Born Of Water And The Spirit

Q

I have a question on John 3:5, Jesus was talking about being born of water and of the Spirit. In my Tuesday night Bible study class a question came up asking what this meant. Someone said that Jesus was talking about water baptism but I don’t see that here. Am I way off? What was Jesus really saying in John 3:5?

A

Let’s put John 3:5 -6 together to get a clearer picture of what Jesus was saying:

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.

Being born of water speaks of our first birth. It’s the natural one where we emerge from our birth waters, the amniotic fluid in which we’ve spent the previous nine months. It’s flesh (our mom) giving birth to flesh (us), when we become the child of our earthly parents.

Being born of the Spirit is the 2nd birth, the supernatural one, where our spirit is knit with God’s. It’s when we are born again, when Spirit gives birth to spirit, and we become a child of God (John 1:12-13).