Picture a seacoast rising in green forested cliffs to mountains and valleys beyond. Imagine mischievous boys discovering turtle eggs in the sand and removing one to an eagle's nest high on the hillside. In time all the eggs hatch, eaglets and turtle alike. Eventually the parent eagles teach the young to fly. They lecture, explain and demonstrate. They teach, motivate and inspire. One by one parents push the baby eaglets from the nest. One by one the young birds gasp for breath, stretch their wings, respond instinctively and soar into the ocean breezes naturally and without a thought.
The turtle's launching time arrives. He summons his courage, remembers his lessons, recollects his motivation. He is full of resolution and determination. The parent eagle pushes him out of the nest. The turtle flaps his feet feverishly -- and falls to the beach far below. He is not an eagle. He is a turtle. Regardless of his best intentions and most diligent efforts, he cannot fly. That is simply not his nature.
So it is, says Jesus, with us sinful, fallen human beings in relation to God's kingdom. To a pious and powerful Pharisee named Nicodemus, a teacher and leader in Israel who supposed that he had a reserved seat at the heavenly table, who thought that he could master any required spiritual curriculum and perform any necessary religious duty, Jesus Christ said: "Truly, truly, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3).
This word translated "again" is the Greek word anothen, which literally means "from the top." It can be translated both "again" and "from above." Unless a person is reborn, given a new nature, regenerated by the Spirit of God from above, he or she simply cannot participate in God's reign and salvation. No matter how hard one tries, no matter how much one learns, no matter what one does. Being religious does not help. Being intellectual is no profit. Being successful in life is no profit. Being self-motivated, self-disciplined and self-organized is no advantage. It is not a sinner's nature to see the kingdom of God. No more than it is a turtle's nature to fly.
By nature, fallen humans cannot participate in God's eternal kingdom, Jesus says, unless they are born again from above (John 3:3). We must move from religion to relationship, from head to heart, from church to Christ. We must be regenerated with a new nature to become a new life-form. Nicodemus had come to Jesus at night (v.2) and spiritually also he was in the dark. "How can this be?" he asked, thinking in literal, fleshly terms. Jesus explained: "Truly, truly, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (v. 5). What does Jesus mean? Three possibilities have been suggested, all summed up by a fourth.
Nicodemus might have thought of Ezekiel's ancient prophecy of a time when God would renew his people from the inside. "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you .... I will cleanse you .... I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you .... I will put my Spirit within you .... So you will be my people and I will be your God" (Ezek. 36:25-27). To Ezekiel long ago, God promised to give his future people a new nature, symbolized by water (cleansing) and by Spirit (transformation).
Nicodemus the rabbi and Pharisee might also have remembered the words of John the Baptist, who said: "I baptize in water" (John 1:26) but pointed to Jesus as the one "who baptizes in the Holy Spirit" (v. 33). John contrasted "water" -- the outward symbol, and "Spirit" -- the inward reality. Even if Nicodemus had received water baptism from John, that was not enough. He must look to Jesus for inward renewal and a new nature.
Nicodemus would not have thought of Christian baptism for Jesus had not yet instituted it, but every original reader of John's Gospel probably did make that connection. For gospel baptism also involves these two elements -- water on the outside and Spirit on the inside -- and the first is ineffective without the second (Titus 3:5). Divorced from spiritual regeneration within, dipping in water is only a physical wetting. Where living faith is present, however, this ritual powerfully proclaims -- and, many Christians say, divinely mediates -- God's spiritual cleansing and a new nature from above.
These ideas all converge in one conclusion: fallen human beings need a new nature if they are ever to see God's kingdom. In the next sentences, Jesus plainly explains his own comment concerning water and Spirit. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You [plural] must be born again'" (John 3:6-7). Eagle eggs hatch eaglets. Turtle eggs produce turtles. Human birth, even of chosen Jews or pious Pharisees, only produces fallen humans. But whoever is regenerated by God's Spirit from above receives a new and spiritual nature -- one that can share life with God and can live in his company forever.
Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus tells us three important truths which we must not allow our opinions, traditions or religiosity to obscure.
First, we must all receive a completely new nature, a new kind of life generated by the Spirit of God from above. Without this, we are mere "flesh" that cannot see or enter God's realm of eternal reality. This is a solemn and inescapable truth, twice affirmed by Jesus' double phrase "truly, truly" -- literally "amen, amen" (John 3:3-7).
Second, this is a great mystery, for no one can decide to be born. Parents decide to have children, not the other way around. Those born from above are not born by human decision, human effort or human act (John 1:12-13). The Greek word pneuma means breath, wind and spirit/Spirit -- all equally unfathomable to the human mind. We see the wind's effects but its operation is mysterious and invisible. So it is with those who are regenerated from above by God's Spirit (3:8-11). Do not expect to explain the new birth -- it is divine mystery and so it will remain! Jesus declares the necessity of new birth; he does not command anyone to make it happen. That is something only God can bring about.
Third, Jesus is lifted up as Savior and God promises eternal life to anyone who believes in him. Jesus was "lifted up" literally on the cross, where he was also "lifted up" in exaltation as God's Lamb who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29; 3:14). Just as God gave life to snake-bitten Israelites in the wilderness who looked in faith at the brass snake Moses had lifted up on a pole (Numbers 21), so God gives eternal life to every person who looks by faith at the atoning Savior making that atoning sacrifice (John 3:15).
Our final destiny will be either to live or to perish (v. 16). God's heart is love, his desire is to save, his promise is faithful and sure (v. 16-17). Those finally lost will perish because they loved darkness and rejected God's light (v. 18-21). Anyone who will believe can believe. All who believe must thank God for the new nature that made them willing. Both these statements are true and neither must be allowed to eliminate or to nullify the other. One day we will know fully, even as we are fully known. Until then we embrace the mystery and walk by faith not by sight.
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