In the second chapter, the Evangelist had told us of two instances in which Christ manifested His power over nature: first, in performing the miracle at Cana, and second in His bodily resurrection, which He foretold He would accomplish on the third day after His death. Now St. John will show another way in which Christ demonstrated His power over nature: in the spiritual regeneration of fallen man through His gift of grace. He tells us that grace was offered first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles. The Jews are represented by the Pharisee Nicodemus (ch. 3). The Gentiles are represented by two persons: the Samaritan woman at the well (Jn 4:1-42) and the official, whose son Christ healed (Jn 4:43-54). The Samaritans share a common heritage with the Jews, but Jews consider them foreigners because they worship in a different temple and observe different laws. The Romans, however, are total outsiders, having nothing in common with the Jews, except their relationship as conqueror and conquered. The spiritual regeneration of fallen man and his restoration to life began in Judea with Christ and then spread to the Gentile world through the ministry of the apostles.

St. John begins by giving us the occasion for Christ’s teaching. “Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews” (Jn 3:1). He described Nicodemus in three ways: by his religion, by his name, and by his rank. First, as to his religion, St. John said that he was a Pharisee. There were two major sects of Judaism in Christ’s lifetime: Pharisees and Sadducees. Of the two, the Pharisees were closer to us in their beliefs, for they believed in the resurrection and in the existence of angels. The Sadducees believed in neither. Pharisee means “separated one,” for they were somewhat separated from the religious mainstream on account of their beliefs and because of their exacting observance of the law and of purification rites. St. Paul admitted to being a Pharisee. He testified to King Agrippa: “according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee” (Acts 26:5). Pharisees were active mainly in Palestine from the second century B.C. to the first century A.D. Second, as to his name, Nicodemus means “victor” or “victory of the people.” He represents those who overcame the world through faith in Christ, particularly those Jews who became Christians, as St. John wrote, “whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith” (1 Jn 5:4). Third, as to his rank, St. John described him as a ruler of the Jews, most likely a member of the Jerusalem Sanhedrin (from the Greek synedrion, a council of leaders), which was a council or councils composed of Jewish aristocrats, priests, and religious leaders learned in the law. St. Paul noted that the majority of those called to the faith were not wise or powerful by worldly standards, as was Nicodemus, nor were they of noble birth, but rather, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27). Christ did not choose the wise and the powerful at first, lest it be said that the faith is attributed to human wisdom and temporal power. Yet, He still desired to convert some of the wise and powerful, lest His teaching be held in contempt by them as a teaching exclusively for the uneducated and the lowly, and lest they say that His popularity is due to the fact that He deceived the simple-minded and pandered to the poor. His teaching, in fact, appealed to all sorts: to the simple and to the wise, to those of common birth and to nobles, to the common man and to the great. Hence, we read, “many even of the authorities believed in him” (Jn 12:42), and one of these was Nicodemus.

Then the Evangelist tells us the time when Nicodemus came to Jesus: “This man came to Jesus by night” (Jn 3:2a). In Sacred Scripture, the time of a person’s arrival is sometimes mentioned specifically to indicate the level of their knowledge or their state of mind. Because the night is a time when things lie hidden in darkness, and a person’s sense of fear is heightened because he cannot clearly see, it was fitting, for two reasons, that Nicodemus came at night. First, he was fearful that being seen conversing with Jesus may cause him to be ostracized, or even expelled from the synagogue, for we read that “many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, lest they should be put out of the synagogue” (Jn 12:42). Second, he had an imperfect understanding of the truth which Christ taught. The Psalmist said of Nicodemus and of those like him: “They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness” (Ps 82:5). But to those who have the light of Christ, who have been taught His truth and who have received His grace, St. Paul said, “Let us then cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom 13:12).

