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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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John 3:20
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All hate the light, even people like Nicodemus, who kept the ceremonial law and the ritual so carefully, thinking it would get them to heaven, but they did not want to actually live for God as they should have done. When you come to Christ, when you come to God in conversion, your deeds are reproved. You come under conviction of sin. You realise what is wrong with you. You are open to being shown what is wrong with you, and you repent of that sin.By the work of the Spirit in his heart Nicodemus changed, I believe. He was a changed man after this interview with Christ, and step-by-step he came to understand. We read an account of him later on in the Gospel of John, he is a kind of secret disciple in the Sanhedrin council. He attempts to defend Christ, so you can see the work in his heart. Then at the end of the Gospel, when Christ is crucified, he seeks with Joseph of Arimathea to get him a decent burial, and he is obviously a changed man.
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We hear it said from time to time that there is no repentance in the Gospel of John. This is all the language of repentance. Christ explaining to Nicodemus. People do not come to me because of sin, because they do not want to be reproved. They do not want to become aware of their sin, which means they do not have to repent. They do not want to feel any shame and to bow before God and cry out for forgiveness. It is all about repentance. The word is not used but it is the language of repentance.
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