Does John 3:5 teach that baptism is necessary for salvation?
As with any single verse or passage, we discern what it teaches by first filtering it through what we know the Bible teaches on the subject at hand. In the case of baptism and salvation, the Bible is clear that salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not by works of any kind, including baptism (Ephesians 2:8-9). So, any interpretation which comes to the conclusion that baptism, or any other act, is necessary for salvation, is a faulty interpretation.
John 3:3-7, “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and 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 marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.'”
When first considering this passage, it is important to note that nowhere in the context of the passage is baptism even mentioned. While baptism is mentioned later in this chapter (John 3:22-30), that is in a totally different setting (Judea instead of Jerusalem) and at a different time from the discussion with Nicodemus. This is not to say Nicodemus was unfamiliar with baptism, either from the Jewish practice of baptizing Gentile converts to Judaism, or from John the Baptist’s ministry. However, simply reading these verses in context would give one no reason to assume Jesus was speaking of baptism, unless one was looking to read into the passage a preconceived idea or theology. To automatically read baptism into this verse simply because it mentions “water” is unwarranted.
Those who hold baptism to be required for salvation point to “born of water” as evidence. As one person has put it, “Jesus describes it and tells him plainly how—by being born of water and the Spirit. This is a perfect description of baptism! Jesus could not have given a more detailed and accurate explanation of baptism.” However, had Jesus actually wanted to say that one must be baptized to be saved, He clearly could have simply stated, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is baptized and born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Further, if Jesus had made such a statement, He would have contradicted numerous other Bible passages that make it clear that salvation is by faith (John 3:16; John 3:36; Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5).
We should also not lose sight of the fact that when Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus, the ordinance of Christian baptism was not yet in effect. This important inconsistency in interpreting Scripture is seen when one asks those who believe baptism is required for salvation why the thief on the cross did not need to be baptized to be saved. A common reply to that question is: “The thief on the cross was still under the Old Covenant and therefore not subject to this baptism. He was saved just like anyone else under the Old Covenant.” So, in essence, the same people who say the thief did not need to be baptized because he was “under the Old Covenant” will use John 3:5 as “proof” that baptism is necessary for salvation. They insist that Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he must be baptized to be saved, even though he too was under the Old Covenant. If the thief on the cross was saved without being baptized (because he was under the Old Covenant), why would Jesus tell Nicodemus (who was also under the Old Covenant) that he needed to be baptized?
If “being born of water and the Spirit” is not referring to baptism, then what does it mean? Traditionally, there have been two interpretations of this phrase. The first is that being “born of water” is being used by Jesus to refer to natural birth (with water referring to the amniotic fluid that surrounds the baby in the womb) and that being born of the “Spirit” indicates spiritual birth. While that is certainly a possible interpretation of the term “born of water” and would seem to fit the context of Nicodemus’ question about how a man could be born “when he is old,” it is not the best interpretation given the context of this passage. After all, Jesus was not talking about the difference between natural birth and spiritual birth. What He was doing was explaining to Nicodemus his need to be “born from above” or “born again.”
The second common interpretation of this passage and the one that best fits the overall context, not only of this passage but of the Bible as a whole, is the one that sees the phrase “born of water and the Spirit” as both describing different aspects of the same spiritual birth, or of what it means to be “born again” or “born from above.” So, when Jesus told Nicodemus that he must “be born of water and the Spirit,” He was not referring to literal water (i.e. baptism or the amniotic fluid in the womb), but was referring to the need for spiritual cleansing or renewal. Throughout the Old Testament (Psalm 51:2,7; Ezekiel 36:25) and the New Testament (John 13:10; 15:3; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Hebrews 10:22), water is often used figuratively of spiritual cleansing or regeneration that is brought forth by the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God, at the moment of salvation (Ephesians 5:26; Titus 3:5).
The Barclay Daily Study Bible describes this concept in this way: “There are two thoughts here. Water is the symbol of cleansing. When Jesus takes possession of our lives, when we love Him with all our heart, the sins of the past are forgiven and forgotten. The Spirit is the symbol of power. When Jesus takes possession of our lives it is not only that the past is forgotten and forgiven; if that were all, we might well proceed to make the same mess of life all over again; but into life there enters a new power which enables us to be what by ourselves we could never be and to do what by ourselves we could never do. Water and the Spirit stand for the cleansing and the strengthening power of Christ, which wipes out the past and gives victory in the future.”
