But it has been said that to be “born
of water and of the Spirit” may possible mean to be born of the Spirit alone in
His capacity as the purifier of the heart. Now, if such be the meaning of our
Lord’s words, then His second or explanatory answer increases, and apparently
gratuitously, and without reason, the difficulty of His first; for our Lord, if
He meant simply this, need only have said, “Except the heart of man be
thoroughly cleansed and renewed, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” And
on this mode of interpretation there is a great confusion of ideas; in first, a
confusion of two distinct notions, “birth” and “cleansing.” Begetting, or
birth, is the commencement of life within, cleansing is the washing away
of filth. The Holy Spirit does not beget a man anew by cleansing of him,
but by infusing life into him. A man is not born again of the Spirit as
the “cleanser” or “purifier,” but as the “giver of life.” To support this
confusion of ideas, miscalled an interpretation, the prophecy of the Baptist is
appealed to: “He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit,” if He means one thing
by being “born again,” He must mean but one thing by being “born of water and
of the Spirit.”
Again, if the birth of water is but an
outward profession, and the birth of the Spirit is an inward work distinct from
it, why should our Lord join together two things so utterly asunder in their
respective importance? The birth of the Spirit in producing a change of heart
is so unspeakably great, and the birth of water as a profession, or an
arbitrary sign or seal, or instructive type, is so exceedingly small a matter
in comparison, that no satisfactory explanation can possibly be given why our
Lord would thus link the two together. The most unscriptural, by far, of the
two interpretations which we have been considering, in this one, according to
which our Lord asserts the necessity of baptism per se, and of a conversion by
the Spirit per se, which two are both called births, and yet many, and
in the vast majority of cases do, occur at different times, and so are
different things; for by thus associating Baptism form its spiritual grace, men
actually make their Saviour exalt the mere outward rite to a level with that
spiritual reality which they call the new birth; for they make, on this
principle, Christ assign to both the appellation “birth,” by His saying,
“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit.” It is not plain, then, that
if we disjoin “water” from the spirit Who works in and by it, and then, from
this mention of it in this place as a needful birth, proceed to insist upon its
necessity, we, by so doing, make a mere empty substitute for circumcision a
needful supplement to Christ’s work? We introduce a mere ceremonial observance
as the entrance into a spiritual religion. We bring a mere typical rite
into a system of realities. We fall into the deadly error of Galatians; for
when men have begun by conversion in the Spirit, we insist upon their being
perfected by a Baptism which, on such principles, only touches their flesh. (M.
F. Sadler, The Second Adam and the New Birth, or, The Doctrine of Baptism as
Contained in Holy Scripture [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1860, repr.,
Monroe, Louis.: Athanasius Press, 2004], 35-36)
