John – Chapter 3:5-15
3:5 “Unless one is begotten from water and the Spirit” – Jesus insists upon that which will come at the fulfillment of all things (19:28-30), namely His Baptism which gives us forgiveness of sins in His death. Nicodemus could not know what Jesus refers to, as the Christian rite is not initiated and such a baptism cannot be known solely from the OT, even by a “teacher of Israel.” Earthly bloodline as children of Abraham won’t do, because the new Israel will encompass all, regardless of physical birth. Water is not a symbol or means of outward purification nor the Spirit the power of inward renewal. Water and Spirit together means that you are a new living being begotten by water and the Spirit together (Gen 1:2, see also Isaiah 43:14—44:5; Ezekiel 36:25-27). 3:6–8 “Born of the flesh…begotten of the Spirit” – The crisis here is similar to that of 2:19 of the temple of Jesus vs. the earthly temple. Old Israel comes from the flesh of Abraham and new Israel is begotten from above. But also “flesh” is universal and encompasses all humanity, see Rom 3:23; 11:32. And those begotten from the Spirit are given life in Jesus. It is necessary and is given according to God’s will. It is not perceived by senses or human reason. The emphasis in v.8 is the freedom of God in His work of mercy and grace. As God creates ex nihilo, “out of nothing,” so new life comes by grace alone in baptism, a gift received only by faith. One begotten from the Spirit hears the voice of the Spirit in the words of Jesus and knows that He is the Teacher of Israel. Their beginning and end is in God and so will be rejected by the world, just as Jesus was rejected because the world cannot receive the Spirit (14:17). 3:11 “That which We have seen, We witness” – The new begetting of water and the Spirit remains the topic for 3:11-15 and John’s commentary in 3:16-21, with Jesus’s Baptism (1:29-34) in the background. Nicodemus and the Jews, as teachers of Israel, would believe the word of Jesus if they believed the witness of their own Scriptures (5:39,45-47; Jn 8:48-58). The key to understanding the plural “we” in this text is that Jesus is adding His witness to that of John the Baptist (1:7, 32-34), along…