The Mysterious New Birth

John 3:4-8 ESV

4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Whenever you think of the word “mystery” what do you think of? Maybe you think of Sherlock Holmes, maybe Perry Mason, maybe the board game Clue, or if you were a kid in the seventies or eighties, you might think of Scooby Doo.

But the term “mystery” is very unique to scripture, and it means something very special for those of us who are believers. And in preparing for this message, I looked through most of the Bible dictionaries that I have, and I found what I believe are two excellent definitions for the biblical term “mystery”.

The first is by Walter Ewell, in the Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, when he simply says that “mystery” is indicative of the “Counsel, or secret plan, which God shares only with his people.”[1] So, this quite simply tells us that biblically speaking, a mystery is God’s counsel that is revealed only to His saved, elect people.

But we see what I believe is an even better definition, from Phillip Schaff, who says that “mystery” “is a spiritual truth hitherto hidden, incapable of discovery by mere reason, but now revealed, though yet beyond the full understanding of our finite intelligence.”[2]

Now, while I appreciate Ewell’s shorter, more to the point definition, I like Schaff’s definition better. He says that a biblical mystery is a spiritual truth that had before been hidden to the one it is now revealed to. That it is a truth that is not capable of being discovered through reason or willpower. But rather, it is revealed by God to the one He is revealing it to.

But even though it is a revelation from God to whomever He reveals it to, it is still a mystery, therefore, even the revelation can never be fully understood by the one whom the mystery has been revealed to.

As we began our series of messages last week from this famous discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus, we can rightly recognize the contents of their discussion as being the mystery of the new birth.

This new birth, we saw being first recorded in speech and being specifically identified as “the new birth” in our reading from last week.

Nicodemus, and other contemporaries of his had heard and seen the Lord Jesus in the Jerusalem temple at the Passover Feast. Because of what they had seen and heard from Jesus, we read back in John 2:23, that many had “believed in His name”. Nicodemus, it would appear, was one of those who had come to believe in the name of Jesus as a result of the signs that he saw Jesus perform in the temple.

So, Nicodemus, looking to learn from Jesus, came to Him and declared that he and the others who had come to “believe in His name” back in John 2:23 knew without a doubt that Jesus had come from God, because they knew that the only way that Jesus could perform the signs that He performed would be if God is with Him.

So, Nicodemus says, “Rabbi, Teacher, I come to learn from You, Who has clearly come from God!”. But Jesus responds in a way that Nicodemus most certainly did not expect when He says that a man cannot even see the kingdom of God, a man cannot live a life that pleases God, a man cannot possess or obtain faith, a man cannot even legitimately learn about the things of God unless that man has first been born again.

That is a pretty serious statement! A statement that Nicodemus, quite honestly, doesn’t understand. And we see the confusion of Nicodemus concerning this statement in verse four of reading, where we read:

John 3:4 ESV

4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?”

Now, the concept of new birth in the spiritual sense was not totally alien to the ancient Jewish mind. In fact, whenever a Gentile would convert over to the Jewish faith, he would be considered to be “reborn”. But to the Jewish mind, especially a first-century Jewish mind, it would be absurd to suggest that someone who was born a Jew needed to be reborn. And so, with that in mind, it’s understandable why Nicodemus was so confused here.

He asked, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Nicodemus, a typical first-century Jew, does not think that this spiritual rebirth that Jesus speaks of could be a spiritual rebirth, at least not for a Jew.

As was said, Jews in the first-century believed that they were spiritually accepted by God due to their physical lineage and circumcision. To them, that God caused them to be born Jews is what makes them right with God.

That’s why Nicodemus says to Jesus, “I know that You aren’t talking about rebirth as in a reincarnation for no orthodox believer holds to reincarnation, so are You actually trying to tell me that a man needs to physically enter into his mother’s womb a second time and literally be born again?”

That is absolutely foolish, something that Nicodemus himself certainly thought was foolish as well. But what was truly foolish is how Nicodemus believed that being born a certain ethnicity is what saves a man.

And we see Jesus graciously begin to clear up this misunderstanding of Nicodemus in verse five of our reading, where it says that,

John 3:5 ESV

5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Now, the response that Jesus gives to the bewildered and confused Nicodemus here is essentially a repetition of what He had declared in verse three when He said that a man cannot see the kingdom of God unless he has been born again. In fact, the substance of what is said in this verseis the very same as what is said in verse three, what is different in this verse is the verbiage used to get the very same point across.

