Sequence

I just noticed something in John 3 here that I have not noticed before. This discussion seems to talk a lot about what we can or cannot do along with what must happen if one wants to be a part of God's kingdom. Now that I think of it it seems a little unusual for Jesus to be so intent on talking about the word do. Many other times when people came to Him and asked what they must do He often steered the conversation to the issue of belief. But here He seems to start out with the doing discussion.

...no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus *said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:2-5)

What I see next seems to focus around what we know or don't know.

"The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can these things be?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony." (John 3:8-11)

At this point I now see the transition into what we do or do not believe. It is very like Jesus to guide nearly every discussion to talking about what we believe.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

...so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." (John 3:11-12, 15-16, 18)

The last thing I see in this sequence is a discussion about judgment. Judgment at its core meaning is a revealing, an exposure of what is believed deep in the heart, far beyond our mental profession or claims or systems of intellectual beliefs. Judgment is all about revealing for everyone to see the real motives and attitudes and gut-level nature of what is actually going on inside of us.

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name (truth about His character) of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." (John 3:17-21)

Why does this last part talk about deeds instead of motives? I always assumed deeds referred to external behavior that was evident to the public to start with. But if that is true then it would make no sense to be afraid of Light for fear of being exposed.

I believe what is implied here is that those who are afraid of the Light of real truth exposing what is deep in the heart are afraid of having their selfish motives exposed that underly all of their external righteousness. The Pharisees were quite intent on their outward deeds being evident and public, but their tended to get very upset whenever Jesus came along and began to expose their true motives and the real condition of their hearts. So it seems to me that Jesus is here using shorthand to link the word deeds in this case to the real motives of the heart that underlies those deeds. Otherwise there would be no reason for fear to be involved.

I also find this passage very instructive about the true nature of judgment. Jesus stated very clearly that God never condemns us. We have assumed that judgment and condemnation are one and the same thing. Because of this deeply embedded assumption we have, the Bible sometimes uses judgment interchangeably with the more accurate use of the same word in regards to revealing, so one needs to examine the context to see which way it is being intended. But here Jesus lays out heaven's perspective on real judgment which is simply the exposure of what is hidden inside of us.

As I take a broader overview of this passage it is finally becoming more clear to me that this whole discourse really is a synopsis of the gospel as it is in Jesus. I have spent years very frustrated in not being able to crack the “code” that seemed to enshroud this passage for me personally. I have heard many discourses on it, memorized sections of it, been taught all kinds of doctrines and ideas from it and heard it thrown around like candy for nearly all of my life. But it was so vague and generalized and lacking in demonstration that I felt inoculated to experiencing the real significance of these words of Jesus.

Even now I feel like I am only getting slight glimmers of the real meaning of these words. I have to confess that I feel very much like Nicodemus when I read this. I am baffled, confused and even somewhat dismayed as I hear what sounds like a secret code or a foreign language that is so strange and different from the familiar religion that I have been taught all of my life. And even though these words have been used very often in the Christian culture that I grew up in, the real meaning behind them is nearly just as confusing for me as they were for Nicodemus when he first heard them.

I feel somewhat sad that it has taken nearly 50 years for me to begin to figure out what this passage is really saying to my heart. It is also a sad commentary on the effectiveness of the religions around me, that they are so distracted by other priorities (like behavior control) that even though they have nearly worn out this passage they still are unable to get across to many people the real life-changing truths about God so close to the surface in this passage. I suspect it is not from lack of trying but much more from a lack of personal experience of this truth so that the life of the speaker is congruent with the message they are attempting to convey.

Along that line I still have to confess that I have the very same problem. One of my areas of greatest discomfort is that my face and my vocal inflections are all too often out of harmony with the exciting truths that I try to share with people. This is so much of a problem that it often even irritates me while I am talking sometimes. I feel trapped in a body and a personality that is partially stuck in the past while my heart is trying to move on to something very new and different and passionate. When I get close to God's presence my insides feel like they come alive but my outsides feel like a hardened shell and refuse to allow most of what is inside to be evident in my demeanor and expressions. Sort of sounds a lot like Romans 7 to me.

