In the next-to-last period of My stay near Jerusalem, a certain Nicodemus also came to Me at night, because he too was a distinguished man of Jerusalem. For, first, he was a Pharisee, roughly equivalent in office, dignity and standing to what a cardinal is in Rome at the present time; and, second, as one of Jerusalem’s wealthiest leading citizens, he was also the ruler of the Jews in that city, appointed to this by Rome.
John 3:2. He came to Jesus at night and said to Him, ‘Master, we know that You have come from God as a teacher (prophet), for no one can perform the signs You perform unless God is with him.’
This man, as the civic head of Jerusalem, thus came out to Me himself at night and immediately said, ‘Master, forgive me for coming to You so late at night and disturbing Your rest. But since I heard that You will leave this region as early as tomorrow, I could not refrain from paying You my due respects. Look, after observing Your deeds, I and several of my fellow officials now know that You have come to us as a thoroughly true prophet sent by God. For no one can perform the signs You perform unless Jehovah is with him! Since You are therefore manifestly a prophet and must see how deeply we lie in evil, and yet the kingdom of God has been promised to us through Your predecessors, please tell me when it will come and, when it comes, how one must be constituted to enter it?
John 3:3. Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly, I tell you: unless someone is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God (and still less enter it).’
To this question of Nicodemus I replied just as briefly as the verse states: ‘Truly, truly, I tell you: unless someone is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God, and still less enter it!’ This means: ‘Unless you awaken your spirit by the ways I show you through My teaching and deed, you cannot even recognize the divinely living Word, much less penetrate its life-giving depths.’
That the otherwise upright Nicodemus had not understood these words of Mine, as the continuation will show, and that it was thus immediately borne out in him that one cannot grasp, even remotely, what is divinely living in My Word unless one’s spirit is awakened, is shown clearly and distinctly by the next verse. In it Nicodemus, utterly astonished by My words, asks Me:
John 3:4. Nicodemus says to Him, ‘How can a person be born again when he has grown old? Can he enter his mother’s womb again and be born from it a second time?’
‘But, dear Master, what strange words have You spoken in my hearing? How can a man who has grown tall, old and stiff possibly enter his mother’s womb through the narrow little gate and then be born from it a second time? Look, look, dear Master, that is completely impossible! Either You know nothing of the coming kingdom of God, or at least nothing correct; or You know about it but will not tell me for fear that I might have You seized and thrown into prison. Oh, be entirely unconcerned about that, for I have never deprived anyone of his freedom unless he was a murderer or a great thief. But You are a great benefactor of poor humanity and have miraculously healed nearly all the sick of Jerusalem through the power of God within You. How, then, could I lay hands on You?
‘But believe me, dear Master, I am in earnest about the kingdom of God that is to come! So if You know more about it, tell me in a way I can grasp. Give heavenly things in heavenly words and earthly things in earthly words, but in clearly understandable images. Otherwise Your teaching is even less use to me than the ancient Egyptian bird writing (hieroglyphs), which I cannot read, much less understand. I know only too definitely from my calculations that the kingdom of God must already be here; I simply do not yet know where and how one enters it and is admitted into it. I would like You to answer this question quite understandably and clearly.’
John 3:5. Jesus answers, ‘Truly, truly, I tell you: unless someone is born of water and of spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’
To this renewed question I again gave Nicodemus exactly the answer found in the preceding fifth verse. It differs from the first only in specifying more closely what one must actually be born anew from in order to enter the kingdom of God: from water and from spirit. This means:
The soul must be cleansed with the water of humility and self-denial. For water is the most ancient symbol of humility: it allows everything to be made of it, is ready to serve in all things, always seeks the lowest places on earth and flees the heights. Only then is the soul to be born from the spirit of truth. No impure soul can ever grasp this truth, for an impure soul is like night, whereas truth is a sun full of light, spreading day all around it.
Thus whoever receives truth into his soul cleansed through humility and actually acknowledges it as such is made free in spirit by that very truth. And this freedom of the spirit, or the spirit’s entry into such freedom, is then also the actual entry into the kingdom of God.
But of course I did not give Nicodemus such an explanation, because within his sphere of understanding he would have grasped it even less than the brief, veiled principle itself. He therefore asked Me again how this was to be understood.