Born Again (23)

John 3:6-7 (A)

We have devoted a short chapter to verse 5 to clarify the expression "born of water and the Spirit." But verses 5-8 constitute a unit. It is Jesus' answer to what Nicodemus says in verse 4, and comes before Nicodemus speaks again in verse 9. So let us read these verses again: "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."

Since we have dealt with verse 5, now we will turn to verse 6, which is the portion that says, "Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." Keep in mind that this continues Jesus' answer to what Nicodemus says in verse 4: "How can a man be born when he is old? Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" The relevance of what Jesus says here is indeed obvious, as he is explaining what he says in verse 3 in light of the disappointing response by Nicodemus.

Paul regularly uses the word "flesh" in a sense that keeps man's depravity at the forefront, so that the NIV even translates it as "sinful nature." But John often uses it with a different emphasis. Namely, it is not the sinfulness of it that John stresses, but the feebleness of it, especially when it comes to spiritual things.

For example, Jesus says in John 6:63, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life." The verse speaks of what the Spirit can do that the flesh cannot do, but the emphasis is not on the sinfulness of the flesh. John 1:13 mentions "the will of the flesh" (KJV, NASB). Again, "flesh" here refers to that which is natural or physical, and not necessarily that which is sinful. Of course man is sinful, and of course John acknowledges this, but we are noting the precise meaning that John has in mind when he uses the word "flesh."

Jesus reminds Nicodemus that there are two basic categories of reality, or two realms of existence. They are the flesh and the spirit, and each gives birth to its own kind, so that the flesh produces flesh and the spirit produces spirit. This being the case, a person who is born by flesh has the life of flesh, but he has no spiritual life. He can improve the flesh, educate the flesh, and dress it up, but it is still flesh, and it remains spiritually lifeless and impotent.

No matter what you do to the flesh, you cannot make it into spirit. In other words, the difference between flesh and spirit is not one of degree, but one of kind or category. Therefore, it will not do, as the rhetorical question in verse 3 suggests, for a man to undergo a second birth of the flesh. He can do that for a thousand times and he will still be flesh. He will still have no spiritual life. For there to be spiritual life, he must be born by the Spirit.

(to be continued)