[Biblemat] Water and Spirit - A Study of John 3:5

[Gary Shawn Daniels]

Water and Spirit - A Study of John 3:5

Church of Christ at Pana, Illinois

By: Shawn Daniels, evangelist

 

"Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot 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." (John 3:5-6) Many people struggle with this very passage just as
Nicodemus did in verse 4 when he said, "How can a man be born when he is
old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?"
They don't understand the concept of being born again, or they don't
understand the method in which Jesus Christ created.  Jesus tells Nicodemus
and us the method when he said, "Except a man be born of water and of the
Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."  However, many don't want
the water involved with the salvation of our souls.  We are going to examine
this passage closely and see what Christ was saying.

             The word "except" is from the Greek word "ean me" (eh-an may')
meaning if not or unless.  In other words Jesus is saying that the only way
to enter into the kingdom of God depends on the following condition.

             The word "a man" is from the Greek word "tis".  "Tis" is an
indefinite pronoun, or in other words Jesus is saying anyone, any person, or
someone.  There's no special or certain person that can obey the word of
God.  There is no predestination since Jesus himself says anyone that is
born of water and of Spirit can enter into the kingdom of God.  Just as Paul
tells us, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus." (Gal
3:28) It doesn't matter who you are.  You can obey the gospel of Christ.
You don't have to wait on some sort of vision, or wait till some spirit
falls on you, before you can become a Christian.  If that was the case then
our ability for salvation would depend soley on God, which would send some
sort of vision or the Spirit, and if we would so happen die and go to hell
then it would be God's fault because he sent no vision to us.  God forbid.
Paul tells us that the preaching of the cross is the power of salvation. (1
Cor. 1:18) Why, we may ask?  Because by preaching man is brought to the
knowledge of Salvation.  Look at the multitude in Acts chapter 2.  It was
Peter's and the Apostle's preaching that pricked their hearts and caused
them to fall out with sin.  Not some vision or neither did the Spirit fell
on them.  As a matter of fact the Spirit fell only on the Apostles, which
where already saved.

             Jesus tells us we must "be born" which is from the Greek word
"Gennao", (Ghen-nah'-o) which means to procreate by the means of a father
and a mother.  It also means to regenerate.

             So what we have so far is Jesus telling us, "Unless a person is
regenerated of." Of what? Let's see.

             "Water" is from the Greek word "hudor" (hoo'-dore), which means
literally water.  One part of the regeneration process is plain ordinary
water.  Why water?  Is it because it will clean the filth off of our bodies?
Peter tells us, "When once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of
Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were
saved by water.  The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save
us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good
conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ."  (1 Peter
3:20-21) It's not because it cleans the dirt and filth off the flesh.  If
that were so then every time we took a shower we would be receiving God's
salvation.  No, there's more to it than that.  The question is how was Noah
saved by water?  It was in obedience to every command given by God that Noah
was saved.  The water, because Noah obeyed God, didn't kill him and his
family as it did the rest of the population, but took him from the old world
full of sin, to the new world that was free from sin.  This is the same
reason water saves us from our sins.  It took us from our old sinful state,
where we were separated from God, and regenerated us or beget us into this
new state, where we are children of God, and have salvation. (Rom. 6:4)

             Some however will say, "Baptism doesn't save us.  It just
answers a good conscience to God.  It's just something good to do after
you're saved."  First of all, how can you be saved without a good conscience
to God?  Don't they even know what a conscience is?  A conscience is your
moral understanding.  Most people that are not Christians don't kill because
there's something that tells them not to kill.  They know that it's just
wrong to kill.  It's the same to a believer.  We are baptized because we
have a moral understanding that God commanded it.  Just as Noah had a moral
understanding that God commanded him to build the ark.  Noah knew that if he
didn't do as God commanded, then he would perish.  Just as we know that if
we don't do as God commanded, then we would perish.  God commanded it in
Matt. 28:19.  So who should we believe, the Apostle Peter, a man that was
inspired of God, or these denominational preachers?  Those denominational
preachers are using the same tactics that the serpent used in the Garden of
Eden.  Peter said, "Baptism doth also now save us."  Denominations say,
"Baptism doth NOT also now save us."  God said, "Thou shalt surely die."
The serpent said, "Thou shalt NOT surely die."  Do you see the similarity?

             The word "and" is very important in this passage.  It is, a
copulative conjunction.  It holds the previous to the next, and ties them
together, water AND Spirit.

             Jesus said that we must be born of "Spirit" along with water.
The Greek word for "spirit" is from the Greek word "Pnuema" (Nyoo' mah)
meaning air, or breath as when God breathed into mans nostriles and man
became a living soul.  It can also mean ghost or Divine such as God,
Christ's Spirit, or Holy Spirit.

             Many mistake this as being Holy Spirit baptism, but this is
not.  For one thing, I have already shown were water is essential.  So we
would have both water baptism and then Holy Spirit Baptism, which would make
the word of God contradict itself.  Paul says in Ephesians 4:4-7, "There is
one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above
all, and through all, and in you all. But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ."  There's only one
baptism, in which we are saved.  Jesus' command says to be born of spirit
not to be baptized of the spirit.  How could we complete a commandment that
we have no control over?  Just as when Paul said, "Be filled with the
Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." (Eph 5:18-19) That's a
direct command.  How can we obey a command when God is the one that
administers Holy Spirit baptism?  The answer is, you can't, and therefore
that's not what Christ and Paul were talking about.  Paul said in the letter
to the Colossians the same command, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you
richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."
(Col 3:16)  Instead of saying, "be filled with the spirit," he says, "Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly."  That is a command in which we can
obey.  We can let the word of Christ dwell in us richly by studying and
practicing his teachings.  Whereas we have no control over being clothed
with the Holy Spirit as the Apostles were.  As a matter of fact, it wasn't a
command when Jesus foretold of the comforter.  It was a promise, and there's
much difference in the two.

             Jesus commands us to be born of water and spirit.  So, what is
the spirit, if it's not Holy Spirit baptism?  We can read in (1 Peter
23-25): "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by
the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.  For all flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you."  He
says that we are born again by the word of God.  This is what Jesus was
talking about.  We are born of the spirit by what it revealed to us, the
word of God.  That was the purpose of the comforter.  He was to reveal and
to bring into remembrance of what Jesus did on earth to those that he
promised it to, the apostles.  (John 14:26) "But the Comforter, which is the
Holy Ghost, 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."

             Holy Spirit baptism was never designed to directly put someone
into the body of Christ.  It was to reveal what we must do to be in the Body
and how to remain in the body.  It revealed what the body is and how to
worship, but never to put one into the church.  So for conclusion for John
3:5, the way to be born again is through water and spirit, just as it says,
born by being immersed (buried) in physical water and by the truth that the
Spirit revealed.  "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in
righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto
all good works." (2 Tim 3:16-17) What He revealed is profitable for doctrine
- All the teaching, standards and commands from God.  For reproof - to
convince of that teaching.  For correction - to take out error.  For
instruction in righteousness - to show what we must do to grow as a
Christian and to live as Christ.  This is how we are born again of water,
the mother agent, and Spirit, the father agent, by obedience and revelation.

             In the natural realm of man, we are born of mother and of
father, not by choice, but by them coming together and producing offspring.
In the spiritual realm, however, we are born of water (mother) and of Spirit
(father), and this is by choice.  So in the natural realm, when we are born,
we are born not of obedience or revelation, but of the parent's choice, and
are the children of our parent's choice.  We, by being born of water and of
Spirit, are no longer the children of our parent's choice, and become the
children of revelation of salvation and of obedience and of promise.

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