"There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him,
Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily verily, I say unto thee,

Except a man accept the traditional reformationist theory of the atonement in which representative satisfaction is provided through blood appeasement for forensic justification so that the penal demands and requirements of divine justice can be absolved and wrath can be fully assuaged, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (Not John 3:1-3).

If that was what Jesus meant, why didn't he say it?

Again, did Jesus reply to Nicodemus' assertion by saying:

"Except a man believe in the redemptive bargain through which the substitutionary and vicarious sacrifice provided on the cross we are ransomed from the possession of the Devil by this legal transaction, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (No more John 3:3 than the first quote).
For if that was what Jesus meant, why didn't he say it?

Maybe Jesus should have said to Nicodemus:

"Except a man accomplishes his own character perfection and work hard to ensure he is acceptable and make himself a complete overcomer, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (Even less of the truth of John 3:3!)

The truth is that Jesus said none of these things when trying to explain to Nicodemus the Searcher the real truths of salvation. To remind ourselves, what Jesus actually said was:

"Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." (John 3:3).
In these very simple but profound words, Jesus explained the key to God's salvation in a way that is far truer to our experience than heavily weighted Latin-based words (like 'forensic justification') or descriptions of self-righteousness!

Our "theories of the atonement"--penal substitution, satisfaction, moral influence, whatever--are simply that: THEORIES. God does not provide a systematic theory of how he saves us--he just says he can and does! So when Jesus wants to speak deeply and urgently to one who is seeking after the truth of God's salvation, Jesus doesn't give him a mass of indigestible and convoluted theory, but the basic fact of how God saves us: by totally changing us.

We must be "born again."

Tragically that phrase has been hijacked by various groups, and means much less today than it did originally. Nicodemus expresses what should be our reaction: "How can a man be born when he is old?" The idea is totally ridiculous! But in being born again we have the best picture of how God saves us.

He doesn't take us as we are and fix us up a little.
He doesn't just 'wash off' the accumulated dirt of sin.
He doesn't provide us with a recipe to follow.
He totally transforms us, so that we are completely different people.

That is the key to Jesus' assertion to Nicodemus. He does not simply take a "reasonably good" kind of object and polish it up a little. Sometimes our images of the washing of baptism suggest to our minds that we are simply somewhat dirtied up on the outside. The truth of the matter is that we are rotten to the core.

A fact that Scripture reminds us of again and again: none righteous, no not one; all have sinned and come short; heart deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; all our righteousnesses as filthy rags--on and on in a litany of condemnation.

Such statements are not supposed to lead to despair, but to remind ourselves of exactly where we are. There is no chance if we rely on ourselves. There is no hope if we think all we need is to be "cleaned up" a bit. There is absolutely no possibility as long as self remains in control.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: the old has gone, the new has come. Absolutely nothing else will do! Total transformation, a complete reworking of the material, starting entirely afresh. Only then is there hope, for as new beings we come to God, leaving the dead slough of ourselves behind.

The trouble with our attempts to "explain" how salvation works is that we always want to devise some "system" by which we imagine God works. The difficulty is, of course, that in doing so we force ourselves to go far beyond what God has told us on the subject!
But instead of viewing the regulations, look at the relationship. What went wrong in the first place? A smashed, destroyed relationship that was based on mutual trust. What needs to be done? The establishment of a new trusting relationship, just like that new relationship between parent and new-born child.

God's promise is not to get into involved manoeuvers to achieve legal appeasement or to bargain for our souls. His promise is to be able to so heal and re-make us that we can come into his presence as his newborn children, made once again in his divine image.
We must be born again.

© Jonathan Gallagher