Said Jesus to Nicodemus,—“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.”—John iii, 5. Dr. Pusey asserts that “The Christian church uniformly for fifteen centuries interpreted these words of baptism; on the ground of this text alone, they urged the necessity of baptism; upon it they identified regeneration with baptism.” If the position thus maintained by the churches of Rome and the east for so many centuries be the truth, it presents the Savior, the apostles and evangelists, and the Scriptures written by them, in a most extraordinary light. In the very beginning of his ministry, in a private interview with the Jewish ruler, Jesus imparts to him this doctrine, on which confessedly the salvation of every man depends. But, from that hour, neither he nor his apostles ever name it. In his public instructions to the people,—in his private interviews with his disciples,—in those particular and assiduous teachings by which, as his own ministry drew to a close, he put them in possession of his whole mind concerning their ministry and the world’s salvation (John xv, 15), he is persistently and entirely silent on this vital point. “Still,” says Dr. Pusey, “the truth in holy Scripture is not less God’s truth, because contained in one passage only.” The principle is sound; but its application here is a mere begging of the question. That question is, What mean these words? And the above axiom is no more true, and much less pertinent to the present occasion than is the rule of interpretation laid down by Paul. “Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith.”—Rom. xii, 6. An interpretation which takes a passage out of all congruous relation to the rest of the Scriptures, and overturns the very foundations of the faith therein set forth, is false. And such is the interpretation in question. The circumstances and connection indicate the true meaning of the passage.
That Nicodemus, although perhaps lacking in courage, was an honest inquirer after the truth, is evinced by the circumstances of this interview and by his subsequent history. He came by night, for fear of the Jews. He came not to cavil but to be taught, as appears alike from his own language and the manner of Christ’s dealing with him. John had been for some time causing the land to ring with his warning cry; and men’s hearts were in expectation because of it and his baptism. After this interview of Nicodemus with Jesus, we incidentally learn that in connection with Christ’s preaching his disciples also baptized. And their baptism was assuredly of the same intent as that of John,—to prefigure the office of the Baptizer with the Holy Ghost. We may, therefore, conclude that their baptism was from the beginning associated with Christ’s ministry. Of these facts, a man of the rank and intelligence of Nicodemus, and in his state of mind, could not be ignorant. He therefore comes for instruction as to the way of salvation. At the beginning of the interview, he places himself definitely at the feet of Jesus, as a disciple to be taught of him. “Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.” To an application thus so precisely in accord with Christ’s own testimonies as to himself and his miracles (John v, 36; x, 25; xiv, 10, 11), he responds by entering directly upon the question which was agitating the ruler’s heart,—that great question,—How to be saved? “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God,”—that kingdom of which the cry then was, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The figure of the new birth was strange to Nicodemus; for, while the doctrine of renewing by the Holy Spirit is familiar to the Old Testament writers,—the figure of a new birth is not found in them. He therefore asks,—“How can a man be born when he is old” Here evidently the ruler views the matter as of practical and present interest to him personally. “How can I, Nicodemus, at my age, be born again?” The purpose of Jesus, in using this new illustration was thus accomplished. Old truths in new forms often develop a power which otherwise they lack. Jesus therefore, now answers, by a figure, familiar to his hearer, in the Old Testament Scriptures, and in the baptisms of John and of Christ’s disciples, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.”
From this view of the connection and circumstances, it is evident that the passage is to be interpreted in the light of the Old Testament, and of the baptisms administered at the time of this interview, several years before the ascension and day of Pentecost; and not by any thing peculiar to the time subsequent to that event. But it is an essential feature of the theory of baptismal regeneration, that it holds the New Testament church to have this eminent advantage over that of the Old Testament, that the grace of regeneration is peculiar to the former, and to the ordinance of baptism as administered subsequent to the ascension of Christ. But the words of Christ to Nicodemus were no abstract setting forth of phenomena of grace to be enjoyed by the church in a coming time, but an explanation of the way in which the ruler must be saved, then and there, under the old economy. Viewing it in this light the following are the facts essential to the exposition of the passage.
1. The figure of metaphor was especially congenial to the Hebrew mind. To its abundant use, the Scriptures are largely indebted for the energy and clearness with which the profoundest thoughts are there presented. “Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.”—Ps. xc, 1. “Moab is my wash pot.”—Ps. lx, 8. “In the hand of the Lord, there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same; but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them.”—Ps. lxxv, 8. “Unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings.”—Mal. iv, 2. Who would imagine the necessity of pausing to explain that these expressions are not to be understood literally?
