John 3:9. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things come to pass? The tone of this answer is very different from that of John 3:4. Here, as there, the question is, How can …? But there the added words show that the meaning is, ‘It is impossible'(comp. Luke 1:18); whereas in this verse the chief stress lies on the first word ‘How'(comp. Luke 1:34). The offended astonishment of Nicodemus (John 3:7) has yielded to the words of Jesus. He now understands that Jesus really means that there is such a thing as a new spiritual birth, in contrast with that natural birth which had ever seemed to him the only necessary condition of entrance into the kingdom of Messiah. Still, as John 3:12 shows, the victory over unbelief is not yet complete.

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Old Testament