Nicodemus affirmed Christ’s office as teacher when he said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God” (Jn 3:2b). Christ affirmed it as well, saying later to the apostles, “You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am” (Jn 13:13). But Nicodemus’ admission is not enough, for it is not a confession; it stops short of confessing that this Rabbi is God. To be a teacher from God is common to all good preachers, as God said: “I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding” (Jer 3:15). It was not unique to Christ that He taught the truth and spoke the Word of God. What is different with Him is that, while all other teachers taught with written or spoken words, Christ also instructed from within a man’s heart. He had a supernatural eloquence that no other rabbi possessed. It is little wonder that He is “The true light that enlightens every man” (Jn 1:9). Moreover, He promised to bestow this special gift of didactic eloquence upon His apostles: “I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict” (Lk 21:15).

Nicodemus then affirmed Christ’s power when he added, “for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him” (Jn 3:2c). He believed that Christ was an authentic teacher because of the miracles Christ performed, for he reasoned correctly that anyone who works such wonders must be sent from God, as Christ said, “he who sent me is with me” (Jn 8:29). Since miracles can only be effected by God, Who alone has power over nature, when a holy man brings about a miracle, we conclude that he must be sent by God, Who is effecting the miracle through him. Though Nicodemus rightly concluded that Christ was from God, it did not occur to him that Christ could be of God as well, that is, of the same divine nature. Nicodemus did not believe that Christ performed these signs by His own power, but that the God of Abraham and Issac and Jacob worked these signs through the Rabbi from Galilee, as He worked signs though other holy men of the past, like Elijah and Elisha. When God raised a widow’s child to life at the hands of Elijah, the grateful woman said to the prophet, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth” (1 Kgs 17:24). Nicodemus believed that God was with Christ in the same way that God was with Elijah: not by a unity of essence, but by an indwelling of grace.

Next, the Evangelist shows man’s need for spiritual regeneration: “Jesus answered him, ‘[Amen, amen], I say to you’” (Jn 3:3). “Amen” sometimes means “truly,” and sometimes “so be it.” Here it means “truly.” St. John is the only evangelist to quote Jesus using the emphatic double form, “Amen, amen.” This is because, while the other evangelists are concerned mainly with matters pertaining to Christ’s humanity, St. John deals mainly with things that pertain to His divinity, which are hidden from human wisdom and human experience, and therefore, require a more emphatic declaration. Nicodemus already knew that Jesus was a holy man from God. Now Christ wanted to lead him to a deeper understanding of the Son of Man.

When Christ said, “unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:3), He was explaining to Nicodemus why His true nature was not apparent to him. Christ was justifying Nicodemus’ ignorance, despite the fact that he was apparently learned in the law and in the scriptures. For no matter how learned one may be in human wisdom, one cannot know hidden divine things until one has undergone a spiritual regeneration. Fallen man must have the scales washed from his eyes before he can see God again, as Adam once had seen Him. Nicodemus, like all of us, needs to be born again, for spiritual things cannot be seen by the sentient faculties, as St. Paul said: “The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor 2:14). We said above (ch. 1, lect. 4) that any truth we know is a participation in the Truth, Who is the Word of God. Similarly, whatever spiritual vision we have is due to the Holy Spirit within us, for “no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2:11). But, the Holy Spirit is given through the cleansing of spiritual regeneration. Therefore, we must undergo spiritual regeneration in order to have spiritual vision, to see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus’ knowledge about Christ was incomplete because he lacked spiritual vision. But this could be remedied if he would be spiritually regenerated, that is to say, “born anew.”

Note that the kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom, not an earthly kingdom, as St. Paul explained to the Romans: “the kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17). Nicodemus could not see the glory and dignity of God, Who stood before him in the Divine Person of Christ, for his human eyes could see only the material world, not the spiritual reality before him. The mysteries of salvation are seen through the eyes of faith. Now, the patriarchs had faith, yet they had seen the mysteries of the kingdom only “from afar” (Heb 11:13), only imperfectly, for they lacked the spiritual regeneration of grace. The New Law renews us inwardly by grace, but it does not renew anyone outwardly by making the human body at once incorruptible. Spiritual regeneration begins now, but perfect regeneration will be accomplished in heaven, where we will be renewed both inwardly and outwardly, where a physically regenerated body, that is, a glorified body, will be reunited with its spiritually regenerated soul. At that time, Nicodemus will understand, for “when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn 3:2). Then he shall see clearly, for “now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (1 Cor 13:12). Moses saw only God’s back (Ex 33:23), but Nicodemus will see His face. Just as one does not have bodily vision unless he is born of a woman, one cannot have spiritual vision unless he be reborn in the Holy Spirit.

