John 3:3-5

The churches of Christ Greet You (Romans 16:16)

"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).

Nicodemus was a representative of the Jewish religion and civilization. He was born under the Law of Moses, was circumcised according to its demands, and was a "debtor to do the whole law” (Gal. 5:3). He was a member from birth of the old institution. He had a right that no man could destroy to all its privileges and many of its honors and blessings. He understood the principles of the covenant under which he lived, for he was a man of authority ‑ "a ruler of the Jews." He came unto Jesus by night (John 3:2). Why did he come by night? Doubtless for the same reason that will bolt the gates of the New Jerusalem forever against many ‑ the fear of men, respect for tradition, and unbelief (the sin that has beset each of us at times – Hebrews 12:1).

Out of reverence for the customs of Israel, and probably the conviction that the man Christ Jesus "was more than man,” Nicodemus said: “Master, we know that thou art a teacher come from God." Observe the calm assurance that pervades this important concession. He did not use any doubtful terms, such as we believe, suspect, or imagine. But he ascended at once to the highest plane of human experience, “we know." How did this Jew know that Jesus came from God? Listen, O ye doubters, infidels, and indifferent aliens! "No man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him."

NOTICE: This is not the testimony of a disciple, but the acknowledgment of one who was totally ignorant of the Savior's mission. It is not to be despised on that account.

"These miracles" - the dead were raised to life again, the blind received their sight, and the lame walked under His omnipotent touch (Matt. 11:4) ‑ introduced Jesus to men as superior to man, as one above nature. Who of the great and good men of past ages had brought such intelligent, such universal, such overwhelming evidences that He came from God? It is true that His pretensions were lofty ‑ almost above human understanding; but He was approved of God by miracles, wonders, and signs (Acts 2:22) that the world could not equal nor contradict. "This thing was not done in a corner” (Acts 26:26), but in open daylight, in the presence of the multitudes ‑ the most enlightened and critical witnesses of the age in which He lived. How unlike the wonders and signs, the works of the devil, in modern times!

Here are the wisdom and divinity of Jesus. If He had been only a man He would have been flattered by this reference to His wonderful works. But no, He came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), and the Jewish ruler is startled by the emphatic and unexpected declaration: "Verily, verily" (which means most assuredly) "I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). When he had recovered from his surprise at these remarkable words of Him who spake as one having authority (Matt. 7:29), he replied: "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?” (John 3:4). From the human standpoint this was a very hard question, but it shows an entire want of understanding of what Jesus said ‑ of what He meant. He therefore enlarged the phrase "born again," "born anew," or "born from above," by saying: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God; that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Nicodemus was silent, thoughtful, astonished. Jesus said: "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:5‑7).

A clear and comprehensive view of these passages will enable us to grasp the subject of the New Birth in all its details.

First, Jesus told the Jewish ruler that he must be "born again" in order to "see the kingdom of God." He did not understand this, hence the Lord explained to him that to be born again meant to “be born of water and of the Spirit;" that to see the kingdom of God meant to "enter into the kingdom of God." This is clear enough for us, for we have the light of subsequent revelation. This explanation might have opened his mind had he not, like many of our own times, been wedded to his own way of thinking. He doubtless possessed some information concerning the preaching of John the Baptist, and the baptism of thousands of his countrymen and neighbors "in the river," yes in the river "of Jordan!" But he was blind (cf. 2 Cor. 4:3-4).

WARNING: Oh, beware of the pride of birth, riches, or tradition! These declarations undermined the entire Jewish system; for their highest idea of spiritual position or privilege was embraced in a birth of flesh or Hebrew parentage. Everything Nicodemus said indicated that he was proud (Prov. 16:18; 18:12; 29:23) of his birthright, his nation, AND his position. When Jesus began to talk of a new birth and new kingdom he was surprised that any Jew would have the presumption to place anything above the Abrahamic covenant and its legitimate outgrowth, the Law of Moses. After this protracted interview he doubtless returned to his duties as a ruler full of amazement and conflicting emotions.

Born again means born anew, born of the will of God, born from above, born of incorruptible seed, born of water and the Spirit. Has any man the right to detach one of these statements, remove it from its proper connection and build a system upon it and promise men salvation through it? Right or no right, truth or no truth, salvation or no salvation, this is precisely what is done all around us, everywhere. We hear much of born again, born of the Spirit, or born anew, and but little of born of the will of God, born of water and the Spirit, or born of the word of God. Some men prefer the shadow to the substance; half-truth to the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The truth in its fullness is too much for the faith, or rather the creeds, of some men; hence they neglect or totally disregard the objectionable parts! There are too many educated consciences; consciences educated to systematically and willfully neglect or reject the truth! Educated consciences are needed, but of a different kind. If the believers of today would receive the truths of the Bible as the prophets, as Jesus Christ, as the apostles left them, a religious revolution would be the immediate and inevitable result, and out of the revolution would shine in its beauty the restored church of apostolic simplicity and purity (cf. Matt. 16:18).

