The Friendly Fire Room Presents
Listen And See
Thank you Wanda Barlow for this great idea!
Pronouns Metaphors Errors Part 18
Pronouns Metaphors Errors Pt 18
Pronouns, Metaphors, and Errors
Message
February 22, 2015
Part 18
NKJ John 3.3-5
3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 4 Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" 5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Look!...
“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God” As a master in Israel, Nicodemus should have
known the prophesy of Ezekiel 36.25-27,
concerning the kingdom and Israel:“Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you,
and you shall be clean…and I will put My
Spirit within you”.
This cleansing is not the with the literal water of the ceremonial cleansings of the Law, but with the Spirit of God.
There is no article to either of the two nouns, water and Spirit. While that may mean nothing
to you, it is an important element in the Greek
language.
This construction places stress upon the qualitative aspect of both nouns rather than their mere identity.
That spiritual water, nevertheless, stands for the Holy Spirit, which can be seen from the use of a name-change figure in…
John 7.38,39
38 “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water( the Holy Spirit) .”
39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”
But with this translation…“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” …and without an explanation, the English
reader is left to his own devices in order to
figure out the relationship between “water”
(without an article) and “the Spirit”
(with an article), which was not written that way.
Whatever it is that the Holy Spirit does in the
process of establishing the birth of the believer,
God the Holy Spirit is the source of supply for
the “spirit( filling with life quality)” aspect of the
process and the “water( cleansing of sin quality)”
aspect required in the process of
being born again( born from above). Without the presence of more complete
information being supplied by the translation,
we are understandably easily confused.
Also, we are more likely to think of “water” and “the Spirit” as two separate and distinct nouns, having two separate meanings, rather than to think of them both as qualities; namely, “water( cleansing quality)” and “spirit( spirit quality)”, and least likely to relate them both to the one and the same entity, the Holy Spirit.
Personally, have we not all heard a range of
speculation and explanation attempting to
discover the intended meaning for the two nouns,
water and spirit? In defense of the translators, in their attempt to
help us along, they do establish the identity of the the One having water quality and spirit quality,
as being that of “the Spirit”. But this is done at the expense of losing“spirit” as a quality, and leaving the word for“water quality” hanging out there by itself,
to dry.
OK smarty-pants, how would you have translated it?
Well, I’m not sure if it would work; maybe this- “Unless one is born of water and spirit by
the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom
of God”
So, the idea of the necessity for one to be born out of water and Spirit, mean the same, and they both refer to the work of the Holy Spirit.
This also explains why, in the following verses (John 3.6-8) only the Spirit is mentioned, and not the water.
Back on track…
NKJ John 3.6-8
6 "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 "Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.‘
8 "The wind blows where it wishes, and
you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where
it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone
who is born of the Spirit.“
NKJ John 3.9-10
9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”
10 Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things?"
NKJ John 3.11-12
11 "Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness.
12 "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
NKJ John 3.13-15
13 "No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.
14 "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
NKJ John 3.16-17
16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
NKJ John 3.18-19
18 "He who believes in Him is not
condemned; but he who does not believe is
condemned already, because he has not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light
has come into the world, and men loved
darkness rather than light, because their deeds
were evil.
Today, we will take a closer look at the very
beginning of the familiar John 3.16, and
eventually extend our visit to places which will
take us through John 3.19.
GNT John 3:16
Let’s focus on just two words for now.
GNT John 3:16
Look at the actual first word 
”for”,
which is a conjunction used to introduce a sub-ordinate proposition.
In other words, John 3.16 is the minor part of a
two-part relationship of comparison which has
its major part residing somewhere previous
to this statement.The main proposition expresses an action, while
this subordinate proposition demonstrates what
the action is like.
This is where the second word 
comes in,
which is most often translated “so”
so, actually is a marker used to identify
the second part of that two-part comparison that
looks like this:
as, just as, even as,………so, so also, like, just as
This is the condensed version of that which is expanded on in the next verses of 3.16ff.
14 Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so (also) must the Son of Man be lifted up,
15 that (purpose clause) whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
A significant breakdown has come about between the popular misunderstanding of this word “so” in John 3.16 compared with its original intended meaning, to the extent that it is now almost impossible to convince anyone how to grasp the true meaning of it. You might notice we are finally starting to reach into the “errors” portion of our theme; Pronouns, Metaphors, and Errors.