One more important thing I want to mention before I close this out. What I see this morning here in this passage is a clearer picture of the sequence that someone else pointed out to me recently. They used these words to describe the sequence in this way:

• Our actions and behaviors are caused by what we feel. We tend to do things because we feel like doing them.

• Our feelings come from the things we think. The way our thoughts flow produce feelings which then lead to actions.

• Our thoughts are a product of what we really believe. Our beliefs form the guidance system for what we choose to think about or the direction in which our thoughts gravitate. These beliefs do include our intellectual beliefs but much more so our gut-level, emotional belief system that has much more influence over us than our professed beliefs.

• Our beliefs at the heart level are formed by our perceptions of what we see. This means that how we perceive reality, how we really view ourselves and most importantly how we perceive God and how He feels about us are the foundational basis for our real beliefs.

So how we see God determines what we believe which determines how we think which affects the way we feel which causes most of our behaviors.

The real problem lies in that we tend to usually focus more on trying to control or change our behavior instead of paying attention to the deepest root cause back at the other end of this chain of motivation.

The more that I have thought about this sequence the more I sense that it is absolutely true. And given this truth I begin to see that to make any real lasting change in my life or to help anyone else effectively, I must always focus on addressing the root of this sequence instead of wasting a lot of time at the other end trying to manage the symptoms of external behaviors. Behavior management generally produces a lot of hypocrisy because it fails to address the core issues, the heart beliefs linked with our distorted pictures of God deep in our soul.

As I looked over this passage this morning I noticed for the first time a very similar outline of this sequence. Jesus started where Nicodemus was focused, on the externals and his desire to be a good religious person and be accepted by God. This is in the realm of behavior which is where most religious people think all the important stuff exists. But Jesus quickly took Nicodemus back through the sequence all the way to what was going on at the heart level and his mistaken views about how God felt about him in order to show Nicodemus where the real problem lay.

Nicodemus was focusing on the outward signs that he had noticed in Jesus' life and was attracted to possibly be a part of this intriguing new kingdom emerging before him. So Jesus started there and led him back through the fact that these signs could not be experienced until things at the heart level were radically different – as different as being born all over again as a new person. Then He shared with Nicodemus that what you do comes from what you know, and what you know comes from what you believe at the heart level. What you believe about religion and about life will be shaped mostly by what you believe about God and what you think about God will be seen in whether you are willing to come closer to the Light or are afraid of being exposed.

The Light is the fuller revelation of the truth about God as revealed in the attitudes, actions and spirit that surrounded the life of Jesus while on this earth. The main purpose Jesus came to this earth was to reveal the real truth about God which is really judgment. This new, greater revelation about how God feels about us is such a strong light that everyone who clings to other ideas about God become very nervous whenever this Light begins to expose their false opinions. Jesus says that men loved darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.

Again, I believe that when Jesus speaks of deeds here He is strongly implying both outward actions, but even more so the inward motives behind our actions. He is saying that our righteous deeds are actually rooted in evil motives of selfishness and desires rooted in pride. When we are living in a counterfeit religious system – which is all religions other than what Jesus demonstrated – we are going to find ourselves fearful whenever the real truth about God comes close to us. We naturally resist the truth about God because it always threatens to expose the falseness of our deeply cherished opinions about life, reality and religion.

But anyone who is ready to let go of false and ineffective religion and allow the real truth about God as revealed in Jesus to come into their heart and draw them toward God's heart, those people are going to be the ones who will want to come to the Light. Jesus says that they practice the truth. This is not a talking about lots of effort to be a good person or having the right list of facts. This means that when a person is willing to be real, to be transparent about what is really going on in their heart and is willing to have God expose their insides and connect to their heart, they can be drawn closer to this revelation of God's true character and will not be afraid of real judgment.

To live from the heart and allow Jesus to do the work He wants to do at that much deeper level is to let go of all fear of being manifested and exposed. And when we live from the heart and are open and honest with God and ourselves as God is increasing the level of light in our souls, that kind of living is what Jesus says is wrought in God.