Water and Spirit

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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