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.