When Nicodemus came to Jesus, he said that no one could help being impressed with the signs and wonders that He did. Jesus' answer was that it was not the signs and wonders that were really important; the important thing was such a change in a person's inner life that it could only be described as a new birth.
When Jesus said that it was necessary to be born anew, Nicodemus misunderstood Him, and the misunderstanding came from the fact that the word which the Revised Standard Version translates "anew", the Geek word "anothen," has three different meanings. It can mean "from the beginning, completely radically; it can mean "again", in the sense of "for the second time"; it can mean "from above", and, therefore, "from God" (as in the New Revised Standard Version). It is not possible for us to get all these meanings into any English word; and yet all three of them are in the phrase "born anew." To be born anew is to undergo such a radical change that it is like a new birth; it is to have something happen to the soul which can only be described as being born all over again; and the whole process is not a human achievement, because it comes from the grace and power of God.
What, then, does this rebirth mean for us? In the New Testament, and especially in the Fourth Gospel, there are four closely interrelated ideas. There is the idea of rebirth; there is the idea of the kingdom of heaven, into which people cannot enter unless they are reborn; there is the idea of being children of God; and there is the idea of eternal life. This idea of being reborn is not something which is peculiar to the thought of the Fourth Gospel. In Matthew, we have the same great truth put more simply and more vividly: "Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (becoming like children means that we, as God's children, look up to Him as our sole teacher, provider, and source of life) (Matthew 18:3). All these ideas have a common thought behind them.
~William Barclay~
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