“Seeing is not believing—it is only seeing.” — George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin
Our modern society is obsessed with the material. We aren’t necessarily “materialistic” in the sense of craving jewelry or yachts, but we are addicted to physical matter. We are a people who demand to have our feet firmly planted on the literal ground.
In John 3, Jesus has a revealing conversation with Nicodemus, a Pharisee, about the nature of belief. Jesus uses the metaphor of rebirth to illustrate the shift required for salvation:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).
Nicodemus responds with a literalist’s confusion: “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb?”
The Penetrating Question
Nicodemus was a learned man; he wasn’t literally asking about the physics of a womb. He was asking a much more penetrating question: “How can an old man like me, set in my dogmas, ever come to understand the Messiah differently?” He was essentially stating that it was more likely for him to be physically reborn than to have his spiritual worldview overturned.
Jesus’ response is the key to the entire mystery: “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:6).
Jesus is telling Nicodemus that the Spirit is not a physical object to be grasped, but a force to be believed. In the original Greek, the word for “belief” here denotes a physical action—a step of faith—rather than a mere state of mind.
Earthly Things and Heavenly Signs
Jesus presses the spiritual leader on his inability to see the truth standing directly in front of him:
“I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?” (John 3:12).
Jesus compares Himself to the bronze snake Moses lifted in the wilderness—a story Nicodemus knew by heart. The irony is sharp: Nicodemus understands the earthly history (the healing of the Israelites), but he fails to make the symbolic connection to the Man before him. He sees the shadow, but he misses the Light.
Revelation Before Reality
We never learn for certain if Nicodemus fully accepted Jesus as the Messiah. We know he defended Him before the Pharisees and helped bury His body, but his internal “dogma” is never explicitly revealed.
Regardless, we would do well to follow the wisdom Jesus offered that night. It isn’t that we must understand earthly things before we understand heavenly things; rather, we must believe in the heavenly things before the earthly things truly become clear.
As G.K. Chesterton might say: Revelation must always come before reality. We do not believe because we see; we see because we have finally dared to believe.
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