Therefore, the “water” mentioned in this verse is not literal physical water but rather the “living water” Jesus promised the woman at the well in John 4:10 and the people in Jerusalem in John 7:37-39. It is the inward purification and renewal produced by the Holy Spirit that brings forth spiritual life to a dead sinner (Ezekiel 36:25-27; Titus 3:5). Jesus reinforces this truth in John 3:7 when He restates that one must be born again and that this newness of life can only be produced by the Holy Spirit (John 3:8).
There are several reasons why this is the correct interpretation of the phrase born of water and the Spirit. First of all, we should note that Nicodemus found his literal interpretation of born again to be incomprehensible. He could not understand how a grown man could re-enter his mother’s womb and be “born again” physically (John 3:4). Jesus restates what He had just told Nicodemus, this time making a distinction between flesh and spirit (verse 6). Interestingly, the Greek word translated “again” or “anew” in John 3:3 and 7 has two possible meanings: the first one is “again,” and the second one is “from above.” “Born again,” “born from above,” and “born of water and Spirit” are three ways of saying the same thing.
Second, the grammar in John 3:5 would seem to indicate “being born of water” and “being born of the Spirit” are thought of as one action, not two. Therefore, it is not speaking of two separate births, as Nicodemus incorrectly thought, but of one birth, that of being “born from above” or the spiritual birth that is necessary for anyone to “see the kingdom of God.” This need for one to be “born again,” or to experience spiritual birth, is so important that Jesus tells Nicodemus of its necessity three different times in this passage of Scripture (John 3:3, 3:5, 3:7).
Third, water is often used symbolically in the Bible to refer to the work of the Holy Spirit in sanctifying a believer, whereby God cleanses and purifies the believer’s heart or soul. In many places in both the Old and New Testaments, the work of the Holy Spirit is compared to water (Isaiah 44:3; John 7:38-39).
Jesus rebukes Nicodemus in John 3:10 by asking him: “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things?” This implies that what Jesus had just told him was something Nicodemus should have known and understood from the Old Testament. What is it that Nicodemus, as a teacher of the Old Testament, should have known and understood? It is that God had promised in the Old Testament a time was coming in which He would: “sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27). Jesus rebuked Nicodemus because he failed to recall and understand one of the key Old Testament passages pertaining to the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:33). Nicodemus should have been expecting this. Why would Jesus have rebuked Nicodemus for not understanding baptism considering the fact that baptism is nowhere mentioned in the Old Testament?
While this verse does not teach baptism is required for salvation, we should be careful not to neglect baptism’s importance. Baptism is the sign or the symbol for what takes place when one is born again. Baptism’s importance should not be downplayed or minimized. However, baptism does not save us. What saves us is the cleansing work of the Holy Spirit, when we are born again and regenerated by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5)
Church Is Hard
Why don’t I click with the people in my church? Shouldn’t it be the most natural thing in the world for me to spend time with brothers and sisters in Christ?
Is something wrong with my church? Is something wrong with me?
I look at our neighborhoods and see cars gathered in front of houses every Saturday to watch football. And they seem to really enjoy being together. Why can’t it feel that natural when I gather with my small group?
And then there are family gatherings. When that turkey’s being sliced and pumpkin pie is on the counter, that’s family. Should my church feel that close? Should it really be this way?
Family through the Fight
If we expect our churches to feel like family without any effort, we have misunderstood the gospel. To become our brother, Jesus Christ had to be made “perfect through suffering” (Heb. 2:10). When the apostle John reaches for an explanation of true family, he doesn’t say, “Real brothers sit down and have a beer” or “Real family pulls for the same team” or “Real love comes from shared background and skin color.” No, he speaks of pain.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1 John 3:16)
Jesus actually laid down his life—as in whipped, beaten, insulted, nailed through, suffocated, and killed—to make us family. If we think love in the family won’t require work and pain, we aren’t listening to John. We become family through the fight.
