Born of Water: In my Bible reading, I just came across John 3:5, where Christ says to Nicodemus, “verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” The next verse, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit,” reminded me of why I believe, contrary to most, that the water referred to in the previous verse is simply and metaphorically speaking of physical/natural birth as so distinguished from that which is communicated by the Spirit of God as spiritual life in Divine Quickening.
It seems as a though Christ was speaking in terms that Nicodemus should grasp, (“art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things,”) which to me sounds like he’s referring to natural birth (water) and spiritual birth (Spirit), both of which Nicodemus ought to have understand in a theological framework.
Taken together, the grammar, context, cultural background, (in Jewish and Greek thought “water” was associated with birth – e.g., the breaking of water in childbirth) and the flow of our Lord’s dialogue with Nicodemus I believe support the interpretation that “born of water” refers to natural birth, and “born of the Spirit” refers to the supernatural act of divine quickening, without experiencing both, one cannot enter the kingdom of God.
I know that there are good arguments for a different interpretation of this water, and I’m certain that at one time I held to the popular calvinistic interpretation of the water being synonymous with the word, (as may be deduced from Ephesians 5:26, Titus 3:5, John 15:3, I Peter 1:23,) but ever since so called gospel regeneration was demolished in my mind, and I began to trace these scriptures to their fountainhead in CHRIST, not in a sense of generating life but rather a maintaining / sustaining / nourishing that life in Christ by the word, Matthew 4:4, this interpretation of the ‘water’ has been riveted in my mind. MPJ