The Holy Spirit

Being Born of the Spirit: The New Birth

Jesus told Nicodemus that no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again, born of the Spirit. The new birth is not self-improvement or turning over a new leaf but a work of God, in which the Holy Spirit gives spiritual life to a heart that was dead. Like the wind, this new birth is unseen in its working yet unmistakable in its effect. It is how anyone becomes a child of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.John 3:6 (KJV)

You must be born again

Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews, a teacher of Israel, a good and careful man who came to Jesus by night. Jesus did not commend his achievements. He told him something that must have stunned him: Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus took it literally and asked how a grown man could be born a second time. Jesus explained: 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 flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

The point is that entering God's kingdom is not a matter of breeding or effort or religious pedigree. It requires a birth, and a birth is not something you do for yourself. No one contributes to being born; you receive it. So the new birth is entirely a work of God upon us, not a work of ours toward God.

A work of the Spirit, not the flesh

Why must we be born again at all? Because, Jesus says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. By our first birth we inherit a nature bent away from God, spiritually unable to save ourselves however respectable we are outwardly. Scripture speaks of the natural person as dead in trespasses and sins, needing not repair but resurrection. The new birth is that resurrection, the Spirit breathing life into what was dead so that a person can now see, love, and enter the kingdom of God.

Paul calls it the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, given not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to God's mercy. It is grace from first to last. The Holy Spirit does in us what we could never do for ourselves: He makes us new creatures, gives us a new heart, and turns strangers into sons and daughters of God.

Like the wind

When Nicodemus still wondered how these things could be, Jesus gave him an image drawn from the very word for Spirit, which also means wind and breath. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. We cannot command the wind, capture it, or fully explain it, yet we feel it and see what it does. So it is with the Spirit's new birth.

This guards us from two errors. We cannot manufacture the new birth by technique, for the Spirit moves as He wills. And we need not doubt it is real simply because we cannot chart its mechanics, for its effects are plain. Where there is new love for Christ, new hatred of sin, new hunger for God's Word, and new love for God's people, the wind of the Spirit has blown.

A new heart, long promised

The new birth is not a surprise sprung on the world in the Gospel of John. God had promised it through the prophets centuries earlier. Through Ezekiel He said, A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. What Jesus told Nicodemus was the fulfillment of that ancient promise: God Himself replacing the hard, dead heart with a living one by the gift of His Spirit.

This is why the gospel is such good news for those who feel unable to change. God does not merely ask for a better heart; He gives one. The Spirit does not polish the old nature but grants a new one. Where we could only manage outward reform, He works an inward resurrection, and out of that new heart flow new desires, new loves, and a new life.

The marks of a new life

Because the new birth is real, it shows. Scripture speaks of those born of God loving one another, believing that Jesus is the Christ, and overcoming the world by faith. The reborn heart turns from sin, not perfectly but truly, and turns toward God with a hunger it never had before. There is a new tenderness of conscience, a new delight in prayer and Scripture, and a new warmth toward the people of God.

None of this is achieved by striving to produce it. It is the natural fruit of a life the Spirit has made new, as surely as a living branch bears leaves. So if you find within you even a small, true love for Christ and a longing to be His, do not despise it. It is the breath of the Spirit, the sign of a birth from above.

Born of water and of the Spirit

Jesus told Nicodemus that a man must be born of water and of the Spirit. Christians have understood the water in more than one way, some hearing an echo of baptism, some of the cleansing washing of the word, some of the natural birth set against the spiritual. Faithful believers differ on the details, and this is a place to hold our understanding humbly. What is beyond dispute is the main thing Jesus pressed: that entering the kingdom requires a birth from above, worked by the Spirit, that no one can accomplish for themselves.

So we need not stumble over the harder questions to grasp the plain and urgent point. The new birth is necessary, it is the Spirit's work, and it is offered to all who come to Christ. Nicodemus, the learned teacher, had to become like a newborn to enter the kingdom, and so does everyone. The gate is low, and pride cannot stoop through it, but the Spirit gladly brings the humble in.

And no one who comes is turned away for coming wrongly. Nicodemus did not understand it all, and he came by night, half in the shadows, yet Jesus welcomed his questions and spoke to him the deepest truths. So it is with everyone the Spirit draws. You do not have to grasp the whole mystery of the new birth to receive it; you have only to come to Christ and ask the Father for the gift of His Spirit. The One who commands the new birth is glad to give it.

Born again to belong to Christ

The new birth is never an end in itself. The Spirit gives new life so that we might belong to Jesus. It is faith in the crucified and risen Christ that the Spirit awakens, and it is to Christ that the reborn heart clings. In the very conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus goes on to the most famous words in the Bible, that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. The Spirit is the one who works that belief in us.

So if you long to be born again, you are not shut out by a mystery. Come to Jesus as Nicodemus did. Ask the Father for the gift of His Spirit. The new birth is the doorway into a whole new life, and the same Spirit who gives it will carry it on, day by day, until it is complete.

Related: Being filled with the Spirit · The work of the Holy Spirit · Who is Jesus? · The Holy Spirit