The Necessity of New Birth

March 22, 2026|The Necessity of New Birth| John 2:23-3:21

JD Cutler

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Good morning church family.

This morning we are continuing our series through the gospel of John.

When you open your Bibles to John chapter 3 you will find the first recorded extended conversation recorded between Jesus and an individual in this book. If you will, just for a moment, think about the sweeping scope of just the first two chapters. They can be read aloud in about 6 or so minutes, shorter than many of the articles that get published today and yet they begin with establishing Jesus as the eternal word of God, the agency of creation of all things, the very light of men. John tells us that his own people rejected him and the world at large did not know him, but that those who did, who believed in his name were given the right to become children of God, born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but by the will of God. Being God himself he has revealed both in presence and purpose the Father. He has been identified by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, the divine son of God. We have seen him perform his first sign miracle, manifesting his glory and deepening his disciples belief in who he was. We have seen him come in judgment into the temple, cleanse it and declare that the religious elites would try and destroy his body, but in three days he would raise it up again.

Now, we find him having a private conversation with one of the men who represented that the whole of the religious system of Judaism. I mention all of this to remind us that this is not simply a conversation between two men, but a conversation with a man and the eternal, divine, word of God. This is one of two conversations John places at the beginning of his account of Jesus’ life, this one with Nicodemus and his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. These two people could not be more different and yet at the heart they are both looking for the same thing. Nicodemus through religion and obedience to the law and the woman through the pursuit of pleasure and worldly gains. One as close to the center of Judaism as you could get, one as far away as you could get.

This morning I want us to look at this situation and conversation under four divisions in an attempt to hear from Jesus himself, God in the flesh, what all men need in answer to the question, ‘how can I be right with God?’ If you haven’t already, open your bibles to the close of John chapter 2, at verse 23 and let’s read the setup for this conversation and then hear it in full this morning.

John 2:23–3:21 ESV

23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. 1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. 16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

From this encounter I want to look at four elements with you this morning, the first is…

I. THE SINCERE SEEKER

One thing we may miss as we read through this encounter is that John sets up our introduction to Nicodemus in verses 23-25, by telling us Jesus knew what was in man and did not on his part entrust himself to them. He immediately says, now there was a man. The proximity of these statements is intentional and should cause us to pause and consider what John’s commentary is saying about Nicodemus. He saw the signs, perhaps we are even to see in him, one that represented the kind of belief described in 2:23, real interest, even admiration, but not yet true understanding or saving faith. We understand that he was incomplete in his understanding. He didn’t fully understand, which sets up this encounter perfectly. This man came to Jesus by night.

There are many speculations on why he would come by night. Some say it was timidity or not wanting to be publically seen with Jesus, others speculate that it was the only chance to have a private conversation with Jesus since he was teaching and performing miracles during the day. While John does not tell us, he does tell us in a short sentence quite a bit about the man Nicodemus. He was a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, named Nicodemus.

Now we often think of a Pharisees as synonymous with a hypocrite, with good reason, both John the Baptist and Jesus reserved their harshest words for Pharisees. While many Pharisees are rightly rebuked in Scripture, we should still recognize that men like Nicodemus represent a serious and sincere commitment to God’s law—however misdirected.Indeed at the very heart of what it meant to be a Pharisee was a desire to interpret the scriptures literally, to see God’s law as binding, and to try and live by his standards of holiness. If the scribes existed to rightly interpret the law, the Pharisees existed in an attempt to rightly keep it. These were well respected, religiously devout, and societally upstanding citizens. From these two groups, individuals were chosen to sit on the Sanhedrin, the Jewish court system. They were essentially the judges and politicians. They were the primary go between between Jews and the Roman officials. James Montgomery Boice points out that Nicodemus is a Greek name and likely indicates that Nicodemus had spent time studying Greek philosophy and was a very learned individual. All this to say, if anyone had it all together, it was Nicodemus. Educated, well respected, fervent in his religious devotion, serious in his pursuit of obedience to God.

He brings all of this to this conversation with Jesus that begins. “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”

This teacher of the Jews acknowledges that he sees Jesus, this unexpected teacher from Galilee as a rabbi. But he doesn’t stop there, he says we know, probably indicating that he represented at least a number of the Pharisees, that you are a teacher come from God. This in and of itself is a huge confession. I believe that you have been sent from God because no one would be able to do these signs unless God is with him.

