Water & Spirit from John 3:5 EXPLAINED | (un)ANSWERED

Pastor Wade finally brings the biblical answer to the age-old question from John 3:5 of being born of water and spirit. Many have argued what water has meant but the Old Testament text has provided the answer all along. Watch this to see the four possibilities taken down to the one on our new show, (un)ANSWERED.

You do not want to miss Water & Spirit from John 3:5 EXPLAINED | (un)ANSWERED

[paulsingh]

John 4:10 Jesus answered and said to her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who says to you, ‘Give me water[d] to drink, ’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

[donnydeyzel]

Beautifully explained..🙏God does the work not us.. He does the rebirth not us

[Controle]

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.”
‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭36:25‬ ‭

“Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭51:7, 9-12‬ ‭

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭1:7, 9‬ ‭

“With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭12:3‬ ‭

“This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭5:6-8‬ ‭

“he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ”
‭‭Titus‬ ‭3:5-6‬ ‭

“On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.”
‭‭John‬ ‭7:37-39‬ ‭

“let’s approach God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10:22‬ ‭

“that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, ”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5:26‬ ‭

“Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.”
‭‭John‬ ‭15:3-4‬ ‭

“The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭22:17‬ ‭

[juancontreras]

I’ve been reading the Bible lately and didn’t understand the baptism water view or the natural birth one both had clear contradictions. I’ve been asking The spirit to clarify things to me and all over the New Testament I kept seeing that Jesus was THAT water. I thought I was crazy and was the only one who thought this way about it. I didn’t have the old testament verses to support it yet but I thank God for coming across your video. Really brought everything together for me. If you would like I can send the verses and you could do a second video connecting all of them. God bless🙏🏽

[ryandawson]

It cracks me up that people make arguments against baptismal regeneration apart from scriptures that are directly talking about baptism. Believing is a work as well. This is the work of God that you believe on him who has sent me. Is repentance they work? Your intentionally turning from sin, and to the Lord Jesus Christ. The folly is causing water baptism to be works righteousness and that is not necessarily the case. In fact, if you look at the conversion experiences of the book of acts, people, repented, were baptized, in the name of Jesus, if you please, and we’re filled with the spirit, act 2:38, 8–12:16, 10:48, 19–1:5, 22:16. I do not completely disagree with you on your premise, but the way you get there is what I take issue with. It could be that we are begotten of the word, or at least conceived, John 6:63, 17:17, Ephesians 5:26, although I have heard this scripture argued for baptism, one Peter 1:23, James, one: 18. But the problem is that we tend to think of salvation as a mirror moment of faith. It begins there at initial justification by faith, but it does not in there. so it is possible that one could be justified, but still in need of regeneration. Salvation is a whole consists of justification, regeneration, adoption, sanctification, glorification, etc. So definitely baptism saves. The question is, how does it save? But it certainly has saving quality, mark 16:16, acts to – 38:41, one Peter 3–20: 21. We also need to be sealed by the Holy Spirit, Ephesians one: 13, 430, etc. Maybe if we would stop confusing justification with regeneration, our discussions would be better along this line as a whole. As to the thief on the cross, though I disagree with this argument, many would argue that because Jesus had not yet died, and therefore, under that dispensation, the thief could be saved, Hebrews 9:22. I would disagree with this premise, because they were baptizing before, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. In fact, the religious leaders disobeyed the council of God, being not baptized of Jesus, Luke 7:30. So baptism was the wheel of God even back then before Christian baptism. sorry for the typos. I have no vision and I’m dictating this to Siri and sometimes she gets it wrong, but if I immerse her in water, my phone probably won’t work. Lol.

[sernnanukwawu]

This is great and when I listened to you the first time, I saw a lot of things. In fact if you follow what Jesus said after verse 5 tells us that the water has to do with HIM. You go down a little in verse 13 Jesus alludes to him as coming from above.

[BenderIsom]

Excellent exegesis. Your pointing back to Genesis 1 to highlight Scripture’s first use of water and Spirit was profound…but even more profound than understanding that John 3 points back to Genesis 1 is in understanding that Genesis 1 was, from the beginning, pointing FORWARD to John 3. 🤯 Soli Deo Gloria!

[webmama]

Thank you for the clarification! I was so burdened about this water baptism and it really released me from this burden. Praise be to God!

[aussierob]

It is Baptism which is also called the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit, for it signifies and actually brings about the birth of water and the Spirit without which no one can enter the Kingdom of God.(Titus 3:5...John 3:5)
Why is it so hard for you to understand this ?

