Jesus Christ · On the Holy Spirit
Born of the Spirit
A ruler of Israel, a respected teacher of the Law, comes to Jesus at night — cautious, half-convinced, still in the dark in more ways than one. Jesus skips past his opening compliment and tells him the truth no one else had: being a good, religious, Torah-trained man is not enough. A person needs a second birth. Not a better try at the first one — a different kind of birth altogether, one only the Spirit can give.
The Text
— John 3:1–8Jesus replied, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.”“Except a man be born again” — the answer to a question Nicodemus never asked.
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.Born of water and the Spirit — flesh gives birth to flesh, Spirit to spirit.
Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”The wind that blows where it wills — the same word for wind, breath, and spirit.
Nicodemus is introduced carefully: “a man of the Pharisees… a ruler of the Jews” (3:1) — a member of the Sanhedrin, one of the nation's most trusted religious teachers. He comes “by night,” and John rarely wastes a detail like that. A few verses later Jesus will call him plainly “a master of Israel” (3:10) — and then ask why a master of Israel does not already know what He is talking about.
One Word, Two Faces
— the play on pneuma that John 3:8 is built onONE FACE OF THE WORD
Wind
“blows where it wishes. You hear its sound” — unseen, unscheduled, undeniable in its effects
THE OTHER FACE
Spirit
“so it is with everyone born of the Spirit” — the birth is as real, and as invisible, as the weather
What He Is Saying
— a second birth, not a better first oneNicodemus opens with a compliment: “we know that thou art a teacher come from God” (3:2). Jesus answers a question Nicodemus never asked. Not “yes, I am,” and not a lesson in miracles — instead, the plain, double-underlined truth that a religious résumé cannot buy a place in God's kingdom. “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (3:3). Nicodemus takes it literally, and asks the obvious question: “How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?” (3:4). Jesus does not correct the confusion by simplifying — He goes deeper, into a wordplay his Hebrew-trained ear should have caught.
One word for wind, breath, and spiritpneuma / ruach
“The wind bloweth where it listeth” (3:8) is not a change of subject — it is the same word doing double duty. Greek pneuma and Hebrew ruachboth mean wind, breath, and spirit at once, the way they have since Genesis 1:2, where the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters. Jesus is not leaving the subject of the Spirit to talk about weather; He is using the one word that carries both meanings to make His point felt as well as heard. You cannot see wind, only its effects — and that, He says, is exactly what it is like to meet someone “born of the Spirit.”
Why the rebuke in verse 10 mattersa master of Israel, and Ezekiel
Jesus is not gentle about Nicodemus's confusion: “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” (3:10). That rebuke is a clue to how the whole passage should be read. Jesus expected a Bible teacher — not a Christian, not someone who had heard the gospel yet — to already recognize what He meant, from Scripture Nicodemus already owned. That points toward Ezekiel's own pairing of water-cleansing and Spirit-indwelling (Ezek 36:25–27), covered below, as background already available to a Bible teacher standing in Jerusalem that night.
The Voices on the Night Visit
— the church reads John 3:1–3A man of the Pharisees - A Pharisee. See the notes at Mat 3:7. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews - One of the Sanhedrin, or great council of the nation. He is twice mentioned after this as being friendly to our Saviour; in the first instance as advocating his cause, and defending him against the unjust suspicion of the Jews Joh 7:50, and in the second instance as one who came to aid in embalming his body, Joh 19:
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832–1869), John 3:1
The grace which is at first but a grain of mustard-seed may grow to be a great tree. He did not come to talk with Christ about politics and state-affairs (though he was a ruler), but about the concerns of his own soul and its salvation, and, without circumlocution, comes immediately to the business; he calls Christ Rabbi, which signifies a great man; see Isa. xix.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), John 3:2
Came to Jesus by night - He had matters of the utmost importance, on which he wished to consult Christ; and he chose the night season, perhaps less through the fear of man than through a desire to have Jesus alone, as he found him all the day encompassed with the multitude; so that it was impossible for him to get an opportunity to speak fully on those weighty affairs concerning which he intended to consult him.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1832), John 3:2
That knowledge will not avail thee unless thou be born again - Otherwise thou canst not see, that is, experience and enjoy, either the inward or the glorious kingdom of God.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), John 3:3
Nicodemus probably thought he had gone a long way, and expected, perhaps, to be complimented on his candor. Instead of this, he is virtually told that he has raised a question which he is not in a capacity to solve, and that before approaching it, his spiritual vision required to be rectified by an entire revolution on his inner man.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), John 3:3
And indeed from the Spirit comes our new birth, and from the new birth our new creation, and from the new creation our deeper knowledge of the dignity of him from whom it is derived.
Gregory of Nazianzus· On the Holy Spirit, Theological Oration 5(31).28 (390), on John 3:3
“Born of Water and of the Spirit”
— three readings, held graciously“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (3:5) is one of the most contested clauses in the Gospel of John. No single reading below erases the others — this is a place where honored voices genuinely differ, and the difference is presented as difference, not as one side winning.
Physical birthwater = natural birth
On this reading, “water” points to ordinary human birth — a person needs both a natural birth and a spiritual one. Its difficulty: Nicodemus's own confused question about re-entering his mother's womb (3:4) looks like exactly the misunderstanding Jesus's next line is correcting, not affirming.
Christian baptismwater = the sacrament
Widely held historically, especially in sacramental traditions — “water” is baptism, read from the church's later practice. Named plainly: John's Gospel predates any developed baptismal theology a first-century hearer would have assumed, and Nicodemus is rebuked for not knowing what Jesus meant — which argues for a meaning already available in the Old Testament he had.