This being born “of water and the Spirit” echoes certain Old Testament phraseology that might have been calculated to ring a bell in the mind of Nicodemus, particularly the prophecy of Ezekiel, chapter thirty-six, verses twenty-five through twenty-seven. There we read:

Ezekiel 36:25-27 ESV

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

It is all right here. Everything that Jesus means by the new birth is right here in these three verses from Ezekiel 36. There, we see God promise a symbolic cleansing in water, indicative of John’s baptism and the water baptism that His people receive. We see a complete renewal in receiving a new spirit, the Spirit of God, and the reception of this Spirit, we read, there in Ezekiel 36:27 causes the believer to “walk in My statutes and be careful to obey My rules”, in other words, the reception of the Spirit, this rebirth causes the one who is reborn to be sanctified by God and now have the ability to legitimately please God.

And most interesting of all to a man like Nicodemus is the fact that this declaration of God was made to people who were already Jewish! The first-century Jew believed that being born a Jew is what makes him right with God, but right here in the very scriptures that these Jews held to and believed were inspired by God proclaim that they too must be born again to see the kingdom of God.

And so, having made this plain to Nicodemus, through the very scriptures that he as a Pharisee knew very well, Jesus then goes on to say in verses six and seven:

John 3:6-7 ESV

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

Jesus tells Nicodemus that he should not marvel at the words that He speaks to him, it shouldn’t be surprising to him. Jesus says, after all “That which is born of the flesh is flesh”. What He means here is that being born physically, being born in sinful flesh, begets sinful flesh. In other words, if I am born of the seed of sinful parents, which we all are, then I inherit sin and the consequences of sin.

Now again, this would have been shocking to first-century Jewish ears. “Born a sinner?! My paternal heritage is Jewish! My maternal heritage is Jewish! I am no sinner!” is the thought that Nicodemus the Pharisee surely had running through his mind here.

Indeed, there is a similar thought that most unconverted men and women have running through their heads when they are presented with the Gospel, the gospel that says, “You must be born again!” “Born again!” they say. “Why should I be born again? There is nothing wrong with me! Maybe other people need to be born again, but not me! I’m a good person!”.

But regardless of what anyone thinks, the reality is that flesh begets flesh, and all flesh is sinful and in need of salvation, in need of a spiritual rebirth.

That is why Jesus tells Nicodemus that even he needs to be born again, born of the Spirit of God Himself. For that which is born of the Spirit, Jesus says, is spirit. This doesn’t mean that he who is born again of the Spirit of God becomes a partaker of the Spirit of God Himself, but it means that the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Christ is imputed to him.

Indeed, as the man who is born only of the flesh is incapable of being righteous in that state, so must man be reborn in a state of righteousness in order to be righteous.

But lastly, as far as the question that Nicodemus asked; “How can this be?” Jesus answers that for him in verse eight, the last verse of our reading, where He says:

John 3:8 ESV

8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The wind, Jesus says, is inexplicable. No one knows where it comes from, it cannot be seen, and we don’t know why it blows in the direction that it chooses to blow, but it can be heard and it can be felt, and so, though it is inexplicable and mysterious it is very real, and unmistakenly so.

Jesus says, “So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit of God”. As the wind cannot be controlled by human power or wisdom, neither can the Spirit of God. As the wind blows in whatever direction it wills to blow, so does the Spirit of God apply the new birth to whomever He is pleased to apply it to. He cannot be controlled, manipulated, or brought into effect by anyone, just as the wind cannot be controlled, manipulated, or brought into effect by anyone.

But though the ways of the Spirit of God and the new birth are inexplicable and uncontrolled, His effect is always felt and always recognized. It is felt, and it is noticed by the one who is born again, and even by those around him.

This is the mystery that we spoke of at the beginning of this message. I can’t explain, you can’t fully and sufficiently explain why you are born again or how you are born again, but you know that you are born again.

Infinitely high and mysterious are the ways of God, Who is pleased to save whoever He is pleased to save! Why did the Spirit of God choose to come upon me and cause me to be born again? Why did He choose to come upon you and cause you to be born again? These are questions that you and I cannot sufficiently answer, but indeed, it is!

Beloved, friends, you must be born again by the Spirit of God. Let us be faithful to proclaim that same indisputable truth to a world that desperately needs that truth to be proclaimed to them. And may it be that the Spirit of God has been pleased to come upon those we proclaim that good news to today!

Amen?

[1]Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, “Mystery,”in Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 1512.

[2]Philip Schaff, ed., A Dictionary of the Bible: Including Biography, Natural History, Geography, Topography, Archæology, and Literature (Philadelphia; New York; Chicago: American Sunday-School Union, 1880), 592.