It is important to note that he is not seeking God on his own, scriptures like Romans 3 tells us clearly that no one seeks for God rightly or naturally, he is responding to what God has already revealed. He is seeking in the fact that he is responding to what God is revealing in Christ, the light of the world, even if he is seeking imperfectly and for the wrong things.

Jesus doesn’t let him finish, but you can imagine from everything we know about Nicodemus as well as the situation, there is a question coming. It’s also not hard to imagine at least the kind of question that is on his lips. He has sought out Jesus, this miracle working teacher who John the Baptist had testified of, who had taken a stand against the temple system and the abuse of those who were coming to worship. Jesus had claimed that the temple was his father’s house and that if they destroyed it he would raise it up in three days. What would a devout Jew, a teacher of the law, have to ask this Jesus, that was so important he sought him out?

While John doesn’t record for us his exact question, everything about his approach suggests it may have been something like…

How do you fit within the framework I already have? What do I have right, what else do I need to know or do?

I have been born into the nation of God as a Jew, I have studied the law and try to keep it diligently in the way I understand it, I have risen through the ranks of the religious system as high as I can, what else do I need?

This really is the question that arises wherever God begins to awaken someone, when responding to his drawing work, the sincere seeker brings to Jesus.

What do I need to do?

What do I need to add to my life in order to be right with God?

But as we will see in Jesus’ answer a sincere seeker can be seeking the wrong things.

Whatever Nicodemus was seeking was not what he actually needed. Nicodemus had inadvertently come to the one man in Jerusalem who was about to dismantle his entire understanding of religion. Nicodemus comes asking what he must add to his life—Jesus answers by telling him he must receive an entirely new one. And that is where the conversation turns.

II. THE SURPRISING STATEMENT

Jesus seemingly interrupts him or at least jumps in before he can go further and says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” From this moment on, all Nicodemus can do is respond with questions. This learned Pharisee is seemingly dumbstruck by this sudden, abrupt, surprising, and difficult statement.

Let’s look at Jesus’ words a little more closely. He begins with Truly truly, I say to you. This repetition in the language is important. The word truly is the word we know as Amen. Used at the beginning it means ‘truly’, and at the end something like ‘so be it’. When a word is repeated in the Hebrew thought, or as it is recorded here in the Greek writing, it emphasizes the idea, so that Jesus is saying what comes after it is exceedingly true, or absolutely true. We might understand it this way, Most assuredly I say to you. You say that I am a teacher come from God, then make sure you hear this, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

If you could, for a minute, in as much as you can, forget that you know on this side of the cross what born again means. It is a very familiar expression in evangelicalism, one that you have no doubt heard a million times. But for Nicodemus, hearing it for the first time, think of how absurd it must have sounded. In his context, he had been born into the right nation, being part of the people of God was his birthright. He was a son of Abraham. If his birth did not count for something, then none do. The word itself has some different nuances to it. Some commentators point out that the word can mean ‘from above’ or ‘from heaven’. The word can mean both ‘again’ and ‘from above,’ and it seems that Nicodemus hears it in the most natural way—‘again’—while Jesus is speaking of a birth that comes from above, from God. He hears that someone must be born again. Most likely he heard something like, a man must be born anew. Which both perfectly captures what Jesus is actually saying must happen as well as Nicodemus response. How can a man be born anew when he is old, can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Nicodemus immediately thinks of natural birth and readily acknowledges that it would be impossible to repeat your physical birth. To which Jesus responds and says again, Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born, changing born again to born of water and the Spirit, and from seeing the kingdom to entering it.

There is a lot of debate on what Jesus means by water and the Spirit here. I think the simplest explanation is that Jesus is drawing from scripture. In Ezekiel God promises that he would cleanse his people and give them a new heart by His Spirit. God says I will sprinkle clean water on you and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will put my Spirit within you. This would have been a well known passage to Nicodemus, a serious student of the scriptures. Jesus is not describing a two part birth, but one work of God that both cleanses and renews.