By this spiritual regeneration we are transformed into a greater likeness of the Son of God, for “those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom 8:29). Because Christ was generated from above, eternally begotten of the Father, our regeneration must also come from above, whereby we become adopted sons and daughters of the Father. This is why Christ said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn 6:44).

It is not surprising that Nicodemus failed to understand, for he had not yet been spiritually born anew. He could only understand in a sensual, carnal manner, not in a spiritual manner. Unless one receives the Holy Spirit and becomes an adopted child of God, one cannot see the hidden things of God, for God reveals Himself more to His sons and daughters than to others. It seemed impossible to Nicodemus, for two reasons, that a grown man might be born again. First, because of the irreversibility of human life, for an old man cannot return to youth. And so he asked Jesus, “How can a man be born when he is old?” (Jn 3:4a) Time flows in one direction, as Job noted: “when a few years have come I shall go the way whence I shall not return” (Jb 16:22). Second, regeneration seemed impossible because of the mode of carnal generation, whereby the human person naturally grows from a very tiny size to adulthood. The physical size of the womb can accommodate a human life for only nine months or so. An adult cannot return there to be reborn. And so, Nicodemus asked, “Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” (Jn 3:4b) Of course, both of his questions concerned physical birth, not spiritual birth. Christ and Nicodemus were talking about two different things. Yet Nicodemus’ objection is true in one sense: just as a man who is physically born cannot be physically born again, so too a man who is spiritually born in baptism cannot be baptized again, for there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph 4:5). Nicodemus understood the physical constraints of being born again, but he was blind to the spiritual reality, even though Pharisees believed in spiritual things like angels and the resurrection. Moreover, Pharisees were learned in the law and in the scriptures, yet Nicodemus did not see that at least two psalms alluded to spiritual regeneration: “your youth is renewed like the eagle’s” (Ps 103:5), and “From the womb of the morning like dew your youth will come to you” (Ps 110:3).

“Jesus answered, ‘[Amen, amen], I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God’” (Jn 3:5). Christ explained that it was not carnal generation that He was talking about, but spiritual regeneration. Note that Christ said above, “unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v. 3), whereas here He said, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (v. 5). In order to see the things of the kingdom of God, one must enter the kingdom of God. That is to say, a true knowledge of hidden divine things is beyond the grasp of intellectuals who study them merely out of curiosity. Faith is lived. The truth must be believed to be understood.

Why must we be reborn with water? Water is necessary for spiritual regeneration for three reasons. First, because of the condition of human nature. Because a man consists of body and spirit, he must be born of water and the Holy Spirit, so that not only his soul is regenerated, but his body as well. Because both his soul and his body are regenerated, his glorified body will rise on the last day to be reunited with his soul. Second, water is symbolically necessary for human knowledge. God provides for each creature according to its own nature. Man’s knowledge begins with sense knowledge; he learns by obtaining information from the sensible world through his five senses. Man can obtain knowledge either supernaturally, as is the case when the natural law is infused into his mind, or naturally, from sense experience. So that man might come to a knowledge of spiritual things naturally, it was fitting that something sensible from the material world might be used in his regeneration. It was most fitting that water be used, for just as it cleanses the exterior of the body, baptism cleanses the soul of both original sin and personal sin. Third, the water of baptism corresponds to the tomb from which Christ arose. The cause of our regeneration is the Incarnate Word, Who gives us “power to become children of God” (Jn 1:12). Since the sacraments derive their efficacy from the power of Christ, it was fitting that each sacrament have a spiritual element corresponding to the Word and a material element corresponding to the body. In baptism, we are submerged in the water, as Christ was buried in the tomb, so that we might emerge cleansed and prepared for glory, even as Christ arose from the tomb in glory, as St. Paul explained: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4).

