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.
One Word for Wind and Spirit
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.
Heard, Not Seen
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 Surprise at the End of the Sentence
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."
No One Directs the Wind
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.
Wide as the Ruin It Meets
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.
What We Do With What We Cannot Trace
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.
Summary
- 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.