But there was a man from among the Pharisees, his name Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
This verse gives a name, a religious party and an office, and it follows the last line of chapter 2: Jesus knew what was in man. So the question is whether religion, rank and learning can bring a man into the kingdom of God.
A small connecting word opens this verse and ties it to chapter 2. The ESV translates it "Now"; the commentator below renders it "But."
There is a little word connecting the second and third chapters of John's Gospel which does not appear in our ordinary English Bible. Chapter 2 ends by saying that Jesus did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man. He Himself knew what was in man. Then the third chapter really begins with, "But there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus." The Spirit of God, so to speak, says, I will bring before you the very nicest piece of humanity that the world can produce, a man you would think has claims to anything and everything, because of his moral character and religious activity.
One commentator takes those closing words as a truth about people in general, not a hint about Nicodemus alone:
It is the great, general truth that the special case of Nicodemus so fittingly shows. Man at his best was unfit for the kingdom of God, and so he needed to be born afresh, or from the very beginning.
The verse names his religious party and his rank. Add the title the rest of the chapter gives him, and the portrait is of a man with every human advantage.
Nicodemus is deeply religious, highly respectable, and very intelligent. He is a man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews, and a teacher in Israel. Yet we learn that none of these human advantages will let a man enter the kingdom of God. What is flesh is flesh. It may be cultured and refined flesh, as with Nicodemus, or completely degraded flesh, as with the woman in the fourth chapter.
So the answer is not a better version of the same man:
Religiousness, morality, education and culture are not enough to save man and give him a place in the Kingdom of God. The new birth is the one thing needed... The flesh cannot be changed into something better. In the new birth the Holy Spirit gives a new nature, the divine nature.
Knowing his name and his position still leaves the real question untouched.
We learn only half the truth when we answer, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. In fact, this tells us nothing beyond his name and official rank. These things have no weight before God, and no meaning for a soul that is seeking.
Two things pulled at him at once, and a third was at work that he knew nothing about:
He was a leading man among the strictest of the chosen people. He was in earnest enough to seek Jesus for truth, and still valued the world enough to fear its condemnation and scorn... He did not know that a deeper work was going on inside him, and that this was what drew him, and not them, to Jesus.
One writer traces where such longing comes from, and what it cost a man in his position:
Where the Spirit of God is at work, He always produces needs in the soul: a craving and desire for what is of God and godly. With that comes a sense of our own lack... Being a ruler, and above all a religious ruler, made it harder for him to go to Christ. The dignity of a man appointed to teach does not help him go and learn.
Nicodemus appears three times in this Gospel. One commentator names the three stages by their light:
There are three stages in his history. I call John 3 midnight, John 7 twilight, and John 19 daylight... The death of Christ produced in Nicodemus what His life had never achieved. When he saw that He was dead, the truth of John 3 became clear to him. His actions said, in front of the whole world: think what you like, say what you like, do what you like — Christ is for me, and I am for Him.
- Connection. The small word that opens the verse ties it to the previous lines: Jesus knew what was in man, and Nicodemus is the test case.
- Credentials. Pharisee, ruler, teacher — the best that religion, rank, and learning can produce in one person.
- Cancelled. None of it counts. Refined flesh and degraded flesh are equally shut out of the kingdom; only new birth opens it.
- Craving. What drew him to Jesus was not his learning but a deeper work inside him that he did not know about.
- Conquered. The man of John 3 starts at midnight and ends in daylight, openly on Christ's side once He had died.
he came to him by night, and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art come a teacher from God, for none can do these signs that thou doest unless God be with him.
A ruler of the Jews arrives after dark with a compliment, and gets an answer he never asked for. His opening words sound respectful and even correct. So why does the Lord cut across them with talk of a second birth?
Everything about the visitor is impressive. Everything about the timing is not:
He was a leading man among the strictest religious group in God's chosen people. He was earnest enough to seek Jesus for truth. Yet he still valued the world enough to fear its blame and scorn. So he came to Jesus by night. Even so, he took his stand on a belief he shared with his fellow leaders, because of the signs the Lord did. He did not know that a deeper work was going on within, which drew him, and not them, to Jesus.
That fear of being seen is not ancient history:
There are many people today exactly like that. They would like to come to Jesus and get their need met, but at the same time they would not like all the world to know it.
