In what sense did Jesus use the word when talking to Nicodemus? Was he to be born from heaven, or born again? Context is vital. How did Nicodemus take this? In v4 he asks the question ‘How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter into the womb of his mother a second time and be born, can he?’. Had Nicodemus understood that Jesus was referring to heaven then perhaps his question would have betrayed that understanding. He might have asked ‘How can a man enter heaven in order to be born from above, from heaven?’ But he did not ask that question. He asked about how a man can re-enter his mother’s womb. That seems important. It demonstrates that Nicodemus had a long way to go in developing his faith in, and understanding the purpose of Jesus. He was still at a physical level. Although he was a teacher of Israel he knew nothing (v9).

Can we use context to understand what Jesus meant when he said that, not just Nicodemus, anyone must be born again?

Nicodemus was a Jew. The Jews at that time were still in a covenant relationship with Jehovah. They were still worshipping at the temple in Jerusalem with its priests, sacrifices and liturgies. They were subject to the Old Testament, the Mosaic Law that had been enacted at Sinai shortly after the children of Israel had been born and adopted as God’s son in the form of the nation of Israel. The Law was still in force, and remained in force, up until the death of our Lord at Golgotha. Upon him expiring, the curtain to the holy place was rent in two. The Jews had been rejected as God’s covenant people. There would soon be a new way to worship Jehovah and at Pentecost that year holy spirit was poured out on 120 disciples gathered together in an upper room. The New Covenant came into being, with admittance to this covenant through water and spirit. This is what Jesus referred to in v5 - ‘Most truly I say to you, unless anyone is born from water and spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.’

Knowing, as we do, just a few names of those gathered in that upper room, we cannot say for certain, but it is likely that all of them had been baptised by John as part of his preparatory work. They had previously been born of water and now, with this outpouring, they were born of spirit too. They were all Jews; they had all been subject to the Old Covenant; they had now been born again and had been adopted as God’s sons under a new arrangement.

If this explanation is correct, then being born again as referred to by Jesus in John 3 can only apply to a limited group of people at a specific time in history. It refers only to Jews who witnessed Jesus’s death and who wished to continue following him as his disciples as members of the Israel of God. They had been God’s sons under the Old Covenant and were now born again as God’s sons under the provisions of the New Covenant. Gentiles who subsequently became Christ’s followers, such as Cornelius, also had to be baptised in water and receive holy spirit but they were not born again in that they had never been born previously as God’s sons.

The word anothen is used thirteen times in the New Testament.

In some English translations the term ‘born again’ makes another appearance in Peter’s first letter. For example both NLT and ESV translate John 3:3 as ‘born again’ and then at 1 Peter 1:3 say ‘it is by his great mercy that we have been born again’ and ‘he has caused us to be born again to a living hope’. At 1:23 both state ‘you have been born again’. To the unwary it might seem that the two authors, John and Peter, employ the same underlying Greek words. If so, they would be wrong. In this instance NWT does give different wording, thereby alerting the reader to a possible difference in meaning. So 1:3 is rendered ‘Praised be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for according to his great mercy he gave us a new birth to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’.

The Greek word uniquely used by Peter is anagennesas (Strong 313). Literally this breaks down as ana (again, anew) and gennao (to beget, give birth). As can be seen there is a similitude with gennethe anothen at John 3:3. So does it mean the same or something substantially different?

To whom was Peter writing? He addresses his letter to temporary residents scattered across modern-day Turkey. But that is as much as we know. Were they Jews? Jews who had been in the Old Covenant? Younger Jews who had been born in the intervening thirty or so years? Aquila was a Jew of Pontus. Or were they gentiles? The Galatians were known to have Celtic origins. Or a cosmopolitan group, whoever had become followers of Christ irrespective of age or nationality? I feel that this latter is most likely. They were chosen according to the foreknowledge of God. So it is unlikely that they all needed to be born again in the same manner as was Nicodemus and his contemporaries. Whoever they were, the idea of spiritual regeneration is a powerful theme running throughout the New Testament. Consider these ideas:

It (anagennesas) is used to describe a spiritual rebirth, the regeneration of a believer. It signifies a transformative process, initiated by God, of individual renewal and becomes a new creation in Christ. It is necessary to enter the kingdom of God. It is a work of the holy spirit. (Berean Study Bible)

The idea of being dead in one’s trespasses is an idea explored by Paul, notably in his letter to the Ephesians. He states ‘Furthermore, God made you alive, though you were dead in your trespasses and sins’ (2:1). He explains how we carried out the desires of our flesh, the will of our flesh and our thoughts just as everyone does. But through God’s grace we have been made alive in Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. He makes a similar argument in his letter to the congregation at Colossae. ‘Furthermore, though you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcised state of your flesh, God made you alive together with him. He kindly forgave us all our trespasses and erased the hand-written document that consisted of decrees and was in opposition to us.’ (2:13-14). This idea of being dead to God because of our trespasses and unbelief in Christ is a central tenet of the New Testament. As children of Adam we can inherit sin and death and nothing else. We have no hope, no future. The steps we must take, having been drawn by God, to be adopted as God’s children instead are specifically 1) exercising faith in Jesus, 2) repenting of our former deeds and attitudes and, 3) getting baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the holy spirit. This is the transformative process described. We were dead in God’s sight. We strip off the old personality with its practices, we wash ourselves in the bath and are buried into Christ’s death – by being fully immersed in water at our baptism, the symbolism of dying to one course of life and being revitalised in Christ. We then clothe ourselves with a new personality, one that exists in accordance with the spirit, no longer performing works of the flesh (Gal 5), the perfection of which becomes a life-long assignment. This is the new birth that gives us a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This regeneration, this rebirth, is something that everyone has to experience in order to be acceptable to Jehovah.