When Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, eager to question one who had performed such miracles, the Master's great love enabled him to discern his visitor's need. He must have known that Nicodemus, educated in the material religious systems of his day, had need to be awakened to the living realities of Spirit, to a new outlook on God as his creator and the creator of all. Christ Jesus told him that one must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. To the Pharisee's puzzled query (John 3:4), "How can a man be born when he is old?" the Master answered, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
Today, as yesterday, what a world of wistful longing lies in the Pharisee's question! Is it possible to be born again, to leave the old mistakes and failures, the fettering beliefs of old age, decay, and death, and to gain a sense of man's spiritual existence as a child of God? What a wonderful new world must have opened up to this Pharisee and ruler of the Jews as he listened humbly to the Master!
That the thought of Nicodemus had been awakened to a more spiritual sense of law and life is evidenced by an incident which is related farther on in John's Gospel. When the chief priests and Pharisees had sent officers to take Jesus and they had returned without him, saying (John 7:46), "Never man spake like this man," Nicodemus said to the angry Pharisees, "Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?"
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