You must be born again

John 3:3  In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

"Born again," the Greek word anoden, is the first of four puns -- double entendrez -- that are used in John 3 between Jesus and Nicodemus.  The word is a contraction of the words "from" and "above."  Jesus uses anoden that way.  Nicodemus hears it as "born again."  This whole story is about a man in the dark not understanding what it means when he hears about light.

Nicodemus has come to Jesus at night.  He comes in the dark for he is still spiritually in the dark.  He wants to talk to Jesus rabbi to rabbi (see vss 1-2).  Instead of acknowledging Nic's query about Jesus' status Jesus makes this somewhat astounding reply.  It almost sounds like a non sequitur.

I think this is one of the most misunderstood, misused verses of Scripture.  Many understand it to mean I have to accept Jesus as my personal Savior to demonstrate that I have been born again.  Many understand it to mean that if I can't point to a time and place where I can demonstrate that this "born again" experience has happened then it probably hasn't happened.  The message seems to be that I am supposed to do something in order to be born again.

Nic understood it to mean he had to do something, too.  He asks, "Can someone be born when he is old?  Surely he can't enter his mother's womb a second time."  (vs 4)  In other words, "How in the world can I do something to be born into God's kingdom?"

Jesus points him to the other use of the word.  Rebirth is by water and the Spirit.  It's only when the Spirit has acted that one can be born again. 

Now, here is an interesting thought.  We are born again -- born from above -- by the Spirit bringing us to life.  What a great example of the feminine side of God!  The Holy Spirit is our spiritual birth-mother.

What is certain in this section, in my opinion, is that any borning again that gets done in us is not done by us but by the work of God.  Isn't that what the whole Jesus event is about?  "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us."  John 1:13.  God sends Jesus because it's clear we can't/won't save ourselves.  God acts first.

We are born again, from above when the Spirit enters our hearts.  It is then that we can declare, "My Lord and my God," about the Savior.  Just like with our first birth, we are first born, then we learn to perceive what is around us and learn to speak and declare.  So also with faith.  God bears us as his (her) own.  It is in our realizing that we are a child of God that we begin to rejoice, because we begin to realize what a family of God we have been born into.

The classic interpretation of verse 5, "...no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit," is that this is the work of baptism -- a Jewish rite of purification -- with the powerful addition of the Holy Spirit, the One who makes us pure where the old rituals could only represent our purification.  So Martin Luther, in his small catechism explanation of Baptism says, "It is not the water indeed that does [great things], but the word of God which is in and with the water , and faith, which trusts such word of God in the water. . . . But with the word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Spirit . . . "

Or to put it as simply as Jesus did, "You must be born from above . . . by water and the Spirit . . . to enter into the kingdom of God."  It is God who gifts us this life.  It is we who are called to live a life a gratitude.