<p>3:3 <i>Jesus answered and said to him: Truly, truly, I say to you: Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God</i>- &quot;Anew&quot; is literally 'from above'. Natural descent was not enough to see the Kingdom; which was a direct hit on the Jewish idea that by reason of birth they were the children of the Kingdom. Again we see a connection to the prologue; we are to be spiritually born not of the will of the flesh but &quot;of God&quot; (1:13).</p><p>Seeing the Kingdom is developed in :5 to &quot;enter the Kingdom&quot;. The contrast between seeing and entering is clearly alluding to Moses, who was allowed to see the Kingdom but not enter it. The Lord is inviting His followers to imitate Moses- a very high challenge to those under the influence of Judaism, who considered Moses to be the unreachable pinnacle of human spirituality. The Lord gently makes this challenge by firstly inviting Nicodemus to become as Moses who saw the Kingdom- and then saying that actually, he could come to a higher status than Moses, and actually enter the Kingdom. We find here the Lord equating the promised land, which Moses saw but could not enter, with His Kingdom. Given the many allusions to Moses in John&rsquo;s Gospel, I submit that the Lord was surely saying something about Moses&rsquo; seeing of the land before he died (Num. 27:12). It&rsquo;s as if He felt that Moses&rsquo; seeing the land meant that he would ultimately enter it. To be enabled to see the land, with &lsquo;born again&rsquo; special eyesight, was therefore a guarantee that Moses would enter the Kingdom. And Is. 33:17 speaks of beholding the King in his beauty and seeing &ldquo;the land that is very far off&rdquo; an obvious allusion to Moses seeing the land as a picture of ultimate salvation. Note the parallel in Jn. 3:3,5: &ldquo;Except a man be born again, he cannot <i>see</i> perceive the kingdom of God&hellip; he cannot <i>enter</i> into the kingdom of God&rdquo;. If we truly see / perceive the things of the Kingdom in this life, then we will enter it in the future. Israel &lsquo;saw&rsquo; the land physically through the spies (Num. 13:18; 32:8), but were told that they would &ldquo;not see the land&rdquo; (Num. 14:23; 32:11; Dt. 1:35). Again, as in the Lord&rsquo;s teaching, &lsquo;seeing the land&rsquo; is put for &lsquo;entering&rsquo; into it. Knowing facts about the future Kingdom doesn&rsquo;t mean we will enter it. But really &lsquo;seeing&rsquo; the things of the Gospel of the Kingdom will by its very nature change us into people who will enter it. For we will be living the essence of the Kingdom life right now. Israel through the spies went to &lsquo;see&rsquo; the land (Num. 13:18), but could not <i>enter</i> it because of their unbelief (Heb. 3:19). They didn&rsquo;t &lsquo;see&rsquo; it in the sense of perceiving what God&rsquo;s Kingdom was all about. They only saw the physicality of the land; and this wasn&rsquo;t enough to enter it. The synoptics&rsquo; formula that he who believes the Gospel and is baptized will be saved is matched by John in Jn. 6:40: &ldquo;every one that beholdeth the Son, and believeth on him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day&rdquo;. Believing the Gospel of the Kingdom is matched by seeing / perceiving the Son. This is the basis.</p>