The Bible in Basic English (1949/64)
John 3:16
For God had such love for the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever has faith in him may not come to destruction but have eternal life.
Perhaps even you are convinced that the place of emphasis must be upon the English word “so”, because the purpose of this adverb was intended to modify the verb “love” in order to stress the magnitude of God’s love for the world.
In other words, “so” is effectively put for “so great”, with this important distinction; that His love is“so great” in a quantitative sense.The popular misunderstanding suggests that since the world “so-o-o” big, correspondingly it takes “so-o-o” much love to embrace it all, and even “so-o-o” much more to love it as God has loved it when He gave His Son for it. Is this what we are supposed to believe?
If we believe the Word of God, we must believe that our Heavenly Father does tell us what we should believe.When we get His Word straight, as He intended for us to hear it, we can then know what to believe.
NKJ John 3:16-17
16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
17 "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Many will be surprised on the Day of Judgment
when they discover
that it was just as the Word of God says;
only the righteousness of Christ is able to save you.All men are sinners and no one can save himself.
God is just, so He must punish sin;
but He is also merciful, moreover gracious,
and offers His Son as the perfect sacrifice
in order to purchase a place for you in heaven,
which He offers to you as the free gift of eternal life.Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah,
the Anointed One, He is God Incarnate.
In order to pay the debt of our sins,
He came from Heaven, having been sent by the Father,
where He lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father
even unto the shameful death upon the cross
in order to pay the debt of your sins.This gift must be received by faith,
believing that Jesus’ perfect life and Cross Work
was His complete and necessary Atonement
for your sins, in your behalf.
Faith is a gift that comes by the Power of God the Holy Spirit working in a person’s innermost being.
Only the power of God can open your heart to the willingness to have the void within it filled
with the presence of Christ by His Spirit.The Holy Spirit has the authority and power to quicken your dead spirit, to make it come to life.
Only the life of His Spirit’s quickening of your heart will allow the Gospel message of salvation to even make sense to you, to truly “hear” the message and give you the ability,
as the Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus,
to recognize your need for forgiveness and restoration, and gain the desire of your heart to be favorably inclined to want to receive Christ as your personal Lord and Savior.If you have not done so before this moment,
ask Jesus to forgive you your sins,
tell Him you’ve stop trying to be your own savior,
and ask Him to come into your life right now,
and to give you eternal life. Then, in faith believing,
thank Him for the gift that He is giving you,
the one He paid for in full in your place,
in Jesus’ name,
AMEN
Copyright February, 2015
Rev. Jim Craig
All Rights Reserved
Bibliography
Agnes, Michael and Charlton Laird (eds.). Webster’s New World Dictionary and Thesaurus. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1996.
Aland, Kurt, Matthew Black, Carlo M. Martini, Bruce M. Metzger, and Allen Wikgren (eds.). The Greek New Testament, 4th rev. ed. Germany: Biblica-Druck, 1994.
Benner, Jeff A. The Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible. College Station, Texas: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Inc., 2005
Bullinger, E. W. Figures of Speech Used in the Bible; Explained an Illustrated. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 2007.
Chapman, Benjamin. Greek New Testament Insert. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1977.
Dana, H. E., and Julius R. Mantey. A Manual of the New Testament. Canada: The Macmillan Company, 1957.
Louw, Johannes P. and Eugene A. Nida. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains. New York, NY: United Bible Societies, 1989.
The ESV Study Bible. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2011.
Metzger, Bruce M. Lexical Aids for Students of New Testament Greek. Princeton, New Jersey, 1977.
Wikipedia contributors. "Xenophon." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Aug. 2014. Web. 19 Aug. 2014.
Wuest, Kenneth S. The New Testament; An Expanded Translation. Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1992.
Wuest, Kenneth S. (Revised, Donald L. Wise). The Practical Use of the Greek New Testament, rev. ed. Chicago, Il: Moody Press, 1982.
Walsh, J. Martyn and Anna Kathleen Walsh. Plain English Handbook: A Complete Guide to Good English, 7th rev. ed. Cincinnati, Ohio: McCormick-Mathers PublishingCompany,1977.