Born of Water and of the Spirit

John 3:5

Jesus answered, 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. John 3:5

John chapter 3 is probably one of the most well known passages in the Bible. For most of us, John 3:16 was the first verse of scripture we memorized. But John 3:5 is an important verse as well which speaks to the completeness of our salvation.

Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a ruler (leader) of the Jews came to Jesus by night.
Some people, I believe, have tried to read too much into this opening statement by saying that Nicodemus was probably afraid of what his fellow Pharisees (and enemies of Jesus) might think of him which is why he sought out Jesus by night when he wasn’t likely to be seen with Him.

Nicodemus seems to be a man who was independent and unafraid of what the Jews thought about Jesus.
John 7:50...When the Pharisees are debating what to do about Jesus, it was Nicodemus who spoke out in the Lord’s defense.
John 19:39...At the crucifixion of Jesus, after the disciples had fled, we see Nicodemus assisting Joseph of Arimethea in taking the body of Jesus down from the cross and hurriedly burying Him in the borrowed tomb.

Most likely, the reason is because Jesus had so many people crowding around Him in the day time, it would have been impossible to get a private audience with Him in the day time. Night time would have afforded the only opportunity.

Nicodemus was at first attracted to Jesus because of the miracles Jesus performed, v. 2.
Jesus brushes aside the reference to miracles and gets right to the heart of the matter, “You must be born again!”Those who believe in baptismal regeneration (that baptism is required for salvation; Roman Catholics, Church of Christ, Christian Church, et. al. insist that Jesus is teaching the necessity of water baptism. He is not. Christian baptism had not been instituted yet, nor the facts that it symbolizes; the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
Furthermore, Jesus would not have rebuked Nicodemus for being ignorant of these facts were he talking about baptism, v. 10.
Also Jesus uses the Greek passive voice of the verb which means that the subject is acted upon and is completely passive.
Active voice…”A girl gave birth.” (The subject is tha active participant in the birth.)
Passive voice…”A girl was born.” (The subject has nothing to do with causing the birth.)

In the new birth, God is the active participant, the one who gives new birth. We do not save ourselves anymore than we cause our own physical birth.

Remember, in John chapter 3 we are still in the Old Testament age, not the New testament. Since Christian baptism had not been instituted and commanded yet, Jesus could not possibly be talking about water baptism.

References to the water and the Spirit must have come from the Old Testament since Jesus assumes that Nicodemus would know what He was talking about.

As we have already seen, John relies heavily on symbolism in his gospel, and in the Old Testament water and spirit were symbols for cleansing and renewal,

Isa. 44:3,4; Ezek. 11:18-20; 36:25-27

In John’s gospel, Jesus uses water as a symbol for the Holy Spirit and the life He gives,

Jn. 4:14; 7:38,39.

When Jesus spoke of “water and Spirit” He was speaking of two different aspects of the same reality. The Holy Spirit alone regenerates and in so doing He acts like water to both cleanses and renews the soul. Just as in Ezekiel 36:25-27, it is God who sprinkles with rain and it is God who puts His Spirit in man and not a priest or pastor. (Just as it is also God who replaces the heart of stone with a heart of flesh).

Water is also symbolic of the Word of God,
“Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word.” Eph. 5:25,26.

Born of water also refers to God’s word,
“Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth…” James 1:18.

“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” I Peter 1:22,23

There are two aspects in the one operation of conversion, or the rebirth experience, cleansing and renewing,
“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost...Titus 3:5.

Again, this washing and renewing are operations of the Holy Ghost and not our own doing as the first part of the verse states.

Rock of ages cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in thee.
Let the water and the blood,
From thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save from wrath and make me pure.

As Jesus said, the rebirth experience is the double cure for sin because it gives to the Believer both cleansing and renewing.