What does it mean that the wind blows where it wishes (John 3:8)?

The word which stands for "spirit" in the Old Testament is ruach, in the New Testament, pneuma. They are words precisely of the same significance. Both are derived from words which mean "to breathe." and in their primary sense therefore signify "breath," or what is a kindred thought, air in motion, "wind." From this as the type of viewless activity, its meaning of "spirit" is most evidently and easily derived. The comparison between the two is what the Lord makes in John 3:8, where the same word pneuma is both "wind" and "spirit": "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Here manifestly the thought is of invisible activity beyond control; the effects are manifest, the power which produces them unseen and uncontrollable. In the formation of language, where that which can be conceived of only gets its name from that which is recognized by the senses, what more simple than that pneuma, originally breath or wind, should give its name to the power that, omnipresent in its activity, acts unseen and uncontrolled? Hence "God is Spirit," and the third Person of the Trinity, whom Scripture represents as the immediate mover, both in creation and in new creation, is pre-eminently the "Spirit of God."

John 3:7-8. We have then 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 the direction of man. We cannot say whence the wind is to come or where it is to blow: even so 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.

A good deal of reasoning and controversy has taken place as to the new birth which might have been avoided if verse 8 had been duly noted. The Greek word for "wind" and "Spirit" is the same. Like wind the Spirit is invisible, and only to be apprehended by hearing Him in the word He gives, or feeling the effects of His operations. Like the wind, too, He is not subject to our control, and His actions beyond all our thoughts. The same thing applies to all those who are spirit as born of Him. There must therefore be about the new birth, and about those born again, elements that are incomprehensible to us; consequently our reasonings may easily be futile or even erroneous.

Again, where the Lord seems to be making the strictest comparison, and where the word He uses is actually that used for the Spirit also, — "the wind (pneuma) bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth," — not only is the figure that of invisibility, and it is known by its effect, but the Lord adds, not as you would expect, "so is the Spirit," but "so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).

Yet that is the good work which God has been doing throughout man's sad history, and in the gospel it was to be far more widely wrought than ever; and therefore the moment was most fitting for the Lord here to set it out in His own striking manner. Hence He adds in verse 8, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and its voice thou hearest, but knowest not whence it cometh, and where it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit." As the wind is above man's comprehension and control, so is the Spirit sovereign in His activity, and the blessing is thus not limited to any people or land. Open to everyone, it might be made good to any; as Paul claims for the righteousness of God preached in the gospel.

Nor was Nicodemus to wonder that he and other Jews (not pagans merely, to which they would have assented at once) needed to be born afresh. "Wonder not that I said to thee, Ye must be born anew" (verse 7). But if sovereign grace met that need, could it, would it, stop there? Certainly not. It would breathe the blessing as widely as the ravages of sin, according to the choice of God. "The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it cometh, and where it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (verse 8). Thus "every one" leaves room for any fallen man, a Gentile no less than a Jew. Whatever might be their distinction after the flesh, the Spirit thus freely flowing can bless those who are most distant, while the nearest is nothing without Him. [ℵ, Syrch sin have, as some Old Lat., "of water and of the Spirit."]

Christ, we may observe, speaks to Nicodemus about the things that he, as a Jew, ought to have understood. (Compare Ezekiel 36.) He says, "If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" God's earthly things were not evil or fleshly things, but the promised earthly portion which the Jews were to look for. In the latter day they must be sprinkled with water, and have a new heart from the Spirit, before they can inherit. This Nicodemus should have known. Then there are the heavenly things, which are better. "The wind bloweth where it listeth," etc. There is the sovereign acting of His grace. He will take any poor sinners of the Gentiles, as well as the Jews, and bring them into the blessing He has to give. "God so loved the world." This goes beyond the Jews. It is not here that God so loved Israel.

Let us hear what Peter has to say on that matter! He tells us, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and abided for ever … and this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you" (1 Peter 1:23, 25). Again, we have the Lord's own word, "The wind blows where it lists, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it comes, and whither it goes; so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (v. 8). So we go on preaching the Word, and the Spirit continues to use it, although we may not know how or when He does so. The effect is evident when the gospel is believed.

The fact is we need carefully to note the word of our Lord 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 together in our minds than we can gather the winds in our fists. The passage in Peter gives us a view of things from the human side — especially 1 Peter 1:22-23 — and the Arminian seizes them. The passage in John's Epistle (1 John 5:1) views things from the Divine side, and the Calvinist seizes it. For ourselves, we seize both, and are not troubled by finding that we can no more mentally adjust the two sides to perfection than we can adjust and explain the Divine and the Human in Christ Jesus our Lord, or in the Scriptures of truth.

So far, all seems and is clear. It is only when men begin to reason about God's truth that a haze falls over it. Does new birth precede faith, or does it follow it? Such questions seek to separate what God has indissolubly joined together. That there are mysteries here, none would question. Does not our Lord say: "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8)? Here is mystery, and there must be in divine things. God is sovereign, and His work must be to some extent inscrutable to finite minds. But we must not reduce to the compass of logic these mighty truths. Surely, it suffices to say new birth is a sovereign act of God, that He is first in it, and that it is by the Word through faith.