Nicodemus said he was convinced that Jesus was a teacher come from God. He knew that no one could have done these signs that Jesus did unless God was with him. He was convinced of this. Nicodemus' words here were of extreme importance. Jesus' answer, however, had nothing to do with what Nicodemus had said; He began to talk about something completely different.

These words that Jesus addressed to Nicodemus were unlike anything that might come up in an ordinary everyday conversation. Jesus was talking about something that had been lost at the very beginning when man had first been created.

Nicodemus had studied and matured to a standard that qualified him as a ruler of the Jews. His wide knowledge as a teacher was a strength that he had acquired from his ancestors and those around him. Jesus' words, however, were quite different. When He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," His words related back to something that had happened in the beginning, at the time of Adam. God put the responsibility on Adam when He told him not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and said to him, "for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Genesis 2:17). But Adam disobeyed God and sinned, and when he did this, he lost something. There was something that he could have received, but the moment he sinned, he lost it. What was it that Adam lost?

It says that in the midst of the garden there were both the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Which of the two did Adam choose? We all know as the Pharisee, Nicodemus, also knew that Adam chose the fruit of the tree of knowledge. But what had God said to Adam before he ate this fruit?

God told Adam that he could eat the fruit of any tree in the garden except for that of the tree of knowledge. This means that he was also permitted to eat the fruit of the tree of life, doesn't it? God said, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat," but then He made one restriction: "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat." Despite God's words, Adam ate the fruit of this tree. God had said, "for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die," and sure enough, as soon as Adam ate the fruit, he died. This was not a death that meant the end of his physical life; this was a death that meant a breakdown in the communication between man and God. Adam could no longer remain in the Garden of Eden and he was cast out.

How might we understand this death that Adam experienced? If you cut some branches from a tree, the leaves on those branches will remain green for a while, but eventually they will wither and die.

It is only a matter of time. The same is true of man. Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and after that, descendants were born to him. All of mankind is descended from Adam. Before we came into the world, Nicodemus had also been born as a descendant of Adam. Ever since the forefather of all mankind received that death penalty, all of his descendants have slowly been walking the path to death. What was this death that came to Adam? He was driven out of the garden of Eden and was cut off from all communication with God. This was the death that began at that time. Adam actually died when he ate the forbidden fruit, but the death that we associate with the decay of the flesh would come later.

We who were dead in Adam have been made alive in Jesus.