Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into the Kingdom of God!
A Pharisee and ruler of the sanhedrim comes to Christ, proof that grace subdues even the greatest opposition. He sought private counsel rather than public hearing, a pattern we should follow: go to faithful ministers about the deep matters of your soul, not content with hearing sermons alone.
AI summary
Commenting on John 3:1-21
Water here means baptism, yet we must not confine salvation to the outward sign itself. Christ joins water with Spirit because the visible symbol attests the newness of life that God alone produces by His Spirit; baptism is necessary, but the hope of salvation rests in the Spirit, not in the water.
AI summary
Water and Spirit explain the new birth that startled Nicodemus. To a Jewish mind steeped in symbolic washings, this language pointed to spiritual purification by the Holy Ghost alone. The water is symbol, the Spirit is power; baptism became the visible door, but the reality is the Spirit's work.
AI summary