Above all, we must fight ourselves. Paul calls this putting to death the old man (Col. 3:5). We are the biggest obstacle to intimacy in the body of Christ. Our sin. Our selfishness. Our desires. Paul tells the Philippians that the body of Christ is designed to give us opportunities to kill the flesh.
In humility, count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others. (Phil. 2:3–4) Brothers and sisters are going to rub us the wrong way. When they do, we should assume the problem isn’t them—it’s us.
We grow by enduring conflict and hardship, especially within the church. God brings conflict to forge unity through sacrifice. And here’s a rule of thumb for the conflict: you can stop deferring to your brothers’ and sisters’ needs over your own once you’ve humbled yourself lower than Jesus did (Phil. 2:5–11).
Tallest Walls
The thing about being born again is that it’s like being born the first time: we don’t get to choose what family we are born into. I didn’t pick my biological brothers and sister. And I don’t get to pick whom God saves and draws into my church.
God loves to confound man’s wisdom (1 Cor. 1:27–29). The wisdom of man says we should make a church out of a bunch of people who already have everything in common: skin color, income, education level, worship preferences, and more. But the wisdom of God saves people like Peter and Cornelius—people who wouldn’t be caught dead in each other’s neighborhoods—and makes them brothers (Acts 10).
It took a fight to bring the family of God together, and it may take a struggle to keep it intact.
Christ’s church is a place where the tallest walls in society are torn down (Eph. 2:13–16), and that doesn’t happen without intentionality and struggle.
Paul even talks of Jesus’s work for the family in violent terms: on the cross he was “killing the hostility” (E6ph. 2:1). The people now reconciled to God were once “alienated, hostile in mind, doing evil deeds” (Col. 1:21). If that’s how they acted toward God, imagine how they treated one another before Christ entered the picture. It took a fight to bring the family of God together, and it may take a struggle to keep it intact. After all, the church is a society of saved sinners.
Worth the Fight
In the church, we don’t have externalizes to fall back on: we aren’t blood relatives, we don’t all have the same skin color, and we don’t make the same money, come from the same schools, or enjoy the same things. We have Jesus. That’s it. And he’s enough.
Jesus draws together those who wouldn’t naturally hang together. This is why church feels unnatural, even forced at times, and so it should. Love is not just a feeling; it takes work. It takes realizing maybe our music preferences are just that. And maybe we need to learn to laugh at old man humor or to listen and empathize with the teenage angst of that high schooler.
Fishing and Relationship
There is this meme that goes like this: “Religion is a guy in church thinking about fishing; relationship is a guy out fishing thinking about God.”
One thing that comes to mind is religion and relationships framed by this meme. Is that it paints sitting in church as a duty to be performed, and by doing it, this person is made righteous, but the person is not invested in a way that reaches his heart since he is thinking about fishing rather than spending time with God? The person in the boat fishing is enjoying himself, but he is not fulfilling a religious duty, yet he is communing with God in a way that is likely fulfilling. This way, he is deepening his relationship with God. I have realized there is more to having a relationship with God than just going to church. There is more to having a relationship with God than just serving him through teaching or ushering. You can read the Bible daily because that is how you were raised and you witnessed your parents do it. But even in reading the Bible, you have no relationship. Religion will make you think that works will make you obtain the goal of salvation. Religion will make you believe that good works will help you achieve the right relationship with God. Religion has a list of dos and don’ts that a person has to observe to be considered a righteous person. All this is not true. True religion is a relationship with God. God provided restoration by coming to us in the person of Jesus Christ, whose death on the cross in our place was a sufficient sacrifice and closed the gap between us and God. And because of this sacrifice, we were granted access to him. We were reconciled back to him. A relationship was restored. God comes to us in grace. Together, we form a relationship. While our good works do not save us, it is by our works and practices that we profess and live out our faith. James 2:18-23 speaks clearly when it says, “Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.” Returning to the meme about the man in church vs the man fishing, We can be both that man who sits in church and takes part in spiritual practices and also that man who is fishing but thinking of God. We need that kind of relationship with God where we think of God and seek to know Him better wherever we are and in whatever we are doing. Relationship with God overrules the religion of men.