What is being born of Water and Spirit mean?

• The Spirit and the Word at Work in Salvation - Whether Old Testament believers or New Testament believers, one is always saved by God's Grace and God's Mercy. Always has the Holy Spirit been he who regenerates believers, convicting them of sin, working faith in their hearts. The Holy Spirit works through the words of Scripture as Rom 10:17 affirms; “... faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God”. This is the means whereby a person receives the gift of salvation, or eternal life. In Tit 3:5, we immediately recognize that God’s mercy and righteousness are at work – with no human effort at all! The “renewing of the Holy Ghost” has everything to do with salvation. From the point of this New Birth, God the Holy Spirit indwells, takes up residency in the newly regenerated soul that had been spiritually dead before. Jesus explains this New Birth to Nicodemus. Later on in His dialogue with Nicodemus, Jesus has this to say to him: “Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” (John 3:10). The point Jesus was making is that Nicodemus should have known the truth that the Holy Spirit is the source of new life because it is revealed in the Old Testament.

John 3:3 “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water [Word of God typified by water] and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh [unsaved state]; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.[saved state]”

Eze 36:25-27 “Then will I sprinkle clean water[Word of God typified by water] upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 26A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”

John 6:63 “It is the spirit that quickeneth [make alive]; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

Titus 3:5 “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”

• The Washing of Water by the Word - As Jesus told Nicodemus, one must be “born again” to see the Kingdom of God. When Jesus referred to being “born again”, the Greek word for “again” anothen really means “from above”. We need to keep in mind that the gift of salvation, which comes “down” from God Himself, is entirely undeserved and is only by God’s grace. The only people who are true Christians are those who have become “born again”, or spiritually regenerated (Tit 3:5), by the power of God. During the history of the world, down through the ages, there has always been a mixture of saved and unsaved people in God’s earthly churches. The OT and NT visible, physical and temporal “churches” have contained the invisible, spiritual and eternal “Church”. The eternal church is the body of true believers, who have been given eternal life through God’s salvation program. This is the “Church” that God refers to in verses such as Eph 5:25-27. Specifically, how did He “sanctify and cleanse” this eternal “Church”? The Greek word for “sanctify” means “to set apart as holy”. Bear in mind that “washing” has to do with the washing away of one’s sins by the “water” of the Word of God – or the Gospel, which is the whole Bible. This is also highlighted in Eze 36:25. God often used physical things to typify and teach spiritual things in the Bible. For example, He frequently used the word “water” to typify the Holy Spirit and the Gospel in passages like Eze 36:25-27, John 3:5, John 4:13-14, John 7:37-39, Eph 5:25-27, Rev 22:17. Heb 10:22 explains that only the pure water of the Gospel (the Word of God) can wash away sin. Rev 1:5 teaches that the Lord Jesus willingly offered up His life (typified by His blood) to wash away the sins of His people. The water that flowed from the rock in the wilderness typified the Spiritual Drink of God’s Word – the Gospel of salvation by grace – which flows from the Spiritual Rock, Jesus Christ, upon Whom the Eternal Church is built. To summarize, Jesus Christ cleansed us by the atonement on the cross where He took our sins and expiated them by shedding His blood. The Holy Spirit applies the cleansing through the means of God's Word and by giving us a new heart, thus making us born again. The Holy Spirit indwells this born-again believer. Thus, we are baptized into one body by the action of the Holy Spirit as 1 Cor 12:13 affirms: “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.”

Heb 10:22 “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Rev 1:5 “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,”

1 Pet 1:23 “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

John 1:1-2,14 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2The same was in the beginning with God. 14And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us...”

John 4:13,14 “..... He, however, who drinks of the water that I give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up unto life everlasting.”

Eph 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church [eternal body of true believers] , and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

John 17:17, 19 “17Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”

Rom 10:17 “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”