"Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” John 3:5

An examination of some of Christ’s teachings on invisible spiritual realities

All over the world, in all periods of history, there have been vast numbers of people who assumed that there was some invisible reality above and beyond the physical world. This is not only a feature of many religions, but of all religions.

It has also been a persistent feature of much Western philosophy, especially before the twentieth century. There we find a long tradition of arguing that there is a reality above and beyond this material, visible world. This includes not merely the ancients such as Parmenides, Plato and Aristotle, but continues up well into the 19th century with Kant and Hegel (not to mention others).

The belief in some sort of supra-material reality is so common to human nature that it is found even in the most ancient cultures and the most primitive religions, insofar as we are aware of them. Even common and ordinary people in all periods of history have had some instinctive awareness that there is more to reality than the visible, material world – whether it be some sort of vague spirit world, with a life after death there, or more clearly defined concepts of one God, or of various gods.

The three great monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam have much more sharply defined concepts of what God is like and what he expects of us (although there is still plenty of room for mystery). However, merely agreeing on the existence of one creator God leaves room for a very wide range of differences – and even within any one of these religions, there is a great variety of practitioners who have different motives and reasons for believing as they do.

One of the many unique factors of the Christian religion is the belief that the God behind the universe has revealed himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. Thus, the man who walked the earth in a corner of the Roman Empire so many centuries ago, was able to reveal mysteries of the character and nature of God inaccessible to reason unaided, and unknown to previous generations. Thus Paul writes in Ephesians of

The mystery of Christ . . . the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath (has) been hid in God.

Christ said of himself, in the gospel of John:

And no man hath (has) ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

Rather than trying to discuss the nature and the person of Jesus Christ in great detail, I would prefer rather to look at the teaching cited above. After all, the Jewish religious leader Nicodemus, with whom Christ was discussing these things, did not have any idea of who Christ might be (at least as far as we can tell from this passage in John), though he was certainly well-versed in the Jewish scriptures.

So, in this article, I would like to examine a couple of questions:

[1] What is the Kingdom of God to which Christ is here referring? and

[2] What does it mean to be born of water and the spirit?  

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[1] Concerning the kingdom of God, it might be helpful to first describe what it is not, before trying to describe what it is. This can be done by looking at what we can call the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of ordinary human existence as we all experience it. This is an apt starting point, for Christ said in his appearance before the Roman governor Pontius Pilate:

My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.

Pilate therefore said unto him, Art (Are) thou (you) a king then? Jesus answered, Thou (You) sayest (say) that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth (hears) my voice.  (John 18)

So, Christ has come into this world to bear witness to the truth of another world. Let us examine this world, then, the one we all know, that the other spiritual world might be known more clearly by way of contrast.

To begin with, this world is a world of flux and change. Healthy and attractive young people grow old and die; nations and empires collapse; societies undergo great changes, some of them difficult and pleasant. The world itself came into being out of nothing, by the word of God, as the Bible teaches, and it will also pass away, as the Bible teaches:

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

Curiously, the Roman Stoic philosophers also taught that the world would end in dissolution by fire (2 Peter chapt. 3), although that philosophy was very different from Christianity in many other important respects.

This world is not only temporary, but it is full of evils. These include not only natural disasters, such as floods, fires, earthquakes, and plagues, but also the results of sinful human nature: sufferings, lies, wrongs, injustices, poverty, wars, oppressions, and so on. Many of these evils, if not all of them, may be directly related to the lack of truth or truthfulness, such as mistakes, errors, deceptions and lies, from the most trivial to the greatest and most destructive.

This is not to deny the many good things in this world as we daily live it. There are the beauties of nature, all the marvels of the heavens and the earth. There are wonders of science and mathematics and splendors of the arts and other intellectual pursuits. There are friendship and family, love and loyalty, and many other things that make life so worth living – but they are all temporary, they all come to an end as our earthly existences come to an end.

Moreover, they can all be snuffed out in an instant, or in a very short time, by wars, accidents, diseases, and social upheavals of various sorts – and all of our experiences can be snuffed out in an instant by death, which has a myriad forms and can come upon us anywhere, any time. Truly, this world is “the valley of the shadow of death,” as the psalmist wrote.

The kingdom of heaven can now be better described in contrast to these aspects of our own world. Also called by Jesus Christ “the kingdom of God,” it is eternal and everlasting. It is unchanging in its essence, and people who attain to it in the next life that follows this one will never die. No doubt there will be variation and circumstantial change in its details as far as humans are able to experience in it, but it will be above and beyond the negative mutabilities of earth.

