John 3:17 – For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:17 – A New Birth Is Essential For Entering the Kingdom of God
Jesus begins his teaching in John 3 by revealing a few basic truths about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is a spiritual realm, and anyone who is not born of the Spirit cannot enter it.
The Spirit is the unseen force that motivates people to live for Christ. It is the source of all spiritual life (John 14:16; 15:26).
Being born from above or born anew is an essential part of entering the Kingdom of God. The word translated as “born” in this verse is anothen, which means both “again” and “from above.”
Nicodemus fails to grasp this concept. He misses Jesus’ wordplay and takes this statement at a more literal level than it really is.
He is confused by the idea that he must be born again to see God at work in his world. It is a new beginning, and it changes his whole way of living and seeing things.
This concept of a new birth is the heart of Jesus’ teaching in this passage and throughout John. It is the key to understanding why Jesus came to earth. He came to bring a new and better life for the world.
This is a rare passage from the Gospels in which Jesus discusses in detail the three persons of the Trinity. However, this discussion is not intended to be a theological treatise, but rather an attempt to challenge Nicodemus from theory to practice. His words here are a reminder that salvation is for everyone.
