John 3:3–8

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

"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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Here the thought is clearly of invisible activity beyond control; the effects are plain, but the power that produces them is unseen and uncontrollable.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.