What does Jesus mean when we talks about being “born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). Some have suggested that Jesus is describing the importance of believer’s baptism, while others put forward that Jesus is contrasting natural birth with spiritual birth. I’ll pass on to you a little bit of my homework from sermon prep this week, but for a more thorough and lucid discussion of this material please see D.A. Carson, The Gospel According to John. (Grand Rapids: Eerdman’s, 1991) around page 185-200.
The first clue lies in the grammatical structure of the sentence. For those of us who are nerdy grammar types, here it goes: The construction of the phrase in the Greek text indicates that the preposition "of" governs both "water" and "Spirit." This means that Jesus was clarifying regeneration by using two terms that both describe regeneration. Why is this significant? This is significant because Jesus is not proposing that two separate things have to be present for regeneration to happen (i.e. water baptism and spiritual baptism) and He is not contrasting one form of birth with another (i.e. natural birth and physical birth). Spirit and water in this sentence are described as coming from one source.
The second clue is found in its overall context. Notice Jesus' criticism of Nicodemus for not understanding these things (John 3:10). This indicates that what He was saying about the source of regeneration was abundantly clear in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament often used water metaphorically to describe the giving of His Spirit to His people.
Joel 2:28 "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.
Isaiah 32:15 until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high,
Isaiah 44:3 For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.
Ezekiel 36:25-27 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. 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. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
Ezekiel 39:29 And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD."
Jesus was emphasizing that with this many repetitions of a water and Spirit theme, Nicodemus should have caught on to what Jesus was saying because he was an Old Testament expert.
God had promised through the OT prophets that He would pour out His spirit on people like water which would result in a new heart and new spiritual life (Jer. 31:31-34). Thus the notion that God would clean and renew His people by His Spirit is replete in the Old Testament. Therefore John 3:5 describes the cleansing and life-giving work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration.
Have you experienced the life transformation that comes through the cleansing and forgiveness of sins made possible by the cross?