“Of the other person we read in that remarkable chapter, the third of John’s gospel—­Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, and also a teacher.  Well knew he the law, as to the letter of it, both moral and ceremonial; he must also have been acquainted with all the Old Testament scripture types and prophecies, it being his office to expound; and no doubt, among others, was looking for the promised Messiah.  Jesus does not send him to either the law or the prophets.  This ruler comes with a conviction and an acknowledgment that Jesus himself was a teacher immediately from God; and Jesus immediately takes upon himself his great office, and begins with urging that which is a sinner’s first business—­’to know himself,’ what he is by nature, and the necessity of the new birth.  Nicodemus, with all his learning, was a stranger to this doctrine:  ’How can a man be born when he is old?’ Jesus repeats his doctrine, ’He must be born of water and the Spirit;’ baptized with water and the Holy Ghost.  ’That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must be born again.’  Humble that proud reason that will believe nothing but what it can understand.  ’The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.’  A mystery it is; nevertheless it is true.

“Follow out the chapter, my dear:  Jesus preaches his own gospel, and brings in that beautiful type, the serpent, which he had commanded to be raised on a pole, that those who had been bitten with fiery serpents, whose bite was death, should look upon it and be healed.  Read it, my dear, in the 21st of Numbers; and in reference to this, he himself says, ’Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’  Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  Quickened, renewed in the spirit, of his mind, old things pass away and all things become new—­new principles, new desires, new pleasures, new ends.  The work is God’s.  The whole plan of redemption is his from first to last.  It is clearly revealed in Scripture, and there is no dispute among Christians concerning it.  The fall of man, his corruption and depravity; his state under the curse of a broken covenant, and his exposure to eternal misery; his helplessness and total inability to gain acceptance with God; his ignorance of himself—­’dead in trespasses and sins,’ ’without God and without hope in the world:’  this is his situation by nature.  But there is good news proclaimed:  ’God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,’ to become the surety of lost sinners.  He took our nature upon him, our sins upon him, our duties upon him:  he was placed in our stead; sustained the penalty of the broken law; fulfilled its utmost demands; redeemed us; gave us a new covenant, of which himself is the surety:  and there is ’no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.’