This is one of the ways we know we are saved. There is a work that has been carried out in us. Others can see it. Parents say of children who have been saved – Oh his behaviour is so different; her behaviour is so different, they say of a daughter. They are so much more courteous and polite, control themselves so much better. We do not have the constant outbursts. Maybe there will be a slip now and then, but things are so changed, and it is obvious that God has worked within.
And it is obvious to me also, because I used to love my sin. Now though I am not free from sin, now I hate it. I used to welcome it, now I fight it. I used to commit it with little movement of conscience, and now when I commit it, how bad I feel, and how much I want the forgiveness of God.
There is never a basis for unbelief which is to do with intellectual doubts. People think there is. ‘Oh, he’s not a believer because he just cannot figure it out, or accept it. He’s got doubts – poor thing.’ No, say these verses, the reason we do not come to the light is because of our moral stand: our deeds are evil. We want darkness, we don’t want God; we don’t want his rule. Intellectual doubts are often a smokescreen for the real cause.
Why does John not add the detail – what happened to Nicodemus? Was he saved or not? We look in vain at the passage to see how it all ended. The apostle John just concludes the record. He does not write as modern journalists would write. He does not tell you what happened to Nicodemus. He just ends the narrative. That is because that is not what is important to us. The human angle is not what is important to us. What is important is the message that Christ gave. So the apostle John, under inspiration, does not blur it by telling you the whole human story.
Some people think the address to Nicodemus stops at verse 16, but it doesn’t – it goes all the way down to verse 21. And you can imagine this eminent teacher listening to Christ. ‘Nicodemus, if you are really looking for truth you must to the light.’ Of course, the person who wants truth, sees himself, by the work of the Spirit as sinful, in need of a Saviour.