born,
not a Gentile, but a Jew.

The language of our Lord then could scarcely puzzle Nicodemus, but the
idea did stagger him that not only Gentiles but Jews must be born again.
John had indeed required the same preparation for entrance to the
kingdom; but the Pharisees had not listened to John, and were offended
precisely on the ground of his baptism. But now Jesus presses upon
Nicodemus the very same truth, that as the Gentile had to be naturalized
and born again that he might rank as a child of Abraham, and enjoy the
external privileges of the Jew, so must the Jew himself be born again if
he is to rank as a child of God and to belong to the kingdom of God. He
must submit to the double baptism of water and of the Spirit--of water
for the pardon and cleansing of past sin and defilement, of the Spirit
for the inspiration of a new and holy life.

Our Lord here speaks of the second birth as completed by two agencies,
water and the Spirit. To make the one of these merely the symbol of the
other is to miss His meaning. The Baptist baptized with water for the
remission of sins, but he was always careful to disclaim power to
baptize with the Holy Ghost. His baptism with water was of course
symbolical; that is to say, the water itself exercised no spiritual
influence, but merely represented to the eye what was invisibly done in
the heart. But that which it symbolised was not the life-giving
influence of the Holy Spirit, but the washing away of sin from the soul.
Assurance of pardon John was empowered to give. Those who humbly
submitted to his baptism with confession of their sins went from it
forgiven and cleansed. But more than that was needed to make them new
men--and yet more he could not give. For that which would fill them with
new life they must go to a Greater than he, who alone could bestow the
Holy Ghost.

These then are the two great incidents of the second birth--the pardon
of sin, which is preparatory, and which cuts our connection with the
past; the communication of life by the Spirit of God, which fits us for
the future. Both of these are represented by Christian baptism because
in Christ we have both; but those who were baptized by John's baptism
were only _prepared_ for receiving Christ's Spirit by receiving the
forgiveness of their sins.

Having thus declared to Nicodemus the necessity of the second birth, He
goes on to give the reason of this necessity. Birth by the Spirit is
necessary, because that whic