The Jordan River We may understand Yehoshua's dialogue with Nicodemus by reading it in this way:
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There was a Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews who came to Yehoshua by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that you art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that you do, except God be with him.
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What was Nicodemus wanting to say or to ask? Was he asking about Yehoshua's person, his teaching, his power to work miracles, his relation to the Pharisees, or to the rulers of Israel as a whole? Did his question imply that he thought that Yehoshua was possibly the promised Messiah but that he was confused because he was not doing the things that he expected the Messiah to do?~
Yehoshua answered and said unto him, I tell you the truth, Except a person is born again, they cannot see the kingdom of God.
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Yehoshua answered his implied question by telling him that it was not enough that people saw his miracles. They must see them with eyes enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Then they would not only see that their power was from God but they would also see and understand the meaning of his miracles as foretold by Moshe and the Prophets. From this they would have the right basis for understanding who he was and what he was doing in Israel. For this to happen a person would have to receive a new creation of the life in their soul. They would have to be born again, this time from Above.~
Nicodemus saith unto him, 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 asked him how it was possible for a person to literally be born over again while they were yet in their present body and in the present world. It was commonly taught that when converts were baptized and became Jews they became legally a new person, as if they were born again. Nicodemus recognized that Yehoshua was talking about something more than even this.
Yehoshua answered, I am telling you the truth, Except a person be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Do not be amazed that I said unto you, You must be born again.
The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you can not tell where it comes from, or where it goes: so is it with every one that is born of the Spirit.
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Yehoshua explained then to Nicodemus that a convert might be immersed in a mikvah or in the Jordan river where they would be accounted as legally dead to their life as a gentile and legally alive as a Jew but unless they also are immersed in the Holy Spirit, so that they die to their life in Adam and come alive to the life that is given through the Holy Spirit of God, it is of no avail that they are baptized in water.~
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Yehoshua answered and said unto him, Are you a master of Israel, and do not know these things?
I am telling you the truth, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and you do not receive our witness.
If I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe what I tell you, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Adam who is in heaven.
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Adam be lifted up, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For this is the way that God loved the world, he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
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For this is the way that God chose to love the Jewish people, he gave his only begotten son to redeem the nation that whoever in all the world believes on him should not perish but have everlasting life.~
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
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For God did not choose the Jewish people in order to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved by His giving his son as a redemption for His family, the Jewish people.~
