~ 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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