=5. Born of water and of Spirit.= Governing ourselves by the cardinal canon, that we are to understand Christ as Christ expected his auditor to understand him, it cannot be difficult to understand this declaration. The Jewish proselyte, as a sign that he put off his old faiths, was baptized on entering the Jewish church. John the Baptist, employing the same symbolic rite, baptized Jew as well as Gentile, as a sign of purification by repentance from past sins. The Sanhedrim were familiar with his baptism, and had sent a delegation to inquire into it (ch. 1:19, 25), and he had told them prophetically of the baptism of the Spirit which Christ would inaugurate. Nicodemus then would certainly have understood by Christ’s expression, “born of water,” a reference to this rite of baptism, and by the expression, “born of the Spirit,” a reference to a new spiritual life, which however he could have only imperfectly apprehended. The declaration then is that no man can enter the kingdom of God except by (1) a _public_ acknowledgment and confession of sin, a _public_ putting off of the old man and entering into the new; and (2) a real and vital change of life and character wrought by the Spirit of God in the heart of the believer. By the one act he enters into the visible and external kingdom; by the other, into the spiritual and invisible kingdom. That a _public_ confession and consecration is essential is clearly indicated elsewhere in Christ’s teaching (Matt. 10:32, 33). Observe the difference in phraseology here and in verse 3. He cannot _see_ the kingdom of God, except his eyes are opened by the Spirit of God; he cannot _enter_ it, except by a public and complete abandonment of the old and a spiritual consecration to the new life (2 Cor. 5:14-16). 6 That[91] which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [91] 1 Cor. 15:47, 49; 2 Cor. 5:17. =6. That which is born of flesh is flesh.= The connection is this: even if a man when he is old could enter again his mother’s womb and be born, it would avail nothing; that which is born of flesh is always flesh; only that which is born of the Spirit partakes of the Spirit of God. (Comp. Rom. 8:5-9.) The declaration here, coupled with John’s explicit declaration in ch. 1:14, that the Word was made flesh, implies that the birth of Jesus was supernatural, though he narrates none of the circumstances of that birth. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.