You Must Be Born Again!
An exposition of John 3:1–8, the third of nine postils on the Fourth Gospel
Why the difference?
Two people hear the Gospel. One believes and receives Christ, the other does not. What makes the difference?
Jesus explains that a new birth is needed for anyone to see and enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
John writes his Gospel that you “may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (20:31). John proves that Jesus is worthy of belief by showing us a series of his powerful supernatural signs, and by replaying certain of his discourses with individuals and groups.
This is the first of these discourses:
Nicodemus the Pharisee visits Jesus by night
John 3:1–2a Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2He came to Jesus at night.
The Jewish sect of the Pharisees – the word derives from the Hebrew parash, “to separate” – arose in the second-century BC. While foreign oppressors threatened the faith and existence of Israel the Pharisees strove to protect Judaism by studying and teaching the Torah and surrounding it with a hedge of secondary laws concerning washing, eating, tithing, and Sabbath observance. Pharisees were serious and respected men.
But they confused outward rule-keeping with inner holiness. Time and again Jesus exposed them as hypocrites, “white-washed tombs”: impressive on the outside but – like the rest of humanity – rebellious sinners within.
Don’t look down on the Pharisees for we are all prone to confusing a fine outward presentation with inner goodness.
Nicodemus the Pharisee represents every person attempting to find favour with God through law-keeping and ritual.
He bears authority as a member of the ἀρχων, archōn, the Jewish Rulers. They were feared because they could excommunicate people from the synagogue community (9:22).
Maybe Nicodemus visits Jesus at night because he wants some quiet conversation apart from the day’s bustle. Or perhaps John flags that Nicodemus is still in spiritual darkness; or that he’s afraid of his peers. (Post-Reformation, French Protestants called those who outwardly converted to Catholicism in order to avoid persecution Nicodemites.) All these may be true.
John 3:2 “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
In Hebrew Rabbi means “My Great One.” It is a term of great respect for Jewish religious teachers. Nicodemus was one of the “many people” in Jerusalem at the Passover festival “who saw the signs Jesus was performing” (2:23): supernatural acts by which God authenticated Jesus’ claims about himself.
Though Nicodemus shows respect by calling Jesus “Rabbi” and “a Teacher from God” these titles fall infinitely short of what John has taught us so far about Jesus, truths authenticated by powerful signs, that he is:
The Logos, become flesh (1:1,14);
The Creator and source of light and life (1:3–5);
The Son of God, the One and Only Son (1:18, 49);
The promised Messiah, preceded by Elijah (1:23, 41);
The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (1:29);
He who baptises with the Holy Spirit (1:33);
The King of Israel (1:49);
The LORD God himself! (1:1)
Calling Jesus a “teacher from God” was true, but it would be like calling Charles III the “Captain General of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery,” or the “Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment.” He is in fact those things, but they fall short of his far greater titles.
To honour Christ as merely a good man and great teacher is to rob him of his true status and glory. Knowing about Jesus’ signs, Nicodemus should have known the full truth about him. Why doesn’t he?
John 3:3 Jesus replied and said to him, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
Jesus’ highly formal introduction to his reply points to its supreme importance.
The adverb “again” translates ἀνωθεν, anōthen: which means “from above, a higher place,” “from the first,” and “anew, over again.”
Jesus is the one “who comes from above” (3:31, 8:23) so those “born from above” are born from that same place. They are “born again” as a new person with a new spirit, disposition, and desires. They are “children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (1:12–13).
We were born by nature into corruption and sin; we must be born again as those who love and obey God. “We must not think to patch up the old building,” said Matthew Henry, “but begin again from the foundation.”
No one can “see” the truth about the Kingdom of God – and Nicodemus’s inadequate description of Jesus showed that he had not – unless they are reborn from above. “His spiritual vision required to be rectified by an entire revolution on his inner man.”
Having misunderstood Jesus’ signs, Nicodemus now misunderstands Jesus’ reply:
John 3:4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
I agree with Leon Morris that Nicodemus’s grotesque response is more wistful than blockheaded: “Can it be true! A person reborn?!”
Jesus elaborates with, again, immense solemnity:
John 3:5–6 Jesus replied and said to him, “Amen, Amen, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”
To be reborn from above means to be born of “water and the Spirit.”
In Scripture water frequently represents cleansing from sin: the Sea before the Temple, holding some fifty tons of water, was used to ceremonially wash the priests from their sins before they entered the holy places; the stone jars in Cana were likewise used for ceremonial washing (2:6); and Jesus washed his disciples’ feet with water (13:5).
The Holy Spirit does spiritually and truly what the water did physically and ceremonially. The Spirit truly cleanses his people from the guilt and power of sin. This fulfils Ezekiel’s famous prophecy:
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (36:25–26).
Those “reborn from above” are “born of the water and the Spirit”: cleansed from the guilt and power of sin. Every Christian baptism signifies this.
Nicodemus could not grasp the truth about Jesus because he had not received this new birth. Nonetheless as a teacher of Israel he should have known this (3:10). Matthew Henry wisely avers that “it is folly to think of evading the obligation of evangelical precepts, by pleading that they are unintelligible.”
John 3:7–8 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.’
πνευμα, pneuma, can refer to breath, wind, or Spirit. The pneuma/wind cannot be controlled by man, “it blows where it pleases.” The power of the pneuma/wind is seen and heard but is yet invisible. “So it is with everyone born of the pneuma/Spirit.” Something invisible but powerful has happened to them; something outside human control.
Regeneration precedes conversion.
The Doctrine of Regeneration
When we think about salvation we think first of what Jesus did to save us: his perfect law-keeping (active obedience) on our behalf, that we might be declared righteous in him; and his death on the cross for our sins (passive obedience), bearing our condemnation so that we could be freed from sin’s power and punishment.
We think next of how Jesus’ obedience is applied to us: he elects us to salvation, inwardly and powerfully calls us to repent and believe, and regenerates our spirits so that we hear and obey that call. He thus brings us to repentance and faith (conversion), at which the lifelong process of sanctification begins, culminating with our glorification. This process is the ordo salutis, the order of salvation.
John 3 teaches that regeneration, the new birth, must and does precede repentance and faith. No one will respond rightly to the Gospel unless the Holy Spirit first creates a new heart within them which can and wants to respond in this way.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism explains how the Holy Spirit:
convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ, and renewing our wills, doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel (WSC 31).
Regeneration precedes conversion.
What became of Nicodemus?
He reappears in chapter 7, cautiously defending Jesus’ rights. Then a third and final time after Jesus’ death, bringing expensive myrrh and aloes to assist at Jesus’ entombment.
The blind Pharisee came, by all accounts, to be born again to salvation and life!
Pray that the LORD will bless all those we love in this way.