Ezekiel's cleansingwater = Ezek 36:25–27
“Water” is the prophetic pairing of water-cleansing and Spirit-indwelling Ezekiel had already joined: “I will sprinkle clean water upon you… a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you” (Ezek 36:25–27). On this reading, Jesus expects Nicodemus, a Bible teacher, to recognize Ezekiel's own pairing — which is exactly why the rebuke in 3:10 makes sense. This is the reading with the strongest claim to being what a first-century Jewish teacher would actually have heard.
Already had the symbol of water been embodied in an initiatory ordinance, in the baptism of the Jewish expectants of Messiah by the Baptist, not to speak of the baptism of Gentile proselytes before that; and in the Christian Church it was soon to become the great visible door of entrance into "the kingdom of God," the reality being the sole work of the Holy Ghost (Tit 3:5).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), John 3:5
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit - Except he experience that great inward change by the Spirit, and be baptized (wherever baptism can be had) as the outward sign and means of it.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), John 3:5
Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee,.... Explaining somewhat more clearly, what he before said: except a man be born of water and of the Spirit: these are, מלות שנות, "two words", which express the same thing, as Kimchi observes in many places in his commentaries, and signify the grace of the Spirit of God.
John Gill· Exposition of the New Testament (1746–1748), John 3:5
Who is the one who is born of the Spirit and is made spirit but he who is renewed in the spirit of his mind? This certainly is he who is regenerated by water and the Holy Spirit, since we receive the hope of eternal life through the laver of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And elsewhere the apostle Peter says, "You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit." For who is the one who is baptized with the Holy Spirit but the one who is born again through water and the Holy Spirit?
Ambrose of Milan· On the Holy Spirit 3.10.64 (397), on John 3:5
Hear, ye as many as are unilluminated, shudder, groan, fearful is the threat, fearful the sentence. "It is not (possible)," He saith, "for one not born of water and the Spirit, to enter into the Kingdom of heaven"; because he wears the raiment of death, of cursing, of perdition, he hath not yet received his Lord's token, he is a stranger and an alien, he hath not the royal watchword. "Except," He saith, "a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven."
John Chrysostom· Homily on the Gospel of John 25 (407), on John 3:5
First of all, it is necessary that the continuity of the old life be cut. And this is impossible unless a man be born again, according to the Lord's word; for the regeneration, as indeed the name shews, is a beginning of a second life. So before beginning the second, it is necessary to put an end to the first.
Basil of Caesarea· On the Spirit 15.35 (379), on John 3:5
Flesh Gives Birth to Flesh
— the church reads John 3:6–8“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (3:6) states the whole problem in one line: a natural birth, however good the parents, only ever produces another natural life. Nothing about trying harder inside that first birth reaches the kingdom of God — it takes a different source of life entirely. Jesus does not simplify the hard saying; He illustrates it with the wind.
That which is born, &c.--A great universal proposition; "That which is begotten carries within itself the nature of that which begat it" [OLSHAUSEN]. flesh--Not the mere material body, but all that comes into the world by birth, the entire man; yet not humanity simply, but in its corrupted, depraved condition, in complete subjection to the law of the fall (Ro 8:1-9).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871), John 3:6–8
Ye must be born again - To be born again, is to be inwardly changed from all sinfulness to all holiness. It is fitly so called, because as great a change then passes on the soul as passes on the body when it is born into the world.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), John 3:7
The wind bloweth - According to its own nature, not thy will, and thou hearest the sound thereof - Thou art sure it doth blow, but canst not explain the particular manner of its acting. So is every one that is born of the Spirit - The fact is plain, the manner of his operations inexplicable.
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), John 3:8
The wind bloweth ... - Nicodemus had objected to the doctrine because he did not understand how it could be. Jesus shows him that he ought not to reject it on that account, for he constantly believed things quite as difficult. It might appear incomprehensible, but it was to be judged of by its effects. As in this case of the wind, the effects were seen, the sound was heard, important changes were produced by it, trees and clouds were moved, yet the wind is not seen, nor do we know whence it comes, nor by what laws it is governed; so it is with the operations of the Spirit.
Albert Barnes· Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832–1869), John 3:8
"Where it chooses," says the Scripture, not "where it is ordered." If, then, the Spirit does breathe where it chooses, cannot the Son do what he wills? Why, it is the very same Son of God who in his gospel says that the Spirit has power to breathe where it chooses. Does the Son, therefore, confess the Spirit to be greater, in that it has power to do what is not permitted to himself?
Ambrose of Milan· Exposition of the Christian Faith 2.6.47 (397), on John 3:8
"And thou hearest its voice," (that is, its rustle, its noise,) "but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Here is the conclusion of the whole matter. "If," saith He, "thou knowest not how to explain the motion nor the path of this wind which thou perceivest by hearing and touch, why art thou over-anxious about the working of the Divine Spirit, when thou understandest not that of the wind, though thou hearest its voice?"
John Chrysostom· Homily on the Gospel of John 26 (407), on John 3:8
Where It Points
— the same new-birth teaching across ScriptureI will also sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.Clean water and a new spirit, promised centuries before Nicodemus heard it explained.
He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.“The washing of regeneration” — Paul's own echo of a birth by water and the Spirit.
For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.“Born again… by the word of God” — the same new birth, from a different angle.
Whichever way “water” in John 3:5 is read, the rest of the New Testament keeps circling back to the same event under different names — a washing, a new heart, a birth “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). The wind Jesus described to Nicodemus that night kept blowing through the rest of the Bible.
Closing
Nicodemus came in the dark, with a compliment and a careful question. He left with something no amount of religious standing could have given him: the plain news that entry into God's kingdom is not earned by better law-keeping but received as a second birth, worked by a Spirit as untraceable and as real as the wind on his face. “The fact is plain,” as Wesley put it, “the manner of his operations inexplicable.”