Water and Spirit

"Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. "

~ John 3:5 (NIV)

By now we know very clearly Jesus wanted to drive home the point that something must happen in order for a person to enter the kingdom of God. But, there are 2 words that caught my attention. What could Jesus have meant by "water" and "spirit". The latter can be quite obvious as we can further read on within the chapter. "spirit" simply refers to God's very own being of spirit. But "water"? Some have inferred to this as Christian baptism. However, this passage demands a deeper digging under its roots.

First of all, we need to understand that the context of this passage is, Jesus having a conversation with Nicodemus, a Pharisee. If we read on to the rest of the passage, we would realize that there is very much an emphasis on faith, and nothing on baptism. If Jesus really wanted to mean baptism by the word "water", wouldn't he have drilled in to it instead of nailing on "belief", "faith".

Secondly, let us read on the following passage.

"Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

~ John 3:6-8 (NIV)

if Baptism is to be inferred, which represents a physical activity done upon a person, and we know clearly that Jesus is talking about "being born again", essentially, the new birth, then, wouldn't that mean that only upon baptism, that the new birth happens? Now how does that go hand in hand with 'The wind blows wherever it pleases... so it is with everyone born of the Spirit.' That doesn't give much freedom to which how the new birth happens just like the wind.

"How can this be?" Nicodemus asked.

"You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things?

~ John 3:9-10 (NIV)

What could be even more puzzling is this, if baptism is indeed what Jesus was referring to, that Nicodemus was challenged upfront by Jesus that he should've understood this, since he was a teacher of the Law. He would have known the Old Testament very well. Reading this, you sense strongly that Jesus was pointing to somewhere in the Old Testament. We need to look for references of water.

The following passage provides one of the clearest insight into what Jesus meant. This is one passage that very likely was in Jesus' mind when He was challenging Nicodemus of his knowledge and understanding.

" 'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God."

~ Ezekiel 36:24-28 (NIV)

Here we could see clearly the same 2 references of "water" and "spirit" that Jesus was making. The result "you will be my people, and I will be your God" (that's God speaking). This passage talks about cleansing of sin, which is symbolic in the meaning of "sprinkle clean water". God had said that He will cleanse us of all sin and put in us a new heart and a new spirit.

Hence, from the passages that we have studied, "water" that Jesus was referring to was not Christian baptism, but rather, the cleansing of sin.