=7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.= The original, by its construction, puts an emphasis on the word _ye_. And it was this which surprised Nicodemus; not that men must be born again, but that this necessity was laid on him, a child of Abraham, and an honored ruler and teacher among the Jews. Observe too that he says _ye_, not _we_. “The Lord did not, could not say this of Himself. Why? Because, in the full sense in which the flesh is incapacitated from entering the kingdom of God, He was not born of the flesh. He inherited the weakness of the flesh, but his spirit was not like that of sinful man, alien from holiness and God, and therefore on Him no sentence hath passed; when the Holy Spirit descended on Him at His baptism, the words spoken by the Father were indicative of past approval, not of renewal. His obedience was accepted as perfect, and the good pleasure of the Father rested on Him. Therefore He includes not himself in this necessity for the new birth.”--(_Alford._) 8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so[92] is every one that is born of the Spirit. [92] 1 Cor. 2:11. =8.= It is very difficult to convey the exact meaning of the original of this verse; for in the original the same word signifies _wind_ and _spirit_; there is thus a verbal felicity in the metaphor, a certain play upon the word itself, which cannot be transferred from the Greek into another language. As in nature we see the operation of the summer breeze, that comes we know not whence, and goes we know not whither, so in the kingdom of grace we see the effects of the Spirit of God, in changes wrought in the individual character and in the community (Gal. 5:22), but are unable to comprehend the nature of the influence or the laws according to which it operates. Christ by this metaphor certainly indicates something more than the mere incomprehensibleness of the Spirit’s work (comp. Eccles. 11:5); he indicates also the realm in which we are to conduct our investigations, and that from which, by the nature of the case, we are excluded. We can study to advantage the _results_ of the Spirit’s operations; but all endeavors to know _how He_ operates, what are the occult laws of _His_ being and work, are in vain. A humble acceptance of this teaching would eliminate many useless discussions from theology. Alford notices that the Greek word used for wind (πνεῦμα) indicates the gentle breath of summer, not the violent gale. “It is one of those sudden breezes springing up on a calm day, which has no apparent direction, but we hear it rustling in the leaves around.” Observe also in the language, _where it listeth_, an indication of the fact that the divine operations are free, unconstrained, and not answerable to man, nor subject to his control. Comp. Rom. 9:15, 16.