These Jews were very zealous of the Jewish law that they observed it very strictly and even added their own by-laws to make things more difficult for common people to keep them. Fair easy? They filtered out gnats and mosquitoes and swallowed camels. “They suspended mountains from hairs. Believing themselves the saints of God and therefore His peculiar treasure, they regarded any association with the heathen as faithlessness to Yahweh”. – J. E.H. Thomson, ISBE 1915.

They did not mingle with sinful people and were prejudiced. They were merciless and didn’t love their fellowmen. They were so obsessed with the Law that they were even ready to put to death whoever was caught red-handed in a crime like adultery, or anyone who, according to them, committed the unforgivable sin of “blasphemy” against their God. They had some very funny tricks under their sleeves that, when any accusation was brought against them, they could easily escape unscathed by finding some loophole in the law (where the Scriptures are silent). Or, they would twist Scriptures or drag it a bit too far to their advantage.
They added traditions to the Law and compelled people to keep the traditions as they would the Law. They focused more on external observations like washing of hands before anything is eaten and focused less on the spirit of the Law which is related to the heart of man. Typical of the Roman Catholics? And even the so-called Reformed / Protestant church? They were actors and hypocrites to the core and so, were condemned point-blank by the Lord along with the Sadducees not once, not twice but several times.

For further reading – Fifty Marks of Pharisees, Zac Poonen, 2010.

First, they were critical of Jesus’s teachings and lifestyle and found fault with Him. Then, gradually, they started opposing and hating Him and the intensity only grew as He kept calling them hypocrites. They lost to Him every argument. When they saw people shifting loyalty, they envied Him. He was fast becoming more popular and they were rapidly losing their credibility. How and when would they see the end of it?
The Pharisees joined forces with their religious enemies, the Sadducees to put Him to death. Satan’s seed indeed!

Nicodemus was a Pharisee! He was also a man of authority but seemed to be a coward. He came to the Lord stealthily by night (John 3:1). He did not believe that Jesus is the Son of God so addressed Him as a Teacher come from God. Jesus did not beat around the bush. He gave Nicodemus answers to some of life’s vital questions. Why am I here? It is here in this world that man can see and enter the Kingdom of God – not after passing away from here. If so, How? You must be born again! (John 3:3) Nicodemus was a down-to-earth man (literally!) He had known of “being born from a mother’s womb” and nothing more. Jesus clarified: “You must be born of water and of the Spirit” (John 3:5). Where do I come from? Where am I going? Jesus answered these questions too. Just like how man does not know where the wind comes from and where it goes, no normal earthling knows where a person who is born again comes from and where he is going.

An iota of truth did enter Him and probably he believed because he questioned the wisdom of the authorities when they plotted against Jesus to put Him to death even before they heard Him.

Like everybody else who was with Jesus, he too must have been disappointed when Jesus died on the cross. He brought myrrh and aloes to embalm the body of Jesus as was the custom for the rich and dead.
Was there an element of faith (in the resurrection of the Lord) in this generous gesture of Nicodemus? Was he born again? Heaven will tell.

Spiritually minded people, not the carnal, know the answer to life’s vital questions. They know that all mankind was in the mind of God even before Time began; they were in Adam even when he was created. When Adam sinned, all mankind lost the glory of God. God put all the chosen ones in Christ to die with Him, when He died on the cross so that they can be born again to experience life in Him (Rom 6:5). All those who are “in Christ” are going to be eternally with Him beyond this Space and Time.

Spiritually minded people also know that those who don’t believe in Jesus as the Son of God are going to hell and then to the lake of fire and brimstone to be with God’s adversary Satan forever. Spiritually-minded people love the perishing lot and make every effort to convey the gospel to them so that they can win these souls for Christ.

This is He that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are One. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one – 1 John 5:6-8. Born of water and of the Spirit! Adam came by water (lymph/plasma?) only – not by water and blood. Blood entered when man sinned against God. (The fetus in a mother receives the mother’s blue blood and returns it through the umbilical cord. The baby’s own red blood flows in its body only after its birth as it starts breathing and its lungs and heart start functioning). Jesus came by water and blood. And He shed the blood on the cross for the sin of mankind as there is no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. When a person is born again, he/she is born of water and the spirit as the Holy Spirit quickens man’s spirit. While the blood (with its RBC, WBC, platelets, lymph, and hormones) still flows in the body, its power on the sinful flesh (not the physical muscles or muscle-related tissues) is lost. Henceforth, man’s spirit aligns with the Spirit of God to do the will of God by subduing the soul and the body. (Read more about this elsewhere in ABHOT).