2. Among these metaphors, no one was more familiar to the Jews than that of water, signifying the Holy Spirit. “I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine offspring.”—Isa. xliv, 3. This figure has been already illustrated abundantly in these pages. It is only here important to emphasize the fact that upon it the whole significance of John’s and the Old Testament baptisms depended,—which were, at that precise time, so earnestly pressed upon the attention of the Jews.
3. This very figure was repeatedly used by our Saviour in the course of his ministry. To the woman of Samaria he says, “thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.... Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him, shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”—John iv, 10, 14. Again, “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”—Ib. vii, 37, 38. It is, moreover, to be remarked that both of these places occur in the same gospel of John in which is found the interview with Nicodemus. Nor is it without significant bearing on the present point, that in the Revelation, by the pen of this same writer, the metaphor of water is conspicuous, in this same sense. “The Lamb ... shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.”—Rev. vii, 17. The Lord Jesus says,—“I will give to him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely;”—Ib. xxi, 6. John sees the “pure river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb;”—Ib. xxii, 1. And the volume of revelation closes with the invitation,—”Let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take of the water of life, freely.”—Ib. 17.
4. The Greek conjunction, kai, (“and,”) does not always express addition; but sometimes indicates an expository relation between two members of a sentence, and is equivalent to, even, to wit, namely. Thus,—“For blasphemy, even because that thou being a man makest thyself God.”—John x, 33. “Hath made us kings and priests unto God, even his Father.”—Rev. i, 6. “A golden cup, full of abominations, even the filthiness of her fornications.”—Ib. xvii, 4. “But ourselves, even we ourselves, groan.”—Rom. viii, 23. “God, even our Father.”—Phil. iv, 20. Three of these examples being from the writings of John again illustrate his style. It is evident that the phrase in question may be translated thus;—“Except a man be born of water, even of the Spirit.” In fact, such must have been the sense in which it was understood by Nicodemus. (1.) The phrase is professedly explanatory. It is in reply to the perplexity of Nicodemus, at the primary statement of Jesus,—“Except a man be born again,”—an expression the meaning of which is abundantly illustrated, in all parts of the New Testament. (2.) The explanatory clause thus introduced, having performed its office, immediately drops out of the discourse, which subsequently dwells upon the new birth of the Spirit alone. “Except a man be born of water, even of the Spirit, he can not 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. The wind bloweth where it listeth, ... so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” It is impossible to account for the manner in which, after the one explanatory phrase, the water is thus ignored and excluded, upon any other supposition than that by which it is viewed as an interpretation of the previous expression, a metaphor for the Spirit. (3.) The fact that in the circumstances, it was impossible for the ruler to have understood the language in question as referring to a water baptism, which, upon the theory of baptismal regeneration, was not to be administered until after the day of Pentecost; and that he was therefore shut up to regard it as a metaphor, rendered explanation necessary, if that theory is true. The absence of any explanation makes it certain that such was not the meaning of Jesus.
5. The author of this narrative had, already, in the beginning of his gospel given an account of the manner of regeneration, which must be accepted as governing the whole of his subsequent record on the subject. “As many as received Him to them gave He power to become” (exousian genesthai, “gave He the prerogative of being”) “the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”—John i, 12, 13. Here, it is not sufficient to say that baptismal regeneration is ignored. It is absolutely excluded. The born of God are described in terms both exclusive and inclusive, by the phrase, “As many as received him, ... that believed on his name.” These, all of these, and none but these, were born of God. The addition of baptism makes this no more sure; nor does its absence affect the result. As many as receive Christ,—As many as believe on his name, to them it is given to be the sons of God.
It is evident that the record of the interview with Nicodemus, all of which may be read in two or three minutes, is a mere abstract of leading points of our Savior’s discourse. The intent of the words in question may be thus expressed. “You do not understand how a man can be born again. But you are familiar with the rite of baptism, and you are acquainted with the Scriptures of the prophets, and the interpretation which they give to that rite as a symbol of the renewing work of the Holy Spirit. It is that of which I speak. Except a man be born of water, even of the Holy Spirit, who is the true water of life, he can not enter into the kingdom of God.”