Does John 3:5 Teach that Baptism is Necessary for Salvation?
In the last video, we looked at the question, "Is Salvation By Grace through Faith or by Works?" and we established that whilst the New Testament calls all believers to obey and bring forth fruit meet their repentance, works are not the cause of salvation but the effect. True works of obedience accompany every true believer.
Let’s first read the verse on it’s own:
"Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." (John 3:5)
1 - If we approached this passage on it’s own:
It could be pressed upon to say this:
P1 - In John 3 Jesus speaks of the need to be born of water and Spirit
P2 - If we ascertain from the context that to be born of water is in fact baptism then
C - It is necessary to be baptised in order to be saved
2 - Considering the remainder of the New Testament:
Affirming salvation is by grace through faith, we should approach this passage with a syllogism:
P1 - The New Testament teaches Salvation is by Grace through Faith
P2 - In John 3 Jesus speaks of the need to be born of water and Spirit
C - The birth in water and Spirit will be synonymous with the other salvific language used in the New Testament
The question now arises whether the context of the passage affirms the first or the second argument we posited and whether the passage indeed speaks of baptism at all. I will deal with the latter question first and then the former.
Does John 3 speak of baptism?
At this point, it will be good to read the whole passage:
"Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, 'Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.' Jesus answered him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Nicodemus said to him, 'How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?' Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:1-8)
Let’s first lay out a summary of the material facts
In this passage, to help us get some clarity:
Unless one is born again, one cannot see the kingdom of God
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, one cannot enter the kingdom of God
You must be born again
There is a lot more going on in this passage, but for the purposes of answering our question these are what I can see the material facts we must deal with.
1. No where in the context or words of this sermon to Nicodemus is baptism mentioned. Christian baptism was instituted after the cross, yet the word was not uncommon, as can be see from the ministry of John the baptist. Jews had a tradition to baptise Gentile converts when they adopted Judaism.
2. It seems obvious that the reason John the baptist was baptising people in the Jordan was because of their apostate state and God in effect saw them as Gentiles coming to repentance
3. The conclusion just because the term "water" is used in the passage, that it therefore necessarily means baptism is unwarranted, unless off course there is a parallel passage that infers to be "born of water" means to "be baptised" but such a passage is entirely missing from the bible.
Isn’t it more likely that Jesus was chiding Nicodemus, who was a senior pharisee and teacher of the law, of his lack of knowledge of the many prophetic foretelling passages of the coming New Covenant. Let’s look at a few to get some much needed context:
"So shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand." (Isa 52:15)
"I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you." (Eze 36:25)
The passage in Isaiah is about Christ, "The Suffering Servant," who is said to "sprinkle many nations"—we m must remember the context of chapter 52 is 53 the famous passage that is all about Christ’s suffering death and redemptive work on the cross. The sprinkling is intimately connected with redemption.
The passage in Ezekiel is the most likely passage Christ was referring to as it directly refers to the giving of the New Covenant. The very next verse says:
"And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." (Eze 36:26)
"And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God." (Eze 11:19,20)
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jer 31:31-33)
The authors of the New Testament pick up on this New Covenant language in several places:
"And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts." (2 Cor 3:3)
This passage affirms that the language of John 3 is of a spiritual nature, that it is speaking of the work of the Spirit.
The author of Hebrews directly quotes from both of the passages we mentioned - in Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 26:26
"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds." (Heb 10:16)
"Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb 10:22)
Hebrews 10 is all about the finished work of Christ on the cross, that effectively brought in the New Covenant. "for by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." (Heb 10:14)
Given that the passages of the Old Testament prophets on the New Covenant are quoted and the sprinkling is referred to as having our hearts and bodies washed with pure water. It’s unlikley that baptism is in view, since pure water and sprinkling links the context much more clearly to the work of God in changing the heart by removing the heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh. Swimming pools or baptismal tanks are not "pure water". Baptism cannot "wash the heart". It is much more likely that any connection to baptism is of a signifying nature, much like the "physical circumcision" in the Old Covenant was a sign of the "circumcision of the heart" which was the real work of God in the Old Covenant.
There are several other New Testament passages that show that water is often used figuratively of spiritual cleansing or regeneration that is brought forth by the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, at the moment of salvation: Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5; John 13:10, 15:3; 1 Cor 6:11
An objector: may claim (as some do) that water refers to the natural birth
Of humans. The mother’s "waters break" just before the baby is born.
Response:
If this single verse is all we had in terms of context to go by, this interpretation would be a possibility, but there is zero other precedence or comparison with this idea anywhere in scripture, hence it is unlikely what Jesus had in mind.
Another objector: "this is a perfect description of baptism?"
Response 1:
We are frequently guilty of reading the Bible backwards. We start with all the Christian assumptions we have to day, i.e. we know that all churches have some form of tradition of baptism - whether adult or infant, and it is not the point of this video to argue for one or the other. That is a video for another day. Now that we know and are well acquainted with baptism, and then with that context in mind we read John 3 it is somewhat likely to find baptism in the passage.
However, as a person living in Jesus day, in the moment he spoke to Nicodemus, under the Old Covenant before Christian baptism is instituted, this is not the first go to idea that would pop into the reader's or hearers mind, and we should therefore resist such a conclusion, especially since baptism is not mentioned.
Resonse 2:
Why then did Jesus not simply say "unless one is baptised and born of the Spirit one cannot enter the kingdom of God". Jesus was baptised by John, he was familiar with the word and it’s practice. Wouldn't it also be true that if Jesus had indeed said the sentence like this, would he not have clearly contradicted the teaching of the remainder of the New Testament to come?
When Jesus was speaking with Nicodemus, the ordinance of Christian baptism had not been instituted. It was not yet in effect. Jesus likewise did not turn around to the thief on the cross and tell him, if you are baptised you will be with me in paradise, given that the thief was still under the old Covenant and not subject to Christian baptism and yet if this passage commands it, then it was valid before Christ’s death?
Conclusion:
The "water" mentioned in this passage is much more likely to be the "living water" promised by Christ to the Samaritan woman at the well: "Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”" (John 4:10)
It is the inward purification and renewal produced by the Holy Spirit that brings forth spiritual life to a dead sinner. Christ reinforces this in verse 8:
"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8)
Some other reasons why this interpretation of the water in this passage is of a spiritual nature:
First of all, we should note that Nicodemus found his literal interpretation of born again to be incomprehensible. He was startled. If he had simply thought this was baptism, this reaction seems out of place.
The greek word for "born again" can also mean "born from above". It seems to me therefore that Christ is saying the same thing from three different angles:
"You must be born again."
"You must be born from above."
"You must be born of water and the Spirit."
The spiritual rebirth cleanses and renews you = the whole person!
In response to Nicodemus being startled about the need to be "born again", Jesus then restates this need using two different descriptions. The greek grammar, as scholars tell us, of "being born of water" and "being born of the Spirit" are thought of as one action, and not two, making the baptism interpretation very unlikely. In response to Nicodemus’s confusion repeats the same thing using three different terms: John 3:3, 3:5, 3:7
Jesus restates what He had just told Nicodemus, this time making a distinction between flesh and spirit (verse 6). Interestingly, the Greek word translated “again” or “anew” in John 3:3 and 7 has two possible meanings: the first one is “again,” and the second one is “from above.” “Born again,” “born from above,” and “born of water and Spirit” are three ways of saying the same thing.
Incidentally John already spelled out, what it means to be born again clearly in the opening chapter of his gospel. There we read:
"He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:10-12)
To be born again = to be born of God!
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God bless.
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