[AlexanderTate.]

The Elders and people in this church are spot on with theology. It’s hard to find churches like theirs in Utah. God bless you all.

[Mikedwalker]

Great exegesis here. This was explained plainly. It makes sense, it’s plain, and it fits perfectly within Christian doctrine. Way to put all of John (so far, you’re only in Ch. 3 is what I mean) together and explaining the difficulty with OT Scripture. Great job and thank you for that!

[disan]

wow!!thanks so much for the back up scriptures for this verse glory to the most high

[jasonsignor]

Thank you so much, and I thank God for you! So clearly, gracefully and compassionately explained, grounded in interpretation of original language, and in context of other scripture. 😊♥️

[moistbagels]

God bless you for the rest and relief. I have an amazing pastor that will hammer the truth in my head that we can’t do anything for Jesus and Jesus has done everything for us lol. Saw this verse being used by an old church I used to go to that I personally didn’t enjoy because of the somewhat works focused belief and man, I saw them say that this verse is referencing water baptism and that you cannot enter the kingdom without it and it totally filled me with fear. Not because I would deny ever getting a baptism, in fact I would love to with a loving church that preaches the true gospel, but it more so confused me, almost flipping everything I learned from my pastor about Christianity not being works-based. I haven’t been able to talk to him recently and have been stressing about this so I personally thank you so much mr friend for breaking this down biblically. God bless you, Amen. 🙏

[davidharris]

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing the word of God and the word of God has been referred to as water and many many scriptures now I see so you hear it and then your spiritual birth you have saved by grace through faith so you hear it and now you've been born again because you believe it born of water and born of the spirit

[deus_vult]

Jesus is referring to Water Baptism. That is the view of every single Church Father who addressed this verse. Nobody seriously doubted it until the Protestant Reformation.

It is through baptism that we entered the Church (1 Cor. 12:13). It is the “washing of regeneration” that St. Paul speaks about (Titus 3:5). Baptism is not “our works” but it is the work of Christ applied to us (you cannot baptize yourself).

[rictrician]

The Water is the Word of God. The Spirit gives life to the Word. Without the Spirit the Word of God has no life. The Holy Spirit comes inside and gives you revelation of the Word till Christ is formed in you.

[angelawindom]

Nice to meet you Pastor Wade! Never heard anyone it explain it like this and this well...ty! I have subscribed and want to hear more from you about bible questions so many people will need to hear!

[nikeinjesus]

The apostle Peter gave us the explanation for John 3:5.

"Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and abides forever" (1Pt.1:22-23).

First, notice our souls are purified when we obey the truth. Not when we believe the truth, but when we obey the truth, "through the Spirit."

"Being born again by the Word of God."

The Holy Spirit works on our hearts through the Word of God. When we obey the truth, our souls are purified/forgiven/saved.

When Nicodemus came to Jesus that night, he had no intentions of being baptized under John's baptism, and Jesus knew Nicodemus and the the other pharisees "rejected the counsel of God for themselves not being baptized of John" (Lk.7:29).

Think about this for a moment, to refuse John's baptism was a rejection of salvation. John's baptism was heaven sent, and Jesus sits on that counsel as well.

But for those who submitted to John's baptism, Jesus promised would "go" into the kingdom (Mt.21:22-23).

Remember Jesus said, "Unless a man is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom."

Since John's baptism granted entrance into the kingdom, and Jesus warned Nicodemus if he was not born again of water, then it stands to reason that water is baptism.


Both John and Jesus were baptizing thousands at this time, a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mk.1:4-5; Jn.4:1-2). If Nicodemus had any intentions of becoming a disciple of Christ, then he needed to go through the same process as everyone else.

Nicodemus had a rough time understanding what Jesus meant by having to be born again.
His question was, "How can a man when he is OLD be born again?"

For Nicodemus, an OLD man to be born again, two elements were required. Water and Spirit.

Nicodemus did not have a problem with water referring to baptism. It was all around him as thousands were being baptized in water. There is no reason to give water a foreign meaning. The rest was difficult for Nicodemus, as Jesus was humbling Nicodemus.

"Unless a man is born of water (baptism/obedience), and Spirit (through the Word of God), he can not enter into the kingdom.

If Nicodemus heeded Jesus' warning and was baptized that night or the following day, he was born again. The reception of the Spirit came on Pentecost.

[SincerelyHannah]

This is new perspective for me and it’s incredibly insightful! Thank you so much for this