He presses on. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Here Jesus presses on the true center of man’s problem. Nothing that is born out of flesh, or natural man, will produce anything other than flesh. As hard as Nicodemus has tried, as much as he has done, because he is flesh, he cannot produce anything other than the flesh.

Man cannot will himself into the spiritual life, man cannot work himself into the spiritual life, if man is going to experience life in the Spirit, then he is going to have to be acted on by something other than flesh. This is why Jesus says, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God or enter the kingdom of God. Jesus is not saying this is difficult—He is saying it is impossible apart from new birth. What is born of the flesh remains flesh—it cannot produce or become spiritual life. Jesus seems to indicate that in all of Nicodemus’ study he should not be surprised by this statement, you must be born again, then he goes on to clarify it even further, using the imagery of the wind to explain it. You can hear wind, you can see what it affects, but you do not see the wind, you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes, you only see the effect of it. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. When someone is born again, there is no immediate outward or physical transformation we can point to in that moment—but the effects of the Spirit’s work become unmistakably visible over time.

Here is what is so surprising about the statement Jesus makes, it flies right in the face of the Nicodemus’ of the world who suppose that man’s problem is that there is something he needs to do in order to be right with God. There is some religious acts, some charitable action, some ritual, some habit, some knowledge that he must learn or thing that he needs to be engaged in in order to produce the necessary change. However Jesus says what we need is a supernatural, divine rebirth that comes from above, is invisible in nature, and yet changes our very nature. Jesus does not tell Nicodemus what to do—He tells him what must be done to him.

You don’t need a better life—you need a new life, and that life is found in Jesus Christ. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. To which Nicodemus answers, How can these things be? or ‘How can this happen?’ or ‘How is this possible?’ Notice that his question is no longer about physical birth or even why must it happen, his question is now, how? How can this be? The problem is no longer just misunderstanding, it is impossibility. Nicodemus is not asking what anymore, but how. How can a man be born from above?

And Jesus does not point him to a process—He points him to a person. Let’s turn our attention to…

III. THE SPLENDID SAVIOR

Jesus says if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

That is to say, I have explained the necessity of the new birth by comparing the flesh and the Spirit, I have used the wind to illustrate the movement of the Spirit in the new birth, if you don’t believe those things, you will not believe the heavenly things that make it possible. You have come to the only one who has been with the Father, and has come down, the Son of Man. What I have come to do, you are not ready to understand yet.

Then Jesus gives him another earthly example. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

If you are not familiar with the story Jesus references, here is the cliff note version.

The people of God are in the wilderness being led by Moses, and they once again being grumbling. This time against God and Moses, complaining about the lack of food and water and even expressing their hatred of the manna God was giving them daily. Mind you God had already supernaturally given them water, bread from heaven, and protected them from their adversaries. So the Bible says that God sent fiery serpents among the people that bit the people so that many died. Realizing their sin of speaking against God and Moses, they come in repentance and beg Moses to pray to God to take away the serpents. God does not immediately take away the serpents, but he does provide a way for someone who is bitten to live. He has Moses make a bronze serpent in the image of the fiery serpents, put it on a standard or pole, and lift it up. If anyone is bitten, if they would look at the bronze serpent they would live.

They had to look on the consequences of their sin, a representation of their punishment which brought death, and in the act of looking in faith, believing that God had provided a way to be healed, they would be healed.

Can we just stop for a moment and imagine this situation?

They wanted God to remove the serpents. He didn’t.

They surely wanted God to stop them from dying. He didn’t.

But what he did was provide a way for them to live if they would trust His command and simply look at the bronze serpent.

They were not healed by understanding it—they were healed by looking to it in faith.

You can already see the powerful imagery Jesus is drawing on when he says, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Jesus is clearly talking about his upcoming crucifixion on a Roman cross, where he will be lifted up bearing the sins of His people as their substitute. He goes on to say, that because God loved the world, he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

That is to say, those who have sinned and rightly deserve death themselves, if they will look on the crucified savior and believe that he is God’s appointed solution to our rebellion and sin, they will have everlasting life. Jesus goes on to say that he did not come into the world to condemn it but in order that it might be saved through Him.

This earthly illustration was Jesus’ way of teaching the heavenly reality that He had come to be the propitiation for our sins, the sacrifice that satisfies the righteous wrath of God against sin.

