John 3:6. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the spirit is spirit.
But I answered him as it is written in the preceding sixth verse: ‘Do not be surprised that I speak to you in this way. For look: what comes from the flesh is again flesh, that is, dead matter or the outermost covering of life. But what comes from the spirit is also spirit, or eternal life and truth in itself!’
But Nicodemus still does not grasp the matter. He shrugs his shoulders and is increasingly astonished, less at the matter itself than at his inability, as one of the wisest Pharisees, well versed in all Scripture, to grasp the meaning of such words. For he set great store by his wisdom and had also been raised to be a ruler of the Jews because of his great wisdom.
He was therefore all the more astonished that he had now quite unexpectedly found in Me a Master who offered him very peculiar nuts of wisdom to crack! Since he could not make any sense of it, he asked Me again, ‘Yes, how is this to be understood now? Can a spirit also become pregnant and then give birth to its own kind?’
John 3:7. Do not be surprised that I told you: you must be born anew.
I say to him, ‘I have already told you that you should not be so surprised when I tell you: you must all be born anew!’
John 3:8. The wind blows where it wills, and you hear its rushing sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone born of the spirit.
‘For look, the wind blows where it wills; you hear its rushing sound, but you still do not know where it originally comes from. So it is with everyone who comes from the spirit and speaks to you. You do indeed see and hear him, but since he speaks to you in his spiritual way, you do not grasp or understand where he gets it from and what he says and signifies by it. But since you are an honest wise man, it will in due time be given to you to grasp and understand such things.’
John 3:9. Nicodemus answered Him, ‘Master, how can such a thing happen? (Or how can it happen to me?)’
Here Nicodemus shakes his head doubtfully and says after a while, ‘I would certainly like to learn from You how such a thing could happen! For what I know and understand, I know and understand in my flesh. If my flesh is taken from me, I will surely scarcely be able to grasp and understand anything anymore! How, how shall I, as flesh, become a spirit, and how will another spirit then receive my spirit into itself and give birth to it anew? How, how can this possibly happen?’
John 3:10. Jesus answered him, ‘You are a master in Israel, and do not know this?’
I say to him, ‘But you are one of the wisest masters in Israel and cannot grasp and understand such things? If you, as a master of Scripture, cannot grasp this, what is to become of the many others who scarcely know enough of Scripture to know that there once were an Abraham, an Isaac and a Jacob?’
John 3:11. Truly, truly, I tell you: we (spiritual ones) speak (quite naturally) what we know, and testify (to) what we have seen, and you will not (understand) and accept our testimony.
‘Truly, truly, believe Me! We, that is, I and My disciples, who have come from the spirit, are not speaking to you here in a purely spiritual way, but quite naturally. Through natural images of the earth we make known to you what we know and have seen in the spirit, and you cannot grasp and accept it.
John 3:12. But if you already cannot believe (understand) when I speak to you of earthly things, how would you believe if I wished to speak to you of purely heavenly things?
‘But if you cannot grasp and understand even something so simple in understandable words, although I speak to you of spiritual things in a wholly earthly way, so that they virtually become earthly things, then I would like to know how your faith would fare if I wished to speak to you of heavenly things in a purely heavenly way!
I tell you: the spirit that is spirit in and of itself alone knows what is in the spirit and what its life is! But the flesh is only an outermost bark and knows nothing of the spirit unless the spirit reveals it to the covering, the bark. Yet your spirit is still too greatly ruled and covered by your flesh, and so your flesh knows nothing of your spirit. But the time will come when your spirit, as I have already told you, becomes free; then you will understand and accept our testimony!’
Nicodemus says, ‘Dear Master, You wise one of the wisest! Oh, tell me understandably when, when this so ardently desired time will come!’
I then answered, ‘My friend, you are not yet mature enough for Me to give you the time, day and hour. Look, as long as the new wine has not fermented enough, it remains cloudy. If you put it in a crystal cup and then hold the cup toward the sun, even the sun’s most powerful light will not be able to penetrate the cloudiness of the new wine. And it is just the same with the human being. Before he has properly fermented through and removed everything impure from himself through the process of fermentation, the light of the heavens cannot penetrate his being. But I will now tell you something: if you understand it, you will be clear about the time. So listen to Me!’