The New Birth Series: Part Two (John 3:1-8)

Jesus said, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). What is “born of water?” The New Testament uses water as a figure of the new birth. Regeneration (born again) is called a “washing” brought about by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God at the moment of salvation (Titus 3:5; Ephesians 5:26). Believers are said to be “washed . . . sanctified . . . justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11). The “washing” Jesus and Paul speaks of here is a spiritual one. Jesus was not teaching that one must be baptized in water in order to be saved. Water baptism is an outward sign that we have given our lives to Jesus, but does not impart a new nature.    

~Dr. Robert L. Taylor, Bible Expositor; Teaching with God’s grace & power