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If God were not in on it

If God were not in on it

Reference Jn 3:12-18

The discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus is very interesting. God knows everything but acts to test us for a moment. This is a controlled dialogue to keep Nicodemus and his views pointing to God; But he was struggling to tune into Jesus's view point. There's something to this. Jesus doesn't dump everything on Nicodemus at once. He moves from new birth (v.3) to wind (v.8) to the bronze serpent (v.14) to the love of God (v.16). He's meeting Nicodemus where he is and drawing him forward—which is exactly the pattern we are experiencing in our own lives, if we let Him to interact. Jesus isn't trying to win an argument; He's trying to bring a man from darkness into light, one step at a time. It's a good catch about the testing dynamic — and there's actually a passage later in John that names it explicitly. In John 6:5-6, Jesus asks Philip where they can buy bread for the crowd, and John tells us directly: "He asked this only to test Him, for He already knew what He was going to do." Same pattern as what we are seeing with Nicodemus. The question isn't information-gathering for Jesus; it's diagnostic and formative for the person being asked. It surfaces what's really in someone's heart.

Jesus pivots to the bronze serpent in Numbers 21 — Moses lifting it up so that anyone who looked at it lived — as the pattern for Himself being "lifted up." why? Because Jesus is doing God-Pointing and God-revealing acts. He talked everything to this world what He knew by experience. He gave witness only to what He has seen with His own eyes. 

God drafted the strategy Himself: it was necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up, so that everyone who looks to Him — trusting, expecting — would gain real, eternal life. Why? Because God so loved the world. Not one person needs to be destroyed. Anyone, everyone, can have a whole and everlasting life. He came to help. Jesus came to put the world right again — and He's still offering that help to us today. Let's receive it. Let's approach Him boldly for what He has already offered — not just to Nicodemus, but to everyone. One thing worth sitting with: Nicodemus wasn't rebuked for coming at night, or for failing to understand. He was met, taught, and sent back into his world carrying more than he came with. That's probably the model for how Jesus handles us too. He presses us not to frustrate us, but because He sees what we can't yet see. The tension Nicodemus felt — wanting to understand, unable to tune in — is often exactly where growth happens. He comes "by night" in John 3:2, and he leaves the conversation still in process. But he shows up again in John 7:50, speaking up for Jesus before the Sanhedrin, and again in John 19:39, openly bringing spices for Jesus's burial — each appearance bolder than the last. The pressing produced something.

This is a mind-blowing, boat-sinking, net-breaking experience. Amen!!!

In His Grip
Shabbat Shalom from Kent, London
Have a Great Weekend


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