Born Again (19)

John 3:5 (A)

Verses 5-8 consist of Jesus' answer to the rhetorical question in verse 4, where Nicodemus says, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" (NASB). As we have noted, Nicodemus exhibits a spiritual dullness that causes some commentators to stumble. But rather than trying to explain it away, we should realize that his response is not surprising in light of verse 3, where Jesus tells him that he needs to be born again. Despite being a religious leader, Nicodemus is spiritually dull because he is still a natural man, an unregenerate man, and this is precisely why Jesus tells him about this new birth from above.

In response to what Nicodemus says in verse 4, Jesus now elaborates on what he means by born again. He says, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

Jesus has not changed the subject, but he is expanding on verse 3 in light of verse 4. That is, he is elaborating on what it means to be born again, and why one needs to be born again, in light of the response in verse 4 from Nicodemus, who does not seem to understand what Jesus says in verse 3. This point is important because it tells us that although Jesus uses several different terms here, especially in verses 5 and 6, he is still talking about the same thing. The changes in terms are intended to clarify the statement in verse 3.

With this in mind, we see that he says in verse 5, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit." Where he says "no one can see the kingdom" in verse 3, here he says "no one can enter the kingdom." But these two expressions refer to the same thing. The meaning is that no one can be saved, no one can become acceptable to God and enter heaven, unless he is born again.

Then, where he says "unless he is born again" in verse 3, here he says "unless he is born of water and the Spirit." There are several opinions as to what Jesus means by the expression, "born of water and the Spirit." In particular, the problem is what he means by "water."

It will require more than several pages to provide a full account of the various arguments, but this will become too much of a burden to our present discussion. Let us see if we can quickly think through the major options and come to a reliable conclusion without getting too involved in the details. Some of the arguments offered for the various positions appeal to extra-biblical sources, but since we cannot consider them authoritative, and since we must keep our discussion brief, I will not deal with them here. Instead, I will focus on what we can derive from our passage, as well as from other parts of the Bible. Not only will this approach generate a more reliable conclusion, but it will also limit the length of the discussion.

(to be continued)