John 3:19-24, You Do Not Know Me

19 They said to him therefore, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also." 20 These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come. 21 So he said to them again, "I am going away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come." 22 So the Jews said, "Will he kill himself, since he says, 'Where I am going, you cannot come'?" 23 He said to them, "You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins."

Continuing from yesterday, the Pharisees have a third problem. They do not know Jesus or understand his person. Jesus concludes they therefore cannot know God the Father. Here Jesus is in the midst of the ones who claim to be the guardians of the truth of Israel. They are the keepers of the holy covenant with God and the teachers of the people. And yet they are ignorant that the very God they profess to know and honor is among them. They are even seeking to arrest him and then put him to death.

Not knowing who Jesus is leads them to their fourth problem: where Jesus goes they cannot follow. Their very salvation is at stake. According to Jesus, they will die in their sins. Jesus ties belief in him to salvation from sin and death.

The fifth problem is that they are of this world and he is not. As the redeemer, Jesus comes from outside the world, enters into it as savior, and gathers those who will be saved by and through his sacrificial death.

Putting the five problems of the Pharisees together, we see that “Jesus stands alone because of who he is. In him alone God in person has come to us and made himself known to us” (Stott). Human insights cannot save humanity; only Jesus, who is from above, can save those of us from below. This is the very work of Jesus, and the Pharisees are blind to his divine enterprise.

Consider the insights of the world’s various religions and what one must do “to be saved.” And now consider Jesus and what he says. Give thanks to him today for what he has done for you.