Christ starts at the beginning. There is a right order in which we must learn lessons in God’s school. We are not able to understand the mysteries of the kingdom unless we come by way of the new birth. Nicodemus is leaving this out and needs to be taken back to the beginning. Without this his questions are irrelevant. There is so much that needs to be set aside when a person first comes into the kingdom of heaven.
But we never get to hear him put his question. Before he could ask, the Lord Jesus interrupts him. What was his reason for coming? It is not clearly revealed in the record of the apostle John. Some say it was a personal mission on his part, and rather like the rich younger ruler he wanted to know what other good thing beside his law keeping he could do to be certain of his standing with God.
Others think that he came to negotiate either individually or with the sanction of some others. Could they not work together? According to this view, Nicodemus was thinking that they should not condemn Jesus out of hand. His teaching was very challenging, yes, more challenging than they would like; it seemed to imply that they, the clergy, the establishment had little standing with God. But nevertheless, would it not be marvellous if the Temple order had a resident healer of this standing?’ They had not had healings in years. We do not know when the last Old Testament miracle strictly occurred, but the last recorded Old Testament miracle, in chronological order, is Daniel in the lion’s den and his deliverance. There must have been others with the prophets, but they are not recorded. This alliance would adorn the Temple order. And Christ’s reply fits this very well. Why, it would be to the benefit of the people, it would be to the benefit to the clergy, the Jewish clergy. It would be to the benefit of Christ, in their view, because they would not have to chase him and persecute him and eliminate him when he became a threat to them. And so the conciliator, Nicodemus, begins the negotiation.
Possibly he came to ask about heaven. ‘We know thou art a teacher come from God’; tell me something about what takes place in heaven. This view of his question could be supported by Christ’s words, ‘If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?’ (John 3:12), in other words, you have come to me to ask about the mysteries of heaven, but you are not ready to hear such things. You don’t even believe what I have told you about the operation of the Spirit on earth. What takes place in heaven is far more wonderful than that, but you can only know of it by faith which you lack at present. If so, Christ’s answer is a rebuke to human presumption about being able to understand the deep things of God, when it has not yet understood even the elementary things.