Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of John 3:8
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
8. The wind bloweth, &c.] This verse is sometimes taken very differently: the Spirit breatheth where He willeth, and thou hearest His voice, but canst not tell whence He cometh and whither He goeth; so is every one ( born) who is born of the Spirit. The advantages of this rendering are (1) that it gives to Pneuma the meaning which it almost invariably has in more than 350 passages in N.T. in which it occurs, of which more than 20 are in this Gospel. Although pneuma may mean ‘the breath of the wind,’ yet its almost invariable use in N.T. is ‘spirit’ or ‘the Spirit,’ while anemos is used for ‘wind:’ (2) that it gives a better meaning to ‘willeth,’ a word more appropriate to a person than to anything inanimate: (3) that it gives to phn the meaning which it has in 14 other passages in this Gospel, viz., ‘articulate voice,’ and not ‘inarticulate sound.’ On the other hand this rendering (1) gives to pnei the meaning ‘breathes,’ a meaning quite unknown in N.T.: (2) uses the expression ‘the voice of the Spirit,’ also unknown to Scripture: (3) requires the insertion of ‘born’ in the last clause, in order to make sense. For the usual rendering may be pleaded (1) that it gives to pnei the meaning which it has everywhere else in N.T., viz. in Joh 6:18 and five other passages. Although pnei may mean ‘breathes,’ yet its invariable use in N.T. is of the ‘blowing’ of the wind, while another word (Joh 20:22) is used for ‘breathe:’ (2) that it gives the most literal meaning to ‘hearest:’ (3) that the last clause makes excellent sense without any repetition of ‘born.’ The Aramaic word probably used by our Lord has both meanings, ‘wind’ and ‘spirit,’ so that it is not impossible that both meanings are meant to run concurrently through the passage. “It was late at night when our Lord had this interview with the Jewish teacher. At the pauses in the conversation, we may conjecture, they heard the wind without, as it moaned along the narrow streets of Jerusalem; and our Lord, as was His wont, took His creature into His service the service of spiritual truth. The wind was a figure of the Spirit. Our Lord would have used the same word for both.” (Liddon.) There is a clear reference to this passage in the Ignatian Epistles, Philad. vii. Thus we have evidence of the Gospel being known certainly as early as a.d. 150, and probably a.d. 115.
so is every one ] i.e. such is the case of every one: he feels the spiritual influence, but finds it incomprehensible in its origin, which is from above, and in its end, which is eternal life.
born of the Spirit ] The Sinaitic MS. and two ancient versions read, born of water and of the Spirit. The inserted words are a gloss.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The wind bloweth … – Nicodemus had objected to the doctrine because he did not understand how it could be. Jesus shows him that he ought not to reject it on that account, for he constantly believed things quite as difficult. It might appear incomprehensible, but it was to be judged of by its effects. As in this case of the wind, the effects were seen, the sound was heard, important changes were produced by it, trees and clouds were moved, yet the wind is not seen, nor do we know whence it comes, nor by what laws it is governed; so it is with the operations of the Spirit. We see the changes produced. Men just now sinful become holy; the thoughtless become serious; the licentious become pure; the vicious, moral; the moral, religious; the prayerless, prayerful; the rebellious and obstinate, meek, and mild, and gentle. When we see such changes, we ought no more to doubt that they are produced by some cause – by some mighty agent, than when we see the trees moved, or the waters of the ocean piled on heaps, or feet the cooling effects of a summers breeze. In those cases we attribute it to the wind, though we see it not, and though we do not understand its operations. We may learn, hence:
1.That the proper evidence of conversion is the effect on the life.
2.That we are not too curiously to search for the cause or manner of the change.
3.That God has power over the most hardened sinner to change him, as he has power over the loftiest oak, to bring it down by a sweeping blast.
4.That there may be great variety in the modes of the operation of the Spirit. As the wind sometimes sweeps with a tempest, and prostrates all before it, and sometimes breathes upon us in a mild evening zephyr, so it is with the operations of the Spirit. The sinner sometimes trembles and is prostrate before the truth, and sometimes is sweetly and gently drawn to the cross of Jesus.
Where it listeth – Where it wills or pleases.
