What It Means To Be Born Again

John tells us Nicodemus "came to Jesus by night" (John 3:2, NKJV). As a Pharisee and "a ruler of the Jews," he had a reputation to guard, and the cover of darkness suited a cautious inquirer. John often uses night and day to mark spiritual condition. Whatever his motives, Nicodemus came acknowledging Jesus as "a teacher come from God," and Jesus immediately pressed past his compliment to his deepest need.

Jesus said, "unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3, NKJV). The word also means "born from above." The new birth is not self-improvement or a religious decision but a radical, God-wrought renewal of the inner man. Titus 3:5 calls it "the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit." Without it, no one can even perceive the kingdom, let alone enter it.

Nicodemus had law-keeping, learning, and lineage, yet Jesus told even him he must be born again. The reason is that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6, NKJV). Fallen human nature cannot produce spiritual life. The Westminster Confession (9.3) teaches that man by his fall is "altogether averse from that good." Religion polishes the outside; only the Spirit can give new life within.

Jesus compares the Spirit to the wind: "The wind blows where it wishes... So is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8, NKJV). The new birth is monergistic, the sovereign act of God alone. The Westminster Confession (10.2) says effectual calling is "of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man." We are passive in our regeneration as we were in our first birth.

Scripture orders it clearly: the new birth comes first and produces faith. Because the natural man "cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3, NKJV), he cannot believe until the Spirit gives him spiritual life and sight. Regeneration is the cause; faith and repentance are its fruit. This is why salvation is "of the Lord" from beginning to end, and why no one may boast in his own believing.

Jesus said, "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God" (John 3:5, NKJV). Reformed interpreters commonly read this against Ezekiel 36:25-27, where God promises, "I will sprinkle clean water on you... I will put My Spirit within you." Water and Spirit together picture one reality: the cleansing and renewing that God alone accomplishes in the new birth.

Jesus said, "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John 3:14, NKJV). In Numbers 21 dying Israelites lived simply by looking at the bronze serpent. So sinners under judgment live by looking in faith to the crucified Christ. The remedy is outside ourselves; healing comes not by effort but by trusting the One lifted up on the cross.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" (John 3:16, NKJV). The verse magnifies the costliness of God's love, displayed in the giving of His Son. It does not teach that salvation depends on human will, for the same chapter grounds salvation in the new birth. God's love is shown in providing the very Savior whom His people, born of the Spirit, come to trust.

Regeneration is the new birth, the Spirit's implanting of spiritual life within us (John 3:5-8). Justification is God's legal declaration that the believing sinner is righteous, "for Christ's sake alone" (Westminster Confession 11.1), received through faith. The first changes our nature; the second changes our standing. Both are gifts of grace, but they must not be confused: one makes us alive, the other declares us pardoned and accepted.

Look to Christ. Jesus joins the new birth to faith: "whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life" (John 3:16, NKJV). You are not told to wait passively but to come to the lifted-up Savior, trusting Him alone. Use the means God appoints: hear His Word, plead for His Spirit, and look away from yourself to Christ, in whom alone there is life.