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John 3:1-8

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1  There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

2  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.”

3  Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4  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?”

5  Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

6  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’

8  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

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1 Corinthians 2:1-16

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1  And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.

2  For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

3  I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.

4  And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

5  that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

6  However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,

8  which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9  But as it is written:

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“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”

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10  But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

13 These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

14  But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.

16  For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

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Dear friend, in the above verses, Jesus did not tell Nicodemus about a physical, natural birth, as he misunderstood. Jesus clarified to him that entry into the Kingdom of God requires being "born of water and the Spirit". This means being cleansed from sin and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, a spiritual birth, not a physical one. Jesus explicitly stated, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John 3:6).

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Also, the apostle Paul shared a similar message with the born again, true believers of Corinth that have not received the "spirit of the world," but the Spirit who is from God (1 Corinthians 2:12). Paul explains that the "natural person" (one not born of the Spirit) cannot understand the things of God because they are spiritually discerned

(1 Corinthians 2:14). The Born-again believers, having received the Spirit, are able to know the things freely given to them by God and possess the "mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16).

Both passages emphasize that true spiritual life is a supernatural act of God in which the Holy Spirit brings new life to a person, enabling one to see and enter the kingdom of God. Also, make the person stop relying on the "flesh" or "worldly wisdom" and begin to be led by the Holy Spirit in his daily life.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." (2 Corinthians 5:17)

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