How can a man be born when he is old?

Israel’s great Bible expositor was stumped! He just could not make sense of what this new ‘teacher come from God’, v. 2, was saying about the entrance requirements for the coming kingdom. Of course Nicodemus knew all about the great kingdom promised Israel under the terms of the Davidic covenant, 2 Sam. 7. 12-16, and he had doubtless many times read Daniel’s amazing end-times prediction that ‘the God of heaven [would] set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed’, Dan. 2. 44. This language underlay the Saviour’s proclamation that ‘the kingdom of heaven’ and ‘the kingdom of God’ (synonymous terms) were at hand, Matt. 4. 17.

But what about being born again? ‘Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God’, John 3. 5. It seems that Nicodemus, like many believers today, had overlooked Ezekiel in his scripture reading programme. The Lord gently rebuked him: ‘Art thou the teacher of Israel, and understandest not these things?’, v. 10 ASV. Nicodemus should have recognized that the Lord was echoing a description of Israel’s future national regeneration which used the key words ‘water’ and ‘spirit’, ‘Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you . . . And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments’, Ezek. 36. 25-27.

Entrance into the kingdom age was not based on natural birth. Like every other nation on earth Israel had failed because of sin, and required a spiritual renewal before it could come into promised blessing. The application is obvious. If Israel must be born again to enter the future kingdom of righteousness and peace to be established by the Lord Jesus at His second coming, Gentile sinners today must be born again to receive the benefits of spiritual salvation in Christ.

We can rejoice that the Lord used the plural pronoun ‘ye’, not ‘we’. Israel and all men need new birth, but He was entirely different, being the sinless Man, the spotless Lamb of God.