God did not immediately remove the effects of sin and death—but He did provide a way to be saved from them that we might experience eternal life through Jesus Christ by faith.

Does it make earthly sense?

Not anymore than looking at a bronze serpent on a standard might cure poison in someone’s veins, and yet God physically saved those who looked in faith just as surely as he spiritually saves those who look to Christ as God’s given cure for everlasting death from the curse of sin.

We often rightly picture the crucifixion as a horrible and gruesome scene, which it was, in the earthly sense. But in the heavenly sense it is the most beautiful picture we will ever see. Jesus, willingly giving his life on a Roman cross, so that those who are under the curse of sin and death might look to him in faith and live.

Jesus is the only way to be saved, Jesus is the only way to born again from above, Jesus is the only way to new spiritual life. Jesus is not one option among many—He is the only way for sinners to be made alive, the only way to be born from above, the only way to have eternal life.

Nicodemus asked how is it possible for a man to be born again, Jesus answers because the Son of Man has come and by believing in him you may have eternal life which begins with being born again. This is how the new birth happens—through the Son being lifted up and sinners believing in Him.

But that raises a sobering question… If this is the only way to be saved, what does that mean for those who do not believe?

And Jesus does not leave that unanswered. This brings us to our last division this morning…

IV. THE SHOCKING SITUATION

It is around this point of the conversation that we realize this isn’t just a conversation for Nicodemus, this teaching of Jesus applies to every man and woman in the world.

The necessity of the new birth is not just for Nicodemus, or just for the Jews, but for all mankind.

We are condemned already. The question is not whether we will be judged—the question is whether we will be saved. Drawing from elsewhere in scripture we understand that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ and that ‘the wages of sin is death’. God did not need to send Jesus into the world to condemn it, it was already condemned, he sent his son so that the world might be saved through him.

We know that Jesus is not saying the whole world will be saved, because he immediately introduces two categories, those who believe in him and those who do not. Those who are no longer condemned and those who are still condemned. I think this is an especially important moment to remember who he is talking to.

Nicodemus was a Jewish man right in the center of Judaism and the Jewish life. When Jesus says that God loved the world in this way, that he gave his only Son, that God sent his Son into the world that it might be saved through him, he is saying that salvation is not just available to the Jews but to all who would believe.

So what is the distinguishing characteristic between those who are condemned and those who are not? Jesus says, this is the judgment, And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John has already established in his prologue that Jesus is the true light, the light of men, the word of God that became flesh and dwelt among us. When someone encounters the light of the world their works are exposed, their sin is exposed, their rebellion is exposed. They do not remain neutral—they either retreat further into darkness or step into the light. Jesus says we reject the light because we love the darkness rather than the light, indeed he says we hate the light. But whoever,by God’s grace, sees that they are hopelessly lost and condemned apart from Jesus, that see God’s provision for sin in the atoning work on the cross, and places their faith in him, do not make themselves righteous, but their lives will show evidence of God’s work in them. It is those who have experienced the new birth by the Spirit.

Jesus teaches us that there are two kinds of people, those who love the light and those who love the darkness. And that brings us to the same place Nicodemus was left. Conclusion: This is where the encounter ends. In this moment, we aren’t told if and how Nicodemus responded to what Jesus says here. I don’t think that is accidental, but an intentional decision by John to leave us at this crossroads of belief and unbelief.

We have repeatedly come back to John’s purpose statement towards the end of his letter where he says, that he wrote what he did so that his readers may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus exposes that many of us bring the wrong question to Jesus, that there is a fundamental problem that can only be addressed by a new birth, that Jesus Christ has made the new birth possible, and that whoever believes in him will experience the new birth.

And now we are left with the same question this conversation presses on every soul: Do I believe this?

Do I believe that salvation is not something I achieve, but something God must do in me?

Do I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came into the world to bear my sin?

Do I believe that by looking to Him in faith I can be saved?

Do I believe that I have been born again, that I am spiritually alive?

And does my life show it? Do I love the light—or the darkness?

If like Nicodemus you are searching this morning, I pray that Jesus’ conversation with him has led you to the truth. Because we are dead in sin, we must be born from above—and this new birth is given to all who look in faith to Jesus Christ, the Son of Man lifted up for our salvation.

Let us pray.