The master in Israel did not understand these things (John 3:10), nor do many today. Yet through the mists, the doubts, the uncertainties and contradictions of the modern exponents of the Bible we hear the voice of Jesus ringing loud and clear: "Ye must be born again." Can a man be born again and have no certain evidence of the fact? If so, we must live in doubt, and die in doubt, and take our chances for heaven the same as if all religion were a Myth, all faith fanaticism, and all hope a delusion. If not, how transcendently important this occasion! How glorious the Gospel of light, life, and liberty! Where is the way? Jesus Christ (John 14:6). His word is the way (John 17:17).

What is the new birth? It is the great change from darkness and sin to the kingdom of God (Col. 1:13-14). What does it embrace? Every fact, commandment, and blessing of the Law of Christ. What produces the new birth - the Gospel, or some power outside and above it? Answer: The Gospel; or else the mission of Jesus did not accomplish the design of God in sending Him to the world. What relation does the church sustain to the world touching the good news? We can preach the Gospel and urge men to accept and obey it, and we will not be guiltless if we fail. Is the sinner able to do anything, or is he helpless until after he is born again? Answer: He must do his part or be damned (Phil. 2:12; Acts 2:40), and if he refuses to do it he ought to be damned. He deserves nothing less. Do we know that we are in the kingdom of God? Yes. What is the evidence on which we rest? Answer: The promise and the oath of the Almighty God (Heb. 6:13). Could you ask for more?

The subject of the New Birth has been discussed over and over in almost every pulpit in the land, and yet the majority of people still “sit in darkness” (Luke 1:79; cf. 1 John 2:9-11). Thousands are willing and anxious to be saved, but they candidly confess that they "know not the way." Who is to blame? Where does the responsibility lie? Who must answer for it in the judgment - the Bible, the preachers, or the people? The united voice of all believers exonerates the Bible from all blame, and lays the ax down at the feet of the people and the preachers.

You must come up to the demand of the Gospel of Christ either here or at the bar of God. Why not do it now? Why, vain and foolish man, do you make void the law of Christ through your tradition? (Matt. 15:3). "Who hath bewitched you,” that ye should not obey the truth? (Gal. 3:1). Why will you fight against God? Owing to the immense amount of ignorance, indifference, and doubt existing in the minds of many concerning the new birth, we will try to prepare the way for a full discussion of the subject by showing what it is not. By clearing it of the ambiguous or unnecessary terms the issue may be plain to every mind. It is frequently a much lighter task to show what a thing is not, than to show what it is; but by your indulgence and the help of the New Testament we shall endeavor to do both.

The new birth does not mean a second birth of flesh. Jesus Christ emphatically repudiated the blood or flesh basis of Divine acceptance; hence the Old Covenant and the New Covenant are distinct. The third chapter of John stands as an eternal contradiction of the theory that the two covenants (Gal. 4:24) are the same, one, identical. The Old Covenant was entered by a birth of flesh. The New Covenant is entered by a birth of water and the Spirit. If the two are identical, why did Jesus deny membership in the second to the Jews? They were all members of the first. In spite of the feelings of Nicodemus, and the supposed connection between the covenants, Jesus disclaimed any connection between them, and opened the door of His kingdom to the world on new conditions.

The necessity for a new birth puts an everlasting quietus upon the doctrine of Universalism. That false teaching has deceived many into believing that all men, religious and irreligious, will find happiness in heaven. If a man "cannot see the kingdom of God" unless he is born again, and if the new birth involves our volition, how can a man be saved who has never passed from death unto life? (1 John 3:14). How can all men be the recipients of happiness, grand, glorious, and eternal, when thousands die in their sins? (John 8:24). How can a man harbor everything that is vile in his heart, die in this condition, and get to heaven, when no defilement can enter into it? (Rev. 21:27). The New Testament answer to this satanic scheme to lead men to destruction is pointed, emphatic, and final: "Ye must be born again!"

Unconditional election and reprobation die before this doctrine like men drop before the sweep of a contagion. If some were predestinated, or foreordained, to everlasting life, and others to "everlasting shame and contempt," why did Jesus not say so? Why did He not say: "The elect must be saved, born again;" or, "The elect will be born again!" Why did He not in some way allude to or imply the existence of these decrees? Do you think this was not the proper time and place? You are certainly mistaken in this, for He was making known, though in highly figurative language, the law of admission into His kingdom. The reason He did not refer to such decrees is – and we say it with all emphasis ‑ that they did not exist. Nor do they exist now save in the clouded minds of fatalistic theologians and the musty volumes of antiquated speculation. But we have not so "learned Christ." Have you? If so, now is the time to begin anew.

