Jesus Told Nicodemus Born Again Kjv
Question
What does information technology mean to be born of h2o?
Answer
In John 3, Jesus uses the phrase "born of h2o" in respond to Nicodemus's question about how to enter the kingdom of heaven. He told Nicodemus that he "must exist born again" (John iii:three). Nicodemus questioned how such a thing could happen when he was a grown man. Jesus answered, "Very truly I tell yous, no one tin enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of h2o and the Spirit" (John 3:v).
Being "born of the Spirit" is easily interpreted—conservancy involves a new life that just the Holy Spirit can produce (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:vi). But at that place are a couple different schools of thought on what Jesus meant when He said, "born of water." One perspective is that "born of water" refers to concrete birth. Unborn babies float in a sack of amniotic fluid for nine months. When the time for birth arrives, that sack of water bursts, and the infant is born in a blitz of water, entering the earth as a new creature. This birth parallels being "born of the Spirit," equally a like new birth occurs within our hearts (2 Corinthians 5:17). A person once-born has concrete life; a person twice-born has eternal life (John 3:15–18, 36; 17:three; 1 Peter 1:23). Just as a baby contributes no effort to the nativity process—the work is done past the mother—so it is with spiritual birth. We are but the recipients of God's grace as He gives us new birth through His Spirit (Ephesians 2:eight–nine). According to this view, Jesus was using a instruction technique He ofttimes employed by comparison a spiritual truth with a physical reality. Nicodemus did not sympathize spiritual birth, just he could empathize physical nascency so that was where Jesus took him.
The other perspective is that "born of water" refers to spiritual cleansing and that Nicodemus would have naturally understood it that way. Co-ordinate to this view, "born of water" and "born of the Spirit" are different ways of saying the same thing, once metaphorically and one time literally. Jesus' words "built-in of h2o and the Spirit" describe different aspects of the same spiritual birth, or of what it means to be "born again." So, when Jesus told Nicodemus that he must "exist born of water," He was referring to his demand for spiritual cleansing. Throughout the Quondam Attestation, water is used figuratively of spiritual cleansing. For example, Ezekiel 36:25 says, "I volition sprinkle clean water on you, and you will exist clean; I will cleanse y'all from all your impurities" (run across also Numbers 19:17–nineteen; and Psalm 51:2, seven). Nicodemus, a teacher of the law, would surely have been familiar with the concept of concrete h2o representing spiritual purification.
The New Testament, too, uses water every bit a effigy of the new nativity. Regeneration is chosen a "washing" brought almost past the Holy Spirit through the Discussion of God at the moment of salvation (Titus 3:5; cf. Ephesians 5:26; John xiii:x). Christians are "done . . . sanctified . . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God" (i Corinthians six:eleven). The "washing" Paul speaks of here is a spiritual ane.
Whichever perspective is right, i thing is certain: Jesus was not didactics that ane must be baptized in h2o in order to be saved. Baptism is nowhere mentioned in the context, nor did Jesus ever imply that we must do anything to inherit eternal life but trust in Him in religion (John three:16). The emphasis of Jesus' words is on repentance and spiritual renewal—nosotros need the "living water" Jesus after promised the woman at the well (John four:10). Water baptism is an outward sign that we have given our lives to Jesus, just not a requirement for conservancy (Luke 23:twoscore–43).
Questions nearly John
What does it mean to be born of water?
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This folio final updated: January 4, 2022
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