BORN OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT?

Friday 15 November

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3:5 (NKJV)

Once upon a time in a land far, far away… Sounds like the beginning of a fairytale doesn’t it. Another word for fairytale is the word fable. Fables are ‘short tales that usually feature animals (real or mythical) given human-like qualities to deliver a specific moral or lesson. Many fables originated from an oral tradition and exist in every culture.’ The word fable stems from ‘fabula’ in Latin for ‘story’.

In 2 Peter 1:17 it says ‘For we were not following cleverly devised stories when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah), but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty (grandeur, authority of sovereign power).’

Speaking of fables, there are some different stories, folklore and even myths based upon our opening scripture. Here are two versions of what it means by ‘born of water and the spirit.’ See if you can pick the right one.

The first one is that ‘water’ here is symbolic of natural birth as a baby floats around in a watery sack of amniotic fluid, then the water eventually breaks and the baby comes out of the birth canal into the world.

The second view is that water represents water baptism because Jesus was baptised in water before He received the Holy Spirit, therefore the Christian has to go through the waters of baptism to be fully saved.

The truth is, none of these stories are correct.

As always, let’s dig a little deeper. When we read the Bible, it’s vital to read and interpret it in the language that is was originally written.

The word ‘and’ in John 3:5 where it says unless a man is born of water and the spirit does not have the connotation of ‘this and that’ which is how it reads in English. Kai pronounced kahee means ‘that is’ or ‘which is’.

This is how it should read; ‘unless a man be born of water which is or that is the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’

So is there another time in scripture where Jesus confirms this truth? Yes. It is found in John 7:38-39

‘He that believes on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spoke he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)’

Did you see that? The water has been replaced by the spirit after the resurrection and ascension of Christ according to Jesus Himself. In other words, being born of water is born of the Spirit!

When Jesus said he that believes and is baptised shall be saved was in reference to being baptised or born of the Spirit and never water.

Some say, what about all the baptisms that the Apostles performed in the book of Acts? The truth is Acts is not a doctrinal book and baptisms finished in Acts 8 among the Jewish believers.

Lastly, in John 3:22 John said Jesus baptised but he amended that statement in John 4:2 saying Jesus didn’t baptise, His disciples did.

Knowing this truth of ‘born of water’ is ‘born of the spirit’ changes a lot of ‘stories’ that may have been presented as real facts. What does this teach us? We all need to ‘rightly divide the word of truth’ and not follow the empty ‘traditions of men’. Let God be true and every man a liar.

APPLICATION

Make up your mind that you are going to be like the Bereans who were more noble than the Thessalonians because they searched the scriptures daily to see if these things were so.