John 3

John 3:2

Who durst not be seen or known to come to Jesus, and therefore did it by night, (ch. vii. 50, and xix. 9,) and said unto him, Master, we are convinced that thou art sent by God to teach and instruct us in his way, for this thy miracles testify, which could not be done without God’s special hand, and would never be allowed by God to confirm falsities.

John 3:3

Jesus, willing to undeceive him, and that he might not flatter himself that the acknowledging of him to be the Messias, or sent from God, would be sufficient, without the undertaking his service, owning and confessing of him (in despite of all fear of men) without being his proselyte, and forsaking his former course, tells him positively, that unless he would be born again, which is a phrase to denote a proselyte of Christ, and, when occasion required, forsake all for Christ’s sake, even his former course of life and dignity in the Jewish state, (contrary to his coming to him by night, and acknowledging him secretly,) he should not see the kingdom of God, be a Christian here, (which is a privilege of a greater height than that of being a Jew or a member of their sanhedrim,) or a saint hereafter.

John 3:4

Nicodemus, attending only to the literal sound not sense of Christ’s words, asks how a man of full years can again be born.

John 3:5

Jesus answers him, Except a man be received as a proselyte, and that not of an ordinary sort, such as are among you Jews, but a Christian proselyte, such as are received by baptism in the Christian church, so as to undertake the law of Christ, and renounce his former (whether heathen or) Jewish course, the first expressed by being washed in water, the ceremony of the Jews’ proselytism, (now also made use of by Christ,) by which a man was said by the Jews to be

¹⁰ all things, or, every man: for some ancient copies read where. teacher, ἀπὸ Θεοῦ ἀλλήλωσις ἀδάσκαλος.

¹ come from God a

[a] born of water] The nature of proselytes among the Jews, and the difference of them, hath been spoken of, (note [d] Matt. xxiii.) and also the manner of initiating them by washing or baptism, (note [a] Matt. iii.) as also their putting off all their former relations of kindred and consanguinity, and so being as it were new-born, (note [d] Matt. xix. 28.) From hence it is that at the receiving of Christian religion, which is the nobler proselytism, and hath in the ceremony of initiation not only the washing in water, but also the baptism of the Spirit too, that is, the communication of that Spirit of Christ in some measure that descended on the apostles, Acts ii, a man is here said by Christ to be born anew of water and the Holy Ghost; and when Nicodemus, a learned Jew, and a master among them, seems to be ignorant, and wonders how this can be, and asks this gross question to that first part of it, how one that is of age can be born again, Christ wonders at him, ver. 10, intimating that this is the very doctrine of proselytism, which no knowing Jew can be ignorant of, to wit, that he is to be washed and circumcised, and being so, is by the Jews counted as one recens natus, “new born,” brought forth by another mother, so that he who was kin to him before is now no longer kin to him. This λούτρον παλιγγενεσίας, washing of regeneration, Tit. iii. 5, is in effect a being new born; and he that so follows Christ in this regeneration, or new birth, Matt. xix. 28, (if that be the right punctuation,) he leaves brothers and sisters, father and mother, wife and children, ver. 29, and Mark x. 29, and Luke xviii. 29. And to the same purpose belongs that which follows, ver. 11, 12, intimating that speech of Christ, which Nicodemus so little understood, of being born anew of water, to have been a thing ordinarily seen and known among the Jews, ἐπίγειον, an ordinary, inferior, earthly thing, in comparison with the ἐπουράνια, those higher celestial doctrines (so much more contrary to the Jewish customs and laws) that should be revealed, and to the baptizing with the Holy Ghost, of which also he here speaks, referring still to this custom of proselytes among the Jews, which is here accommodated to the receiving of Christian religion, entering into his discipleship.

John 3:6

The actions of a natural man which hath none of this new Christian birth, that hath not thus given himself up to a Christian life, will be but natural actions, at least but external purifications, restraints of sin in the outward part. But the actions of a spiritual person, thus born anew from that higher principle, a proselyte of Christ’s, they will be spiritual, purifications of the very spirit.

John 3:7

And therefore you are not to wonder that I tell you of the necessity of this new birth, undertaking this new course, and forsaking the former, nor to think there is nothing in it because it is not visible to your eyes: many things have great force in them whose beginnings are not visible to the eye, or at all known by men.

