How can these things be?

Genesis 12:1-4a Psalm 121 Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 John 3:1-17

Nicodemus reacts to Jesus’ call to be born from above.

Paul knows God as the one who gives life to the dead and calls into being the things that do not exist.

Jesus says that as his followers we enter into the company of those who are like the wind; you do not know where it comes from and where it goes. Our certainty is that being born of water and the spirit, we discern flesh as flesh and spirit as Spirit.

Do not be astonished Jesus says!

Nicodemus knows Jesus to be a Rabbi, a teacher, because he has seen the signs Jesus has done, signs he can only believe could be done by one sent by God.

How can these things be?

Very truly I tell you, says Jesus;

we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen, yet you do not believe our testimony.

You? We? Our? Jesus moves from the I of his purpose to the we of his person.

Moses demands the testimony of two or three witnesses. Jesus’ testimony is ratified of the Spirit; both speak; Jesus is the Son of Man, who ascends and descends from heaven; who is lifted up so that whoever believes in him may have eternal life; not by birth in the flesh but by water and Spirit; the waters of birth and the Spirit. This was the testimony of John the baptiser on seeing Jesus; behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world… he who baptises with the Holy Spirit…This is the Son of God.

How can these things be?

Jesus suffers, dies and rises from death, death on a cross; God the Father gives God the Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. We are all saved from slavery through Christ; freed; redeemed, to live a life in all its fullness; to receive of the abundance of God together with all the families of the Earth.

To believe is to love- not to adhere to a law; it is to love. Jesus is the beloved of the Father, in whom we believe; in Jesus, the Father is revealed to us by the Spirit.

Nicodemus believed the signs and he is to believe in the one who saves, the one who is ascended into heaven and seated at the Right Hand of the Father, in whom we are blessed; in whom we do not perish; in whom we receive overflowing life.

Everyone! Everyone, not only the heirs; we are brought into the blessing through our love; belief. We are grafted into the vine of blessing by Christ; not by our works but by his work on the cross; by the word to our hearts that we are Justified.

Paul says of us,

Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due. But to one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

The promise depends on faith.

How can these things be?

Faith: trust. And love: belief.

And who is this God in whom we are to trust and love?

Nicodemus calls Jesus Rabbi or Master; the psalm calls him LORD. But the one we read as LORD has a personal name YHWH: I am: a verb not a metaphor.

LORD, Master, Creator; each a metaphor bringing emotional triggers; LORD speaks of worldly power and rulers; Master of slavery and Creator of a recent controversies that deaden the mind. Translators have an agenda and a context.

There is power in the name.

The psalm praises the name of God; YHWH. YHWH is maker of heaven and earth, one who does not slumber but keeps us; is shade from the harsh sun, who keeps us from evil and keeps us in life. Jesus is LORD.

Jesus will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forever more; the one who gives life to the dead and calls into being the things that do not exist.

Grace and peace.