Why must we be reborn of the Spirit? One who is generated is generated in the likeness of the one generating, as a son bears a likeness to his father. We are regenerated into the likeness of the Son of God; as a consequence, we become adopted sons and daughters of God. This regeneration takes place by our receiving the Holy Spirit, for He is the Love between the Father and the Son. Thus, St. Paul concluded that “Any one who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him” (Rom 8:9). St. John wrote: “By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his own Spirit” (1 Jn 4:13). Nicodemus could not understand, because he did not have the Holy Spirit, for “It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail” (Jn 6:63).

Spiritual rebirth affirms the divinity of the Holy Spirit. We are reborn of God, “not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (Jn 1:13). But we are reborn by the Spirit. Therefore, the Holy Spirit must be God.

It is said that there are three kinds of baptism, baptism of water, baptism of blood, and baptism of desire, and that one can enter the kingdom of God by any of these three ways. According to a different classification, we can say that the three kinds of baptism are (1) baptism of water in deed; (2), baptism of desire, which is experienced by martyrs and catechumens who die before their desire is fulfilled; and (3) baptism of sign, which pertains to the patriarchs of the faith. Those who freely come to the waters of baptism are baptized in deed, the deed being the pouring of water. Those reborn by the blood of martyrdom do not experience regeneration in deed, but by desire. Likewise, catechumens who die before their baptism, have the baptism of desire. The patriarchs of the faith were not baptized with water, nor did they explicitly desire to follow Christ. Now, regeneration by water and the Spirit takes place in either of two ways: in truth or in symbol. Although the patriarchs did not receive baptism in truth, they had a symbolic rebirth, because, although they had not known of Jesus Christ, they nonetheless had seen signs which prefigured Christ and the true baptism, and they lived their lives according to the will of God. Accordingly, they were reborn and entered the kingdom at the moment when Christ paid the price for our salvation by dying on the cross.

Pelagians derived their error from the statement, “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” They claimed that children are baptized, not to cleanse them from original sin, for they asserted that children have no such sin. Rather, they said that children are baptized only so that they might enter the kingdom of God. But St. Augustine proved their opinion to be false. He said that it is unfitting that man, who was created in the image and likeness of God, should be excluded from the kingdom of God, except for some real obstacle. Sin, which tarnishes man’s image, is the obstacle keeping fallen man from heavenly glory. Since infants and young children do not have the intellectual and moral capacity to voluntarily commit personal sin, some other sin must be responsible for their exclusion from the kingdom. That other sin is original sin, which is removed by baptism.

Christ proved the necessity of baptism when He said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (Jn 3:6). No one can enter the kingdom of God unless his carnality is transformed and he is made spiritual; but no one is made spiritual, except by the Holy Spirit; therefore, no one can enter the kingdom of God, unless he is reborn of the Holy Spirit. What is born out of flesh is itself flesh, but what is born from the power of the Holy Spirit is spiritual. In Adam, all men died, but in Christ all men rise to life, as St. Paul said: “The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven” (1 Cor 15:47).

Notice the use of the preposition ex: “That which is born of the flesh [ex carne] is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit [ex Spiritu] is spirit.” This preposition sometimes designates a material cause, as when we say that a knife is made “of iron” (ex fero), and at other times it designates an efficient cause, as when we say that a knife was made “by a blacksmith” (ex ferrario). The phrase, “That which is born of the flesh [ex carne]” can be interpreted according to either material or efficient causality. Accordingly, generation is of three types. First, there is a material generation, in which flesh begets flesh. This is common to all living things in the process of biological generation. Second, there is an effective generation, in which we are spiritually reborn by the grace of the Holy Spirit as adopted children of God. Third, there is a generation that pertains only to Christ the God-Man. He was generated materially from the flesh of the Virgin Mary, but effectively by the Holy Spirit. Thus, the angel spoke to the Virgin Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1:35). He took His human nature materially from the Virgin Mary, and His divine nature from the Father.