So is every one … – Everyone that is born of the Spirit is, in some respects, like the effects of the wind. You see it not, you cannot discern its laws, but you see its effects, and you know therefore that it does exist and operate. Nicodemus objection was, that he could not see this change, or perceive how it could be. Jesus tells him that he should not reject a doctrine merely because he could not understand it. Neither could the wind be seen, but its effects were well known, and no one doubted the existence or the power of the agent. Compare Ecc 11:5.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. The wind bloweth] Though the manner in which this new birth is effected by the Divine Spirit, be incomprehensible to us, yet we must not, on this ground, suppose it to be impossible. The wind blows in a variety of directions-we hear its sound, perceive its operation in the motion of the trees, c., and feel it on ourselves-but we cannot discern the air itself we only know that it exists by the effects which it produces: so is every one who is born of the Spirit: the effects are as discernible and as sensible as those of the wind; but itself we cannot see. But he who is born of God knows that he is thus born: the Spirit itself, the grand agent in this new birth, beareth witness with his spirit, that he is born of God, Ro 8:16; for, he that believeth hath the witness in himself, 1Jo 4:13; 1Jo 5:10; Ga 4:6. And so does this Spirit work in and by him that others, though they see not the principle, can easily discern the change produced; for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, 1Jo 5:4.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The word which is translated wind, being the same which both here and ordinarily in Scripture is translated spirit, hath given interpreters a great liberty to abound in their several senses. Some thinking that it should be translated, The spirit, that is, the spirit of a man, breatheth where it listeth; and that our Saviours sense was, Nicodemus, thou needest not to wonder that thou canst not with thy senses perceive the spiritual new birth, for thou canst not understand the natural birth. Others think it should be translated, The Spirit, that is, the Spirit of God, bloweth where it listeth; but that seemeth not probable, because of these words,
so is every one that is born of the Spirit; which will hardly be sense if we understand the first part of the verse concerning the same Spirit; and our Saviour saith, Joh 3:12, If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not: they seem therefore best to understand it, who interpret it of a terrene spirit, particularly the wind, which is of a spiritual nature: and thus, by their translation, it is apparent that our interpreters understood it. So as, though our Saviour speaketh of the motions of the blessed Spirit, yet he speaketh of them by way of comparison, comparing them to the motion of the wind, of which he said, that it bloweth where it listeth; not that it is its own mover, and under no government of the First Cause; for the Psalmist tells us, Psa 148:8, that the stormy winds fulfil Gods word; nor is any such thing compatible to any creature; but the original of its motion is to us imperceptible.
But canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: we can speak something philosophically to the cause of it, and can tell whither it bloweth, from the east, west, north, or south; but we cannot tell the particular place, where or from whence it riseth.
So is every one that is born of the Spirit: so every one, who is regenerated from the working of the Holy Spirit of God, is changed and renewed, so as we can give ourselves or others no account of it in all points, as to the inward operation, though in the effects it be discernible.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
8. The wind, c.Breathand spirit (one word both in Hebrew and Greek)are constantly brought together in Scripture as analogous (Job 27:3Job 33:4; Eze 37:9-14).
canst not tell, c.Thelaws which govern the motion of the winds are even yet butpartially discovered but the risings, failings, and change indirection many times in a day, of those gentle breezes herereferred to, will probably ever be a mystery to us: So of theoperation of the Holy Ghost in the new birth.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
The wind bloweth where it listeth,…. For ought any mortal can say, or do to the contrary: and so the Spirit of God is a free agent in regeneration; he works how, and where, and when he pleases; he acts freely in the first operation of his grace on the heart, and in all after influences of it; as well as in the donation of his gifts to men, for different purposes; see 1Co 12:11; and this grace of the Spirit in regeneration, like the wind, is powerful and irresistible; it carries all before it; there is no withstanding it; it throws down Satan’s strong holds, demolishes the fortifications of sin; the whole posse of hell, and the corruptions of a man’s heart, are not a match for it; when the Spirit works, who can let?
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth; as the wind, though its sound is heard, and its force felt, it cannot be seen; nor is it known certainly, from whence it comes, and where are the treasures of it; from whence it begins, and where it ends; so is the grace of the Spirit of God in regeneration to a natural man; it is imperceptible, indiscernible, and unaccountable by him, 1Co 2:14.
