Jesus says that if a man is not born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. This compares with first John that speaks of the blood, water, and spirit. We are born naturally - the blood. We must also have the water and spirit.
I wonder if the water is the baptism - some sort of public confession of Christ. Some say it must be religious ceremony, an actual baptism rite, as when one is baptized in a church, or at least at a gathering of Christians for the purpose of baptism. Perhaps it might be the immersion into the Christian life after one is saved.
The Holy Spirit lighted on Jesus when he was baptized. Some say the baptism event is when we get the Holy Spirit. Yet Ephesians 1:13 says, "after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise. . . " In other words "believe" and "receive" happen at the same time. It seems we believe the gospel, get saved and are indwelt with the Holy Spirit simultaneously.
We want grand things, but the truth is we must receive simple things. When most of us are told the gospel and believe it is through a simple voice communication, not through some fantastic, electrically-crackling incident. Only the shepherds got to see the chorus of Angels when they were given the good news. We get to hear it when someone comes up and buttonholes us on the street. Many times the messenger is not attractive. We have to accept what we are given. If we do not believe when men speak to us of earthly things, how shall we believe if they were to speak of heavenly things?
So here we have the blood, water and spirit. We all have the blood part down; do you have the water and spirit part down too?
