Art as expression – NOT as market campaigns, will still capture our Imaginations
This astounding prophecy was not a mere clever prediction of Jesus, based upon political considerations, and the probabilities indicated by the rebellious nature of Israel and the character of the Roman authority.
The Elect are people who will love God and choose to serve him are “the elect” foreordained before all time to inherit eternal salvation.
The great prophecies of Isaiah which formed the background of the apostle’s thought here, and which he would immediately quote, foretold, the formation of the Christian church, for the spiritual worship of God, under the image of a temple, which God would build on Messiah as a foundation-stone thereof.
The natural man finds it very difficult to receive spiritual things, due to his inherent preoccupation with the mechanics of them, the “how” of everything. Nicodemus’ question is therefore one of remarkable interest to all. How persistently man probes every mystery!
The pursuit of earthly treasures is a disease that feeds and increases upon itself.
The Holy Spirit is the blessed Spirit, a member of the GODHEAD, who takes up residence in Christian hearts in consequence of their being sons of God (Galatians 4:6), and in fulfillment of the apostolic promise of such an indwelling to all believers who will repent and be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38f), and is thus identifiable as the “Holy Spirit of promise” (Ephesians 1:13).
Here the call for silence opens the imaginary proceedings of a court, where God will face the heathen world with a test question.