Every passage in the Bible that lays stress on human accountability or implies that salvation is conditional, buries the abominable doctrine of unconditional election with the obsolete men and times that invented it. There is but one kingdom of God, city of refuge, or church for the entire world. No man, it matters not who his parents are, can claim membership on the basis of natural fitness. God’s kingdom is entered by the new birth. All men in every age are equal before the law. One man cannot enter in one way and someone else in another way. The Lord is no respecter of persons (Rom. 2:11), and the Gospel makes no discriminations. All men are sinners in the sight of God, and there is but one law of pardon for the world. Just so certain as all men have been born once ‑ born of the flesh, born into this world ‑ they have an opportunity to be born again ‑ born into the kingdom of God.

The doctrine of the new birth does not justify the extravagant claims of many that they enjoy personal, direct, and unbounded knowledge from God that their sins have been forgiven. Revelation or no revelation, Bible or no Bible, law or no law, baptism or no baptism, obedience or no obedience, reason or no reason, they claim direct and infallible assurance of the forgiveness of sins. Is it right, is it Scriptural, is it safe for a man to claim that he is the object of a special revelation; that is, a revelation that no one knows anything about but himself? If a special revelation is required to each person to prove God's willingness to save, as many think, the general revelation ‑ in other words, the New Testament ‑ never did or never will save anyone. Therefore the cross of Christ is a farce, the apostles were deceivers, and the conditions of the Gospel imposed by them the product of human ignorance and despotism.

Will God repudiate the word of salvation that cost the life‑blood of Jesus Christ, and whisper peace in the souls of men who have never performed a single act of obedience to His law? Are there not revelations enough in the Bible to save you? Is your unbelief so great, your heart so hard, and your mind so corrupted that God must ignore the requirements of the Gospel and inaugurate a new plan to reach you? Do you not treat God with disrespect and His word with contempt when you indulge in such pretensions? We do not deny that men are born from above, for this is plainly taught in the Scriptures; but before you make up your mind what this phase means, let us remind you that truth is from above, that Jesus came from above, and that the Holy Spirit, which guided the apostles into all truth ‑ yes, all truth; not a part, but into the whole truth and nothing but the truth ‑ came down from above to remain forever.

What do you think of these passages? "But the Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26). "The things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you, with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven” (1 Peter 1:12). "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” (James 1:17). God gives us everything we enjoy. Our daily bread comes from His benevolent hands. Yet we are commanded to pray for it (Matt. 6:11), and to work with our hands (Eph. 4:28). Because a thing is from above, from heaven, from God, does not necessarily imply that it comes directly from Him, and that we have nothing to do. He gives us our daily bread when we work for it, and deliverance from sin when we seek it according to the appointments of His kingdom. If we refuse to work, starvation will be our just and inevitable portion. If we refuse to accept and live for Christ, we can never see His face in peace. There is no hope for the willfully disobedient. Will God ignore the conditions of the gospel in order to save you simply because you ask Him?

There is one feature of the new birth that is frequently overlooked. The phrase, "except a man," cannot be tortured into meaning, “except a baby." Yet some of the "sanctified" of the denominations so apply it. It is so applied by the creeds, and you cannot deny it. Nor can it mean simply a man's heart, mind, life, or body. It includes "a man," a whole man, a complete man ‑ body, soul, heart, mind, life. Jesus Christ demands all we have and are. We need light just here. The modern revival is the outgrowth of the sentiment that supposes that only a man's heart is "born anew," hence the efforts to modify, explain away, or ignore the birth of water ‑ in plain words, baptism.

Approved revivalists teach the sinner that feelings are the evidence of pardon. They ought to remember that only blind men depend upon feeling their way. Christians ‑ genuine New Testament Christians – “live by faith” (Rom. 1:17) and "walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). If we were in darkness we would doubtless depend upon our feelings; but as we are not (1 Thess. 5:4), we are responsible, not for our feelings, but for our acts. Their methods are contrary to sound doctrine (Titus 2:8) and common sense. Investigate them. Do they appeal to the judgment of the people; to their immortal nature? Nay, verily! They appeal to the emotional nature; depict death‑bed scenes and earthly farewells. They teach the people that everything depends on the descent of the Holy Spirit; that if they cannot get power from on high all will be in vain.

