You Must Be Born Again
John 3:1-17
The term “born again” seems to be well known. It is so well known that it has become timeworn. Celebrities like Bob Dylan went through a “born again” phase. But is this even a proper translation of the Greek? Should we, as many suggest, retire the term and find some other way to describe the process of becoming a Christian. Let us take a look into the passage in John which uses this term. Please open your Bible to John 3.
The first thing we have to determine is who Nicodemus was. John shows him to be a well-regarded Pharisee whose name comes from the Greek “Nikos” which means victor and “Demos” which means “people.” Perhaps “The People’s Champion” is a good translation. The name itself does appear in Jewish literature, but there does not seem to be any knowledge of this particular Nicodemus outside the Gospel of John. This should not necessarily be a problem as records of the period are sketchy. It might be a pseudonym or nickname of someone. This well-known Rabbi in his context was interested in Jesus and came to him.
The next mystery to be answered is “When did Nicodemus come to Jesus?” By this I mean more than that he came at night. Was this early in Jesus’ ministry or late. As important as time is in the Gospel of John, it mat not always be linear. The answer to this question depends on whether one sees the Temple cleansing in the second chapter of John as being a separate and earlier one than the one recorded in the other Gospels, which occurred in the last week of Jesus’ earthly life. This is not easy to determine. Could John be juxtaposing the first sign of the turning of the water into wine to the late sign of cleansing the Temple. Or is this chronological. This drives the question on when Jesus met Nicodemus.
By the time Nicodemus, He is already a well known Rabbi. One wonders if this was early in His ministry whether he would have gotten the reputation other than his cleansing of the Temple. But if we look at Nicodemus in the Gospel of John, there appears to a progression from seeker to faith. He appears in chapter 11 as someone who at least wanted Jesus to get a fair hearing to a man who was publicly willing to shame himself to take a dead body off a cross. So I tend to think that both the cleansing of the Temple in John was an earlier cleansing, and that the meeting was also earlier in Jesus’ career.
John likes to use metaphors and binaries in His gospel. One of the binaries is that of light and darkness. So when it says that Nicodemus came by night, it may well mean more than, it just happened to be nighttime. It seems to indicate that Nicodemus, for all his reputation about the Scripture, was really in the spiritual dark and would soon demonstrate this. Also, it seems that Nicodemus was looking for more than a pleasant conversation with Jesus on spiritual matters in which the evening would provide a relaxed time to carry out this conversation. For all he had learned, Nicodemus knew that something was not right with him. Also he knew there must be more about Jesus than just being a fellow Rabbi.
We don’t know if anyone else came with Nicodemus or not, but Nicodemus uses the plural “We know” and Jesus uses the plural when He says “Ye must be born again.” But the darkness would keep them from the scrutiny of other Pharisees who were hostile to Jesus. Perhaps Nicodemus did not want his reputation to be destroyed by being seen with talking with such a controversial rabbi.
Nicodemus starts by addressing Jesus in reverential terms. There are several emphasis markers in the Greek which show this. “From God,” for example” is emphatically placed. This might be a flattery trap, but it seems this was a sincere enquiry. Nicodemus had seen the signs and miracles which Jesus had done. The report of them had gone out through the land. He was not willing to consign Jesus’ miracles to the Spirit of Beelzebub as some other Jewish leaders had done. Only God could have done them This is why the enquire seems both honest and personal.
Jesus gives an answer that seems off the wall and catches Nicodemus by complete surprise. He begins with the characteristic “Amen” Jesus uses when making a solemn pronouncement. In John, it is even the stronger double “Amen.” Usually the word was used to certify the truth of a statement just made. In Jesus’ case it is used before the statement. Also it is used by Jesus Himself rather than someone else affirming the truth of a statement someone else made. So Jesus uses the third person pronoun “someone” here. “Unless someone is born again, he is not able to see the Kingdom of God.” Jesus’ use of indirect language is similar to His doing so in the Sermon on the Mount which starts with “Blessed are those” statements. But at the end, Jesus makes a sharp and confrontational shift when He says: “blessed are YOU when you are persecuted.” Jesus would soon get confrontational with Nicodemus when He says “YOU” must be born again.”
Nicodemus is completely confused by Jesus. He understands the Greek “ano” to being literally born a second time. He poses a question that expects a negative response, “Surely a grown cannot go back into his mother’s womb and be born again!” This is where we get the term “born again” from. But “ano” can also mean “born from above” or “born from God.” This seems to be the way Jesus means it. If one goes to the first chapter of John, it says to those who believed on Him, to them gave He authority to become the children of God.” John tells us that God is the begetter. It is not by human means that one becomes God’s child.
Jesus answers Nicodemus again with the double “amen” and elaborates on what He just said. “One needs to be born of the water and the Spirit to enter the Kingdom of God. This is the use of parallelism. But what is meant by “water and the Spirit.” Is that natural birth followed by spiritual birth at a later time? Or does it mean water baptism and Spirit baptism? This is difficult to determine, but it is clear enough that one needs to believe on Jesus and have a new and spiritual birth. This is a level above that of natural birth. One cannot enter the Kingdom of God based upon earthly birthright.
Jesus makes the challenge to Nicodemus and others who probably came with him. Here the Greek word “dei” is often used as a divine imperative. “Don’t be surprised that God says YOU must be born again.” Jesus than shows that his spiritual birth is above human capacity and stresses the Sovereignty of the Holy Spirit. The play on wind and Spirit here is catching, especially considering the word for “wind” and “Spirit” is the same in Greek, as it also is in Hebrew. We are not born anew by our own human will any more than we have our earthly birth by our own will. The Spirit is free to blow here and not there. Why the Spirit does what He does is above human scrutiny.
Nicodemus shows that he still is in the dark. “How can this be?” Jesus is surprised at the dullness of someone as learned as Nicodemus. He answers: “YOU, you are THE teacher of Israel and don’t know this?” If Nicodemus cannot understand the wind and the earthly things, how would he ever come to know spiritual things? But Nicodemus is no more in the dark than anyone else in Israel. If the teacher of Israel does not understand how could ordinary people? This is the point to be made here. Unless we are clued in, we are as blind to spiritual things as was Nicodemus if not blinder. The only reason we knw anything is because Jesus came from above to reveal these things to us. The Spirit also confirms the truth of Jesus’ statements, the “amen” after the statement.
Jesus makes one more analogy, that to Moses, to explain who He was. Moses had lifted up a serpent on a pole to stop a plague the LORD had sent upon Israel for disobedience. Poisonous serpents sent by God had invaded the camp and bit the people who were dying a horrible death. Anyone who believed and looked up at the bronze serpent was saved. In like matter, Jesus says that if we are to be born again and be saved from death and judgment, that we need to look upon the cross and live.
The analogy of “serpent” opens up several interesting possibilities. If John was writing this from the region of Ephesus as tradition says, there was a Temple of Asclepius in nearby Pergamum who was the Greek god of healing. He was pictured as two snakes wrapped in a V shape. If you look at the symbol of the medical profession, it is in use to this day. Is this snake god, the one who heals? Or is Jesus the healer? The reason this is interesting is that the 5 porch pool of Bethesda in John 5 seems to be a Temple of Asclepius.
Another interesting possibility comes from Genesis. It was the serpent who beguiled Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and caused the fall of all the human race. The serpent was cursed as a result. Jesus came to be a curse for us. He becomes a curse on the cross. So in a sense, Jesus, who becomes a cursed serpent for our sake becomes the means of our salvation.
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When we get to the well-known John 3:16, it is hard for scholars to determine whether Jesus is still speaking here, or John is making commentary upon what Jesus said. Either way, it is the God-breathed truth of Scripture. God so loved the world that He gave His unique Son for all who would believe on Him. He will judge the world in His Son as He will soon make clear. But His first motivation is to save anyone who will believe. If Nicodemus was not good enough, then no one is good enough. If being born a Jew is not good enough, no birth right matters. What matters is whether one believes on Jesus Christ. Whether we want to say “born again” or “born from above,” the necessity of believing on Jesus Christ to be saved is not. It is not by our merit, but by faith. We have all been poisoned by deadly venom. We all are dying, form the greatest to the least. Jesus has come down to earth and beckons: “Look at me and live!” why should we complete this horrible dying just to face eternal punishment when the remedy is at hand. Come to the cross. Look at Jesus.
