Born of Water?

Seeing that there are a lot of folks who believe that Jesus’ statement about being “born of water and of the Spirit” somehow has something to do with water baptism, I would just like to point out the clarity of the scriptures in regard to what he was saying. Let’s just look at the whole passage, or at least the part that is directly relevant to the matter: “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the fesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (Jn. 3:3-7). If we want to understand scripture, we really need to keep what we are reading in the context in which it is written. When we start reading into and adding to what is in front of us, we will go astray of the truth (Prov. 17:24). I just can’t stress that enough. If we want to understand anything, we must get still and actually see what we are looking at. When Nicodemus questioned how a person could be born again, he referred to the only kind of birth he knew about, meaning being born of the womb of one’s mother. And Jesus simply and naturally addressed what Nicodemus said. Jesus wasn’t trying to confuse the issue, but rather he was clarifying to Nicodemus the manner of our first birth, and of the born again experience. Those are the only ‘births’ mentioned in the discussion.

In keeping scripture in context, we should read what is before and after what we are reading, and in most cases it becomes explanatory. That is certainly the case here. In response to Nicodemus questioning being born the second time from his mother’s womb, Jesus explained that one must be born the first time of water [the watery womb of his mother], and the second birth must be of God’s Spirit. As he continued the explanation, he made it very clear that it is the fleshly man that is born from water in the first birth, and it is the spirit man that needs to be born in the second birth, meaning of God’s Spirit. Jesus did not address what Nicodemus had NOT said, but rather what he HAD said. If we want to make an argument for water baptism being the “born of water” part of his answer, then that argument begs the question: How many new births are there? One or two? Because Jesus without question said that we must be “born of water, and of the Spirit.” Now if “born of water” does not refer to the first birth of our mother’s womb, but rather to water baptism; then that means there are two new births.Then things get really confusing and also contrary to the remainder of the new testament scriptures. Jesus said nothing about the birth of water being part of the birth of the spirit, but clearly distinguished these as two separate births. Friend, water baptism just wasn’t part of the equation here. Jesus clearly said that we “must be born again.” He did not say that we must be born again and again. It really is that simple. It’s about what IS there, and not about what is NOT there. God bless.