John 3:9 Commentary and Bible Study

How is it I have never heard of this before? How is it that this is not orthodox teaching among us? How is it that this is no part of our current Jewish tradition? How is it that this is not the teaching in the Temple and among the establishment and the settled clergy? Nicodemus believes that his race, his people, are by their very nature God’s people accepted by him, bound for heaven, and that the way to secure the very best acceptance with God and favours from him is to keep meticulously the ritual of the ceremonial law. That was his conviction. He was a man of great wisdom, no doubt, and an experienced leader of the Jews, an expert in the ancient Scriptures and the law, but he had not seen grace: that from the very earliest times it was published that God saves freely, that acceptance with God is given as a free gift to men and women who come to him and repent of their sin.