Nicodemus reasons from the miracles back to their source. The reasoning is sound as far as it goes — and that is the problem:
Nicodemus had reached a right conclusion about Christ, like the people mentioned at the end of the last chapter. It rested on the outward evidence of miracles... As far as it went, the conclusion was just, and the human mind can reach it. But if it is nothing more than the result of human reason, it leaves the soul far from God, with no sense of its need of Christ.
Note his "we know" — the plural. He speaks for a group, and states a case he thinks no one can doubt:
He was fully convinced that God had sent Jesus, and he will not allow that anyone can have the slightest doubt about it. He says: "We know." The testimony is abundant and overwhelming. If others refuse to admit it, that is a sin against light.
A man can grant the credentials and still stumble at the first thing the Teacher says:
He hesitates to accept a doctrine, because this doctrine silenced his understanding. Yet he owns the One who teaches it to be "a teacher come from God." That is the strange inconsistency of man. So it is possible to accept the mission of Jesus, backed as it is by glorious, undeniable proofs. But without the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit it is impossible to accept the teaching.
He came to a teacher for teaching, as if his only lack was information. The Lord's blunt reply meets a need he had not seen:
What he needs is not teaching. He needs a new nature, a new source of spiritual being, to see the kingdom of God. No inference, however logical, is faith... In such a state teaching would only increase the danger... He needed to be made alive, not to be fed fresh food for his mind.
So the title he offers is quietly exchanged for a better one:
Nicodemus had come to Him as to a Teacher. The Lord at once turns him in another direction, and lets him know that he must come to Him as a Saviour or Life-giver. Nicodemus was seeking instruction. The Lord tells him that he needed life.
Others in Jerusalem had seen the same signs and drawn the same conclusion. One thing set this man apart, and it was not his understanding:
But there was a hunger in the heart of Nicodemus which was not in theirs. That hunger brought him to the feet of Jesus, and no one was ever rejected there.
That night visit was not the end of his story:
There are three stages in his history. I call John 3 midnight, John 7 twilight, and John 19 daylight. It was darkest midnight in that man's soul when he came creeping to Jesus, hoping nobody saw him. He began to get a glimmer of light when he put in a word for the Lord in chapter 7. But the death of Christ produced in Nicodemus what His life had never achieved.
- Night. A leading, earnest religious man came to Christ. He chose an hour that showed he still feared the world's scorn.
- Evidence. His argument from the miracles was fair. But reason alone leaves the soul far from God, with no sense of its need.
- Title. "Teacher come from God" admits the mission but not the Person. A man can accept the credentials and still choke on the first thing taught.
- Exchange. He asked for instruction. The Lord answered with life, turning him from a Teacher to a Saviour. No logical inference is faith.
- Daylight. What separated him from the crowd was hunger, not insight — and no one who comes with that is ever turned away. Midnight in chapter 3 became open daylight at the cross.
Jesus answered and said to him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Nicodemus says to him, How can a man be born being old? can he enter a second time into the womb of his mother and be born?
Nicodemus was a respected teacher among the Jews. Jesus had just told him that no one can see the kingdom of God without a new birth, and his reply shows he could picture only a second physical birth.
His reply is itself evidence of what the Lord's words meant. If Jesus had only said "born from above," the thought of returning to the womb would never have come to him.
His question proves that "born from above" is not at all the true meaning of the verse. If the Lord had led Nicodemus to understand it that way, he could never have asked such a question. No; He meant born afresh, born from the very start. It appears to be the strongest possible expression of this; at any rate, I do not know a stronger one in Scripture.
He reasons as anyone would, measuring a new statement by the only birth he has ever known.
Nicodemus reasons as a natural man, and he shows that human thoughts are limited to human experience. Left to himself, man cannot understand spiritual and heavenly things.
There is a strange split in him. He has already granted that Jesus comes from God, yet the first thing Jesus says leaves him unable to go on.
Scripture presents Nicodemus as an honest man. He values the Lord's miracles rightly and admits that they confirm His divine mission. Nicodemus was "ruler of the Jews," one of the religious authorities of that day. Yet the very first thing he hears leaves him baffled. The veil was on his heart. He hesitates to accept a teaching that silenced his understanding, even though it comes from One he himself calls "a teacher come from God." Such is the curious inconsistency of man. So a man may accept the mission of Jesus, backed by glorious, undeniable proofs, and still be unable to accept the teaching without the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit. Only the one who is born again can see and believe that the same Person is both the teacher and the teaching.
