What Does Being “BORN OF WATER and of the Spirit” Mean?
Let’s read the passage in question:
3Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. ”
4“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.
John 3:3-5
Christ was talking about spiritual regeneration as observed by his explanation in verse 6 of what he meant by being “born again”: “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” So why did he say in verse 5 that “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit”? In short, what does being “born of water” have to do with with spiritual rebirth?
He wasn’t talking about water baptism since we know from Scripture that a believer can be spiritually born-again and receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit before undergoing the ceremony of water baptism. The first recorded Gentile believers is Exhibit A (Acts 10:43-48), as are plain passages like Romans 3:23-25, John 3:16, Acts 16:31 and Ephesians 2:8-9. Remember, being baptized in water is simply a public testimony of the believer’s baptism into Christ, which refers to spiritual regeneration, as observed by Galatians 3:26-27 and Romans 6:3.
Like Christ, Paul also linked water to spiritual rebirth and this helps us understand what the Lord meant:
He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit
As you can see, inward regeneration involves 1. the “washing of (spiritual) rebirth” and the corresponding 2. “renewal by the Holy Spirit.”
A deeper interpretation is that the Lord used “water” in reference to the seed of the Word of God (Ephesians 5:25-26). In other words, being “born of water” means being born-again via the Word of God.
You see, believers are spiritually reborn of the Holy Spirit — as Jesus said “Spirit gives birth to spirit” (verse 6) — but this is only possible due to the the seed of the Living Word of God, Christ (1 Peter 1:23). In 1 John 3:9 ‘seed’ is translated from sperma, which is the Greek word for sperm. In other words, all true believers are spiritually reborn through the Holy Spirit via the sperm of Christ. Yeshua prayed to the Father, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). And Christ is both the living Word of God (John 1:1) and the Truth (John 14:6).
Related Topics:
The Six Basic Doctrines of Christianity
SPIRITUAL REBIRTH: Is Being “Born Again” Biblical?
How You Can KNOW You Are Saved
What Does “the Spirit, the Water and the Blood Testify” Mean?
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