The Kingdom’s Entrance
Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit” John 3:3,5,6
The kingdom of God in Scripture is the sphere of God’s sovereign rule and reign. Where God rules His kingdom is established. No wonder Jesus preached so much about God’s kingdom. He wanted everyone who heard Him to understand how to live in God’s realm.
We know from other scriptures that we enter God’s kingdom the moment we express faith solely in Christ for our salvation (e.g. in Mark 10 in the discourse with the rich young ruler ‘inherit eternal life’ [v.17], ‘enter the kingdom of God’ [v.23] and ‘be saved’ [v.26] are used as equivalent expressions).
What did Jesus mean by ‘No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit’? There are a few possibilities.
The first: baptism in water by John the Baptist and baptism in the Spirit by Jesus. If this is correct, entrance into the kingdom meant submission to John’s baptism in water for repentance and Jesus’ baptism with the Spirit.
The second: Christian water baptism and spiritual regeneration (new birth). This is probably the most common application today.
The third: natural birth and spiritual regeneration. Being ‘born of water’ is an obvious picture of human birth because of a mother’s waters breaking as part of the birthing process. To enter the kingdom of God one must be born spiritually (‘of the Spirit’) as well as physically (‘of water’).
And a fourth: spiritual regeneration using water as a picture of the Spirit (as John records Jesus doing in 4:10,13-15 and 7:38 and the Old Testament in Ezekiel 36:25-27). If this is correct Jesus was in effect saying “You must be born again of the water of the Spirit.”
Either the third or fourth explanation seems the most likely. In favour of Jesus talking about natural birth and spiritual birth (third option) is the very next verse (3:6 above) where Jesus contrasts being born of the flesh (natural birth) with being born of the Spirit (spiritual regeneration).
In favour of the fourth option, spiritual regeneration using water as a picture of the Spirit, Jesus seems to think Nicodemus has knowledge he should be drawing on to understand the meaning, “You are Israel’s teacher … and you do not understand these things?” A clear Old Testament scripture (and one Nicodemus would know well) is Ezekiel 36:25-27 which describes the new order of the messianic age, ‘I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean … And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees …’ If this understanding is right, Jesus is telling Nicodemus that this new day of cleansing and power is now at hand; the long-awaited messianic age has begun.
Whichever was intended by Jesus, we know that we have entered His Kingdom by our faith in Him. But let’s not stop. Let’s press into God for all the blessings of the kingdom.
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