Received At Jerusalem And Teaches Nicodemus About Second Birth Series

The love that flowed through Jesus, the love that Jesus lived can only be understood fully over against this brittle, rigid, formal religion. Only when I see what man has done, can I understand what Jesus came to do. And it is shocking. In Jesus, incarnate love is dropped down in the midst of an oppressive religion of ceremony and ritual. And they smash each other, because the two can’t live together; it’s impossible. You see, when Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly”, He needed this religion there, so He could say emphatically, “I am totally other than that. That is not what I am talking about. If fact, It is from the pit. The abundant life is something totally other than that.” Unless Jesus could say that, I know us; we would say that the abundant life was something that only operated within the religious system. As far as the world is concerned this is what religion is. As far as the world is concerned, I could not rise higher than piety. But Jesus said, ”I am opposed to that. I am other than that. What I have, cannot coexist with that.” If Jesus hadn’t said that, I know us, we would have taken His abundant life and tried to make it work inside religion. Even after all He said, we still try to do that. So what would we have done, if He did not try to teach us the truth? The two cannot possibly live together. Be prepared for a shock-there is a lot of Pharisee in all of us.

What is wrong with a Pharisee? If Jesus is so mad at them, what is it about them that brings out the anger of God. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “I am not come to destroy the Law (the Torah), I am come to fulfill it.” It is interesting that the Pharisees said the same thing. But what the Pharisees meant was that they were going to obey every detail by rigid obedience, and show by their actions that they were worthy of God. They believed that God chose them and that they were the true people of God. They had missed the whole point. What is it that had made the people of Israel the people of God? It was that God revealed Himself to them in their history. He told them His name, He told them whom He was, He unveiled His Heart to them, He entered into a covenant with them and said, “I will be your God, and you will be my people.” “I will dwell in the midst of you.” What made Israel special? It was the presence of God. It was the revelation that God gave himself to them. And one of the things that God gave in His covenant was the Law. But the great issue was Himself. There was nothing special about Israel; it was God that made them special.

The Pharisees took the Law, but God didn’t matter any more and the covenant didn’t matter any more. What mattered was the Law, the beautiful Torah, with all of its marvelous commands that they could keep to show that they were worthy. And so it was no longer, “We are God’s people, because of His presence among us.” It is, “We are God’s people; look how we live and how we keep His commands.” Jesus said, “You search the scripture, because in it you think you have eternal life.” He was saying, “You don’t have it; you are great students, but you missed it.” They had lost God in His word. Isn’t that amazing. They were back to idolatry again, but their idol was The Book.