Water and Spirit

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)

Meditation

Jesus sacrificed himself on the cross to save us. He was buried in a tomb and rose again on the third day. If we wish to be saved, we must be crucified with Christ. That means we must die to self and our old ways of doing things. We will no longer continue to lie, cheat or steal. We will be faithful in our relationship with our spouse and treat everyone fairly. We will follow the examples of Christ and become a servant to everyone.

When a person dies, they are placed in the grave. Just as Jesus went into the grave so must I. My grave is symbolic but just as important as was the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. No one is buried with a sprinkling of dirt or a few stones. No, their bodies are completely covered. My figurative grave is not hewn from rock or dug down in the dirt. My grave is the waters of baptism. My whole body must go completely under and come up out a new creation; born again of water. I came out of that symbolic grave clothed in the righteousness of Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

I’ve heard some who claim the ‘water’ spoken of in this scripture refers to our birth from our mother’s womb. In the first place, amniotic fluid is NOT water. In the second place, do those who make this claim think Jesus thought amniotic fluid was really water? After all, he is the Creator; the Designer of everything, including how we’re born. No, this verse refers to the real water we are submerged in for the remission of sin. Since there is no other way for a human to be born than by ‘water’ or amniotic fluid, Jesus wouldn’t tell us it’s a requirement for salvation.

The waters of baptism, of course, are not what saves us, it is a symbolic cleansing. Salvation can only be accomplished by the blood of Jesus. We acknowledge his sacrifice with our confession that Jesus is Lord, that he was crucified, died, buried and rose again on the third day. We follow that confession with our willingness to die to ourselves, go into the grave [the water] and be reborn a new person in Christ. It’s then that we can be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God so we cannot be indwelt by the Spirit if we’re still covered by sin. The cleansing is important both to us and to God. 

Daily Prayer

Our Father in heaven, we have everything to gain from a relationship with you, but we can only offer our praise and worship. It’s a covenant heavily lopsided in our favor and benefits us by saving us from destruction. The work required for our salvation has already been done by Jesus on the cross. The only thing you require from us is to repent from our sins and turn to you. That requires us to confess that we’re making Christ the Lord of our lives. Following that confession, we must be cleansed by being buried in the waters of baptism for the remission of our sins. When that is accomplished, the Holy Spirit washes over us in a spiritual baptism. We are so grateful for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We thank you for the Spirit to guide us through our days walking with Jesus. Help us to learn from our previous missteps so, not to fall into the same behavior again. We are thankful for the rest we find in you and want the same for everyone we know. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen!