Water or the Spirit, Which Birth?
Text: John 3:1-17
When Johnny Foust and I were 16 years old, I spent the night at his house and we got out our Bibles and the Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and looked up every verse that had the words saved, forgiven, redeemed, justified, sanctified, born again, or any other word that had to do with being ready to meet God. We figured we would make up a Bible study that would be air tight. We wanted it to show everything the Bible said about salvation. What we were specifically looking for were scriptures that stated what God wanted us to do to be saved.
In this lesson we will consider the teaching of Jesus on salvation in John 3. What we discover here takes pride out of the picture.
Believe it or not, at that time, we were both somewhat disappointed to find that most of the verses that talk about salvation don’t tell you what you and I are supposed to do, they tell you what God has done and is doing. We weren’t looking for that. We wanted to know what was required of us, what’s our part. Our key question was, "What must I do to be saved," not, "What has God done and what can He do to save us."
It has been a long time since those days. Today, I’ve come to appreciate more and more what I discovered back then. Salvation is a work of God for us, not the other way around. While we are certainly active in the process, salvation is clearly a work of God.
It is so easy to get all locked up in what is our part, that we can’t see the gospel and the kingdom of God grows dim. This seems to be part of Nicodemus’ problem. Jesus words to him are both radical and revolutionary. The gospel is about what God did and does. Believing and obeying the gospel is the proper response to God and what he did and does, but it doesn’t start there, and it doesn’t end there either.
Today’s lesson is about salvation, and Jesus says it involves being born again. That’s what Jesus teaches Nicodemus in John 3, seeing the kingdom, entering the kingdom, starts with being born again. That image of being born again gave Nicodemus a mental picture of returning to your mother’s womb and being reborn. When Nicodemus said that I can’t help but wonder if Jesus laughed. Jesus used word pictures that had to be interpreted spiritually. From a fleshly perspective, Jesus words don’t make much sense. But from a spiritual perspective Jesus words are clear. Being born again is something only God can do for you. It is a water and Spirit experience that centers on the working of God.
Listen to Paul as he describes communicating the gospel in spiritual words to the Corinthians in 1 Cor 2:1-5, 10-14. Notice that Paul says I don’t want you to rely on men’s wisdom or words but on God’s power by the Spirit. Then he explains that the message of God is only understood from a spiritual perspective. Listen to Jesus in John 3:11-12. Jesus tells Nicodemus, “If you can’t understand and accept this when I use human terms, how will you ever get it if I use heavenly terms?”
God’s ways don’t make sense to the fleshly minded. What in the world does “born again” mean? It is foolishness to give up everything and start all over for Jesus from the world’s perspective. It is crazy for 2 sixteen year olds to set up all night excitedly searching the Word of God for what it says about salvation. Someone might ask, “Don’t you have anything better to do?” I would still answer. No! The only thing I regret is the poisonous thinking that kept us from reveling and rejoicing in all that the scriptures said about what God had done for us! We would have fallen on our faces in worship. Instead we had been trained to think more about our responsibility than about God’s glorious grace. We needed both. I loved Jesus then, and now that I’ve grown to know him better through the years, and I love him more and more as I grow to know him better. Jesus was and is and I hope always will be the very center of my life… No, he is my life! He has given me new birth, eternal hope, mercy, grace and forgiveness… he saved me, redeemed me, justified me, called me, sanctified me, renewed my heart and mind, restored my soul… and he continues to do all that and more. All I do is listen to Him, believe, submit, and follow.
As we worship the Lord right now, ask: What do you think about all that Jesus has done for you? What about all your Father in heaven has given for you? It ought to do something to you! It ought to stir something deep inside. It ought to bring up some emotions. It has the power to change your life. God’s word says that when we receive these things by faith He initiates the new birth process.
Let’s go back to John 1:9-13. Listen to those words. What happened to the one who received and believed Jesus? What did God give them? Think about that! Is that talking about you? That ought to do something to you.
When Jesus said that in order to see the kingdom of God a man must be born of water and the Spirit, what is he talking about back in John 3:5. Entering the Kingdom of God involves a birth of water and the Spirit. One birth, two parts. Most of us recognize baptism in the water part. That is correct. In fact, as we read on we see that immediately after Jesus taught this to Nicodemus what does he do? Look down in verse 22. Jesus starts a baptizing campaign! In chapter 4:1-2 we see that Jesus was more successful in baptizing people than John the Baptist! Later, when Jesus commissions his disciples to spread the gospel to all the world, he specifically says, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” Matt. 28:19-20. So, if born of water is baptism, what does it mean to be born of the Spirit? If one is vital to salvation, so is the other.
The birth of the Spirit is described by Jesus this way: 5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into 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 the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit." Are those born of the Spirit moved by unseen forces? I see and feel the water in baptism, but the Spirit is unseen, yet He is just as real. Are those who are born of the Spirit guided and influenced by the Holy Spirit of God? How? The Bible teaches us. Paul contrasts the flesh and the Spirit in many scriptures, most notably in Romans 8 and Galatians 5. Reading those we see that we must set our minds on the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, worship in the Spirit, pray in the Spirit, put to death the misdeeds of the body by the Spirit, suffer for Christ by the strength of the Spirit, rely on the assurance of the Spirit. He gives us life and peace, he witnesses to us that we are children of God, he adopts us into God’s family, he empowers us to live according to God’s will, he brings forth spiritual fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in our lives, he searches our hearts and minds and prays for us with words we can’t utter, he dwells within us, leads us, and assures us that, just as he raised up Jesus, we will be raised from the dead. The Bible teaches born again of water and the Spirit. But for some reason the Spirit part of the new birth seemed to be missing in the teaching I received growing up.
For years there was a battle between churches of Christ and certain denominations about the place of baptism in the plan of salvation. In fact, there was a time in Texas that if you went to any church of Christ, anywhere, you would hear a sermon on Baptism at every gospel meeting. There were great debates and several books written about baptism. In them there is a lot about water, but only a little about the Spirit. If you look in our library, you’ll see some of those. It was a time when most of the preaching centered on “What must I do to be saved.” Not so much, look what God has done to save you. Every member of the church heard a lot about baptism for remission of sins, Lord’s supper every Sunday, instrumental music having no place in worship, premillinialism as a false view of the second coming of Christ, don’t call the preacher “Reverend, Pastor or Father.” We generally joined with conservative denominations in teaching against dancing, drinking, smoking, swearing, gambling, women wearing pants to church, or shorts anywhere, teens were taught the dangers of the three “P”s. Pot, passion and peer pressure. That was years ago, but I’m afraid that many of us had become very much like Nicodemus and his friends in our religiosity, and like the Ephesians of Rev. 2:2-4 we worked hard and did not tolerate evil, but we left our first love. Jesus, as the center and core of our hearts and minds became replaced and displaced. The Spirit of God was relegated to and limited to the pages of scripture. When Jesus is removed from the center, and the Holy Spirit is ignored what we do loses the foundation of why we do it. The Church was set up for a fall. When the foundations are weak, the house can’t stand. Love of Christ compels us and fuels the church. Love of the Bible and the church and the moral and religious teachings of the Bible, as important as they are, are no replacement for love of Jesus Christ himself. The church without the love of Christ is a dead shell of religious activity destined to fall.
Let me offer just one tiny piece of evidence that this love began to wane, even while love of sound doctrine was being proclaimed:
Foy Wallace, in the 1930’s –50’s was a booming voice and powerful influence in the churches of Christ across the south. He was a firey fighting force against every false doctrine you can imagine. His published sermon titled, “The Certified Gospel” is five pages long. But in it he devoted only five lines of print to the themes of the cross and the atonement. “The cross,” he said, “Declares God’s infinite hatred of sin, and God’s infinite love for the sinner.” Well said, but beyond that, he did not elaborate. From there he turned his full attention to refuting a list of evils and finished by focusing on what is the true church. That sounds much different from what Paul said in 1 Cor. 2:2… “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” In his fight against all the enemies of the church, Foy Wallace seems to have forgotten the heart of the one who built the church. His influence impacted many of his followers. One of whom was preaching in Cincinnati where F. L. Rowe complained that the man’s sermons were forceful, but largely pugnacious. Rowe asked him at supper to preach a sermon on the Prodigal Son. He hesitated a minute and then said, “Brother Rowe, I can’t do it. I have never studied that subject.” This is documented in a letter from F.L. Rowe to J. Edward Meixner on June 23, 1939 and is on file in the Center for Restoration studies at Abilene Christian University.
Fighting the good fight of faith is about keeping Christ at the center and refusing to build on any other foundation but him and his commands and attitudes and actions. Religious systems are easily built that stand in the way of the kingdom of God. That was exactly the problem of Nicodemus. Jesus is radical in calling us to be born again. It is a revolutionary call to submit to the Father of our spirits and live, to experience a birth of water and the Spirit.
Steve Green sings a song called the Mission that says, “To love the Lord our God is the heartbeat of our mission, the spring from which our service overflows. Across the street or around the world, the mission’s still the same, “Proclaim and live the truth in Jesus Name.”
Paul, the great apostle of Jesus, said, “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me, that is to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.” The gospel is the word, the seed, from which we receive the spiritual birth.
1 Peter 1:23… for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
Have you been born again of water and the Spirit? Jesus shows us that it is not optional. If you would enter the kingdom of God, Jesus invites you to receive this new birth by believing in Him, repenting of your sins, confessing Jesus, the name above all names as Lord and Son of God, and you can be buried with Christ and raised with him through baptism in His name. He’ll wash away your sins, adopt you into his family, and give you his Holy Spirit to live within. You can be born again!
