who owed a debt they could not pay. Believers in Christ do not become righteous by doing righteous deeds but having been made righteous by the finished work of Christ they may then perform righteous deeds, because it is.
“Not by works of righteousness, which we have done but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).
“Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your soul” (Jeremiah 6:16).
Eternal Life is by Grace Not by Law
