“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
A Pharisee and ruler of the sanhedrim comes to Christ, proof that grace subdues even the greatest opposition. He sought private counsel rather than public hearing, a pattern we should follow: go to faithful ministers about the deep matters of your soul, not content with hearing sermons alone.
AI summary
Commenting on John 3:1-21
Verse 9. How can these things be? Nicodemus was still unwilling to admit the doctrine unless he understood it; and we have here an instance of a man of rank stumbling at one of the plainest doctrines of religion, and unwilling to admit a truth because he could not understand how it could be, when he daily admitted the truth of facts in other things...
9. How can these things be? We see what is the chief obstacle in the way of Nicodemus. Every thing that he hears appears monstrous, because he does not understand the manner of it; so that there is no greater obstacle to us than our own pride; that is, we always wish to be wise beyond what is proper, and therefore we reject with diabolical...