Thrilling songs are sung. Prayers are offered that forcibly remind the Bible student of the dramatic scene depicted in the eighteenth chapter of First Kings ‑ Elijah and the prophets of Baal. The loud "amen" rings through the place. The confusion and excitement grow apace. In this condition men are hurried through the modern regenerating process. We ask in deepest candor, is God the author of this Babel? It will not improve the matter to take refuge behind the assertion that this is not the universal practice; for while the excitement is not so great in some localities, the theory is precisely the same. The more moderate ones endeavor to pray pardon down from God, in defiance of the demands of the Gospel, and thousands, millions pass through and claim to enjoy pardon when they have not the least conception of the law of pardon submitted to the world through the apostles.

After man passes through these scenes ‑ scenes in which the animal nature often predominates ‑ his religious zeal passes like a cloud away, and he begins to doubt. His religious teachers console him by quoting the passage about the wind (John 3:8), placing great emphasis on the part which says: "Thou canst not tell from whence it cometh nor whither it goeth." This is true of thousands of the mourner's‑bench type converts, for when they "get it"‑ such nonsense ‑ they do not know where it comes from, and when they "lose it" they cannot tell where it is gone! Is it any wonder that skepticism and religious indifference prevail in the land? [Please stop and read our short explanation of John 3:8].

No one can deny that the new birth involves our happiness here and hereafter. Yet the space devoted to it in the New Testament is exceedingly small. It is mentioned in different chapters by John, Peter, and by the apostle of the Gentiles, Paul. That this is important no one can doubt. Then why these brief and unsatisfactory allusions? Either the New Testament writers were culpably negligent, or other parts of the book throw light upon the subject besides the places in which it is mentioned. We think the latter is decidedly the correct conclusion.

The apostle John wrote, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not; but as many as received him, to them gave he power – that is, right or privilege – to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:11-13). These words of John declare that men are born of the will of God. This is the golden key that unlocks the treasures of wisdom, knowledge, and redemption. The will of God was gradually unfolded to men as the centuries passed into the shadowy land of history. It was never completed until the apostles preached the Gospel, with the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven," in Jerusalem and among the Gentiles (Isaiah 2:2-3; Luke 24:45‑53). Whoever received the messages of heaven as the light of God, as the light for the age in which he lived, was most assuredly renewed, restored, or redeemed. Keep this in mind, but do not draw the unwarranted conclusion that the new birth, or salvation, of other times was as radical, full, and complete as it is under the new dispensation.

Here is an apostle's version of the matter. Will you accept it? "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever” (1 Pet. 1:23). Jesus Christ spoke in anticipation of the conquest of the world through the Gospel after His death, burial, resurrection, and glorification. Nothing was plain, not even to the apostles (Acts 1:6‑8), until the Holy Spirit came down (Acts 2:1‑5). When Peter said, we are born of the incorruptible seed, he simply explained, under the direction of the Spirit of Truth, what Jesus said to Nicodemus. Born of the word, and born of water and the Spirit mean precisely the same. You cannot separate them. We hope you will not try to do so.

The word of God is the seed of the kingdom (Matt. 13:1‑23). The kingdom is entered by the birth of water and the Spirit. Therefore the seed, the word of truth, the obedience of faith, and the new birth are inseparable. Those who understand the word (Matt. 13:23), receive it (Mark 4:20), keep it in good and honest hearts (Luke 8:15), and are the recipients of all the blessings of God. Can a man be born again without the Holy Spirit? No, for the Spirit inspires the word (Matt. 10:20; 2 Tim. 3:14‑17). Can a man be born again, or become a child of God, without the seed of the kingdom? Can a man raise wheat or corn without seed? Can you fight without a sword? (Eph. 6:17). Can a man be saved, be a Christian, and ignore the law of heaven? (2 Thess. 1:6‑10). Can a man get to heaven by his own way? (John 10:1).

What is it to be born of the word of God? Simply to hear, believe, and obey the Gospel of Christ; for the cross of Christ put a motive power into everything that He said before He suffered. Will you answer this question in the presence of God: If I believe every fact, and obey every command in the Gospel, will I be saved? You cannot question it, can you? A man cannot be saved unless he is born again; born of water and the Spirit. What then? Faith and obedience constitute the new birth, according to your own admission. When we say faith and obedience constitute the new birth, we mean faith in Christ, not faith in creeds; we mean obedience to the Gospel, full and willing obedience, not obedience to men. You cannot be half-born of half of the Gospel. Neither can you give two‑thirds of the glory to men and one‑third of the glory to God. All or none is the will of God. You cannot take half of the facts, half of the commands, turn from half of your sins, and substitute man's way ‑ a few drops of water, for born of water - and be accepted of God. The Divine demand is all! The time is now!