Also, it will be free from evils of any and every sort. There will be no lies, no mistakes, no cruelty or injustice. John writes near the end of the book of Revelation:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea . . .

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away . . .

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth (burns) with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Thus it will be a place of everlasting, endless, eternal life, the reign and the power of death having been broken.

Moreover, it will be a kingdom of truth: there will be no lies or errors, but we will see and know mysteries of being and of mysteries of ourselves and of human consciousness.

All of this transcends the human imagination – just as the outside world awaiting babies still in the womb would be beyond their ability to imagine or comprehend, if they were capable of thought. As Paul said, “Eye hath (has) not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath (has) prepared for them that love him.”

As to the new heaven and the new earth, who is to say that this new earth might not have mountains, valleys and rivers; birds, animals, vegetation, flowers and butterflies?

Neither is it a future reality only. Those who find the reality of what Christ was speaking about in the verses from John cited above at the beginning of this essay can begin to experience the permanence, the beauty and the truthfulness of that kingdom even in the midst of this world, even in the midst of the worst that the world can do to us. We can know it and participate in it, as the kingdom of heaven extends its influence directly into our souls and minds through the teachings, influence and Spirit of the risen Christ?

[2] This cannot, however, take place for those still in their natural, independent state. Because of the inadequacies of fallen human reason and of will corrupted by sin, something more is needed - which brings us to the next question: What does it mean to be born of water and the spirit?

Looking at spirit first, Christ teaches that “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth” (John 4). He also says “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3). Thus there is a sharp dichotomy between the worlds of the flesh – that is, natural human power and virtue – and the spirit. As we read in I Corinthians 2:

. . . the natural man receiveth (receives) not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

If we would enter into the kingdom of God, we need something of the Spirit of God so that we might perceive it. This Spirit is given to us by Christ through faith in Christ. The receipt of this spiritual gift does not mean we become infallible or all-knowing, that we are super-saints or patterns of perfection. Neither does it mean we have to go to church every Sunday, or measure up to a vast number of rules and commandments.

It does mean that by God’s illumination we now have an awareness of the reality of God and his kingdom that is unknown to those who approach these questions by natural reason alone. There are aspects to reality that are too high and too deep for unaided human reason. For this we need the Spirit of God. Paul writes about this in I Corinthians, where he says:

But God hath (has) revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth (searches) all things, yea, the deep things of God.

For what man knoweth (knows) the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth (knows) no man, but the Spirit of God.

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth (teaches), but which the Holy Ghost teacheth (teaches); comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

As to being born not only by the Spirit, but also by water, I have long been puzzled by that reference. Studying it more carefully recently, which I should have done long ago, I find that water has two significant spiritual connotations in the New Testament, both of which apply to this verse: [A] as a means of washing, and hence of spiritual cleanliness; and [B] as a symbol of life.

[A] We read I Hebrews 10: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” This is more than just a physical washing, such as anyone no matter what their character might do. This might refer to the baptismal water of a true baptism in the faith of Christ. It might also refer to the spiritual cleansing of biblical truth which is referred to in Ephesians 5: “That he [Jesus Christ] might sanctify and cleanse it [the church] with the washing of water by the word.”

Thus, if we want to enter into and experience the Kingdom of God not only in the next life after death, but also begin to experience the reality of it in this life, we need not only spiritual illumination but also spiritual cleansing. This means cleansing of our evil thoughts, mistaken ambitions, unforgiven wrongs, abnormal appetites, and whatever other imperfect and even sinful character traits we might have – not that this is fully accomplished in an instant, though instant change is possible in with some problems. It is a beginning, and a new start.

[B] A second spiritual meaning of water is life itself. Here are some references:

I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. (Revelation 21)

And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb . . . And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.  (Revelation 22)

In John chapter 4 we read:

Jesus answered and said unto her [the Samaritan woman at the well], If thou (you) knewest (knew) the gift of God, and who it is that saith (says) to thee (you), Give me to drink; thou (you) wouldest (would) have asked of him, and he would have given thee (you) living water.

The woman saith (says) unto him, Sir, thou hast (you have) nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou (do you have) that living water?

Art thou (Are you) greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh (drinks) of this water shall thirst again: 

But whosoever drinketh (drinks) of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

Thus, Christ is saying that if we want to enter into the kingdom of heaven, we need not only the Spirit of God - “And if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his” (Romans 8). We also need the cleansing of sanctification – “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12), and we need the life of the Spirit “For the just shall live by faith.”