Born of Water and the Spirit

Learning Objectives

By the close of this lesson the hearer should be able to:

1. Identify the kingdom of God in this text as the church, a present spiritual kingdom.
2. Explain the new birth as begettal by the Spirit through the word and delivery in baptism.
3. Refuse the false readings of "born of water" and show the new birth modeled on Pentecost.

Thesis

To enter the kingdom a man must be born again — begotten by the Spirit through the word and delivered through the water of baptism; "born of water and the Spirit" is not natural birth and not a direct, wordless work of the Spirit, but the gospel new birth pictured on Pentecost.

Burden

Jesus told a religious, moral, respected man that none of it was enough: "unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." That word still offends, because it levels everyone. It tells the upright Nicodemus and the open sinner the same thing — you must be born anew. The confusion that has gathered around this verse has let many people explain the new birth away until it costs them nothing. We will let Jesus define His own terms, and we will not soften the door He set on His kingdom.

Introduction

Entrance into the kingdom requires such a change that Jesus calls it a birth. "Unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:5). Boles works the text in four steps: what the kingdom is, what "born again" means, what a birth actually involves, and an example of this birth in Acts.

I. The Kingdom of God Is the Church — a Present, Spiritual Kingdom (Col. 1:13)

The kingdom Jesus speaks of is His church, and it is spiritual through and through. It has a spiritual King reigning now (Acts 2:30-36), spiritual laws, a spiritual realm, spiritual forces, and spiritual subjects. It is not a political kingdom postponed to some future age; it is entered now, by the new birth, and those who obey the gospel are even now "transferred... to the kingdom of His beloved Son" (Col. 1:13). Christ reigns and His kingdom stands today. The question of the new birth is therefore not academic — it is the question of how a person gets in.

II. What "Born Again" Means (Acts 6:7; Col. 1:13)

Scripture describes this entrance several ways, and the synonyms interpret each other:

• Conversion — "unless you are converted and become like children" (Matt. 18:3).
• Obedience to the gospel (2 Thess. 1:8).
• Translation into the kingdom of the Son (Col. 1:13).
• Obedience to the faith — "a great many... were becoming obedient to the faith" (Acts 6:7).

To be "born anew, of water and the Spirit," then, is not a mystical event detached from obedience; it is what happens when a person obeys the gospel. Three false readings must be set aside:

1. "Born of water" means natural (physical) birth. This makes Jesus say a man must be physically born to be saved — a pointless thing to tell Nicodemus, and it adds a meaningless birth.
2. "Born of water" means baptism, but "born of the Spirit" waits until the resurrection. This tears one birth into two events separated by a lifetime; Jesus speaks of one entrance into the kingdom now.
3. A direct, immediate operation of the Holy Spirit apart from the word. Scripture will not allow it: God begets by His Spirit through the word, not around it (next point). The Spirit and the water belong to one birth, accomplished through the gospel.

III. What a Birth Actually Is (1 Pet. 1:23; John 3:5)

Every birth has two necessary actions: begettal and delivery. The new birth follows the same pattern.

• God begets through the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit's instrument is the word, the seed. "You have been born again... through the living and enduring word of God" (1 Pet. 1:23); "the seed is the word of God" (Luke 8:11); "He brought us forth by the word of truth" (James 1:18); "in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel" (1 Cor. 4:15). This is the heart of it: the Spirit does not beget by bypassing the word but by means of it. So the new birth is "of the Spirit" precisely because it is by the Spirit's word.
• When is one begotten? When he believes. "As many as received Him... who believe in His name" become children of God (John 1:12); "whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God" (1 John 5:1). The Spirit's word produces faith, and faith is the begotten life.
• The delivery is in baptism — "born of water." As a child begotten must still be delivered to enter the world, so the believer begotten by the word is delivered in the water of baptism into the kingdom. Baptism does not impart the life; it brings the already-begotten believer forth into the new state. "Born of water and the Spirit" is one birth: begotten by the Spirit through the word, delivered through the water.

IV. The New Birth Modeled on Pentecost (Acts 2)

The order is not theory; Acts 2 shows it happen. No one could be born of the Spirit until the Spirit came; the Spirit came on Pentecost. There the people heard the word, believed it (begotten by the Spirit through the gospel), were cut to the heart, repented, and were baptized (delivered through the water) — and they were saved and added (Acts 2:37-41, 47). That is the new birth in action: born of water and the Spirit, brought into the kingdom. What happened in Jerusalem is the pattern for entering the kingdom still.

Application

Measure your own entrance by the Lord's door, not by a substitute. Were you begotten by the word — did you hear and believe the gospel? And were you delivered through the water — baptized into Christ? A faith that was never delivered in baptism is a child begotten but never born; a baptism without the begetting word is a body without life. Refuse the comfortable redefinitions that let a man claim the kingdom without the birth Jesus named. And if you have been born of water and the Spirit, live as one transferred into a new kingdom under a present King.

Conclusion

Jesus set one door on His kingdom and named it plainly: born of water and the Spirit. It is the Spirit's word that begets faith, and the water of baptism that delivers the believer into the kingdom of the reigning Christ. Not natural birth, not a wordless inner zap, not a birth split across a lifetime — one new birth, modeled at Pentecost, offered to you now.

Invitation

You must be born again, and the Lord has told you how. Hear the gospel and believe it; let it cut you to the heart; repent of your sins; confess that Jesus is the Christ; and be baptized for the remission of your sins, that you may be delivered into His kingdom (John 3:5; Acts 2:38). The Spirit's word is sounding now. Be born again today. Come while we sing.

Word Study

• "Born again / from above" (John 3:3, Gk. gennaō anōthen): to be begotten anew, or "from above." The double sense — again and from above — frames a new origin worked by God, not self-reform.
• "Water" (John 3:5): in the mouth of Jesus to a hearer who would soon see the gospel preached, the water of baptism, the appointed delivery of the new birth (cf. Acts 2:38; Titus 3:5).

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