John 3:6

John 3:6. That which hath been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which hath been born of the Spirit is spirit. In the last verse was implied the law that like is produced from like, since the pure and spiritual members of God's kingdom must be born of water and spirit. Here this law is expressly stated. Flesh produces flesh. Spirit produces spirit. Thus the necessity of a new birth is enforced, and the ‘cannot' of John 3:3 explained. It is not easy to say whether ‘flesh,' as here used, definitely indicates the sinful principles of human nature, or only that which is outward, material, not spiritual but merely natural. The latter seems more likely, both from the context (where the contrast is between the natural and the spiritual birth) and from John's usage elsewhere. Though the word occurs as many as thirteen times in this Gospel (chap. John 1:13-14; John 6:51-52, etc., John 8:15; John 17:2), in no passage does it express the thought of sinfulness, as it does in Paul's Epistles and in 1 John 2:16. Another difficulty meets us in the second clause. Are we to read ‘born of the Spirit' or ‘of the spirit'? Is the reference to the Holy Spirit Himself, who imparts the principle of the new life, or to the principle which He imparts,-the principle just spoken of in John 3:5, ‘of water and spirit ' It is hard to say, and the difference in meaning is extremely small; but when we consider the analogy of the two clauses, the latter seems more likely. There is no reference here to ‘water;' but, as we have seen, the water has reference to the past alone,-the state which gives place to the new life. To speak of this would be beside the point of the verse now before us, which teaches that the spiritual life of the kingdom of God can only come from the new spiritual principle.