Romans 11.33-36 + John 3.1-15
The Feast of the Holy Trinity
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The apostle John writes in John 2:23, “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name when they saw the signs which He did.” One of those who saw Jesus’ signs and began to believe in Him was a man of the Pharisees, a ruler of the Jews by the name of Nicodemus. Nicodemus, beginning to believe in Christ, comes to Him at night, under the cover of darkness. He approaches Jesus and says, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can these signs that You do unless God is with him.” His greeting reflects his faith. He does not call Him the Christ, as Andrew did when telling his brother Peter about Jesus (Jn 1:41). He does not confess Christ as “Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote,” as Philip confessed to Nathaniel (Jn 1:4). Nor can Nicodemus confess Jesus to be the Son of God and the King of Israel!” as Nathaniel did (Jn 1:49). For Nicodemus, for now, Jesus is Rabbi, a teacher sent from God.
Being addressed and acknowledged as a teacher come from God, Jesus immediately begins teaching by saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It doesn’t seem like an appropriate response to Nicodemus’ greeting, unless we consider what else John wrote before this, that “Jesus did not commit Himself to them, because He knew all men, and had no need that anyone should testify of man, for He knew what was in man” (Jn 2:24–25). Jesus knows Nicodemus’ heart and his fledgling faith and wants to immediately fan into flame the small embers of faith in Nicodemus’ heart. He goes to the heart of the matter, how one enters God’s kingdom. To enter God’s kingdom, Nicodemus must be born again.
Nicodemus hears this in an earthly way. He gets the general idea of a second birth, but understands Jesus’ words in an earthly, physical way. “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Since Nicodemus gets the general idea of a second birth, Jesus gets more specific. “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” The second birth is not a physical, natural birth. To be born again is to be reborn by water and Spirit. This is holy baptism, “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” as Paul calls it in Titus 3:5). By water and the Spirit—together, not separated—people are reborn, regenerated, and born a second time. The word which Jesus uses, ἄνωθεν, reinforces this, for it means “again” but also “from above,” reflecting that the second birth isn’t a natural, physical birth like the first one. It is a spiritual birth which is “from above,” worked by God through water and the Spirit.
The reason this second birth of water and Spirit is necessary is that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. Fleshly people give birth to fleshly children. Sinners give birth to little sinners. Job asked, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” and answered, “No one!” (Job 14:4). The first birth, being born according to the flesh, does not get one into God’s kingdom where there is righteousness, peace, joy, the Holy Spirit, and everlasting life. Physical birth does not make one a son of God who is heir to God’s kingdom. Only the second birth of water and Spirit—Holy Baptism—gives those blessings. Jesus says, “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” The Spiritual birth is not like the first birth, so that you can look at a person and tell that he or she is spiritually reborn. Baptism does not leave a physical mark as circumcision did for the Jews. It gives blessings which are, in this life, invisible. St. Paul teaches us that “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together” (Ro 8:16–17).
To all this, Nicodemus answers, “How can these things be?” “How can water do such great things?” Human reason, of course, does not comprehend these things. Although God had foretold this washing of water for forgiveness and new life in the prophets, Nicodemus, thinking earthly thoughts about spiritual things, cannot understand. And that’s Jesus’ point. Nicodemus, by His own reason and strength, cannot understand spiritual things. Yet He should listen to Jesus! Jesus tells Him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven.” He is the Son of Man who has come from heaven. He is “the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (Jn 1:18), that is, God the Father. God is His Father. He is God’s Son, who has come forth from God to make God and His will known to the world. God’s will, that to which both He and His Son testify, is that the Son of Man be lifted up on the cross, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. He and His Father testify that he who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned (Mk 16:16), for by faith and baptism sinners receive the blessings the Son of Man earned by being lifted up.
And in this witness to Nicodemus, Christ begins to teach Him about the God in whose name sinners are baptized for spiritual rebirth. As Jesus reveals the One God to Nicodemus, He simultaneously reveals that in the Godhead there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and other of the Holy Spirit. There is the kingdom of God the Father. God is called Father because He has the eternal Son, who became the Son of Man. This one descended from heaven and testifies with His Father, when He says, “We speak of what We know and testify to what We have seen, and you have not received Our witness.” That the Son is coequal with God the Father is evident in that He says in Matthew 11:27, “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father.” He didn’t deliver all things to His Son at some point in time. He gave all things to His Son by begetting Him from all eternity.
Along with God and His Son, Jesus reveals the divinity of the Spirit, the one who proceeds from the Father and the Son. For the rebirth takes place of water and the Spirit. If the Spirit is giving life, then He must have life in Himself so that He can give it and not be depleted. Jesus said in John 5:26, “As the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself.” The same is true of the Spirit, for the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and the Holy Ghost is all one: the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and Such is the Holy Ghost. This is why He is, as we confess in the Nicene Creed, the Lord and giver of life. Being of the same substance as the Father and the Son, He has life in Himself and gives life by regenerating sinners in baptism.
Jesus doesn’t say anything else about this to Nicodemus at the moment. The full revelation of the Godhead comes after the Son of Man has risen from the dead and He commands His apostles to baptize all nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19). The Triune God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, which is why God the Father sent God the Son to reveal Him and to be lifted up on the cross as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so that all who believe in Him should not perish but have eternal life through the forgiveness of their sins. The Triune God wants the blessings Christ earned by His death on the cross distributed to all, which is why He send His apostles out into the world to baptize all nations.
For revealing Himself to us fully, let us give thanks to the Triune God. Let us confess God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as the only true God who has saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, that we might have new life now as His sons, and eternal life forever as His heirs of His blessedness. Let of bless God the Holy Trinity and give glory to Him for His mercy. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
