3 Kinds of Sinners

~ The Same Remedy for Religious, Moral, & Physical Wrecks ~

One of the great messages of the Good News of Jesus Christ is that His death, burial, and resurrection paid for all varieties of sin by all kinds of people.  We see this illustrated in three successive chapters of the Gospel of John.  (Be sure and check out the comparison of these three sinners at the bottom of this post.)

A Man Full of Religion  ~  “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.’  Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most assuredly, 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? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?’  Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.”  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.’  Nicodemus answered and said to Him, ‘How can these things be?’  Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?  Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.  If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?  No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him should not perish bu have eternal life.  For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.  He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.  And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.  But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.’” (John 3:1-21). 

A Woman Who Knew She Was Full of Sin  ~  “Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John  (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), He left Judea and departed again to Galilee.  But He needed to go through Samaria.  So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.  Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.  A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give Me a drink.’  For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.  Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, ‘How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?’  For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, “Give Me a drink,’” you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.’  The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water?  Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?’  Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.’  The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.’  Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’  The woman answered and said, ‘I have no husband.’  Jesus said to her, ‘You have well said, “I have no husband,”  for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.’  The woman said to Him, ‘Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet.  Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.’  Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.  You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.  But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.  God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.’  The woman said to Him, ‘I know that Messiah is coming’ (who is called Christ). ‘When He comes, He will tell us all things.’  Jesus said to her, ‘I who speak to you am He’ (John 4:1-26).

A Man Full of Physical Misery ~  “After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.  Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.  In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.  For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.  Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.  When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?’  The sick man answered Him, ‘Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.’  Jesus said to him, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk.’  And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked.  And that day was the Sabbath. The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, ‘It is the Sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.’  He answered them, ‘He who made me well said to me, “Take up your bed and walk.”’  Then they asked him, ‘Who is the Man who said to you, “Take up your bed and walk”?’  But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, a multitude being in that place.  Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, ‘See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.’  The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well”  (John 5:1-15). 

A Comparison of These 3 Sinners  ~ The table below provides an illustration how the blood of Christ is sufficient for all kinds of people and all kinds of sin!

John 3:1-21	John 4: 1-26	John 5: 1-15
A man	A woman	A man
Full of religion	Full of sin	Full of misery
Came to the Savior	Met the Son of God	Transformed when the Lord touched him
A religious wreck	A moral wreck	A physical wreck
He met a Rabbi	She met her Messiah	He met the Great Physician
Nicodemus	Woman of Samaria	Man at the Pool of Bethsaida
Named Nicodemus	Unnamed woman	Unnamed man
Received a new birth	Received a new life	Received a new mobility
Man of high rank	Woman of low rank
Favored Jew	Despised Samaritan
High reputation	Low lifestyle
He sought Christ out by night	Christ spoke to her at mid-day

additional note:  Water was involved in all three instances.  When Jesus told Nicodemus that he must be “born again” water was implied in the birth imagery.  The woman was at the well and the unnamed man at the Pool of Bethsaida.  Jesus, the Messiah, said, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.  He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37-38). 

~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW

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