John 3 contains one of Jesus' most famous conversations.  Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling council, comes to Jesus at night.  Jesus tells him:  “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”  Nicodemus is confused.  Jesus continues: “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.”

A baptism study might then ask: “What do you see here about baptism?”

The expected answer:

  • Baptism—being born of water—is a rebirth.
  • Baptism is necessary to enter the kingdom of God.
  • Water and Spirit are closely connected with being born again.

There's an immediate problem worth noticing.  Jesus never mentions baptism.

The Question Has Already Supplied the Interpretation

Before we've investigated what “born of water and Spirit” means, we're asked: “What do you see here about baptism?” That question assumes: water = baptism.  Once we accept that equation, everything else follows naturally.  Jesus says: You must be born of water to enter God's kingdom.  If: water = baptism

then: baptism is necessary to enter God's kingdom.

The logic works. But only if the original assumption is correct.

So perhaps the first question shouldn't be: “What does this teach us about baptism?” It should be: “What does Jesus mean by ‘born of water and Spirit’?”  Those are very different questions.

Pattern #1: An Interpretation Gets Placed Inside the Question

This is becoming a familiar pattern.  The text says: “born of water and Spirit.” The study asks: “What do you see here about baptism?”  Now baptism isn't something we're investigating.  It's already been established.  Then the supplied answer reinforces it: “Baptism (being born of water) is a rebirth.”  Notice the parentheses.  Baptism (being born of water).  Those parentheses are doing an enormous amount of interpretive work.  They effectively tell us: These two things mean the same thing.  But that's precisely what needs to be demonstrated.

Who Is Nicodemus?

Context helps.  Nicodemus isn't a random person asking Jesus how to become a Christian.  John tells us he's: a Pharisee and a member of the Jewish ruling council.  Jesus later calls him: “Israel's teacher.”

That's important.  Nicodemus knows Israel's Scriptures.  He knows Israel's story.  He knows Israel's expectations about God's kingdom.  And yet he doesn't understand what Jesus is saying.  Jesus seems surprised:  “You are Israel's teacher…and do you not understand these things?”  That raises an important question:  Why should Jesus expect a teacher of Israel to understand “water and Spirit”?  Perhaps because the idea already exists within Israel's Scriptures.

Water and Spirit Already Have a Story

One particularly important passage is Ezekiel 36.  God promises Israel: “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean…” Then: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you…”

And: “I will put my Spirit in you…” Look at those ideas together:

  • water
  • cleansing
  • new heart
  • new spirit
  • God's Spirit

Then Ezekiel continues into the famous valley of dry bones in chapter 37, where God's Spirit brings new life.  That's strikingly close to the imagery Jesus uses with Nicodemus:

  • water
  • Spirit
  • new birth
  • new life

Maybe Jesus isn't suddenly introducing a Christian baptism formula.  Maybe he's talking about something God promised to do for Israel.

Pattern #2: Israel's Story Becomes an Individual Conversion Procedure

If Ezekiel and Israel's restoration are behind Jesus' words, notice how dramatically the conversation can change.  Jesus may be saying:

  • God's promised renewal is happening.
  • Israel needs the cleansing and new Spirit God promised.
  • Something new is being born.

That can become: Every individual must undergo water baptism before entering the kingdom of God.

We've moved from: Israel's promised renewal to: an individual's conversion requirements.  Again, baptism may eventually connect beautifully with this imagery.  Early Christians certainly associated baptism with new life, cleansing and the Spirit.  But that doesn't mean Jesus' phrase “born of water” automatically means: Christian water baptism.

There Are Other Interpretations

This is worth acknowledging because thoughtful Christians have interpreted “water and Spirit” differently for centuries.  Some understand water as baptism.  Some understand water as physical birth, contrasting natural birth with spiritual birth.  Others see water and Spirit together as imagery of spiritual cleansing and renewal, especially against the background of Ezekiel.  There are variations within those views as well.  The point isn't that one interpretation must obviously be correct.  The point is: There is an interpretive question here.

If a study presents: “water = baptism” as though that's simply what the verse says, the reader never learns that interpretation has occurred.  That's precisely the kind of thing Questions Worth Wrestling With should expose.

What About “Born Again”?

There's another fascinating detail.  The Greek word translated “again” can also carry the sense: “from above.”  John loves language with multiple meanings.  Nicodemus hears Jesus and thinks in physical terms: How can someone enter their mother's womb again?  Jesus is talking about something Nicodemus hasn't grasped.  This isn't simply: How does someone complete the process necessary to become a Christian?

It's a conversation about:

  • new creation
  • new birth
  • God's Spirit
  • God's kingdom
  • what comes from above

The imagery is much bigger.

Pattern #3: “Kingdom of God” Becomes “Going to Heaven”

This is another assumption we should watch.  Jesus says: “enter the kingdom of God.”  Modern readers can easily hear: “go to heaven when you die.”  Then the passage becomes: You must be baptized in order to go to heaven.  But Jesus' announcement of God's kingdom is much larger than determining someone's postmortem destination.  God's kingdom concerns God's rule breaking into the world.  Something new is happening.  Something is being restored.  And Jesus tells Nicodemus that participating in that reality requires a kind of birth that comes from God.  That's considerably richer than: Complete this requirement so you can qualify for heaven.

Where Does Baptism Fit?

None of this makes baptism irrelevant.  John's Gospel exists within an early Christian world where baptism was already deeply meaningful.  And John has already introduced water imagery.  John the Baptist has been baptizing.  Jesus' movement will also become associated with baptism.  So it's entirely reasonable to ask whether baptism contributes to how John's readers might hear this passage.  But that's different from saying: Jesus explicitly teaches here that baptism is necessary for salvation.  That's an interpretation.  And interpretations should be identified as interpretations.

Watch What the Question Is Doing

The sequence is remarkably efficient:

Jesus says “water and Spirit.”

↓

The question calls the passage “about baptism.”

↓

Water becomes baptism.

↓

Being born of water becomes being baptized.

↓

Jesus says this birth is necessary to enter God's kingdom.

↓

Therefore baptism is necessary to enter God's kingdom.

Nothing in the sequence feels forced once the first step is accepted.  That's why the first step matters so much.  Who decided that “water” means baptism?  That's the wrestling question.

Read the Conversation Before Building the Formula

Nicodemus is a teacher of Israel.  Jesus expects him to recognize something.  That should make us curious about:

  • Israel
  • Ezekiel
  • water
  • Spirit
  • cleansing
  • new hearts
  • new creation
  • God's kingdom

Those themes give us a much richer conversation than simply extracting: baptism is required.  And perhaps that's exactly the point of contextual reading.  Sometimes context doesn't make a passage simpler.  Sometimes it gives us more possibilities to consider.  That's okay.

A Better Question

Instead of beginning with:  “What do you see here about baptism?”  perhaps begin with: “Why does Jesus expect Nicodemus, a teacher of Israel, to understand what ‘water and Spirit’ means?”

Then:

  • Where has Israel encountered water-and-Spirit imagery before?
  • What did Ezekiel promise?
  • What does new birth mean in John's Gospel?
  • What does Jesus mean by God's kingdom?

And eventually: Could baptism participate in this imagery without being the entire meaning of it?

Now we're actually wrestling with John 3.  And that's considerably different from putting “baptism” into the question before Nicodemus has even finished talking.