The preaching of
Jesus assaulted Nicodemus’ understanding of God. The letter of the law and the
covenant of Abraham was the Jews road to salvation. Nicodemus not only taught
compliance to this creed; he lived it. Despite claims of legal perfection and
attempts to keep the law, there was something lacking in his relationship to
God. Nicodemus knew his heart and his heart brought him to this interview with
Jesus. According to Jesus, repentance from sin and faith in God brought salvation.
It is not the reward of good deeds.
The whole message of
the Christian gospel is that God was in Christ reconciling the world by His
death and resurrection. Jesus’ statement to Nicodemus was an invitation to be
free from the hopelessness of moral reformation offered by the law. The problem
of sin goes deeper than individual actions. It goes to the very nature of man.
No amount of moral teaching can correct the problem; an act of God is needed. God
sent His Son.
Jesus fulfilled the
law and invited men to come back to God. He declared that the Kingdom of God belonged
to whosoever was willing to enter. Christians sing “whosoever surely meaneth me.”
Jesus bought salvation for all mankind, but it is only given to individuals.
God desires a relationship with each person. An earthly father’s attention is
divided among his children. An all-knowing, all-present God gives each child His
full focus. His eyes and ears are always open to our every need and deed. His
Spirit bears us up when we fall and rejoices over our every tiny step. God
walks within us.
The wisest moral teaching
cannot love us. It can only make demands. It can speak only to our faults. It
offers only to be our taskmaster. Nicodemus knew this. He was a slave to the
law. Jesus offered him the freedom of faith. The smallest measure of faith
invested in Christ causes the angels in heaven to rejoice.
“For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not
his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him
might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of
the only begotten Son of God.”
No comments:
Post a Comment