John 3:5 Commentary and Bible Study

Nicodemus mentioned being born in the womb again and Christ answers in verse five, I most solemnly assure you, ‘Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit.’ Many people think he is talking about baptism with water and new birth by the Spirit. But he is not. He is talking about natural child birth when the waters break and the child is born, ordinary birth. No, no, no, he seems to say to Nicodemus. This is not about entering into the womb the second time. Nicodemus did not mean that seriously, but Christ requires him to take his words seriously, but rightly understood. This is about being born by the Spirit; the verse could be read with the stress on the word ‘and’ to show that natural birth though essential for physical life is not enough to give life in the soul. ‘There must be an invisible birth, a spiritual birth, another birth, a work of God in our lives. That is the second birth. We know this is the distinction – natural birth and spiritual birth – because verse 6 repeats the point, but putting a new angle on it: ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ So that interprets verse 5 for us – ‘Except a man be born of water’, physical birth, and, additionally, secondarily, ‘of the Spirit’, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.First of all, without this radical change, this being born anew by the Spirit, you cannot even see the kingdom of God. And now it becomes even stronger – you certainly cannot enter into it. You can neither see it, nor can you enter it without this tremendous radical change.Well, Nicodemus made actually quite a profound statement – can a man enter his mother’s womb again and be born? Of course he cannot. Its viewpoint is wrong, but he is right to draw attention to the impossibility of this. People are by nature sinners; they cannot radically change. You cannot become a new person. It is not possible. It is no more possible than entering into your mother’s womb again when you are old and being physically born a second time.