Suppose the impossible could happen. The outcome would be the man he already is.
A second natural birth would gain no more than the first. A natural man could enter his mother's womb ten thousand times and be born, and he would still be nothing but a natural man; for "that which is born of the flesh is flesh." Do what you will with flesh — with nature — and you cannot alter or improve it. Nothing could change flesh into spirit. You may raise it to the rank of Pharisee, ruler of the Jews, master of Israel. You could hardly raise it higher. It will be flesh all the same.
If repeating birth is the wrong idea, what is the right one? Everything turns on where the new life comes from.
Suppose the old tale of an old man made young again could be true. Suppose even that the strange case the astonished Pharisee imagines could be made fact by a miracle. It would still fail to meet what the kingdom of God requires. For it would be human nature still, whether renewed in its youth or repeated in its birth ever so far or so often. A clean thing cannot come out of an unclean; and such is man's nature since the fall. God's way of renewal is not that at all. He gives a nature wholly fresh from its source, for the believer is born of God, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, by the living and abiding word of God.
Notice what Jesus does not do. He does not argue about whether it can happen. He tells Nicodemus how it happens.
Taken strictly, this question means: How is it possible for a man to be born again? But our Lord's answer does not deal with it in that form. He shows the way a man is born again: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God."
- Again — his question proves the Lord meant born afresh, from the very start, not just born from above.
- Blocked — the natural mind reasons only from what it has lived through, so the new birth sounds impossible.
- Split — a man may honestly own Jesus as a teacher sent from God and still stall at the first thing He teaches.
- Repeat — a second natural birth would only produce the same nature again. Flesh cannot be improved into spirit, however high the religious rank.
- Fresh — God does not patch up the old nature. He gives one wholly fresh from its source, and Christ answers the "how" instead of debating the "whether."
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Nicodemus had just asked how a grown man could be born a second time. Jesus answers with a rule about origins: whatever is born takes after its source. That rule explains why we need a new birth, and why no work on the old life can take its place.
The verse states a rule with no exceptions.
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh" — a very solemn truth about what man is, as man. Everything shares the moral character of its source. Flesh is flesh. Do what you like with it, it is flesh, and nothing but flesh. Educate it as far as you can, and it is still flesh, not spirit... You may refine the flesh as you like, but you will never distil spirit out of it. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." It takes after its source; its nature is the same as its source.
"Flesh" here is not the body. The word carries two senses in the Bible, and only one of them fits this verse.
The Apostle John goes to the very root of things — nature — when he says, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6). Here "flesh" means the fallen sinful nature of man. "Flesh" in Scripture sometimes means the physical body, such as "flesh and bones." Used that way, it includes the Lord Himself. But mostly the word refers to our fallen sinful nature. In that nature the blessed Lord had no part, or else He would be one of us and no Saviour.
Nicodemus came to Jesus as a student comes to a teacher. Jesus told him he needed something else first.
Nicodemus comes and applies to Him as a teacher. No, no, says the Lord, I am not going to teach flesh, Nicodemus; it is not a question of teaching yet. You must get another life first; you must be born again; you do not need teaching until you have life... Flesh never ceases to be flesh. I must be born of the Spirit, a partaker of the divine nature, born of God.
Jesus said this to a man at the top of the religious world.
Nicodemus is the only person to whom the Lord spoke of the absolute necessity of the new birth. He never made such a statement to the tax collectors and the prostitutes. And who was Nicodemus? A Pharisee, and therefore an extremely religious man. A ruler of the Jews, which required a moral life. The teacher of Israel, a man of much learning. Religion, morality, education and culture are not enough. They cannot save a man or give him a place in the Kingdom of God... The new birth is not reformation. Nor is it, as people often say, an action of the Holy Spirit to make an evil nature good. Nothing can change the flesh into something better. In the new birth the Holy Spirit imparts a new nature, the divine nature.
The rule runs both ways.
Human nature can never be refined. It can never be improved or changed enough to rise up into any acquaintance with the things of God. No spiritual process whatever can turn it into divine nature. On the other hand, the new nature does not decay. It can never be reduced to "the flesh," or to the nature of man as he is. Our Lord says on the one hand, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." On the other hand He says, "that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." It takes the character of its source.
