The woman still has her mind on earthly things and she thinks, "I've just walked downhill and it took me forty-five minutes and I'm going to take an hour to walk back uphill and this round trip every day is two hours. Now if I had running water in the house this would save me a lot of steps. Plumbing is the answer." She was not ready to receive this living spring. Her idea of it was still on the plane of selfishness, and there was no thought of the cost to the giver. So she said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst nor come here to draw" (v. 15). Now when a person is stupid like that, what are you going to do? You've got to put your finger on the fact that they're sinners. 'Woman," He said, "Go call thy husband." Now this was her sin. If he was talking to some men, He'd say, "Go and get your income tax form and let me see it." Or He might say something else that covers your particular sin and relationship to the Lord.
Our Lord was on a trip from Jerusalem to Galilee. John 4:4 tells us He had to pass through Samaria. Actually, He didn't have to do anything of the kind, geographically speaking, because there were two other routes from Judea to Galilee. Most often He took the other routes, but this time He had to pass through Samaria. That's like saying that a G.I. from Korea landed in San Francisco on his way to Philadelphia, but he "had to" go through Miami, Florida. There are shorter routes, but you see, his fiancee was there. Then we understand why he "had to" go through Miami. Now in exactly the same way, Jesus had to go through Samaria because before the foundation of the world, God knew there were people in that town who would be saved. That's why Jesus had to pass that way.
One is almost overwhelmed these days with the sense of the need of the human race. Round about us we find men and women whose hearts are failing them for fear. One of the leading surgeons of the country has pointed out in an address before the convention of the American College of Surgeons that more than half of all hospital beds are now occupied by mental cases. Great numbers who are not mentally sick enough to be in institutions are passing through nervous breakdowns. Myriads of others are haunted with fear and despair.
Here is the place where Nicodemus showed that a flash of spiritual truth had reached his heart, and that he was being awakened by the Spirit of God to true understanding. Thousands of people today, if they were told that they must be born again, would answer, "Well, why must I be born again? What is wrong with me as I am? Did I not come into this world without my consent, and have I not made a pretty good job of my life? Why should God require anything supernatural of me? I have lived a good life. I pay my debts. I am faithful to the duties imposed upon me by family, society and state. Why should a man have to be born again?"
But Nicodemus was not so thick headed. There was a flash of real spiritual vision that shows the presence of the enlightening Spirit of God. The answer of Nicodemus was "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Nicodemus would certainly have challenged the Lord's statement unless he had understood the necessity of the new birth. The fact that he asked as to the method carries with it a belief in the need for such a work.
A great many leaders in the religious world would answer Christ differently, if they had an opportunity to speak with Him. Many theological professors would attempt to argue the matter out with God and would seek to convince Him that He was quite mistaken. The retired president of one of the most influential theological seminaries of the country wrote about the need for new birth. He said, "the doctrine of divine imminence, which is now generally accepted among liberals, ascribes divinity to man, since it is supposed that man's nature is one with God's and he needs simply to awake to that fact. This means, of course," this theologian concluded, "a revolution in the old conception of salvation. What a man requires is not regeneration in the old sense, or a change of nature, but simply an awakening to what he really is."
Many denials of Christ's claim that man must be regenerated, do not alter the facts. Man is today, what he always has been. If man does not understand the necessity of the new birth, it is because he has failed to understand the holiness of God and the real nature of man in his sinful condition.
Why would people object to the idea of being “born again”?
If the church gives up the doctrine of regeneration, what other doctrines do we loose with it?
What place does Christ hold the “new birth” here in the John 3?
The Holy Spirit's part in this new birth process was covered by Jesus' illustration in John 3. He said, "When you hear the sound of the wind blowing, when you see the branches of trees stirring as the wind blows do you know where the wind comes from? Where is it going? You see its effect, but can not tell its source. So is every one who is born of the Holy Spirit." (See John 3:8.)
The Holy Spirit effects the new birth-regenerates the individual. We may see the effect of the Holy Spirit's ministry, but we may not understand the method or source of the new birth.