John 3:8

As for example; the wind, which, though nobody knows from what part precisely it comes, what beginning it hath, and how produced, and when it riseth, or what becomes of it when it ceaseth, yet hath most discernible effects, comes with a great force and noise, (which is evidence enough that there is such a thing,) is heard by all men: and so is it in this matter; he that is born anew, that undertakes to be a proselyte of Christ, he by the Spirit of God, and those influences that are conveyed to him from Christ, is able to do wonderful things, is discernibly another kind of man than he was before; and so his new birth is and must be seen by the fruits and growth, &c., discernible to himself and others, though the beginnings or source, or means of conveying this unto him, be undiscernible. See Mark iv. 26.

John 3:9

Nicodemus still continued ignorant of the meaning and possibility of the truth of what Christ said, and therefore still questioned how this could be?

John 3:10

To which Jesus answered, This that I say of new birth in baptism being not only agreeable to but perfectly a piece of your doctrine about proselytes, it is strange that thou, being a learned Jew, a Pharisee, and master in Israel, shouldst not understand it. (See note [a] Matt. iii., and note [b] John xiii.)

a b

John 3:12

Your not believing or understanding (ver. 9.) those things that are ordinary in the Jewish law (see ver. 31.) is an argument that things of an higher nature will not be received by you.

John 3:13

And if I shall tell you that I am to ascend up to heaven, and from thence demonstrate to you that I came down from heaven, and am the very Messias, the eternal Son of God, that am now a man.

14, 15. And again, that I am to be lifted up on the cross, and thereby to fulfil what was typified by Moses’s lifting up the brazen serpent, and that this is the way by which I mean to bring all that believe in me to everlasting life, as all that looked on the brazen serpent were cured of whatsoever diseases.

John 3:16

For herein hath God’s unspeakable love been expressed to all mankind, that he hath sent his eternal Son to assume our nature, and to teach and give examples of holy life, and at last to die for them, and rise again, and ascend to heaven, all on this one design, that every person in the world that shall receive and obey him shall be rescued from eternal death, and then made partaker of eternal life.

John 3:17

For this my mission from God my Father was designed all in mercy and charity, not to punish or condemn any man, but on purpose that all men might be rescued from punishment.

John 3:18

He that receiveth and obeyeth me is by me secured that he shall escape all punishment, only he that rejecteth me is certainly condemned, (by the purport of that very covenant, of which mercy to believers is the principal part, all others being absolutely excluded,) for that great sin of refusing of Christ now sent to him, as having not embraced that only remedy, the only Son of God now offered to him.

John 3:19

And this is it that will aggravate your sin and punishment, that when God made such provision for you, when Christ came to enlighten and take men off from all their former evil courses, they were so besotted to their own sinful ways, that they chose rather to continue in them than to be reformed and purified by Christ, or but so much as to be taught their duty by him.

John 3:20

But as he that fears coming into the light, it is certain he hath somewhat to conceal, and that he hath not a mind to part with it; so the refusing to come and be instructed in the knowledge of his duty by me is an evidence that that man is a wicked man, and means to continue so, who cannot venture his actions in the light for fear they be found faulty, and he engaged to reform them.

John 3:21

Whereas he that lives a justifiable life, or resolves to amend what is amiss, a sincere, upright person, will be glad of a director, will come cheerfully to be put in the way of strictest duty, and venture to have his actions judged of whether they be right or no, which is an argument that what he doth he doth in the fear of God and with a good conscience.

and receiving those that believed on him baptized them.

a place chosen by him as commodious to that purpose by reason of the pools of water; and thither the people came and were baptized of him there.

this receiving of proselytes and using the ceremony of baptism, on which occasion mention was made of Christ’s using the same ceremony.

John 3:26

Hereupon they come and tell John that Christ (describing him to him) receiveth proselytes with this ceremony, and there is a great recourse to him.

I can do no more than I have commission from God to do, and that commission doth not equal me to him.

John 3:28

And therefore you cannot but remember that I always said of myself, that I am not the Messias, but only his harbinger.

John 3:29

When the bridegroom hath the bride in secret conference, to consummate the marriage, and the friend of the bridegroom hearkens at the door, to hear whether all succeed well or no, if the bridegroom signify (by some form of speech that was usual to that purpose) that all succeeds prosperously, then that friend rejoices exceedingly; and thus is it with me in my attendance on Christ at this time.

because. were many waters, ὕδατα πολλὰ ἦν. dispute, ζήτησις. a Jew: so the King’s MS and others read, μετὰ Ἰουδαίου. So the Syriac, Chrysostome, Theophylact, Noonus, and all the copies of Paris but one, saith Lucas Reugensis.

B b 2

[b] he that hath the bride] Among the Jews, in their rites of espousals, there is frequent mention of חומה, a place where, under a