The Birth of the Spirit

Jesus prepared His disciples for the reception of the Holy Spirit. This course of training is best revealed in John’s Gospel.

It is through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that we are born again into the kingdom of God. John makes clear what the new birth is not: “[Children] born not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God” (1:13). The new birth is brought about by the Holy Spirit, and unless He is involved in it, then it is not a new birth at all.

Someone has described the new birth as “the change, gradual or sudden, by which we, who are the children of the first birth, through a physical birth into a physical world, become children of the second birth, through a spiritual birth into a spiritual world.” Just as you have to have brains to enter the kingdom of knowledge, an aesthetic nature to enter the kingdom of beauty, a musical sensitivity to enter the kingdom of music, an emotional nature to enter the kingdom of love, so you have to have a spiritual birth to enter the kingdom of God.

Jesus, in His first reference to the Holy Spirit in John’s Gospel, put His finger on the first step of the Spirit’s ministry in human life—the birth of the Spirit. Jesus said these words, not to a down-and-out, but to a member of the Jewish ruling council, a Pharisee. If Nicodemus, a morally upright religious leader, needed the Spirit, then we all need Him.

Further Study

Gal 5; Jn 1:13; Tit 3:5; 1Pt 1:23

What are the characteristics of those born of the Spirit?

What does it mean to “walk in the Spirit”?