The new nature has a settled character of its own.
Thank God, the believer in the Lord Jesus has a new nature — a nature that is at home in the presence of God — a nature that loves holiness and shrinks from evil... Scripture says of the one born of God that he cannot sin. That is a strong statement, but the inspired writer is looking at the believer in the abstract, as identified only with the divine nature. Just as you might say that a vine cannot bear thorns, or a fig tree thistles, but only the fruit that expresses its nature, so it is with the divine nature — it must express itself; it cannot sin.
One distinction is worth keeping clear.
New birth comes from the Holy Spirit, and the result, as John 3:6 shows, is a new nature which is "spirit" in its essential character. What the Spirit produces shares His own nature. Keep this distinct from the Holy Spirit living in someone already born again.
- Source decides nature. Whatever is born takes the character of what produced it. That one rule governs the verse.
- Source one: flesh. Not the body, but the fallen nature we are born with. Educate it, refine it, make it religious — it stays flesh.
- Source two: the Spirit. The new life is not the old one repaired. The Spirit imparts a new nature that shares His own character.
- No crossover. The flesh never rises into spirit, and the new nature never sinks back into flesh; each stays true to its origin.
- So: birth, not effort. Religion, morality, learning and culture cannot bridge the gap. So Jesus offered Nicodemus a new birth, not a lesson.
Do not wonder that I said to thee, It is needful that *ye* should be born anew.
Nicodemus had just heard that flesh gives birth only to flesh. The Lord tells him not to be shocked — but why not, and how far does that "must" reach?
His answer reaches past any lesson about Israel's privileges. Older English caught something modern English cannot show: the Lord speaks to Nicodemus alone ("I said to thee"), but the demand itself is plural ("ye must be born again") — his whole nation is in view:
Now this was very new teaching for the Jews — God's chosen ones. But the time had come when they must learn the lesson that neither Jew nor Gentile can stand before the light of God. "Do not marvel that I said to you, you" (Jews) "must be born again." They were the children of the kingdom. But He goes to the root — not of teaching about God's ways with Israel, but of nature. People talk about God's image being restored in man. That is all completely false. A new creation, a divine nature, is the thing we need. On this common ground of nature Jew and Gentile both stood alike, and both must be born again.
This "must" follows from what flesh is. That gives it a reach no one escapes:
Here, then, lies the necessity of being born again: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh… Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again'" (John 3:6-7). This necessity is universal in its application. It concerns everyone born into this world. The dutiful, obedient child needs it as much as the son who ran off and wasted everything. The tireless giver to good causes needs it as much as the convict in his cell. For the flesh is flesh, and cannot enter the kingdom of God. So there must be a new nature and a new life. Without them, whatever a man's moral reputation, he will stay outside the kingdom of God for ever.
Nicodemus had the best background a man could have. That is what the Lord's demand overturns:
What is required is not just new behaviour or new principles of action, but a new birth. That means an entirely new origin. The origin and pedigree of Nicodemus was of the best, since he came of true Abrahamic stock. What is more, he had acquired all the culture the Jewish religion could give. If he, a cultured son of Abraham, needed a new birth, then it shows that all flesh, even Abrahamic flesh, is condemned before God. Because everyone needs new birth, the sentence of condemnation falls on us all.
No one can produce this new beginning for himself. One writer links it to the first day of creation:
In Genesis the Spirit of God moves, and in His sovereign power says, "Let there be light." In John we get, "You must be born again"… The ability to see is the ability to appreciate light. Eyes are no use without light. New birth is the spiritual eye for spiritual light. The Spirit of God is the sovereign Producer of this new birth.
One writer weighs the small word "You" at the front of the demand:
The first word of our text shows how pointed and personal our Lord was in His ministry — "YOU must be born again." This shows His faithful love. He did not offer dry doctrines or polished speeches to please listeners who only wanted something pleasant to hear. No. He was the Faithful Witness, and He came not to destroy, but to save.
The same words reach far past the man who first heard them:
This "must" cannot be set aside. It applies to the whole world: to the highest and the lowest, to noble and peasant, to prince and pauper, to old and young, rich and poor. The Lord Jesus says these words to one religious man, but they apply to every soul. Have you weighed them?
The chapter does not leave the demand hanging. A second "must" answers it:
Look at these two "musts," and put them together. "You must be born again." "The Son of Man must be lifted up." The "must" that flows from the heart of Christ in His grace meets the "must" of man in his need, divinely and fully. That grace led Him to the cross.
- Must, not may — the need rests on what flesh is. It covers the obedient child and the convict alike, and no reputation exempts anyone.
- Must for the best — Nicodemus had the finest pedigree and the fullest religious training. That is why his case condemns us all.
- Must means new — not better behaviour or new principles, but a whole new origin. The Spirit produces it, as sovereignly as God said, "Let there be light."
- Must means you — the Lord spoke it face to face, in faithful love. Yet it reaches prince and pauper, old and young, every soul that hears it.
- Must answered by must — Christ's "the Son of Man must be lifted up" answers man's "you must be born again." The demand and the supply meet at the cross.
The wind blows where it will, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it comes and where it goes thus is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus has just heard that he must be born again, and he cannot see how this could happen to a grown man. Jesus answers with a picture from the open air. It says as much about what we cannot know as about what God does.
Long arguments about the new birth often start by missing one detail here:
A good deal of reasoning and controversy about the new birth might have been avoided if verse 8 had been carefully noted. The Greek word for "wind" and "Spirit" is the same. Like wind, the Spirit is invisible, and can only be grasped by hearing Him in the word He gives, or by feeling the effects of His working.
The same word lies behind the Old Testament term for spirit, and both come from a root meaning to breathe:
Here the thought is clearly of invisible activity beyond control; the effects are plain, but the power that produces them is unseen and uncontrollable.
Why wind and not some other image? One writer traces the choice to a child's riddle about the senses:
The Lord Jesus explained new birth by pointing to wind. For years I wondered why. Then my daughter, aged eight, came home from school and asked me, "What can you see in nature without hearing it?" I could not answer. She told me, "Fog, or mist." Then she asked, "What can you hear in nature without seeing it?" I answered, "Wind." I think this is why the Lord spoke of wind here. With a new birth you cannot see the process of being born, but you hear the cry of new life.
The final clause does not land where a reader expects:
Here the Lord seems to be making the closest comparison, and the word He uses is the very word used for the Spirit as well: "the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes." The figure is one of invisibility, known by its effect. But there is more. The Lord adds, not what you would expect, "so is the Spirit," but "so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
This is why no one can produce the new birth on demand:
Here we have the necessity of this new birth; but we learn further that this new birth is entirely of God. It is the sovereign action of the Spirit of God, likened to the wind, which does not blow at man's direction. We cannot say where the wind will come from or where it will blow. In the same way, the sovereign action of the Spirit cannot be confined to the Jew or to any particular individual. We cannot control the action of the Spirit; it is not for us to say where, or in whom, He can work.
Nicodemus belonged to the nation that held God's promises, and the word "everyone" in the verse quietly breaks his circle open:
If sovereign grace met that need, could it, would it, stop there? Certainly not. It would breathe the blessing as widely as sin has spread its ruin, according to the choice of God. … So "everyone" leaves room for any fallen man, a Gentile no less than a Jew. Whatever their differences by natural descent, the Spirit flows freely and can bless those who are furthest away. The nearest is nothing without Him.
Not knowing where the wind comes from is no reason to fall silent:
So we go on preaching the Word, and the Spirit keeps using it, although we may not know how or when He does so. The effect is clear when the gospel is believed.
The verse also sets a boundary around our arguments about how salvation works:
We need to note carefully our Lord's word in John 3:8, where He warns us that the Spirit's work in new birth is something beyond us. We can no more gather it all into our minds than we can gather the winds in our fists.
- Wind — one Greek word means both "wind" and "Spirit." The picture and the thing pictured share a name: unseen power, known by its effects.
- Heard — you cannot watch the wind or the new birth happen; you hear the sound, the cry of new life that proves it happened.
- Free — no one starts the wind, steers it, or stops it. The Spirit's work is no more under our control.
- Everyone — the sentence ends with the person born, not with the Spirit. "Everyone" leaves room for the outsider as much as the insider.
- Preach — we cannot trace the wind, so we keep sowing the word. The timing is the Spirit's, and the work itself is beyond us.