Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee
Explaining somewhat more clearly, what he before said:
except a man be born of water and of the
Spirit:
these are, (twnv)
(twlm) , "two words",
which express the same thing, as Kimchi observes in many places
in his commentaries, and signify the grace of the Spirit of God.
The Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions read, "the Holy Spirit",
and so Nonnus; and who doubtless is intended: by "water", is not
meant material water, or baptismal water; for water baptism is
never expressed by water only, without some additional word,
which shows, that the ordinance of water baptism is intended: nor
has baptism any regenerating influence in it; a person may be
baptized, as Simon Magus was, and yet not born again; and it is
so far from having any such virtue, that a person ought to be
born again, before he is admitted to that ordinance: and though
submission to it is necessary, in order to a person's entrance
into a Gospel church state; yet it is not necessary to the
kingdom of heaven, or to eternal life and salvation: such a
mistaken sense of this text, seems to have given the first birth
and rise to infant baptism in the African churches; who taking
the words in this bad sense, concluded their children must be
baptized, or they could not be saved; whereas by "water" is
meant, in a figurative and metaphorical sense, the grace of God,
as it is elsewhere; see ( Ezekiel
36:25 ) ( John 4:14 ) . Which is
the moving cause of this new birth, and according to which God
begets men again to, a lively hope, and that by which it is
effected; for it is by the grace of God, and not by the power of
man's free will, that any are regenerated, or made new creatures:
and if Nicodemus was an officer in the temple, that took care to
provide water at the feasts, as Dr. Lightfoot thinks, and as it
should seem Nicodemon ben Gorion was, by the story before related
of him; (See Gill on John
3:1); very pertinently does our Lord make mention of
water, it being his own element: regeneration is sometimes
ascribed to God the Father, as in ( 1 Peter 1:3 ) (
James 1:18 ) ,
and sometimes to the Son, ( 1 John 2:29 ) and here
to the Spirit, as in ( Titus 3:5 ) , who
convinces of sin, sanctifies, renews, works faith, and every
other grace; begins and carries on the work of grace, unto
perfection;
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God;
and unless a man has this work of his wrought on his soul, as he
will never understand divine and spiritual things, so he can have
no right to Gospel ordinances, or things appertaining to the
kingdom of God; nor can he be thought to have passed from death
to life, and to have entered into an open state of grace, and the
kingdom of it; or that living and dying so, he shall ever enter
into the kingdom of heaven; for unless a man is regenerated, he
is not born heir apparent to it; and without internal holiness,
shall not enter into it, enjoy it, or see God.