So is every one that is born of the Spirit: he is regenerated by grace, that is, as free and sovereign, as powerful and irresistible, and as secret and imperceptible, as the wind is: and seeing so ordinary a thing as the blowing of the wind is of such a nature, and so little to be accounted for; regeneration by the Spirit of God, who is comparable to the wind, and whose name so signifies, need not be thought so marvellous and astonishing, though the natural man discerns it not, and cannot account for it. The beauty and propriety of this simile will more appear by observing, that the same Hebrew word, , is used both for the wind, and for the Spirit of God; it is used for the “wind”, in Ge 3:8; and in other places, and for the Spirit of God, in Ge 1:2, and elsewhere: and so likewise the Greek word , is used for them both, for the wind in this place, and often for the Holy Ghost: and it may be observed, that the Holy Spirit, because of his powerful, comfortable, and quickening influences, is compared to the wind, especially to the south wind, in some passages of the Old Testament, which Christ might have in view, So 4:16. What our Lord here says, concerning the wind, is confirmed by all experience, and philosophical observations; the rise of winds, from whence they come, and whither they go, cannot be ascertained; the treasures of them are only with God, and known to him; see Ec 11:5.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The wind ( ). In Greek means either wind or spirit as spiritus does in Latin (so also in Hebrew and Syriac). Wycliff follows the Latin and keeps spirit here and Marcus Dods argues for it. The word occurs 370 times in the N.T. and never means wind elsewhere except in a quotation from the O.T. (Heb 1:7 from Ps 104:4), though common in the LXX. On the other hand (bloweth, ) occurs five times elsewhere in the N.T. and always of the wind (like Joh 6:18). So can be either sound (as of wind) or voice (as of the Spirit). In simple truth either sense of can be taken here as one wills. Tholuck thinks that the night-wind swept through the narrow street as Jesus spoke. In either case the etymology of is “wind” from , to blow. The Spirit is the use of as metaphor. Certainly the conclusion “of the Spirit” is a direct reference to the Holy Spirit who works his own way beyond our comprehension even as men even yet do not know the law of the wind.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
The wind [ ] . Some hold by the translation spirit, as Wyc., the spirit breatheth where it will. In Hebrew the words spirit and wind are identical. Pneuma is from pnew to breathe or blow, the verb used in this verse (bloweth), and everywhere in the New Testament of the blowing of the wind (Mt 7:25, 27; Luk 12:55; Joh 6:18). It frequently occurs in the classics in the sense of wind. Thus Aristophanes, to pneum’ elatton gignetai, the wind is dying away (” Knights, “441), also in the New Testament, Heb 1:7, where the proper translation is,” who maketh His angels winds, ” quoted from Psa 103:4 (Sept.). In the Septuagint, 1Ki 18:45; 1Ki 19:11; 2Ki 3:17; Job 1:19. In the New Testament, in the sense of breath, 2Th 2:8; Rev 11:11. The usual rendering, wind, is confirmed here by the use of the kindred verb pnei, bloweth, and by fwnhn, sound, voice. Tholuck thinks that the figure may have been suggested to Jesus by the sound of the night – wind sweeping through the narrow street.
Where it listeth [ ] . On the verb qelw, to will or determine, see on Mt 1:19. Listeth is old English for pleasure or willeth, from the Anglo – Saxon lust, meaning pleasure. Chaucer has the forms leste, lust, and list.
“Strong was the wyn, and wel to drynke us leste (pleased).” ” Canterbury Tales, ” 752.
“Love if thee lust.” ” Canterbury Tales, ” 1185.
“She walketh up and down wher as hire list (wherever she pleases).” ” Canterbury Tales, ” 1054.
“A wretch by fear, not force, like Hannibal, Drives back our troops, and conquers as she lists.” Shakespeare, “Henry VI,” Pt. 1, 1, 5, 22.
Hence listless is devoid of desire. The statement of Jesus is not meant to be scientifically precise, but is rather thrown into a poetic mold, akin to the familiar expression “free as the wind.” Compare 1Co 12:11; and for the more prosaic description of the course of the wind, see Ecc 1:6.
Sound [] . Rev., voice. Used both of articulate and inarticulate utterances, as of the words from heaven at Jesus ‘ baptism and transfiguration (Mt 3:17; 2Pe 1:17, 18); of the trumpet (Mt 24:31; 1Co 14:8), and of inanimate things in general (1Co 14:17). John the Baptist calls himself fwnh, a voice, and the word is used of the wind, as here, in Act 2:6. Of thunder, often in the Revelation (vi. 1; Rev 14:2, etc.).
Canst not tell [ ] . Better, as Rev., knowest not. Socrates, (Xenophon’s “Memorabilia),” says, “The instruments of the deities you will likewise find imperceptible; for the thunder – bolt, for instance, though it is plain that it is sent from above, and works its will with everything with which it comes in contact, is yet never seen either approaching, or striking, or retreating; the winds, too, are themselves invisible, though their effects are evident to us, and we perceive their course” (iv. 3, 14). Compare Ecc 11:5.
So the subject of the Spirit’s invisible influence gives visible evidence of its power.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “The wind bloweth where it listeth,” (to pneuma hopou thelei pnei) “The spirit (wind) blows where it wishes,” or where it likes; though it is invisible, it is real, operating, ever active for the life and good of every living creature in the universe.
2) “And thou hearest the sound thereof,” (kai ten phonen autou akoueis) “And you hear the sound of it,” have audible as well as sensory evidence of its existence and presence, from the gentle breeze to its cyclone, tornado, or hurricane force and sound.
3) “But canst not tell whence it cometh,” (all’ ouk oidas pothen erchetai) “But you do not perceive or comprehend from where it comes,” of its own accord, if in silent form, or gale force and sound. Its origin or source has a mystifying influence on all.
4) “And whither it goeth:- (kai pou hupagei) “And where it goes,” when it lays, becomes silent, yet present.
5) “So is every one that is born of the Spirit.’‘ (houtos estin pas ho gegennemenos ek tou pneumatos) “Similar to, or like this, is everyone who has been and is born of the Spirit.” A natural mother, as a Christian woman, can not and does not give birth to a Christian baby or child. All infants are born of the flesh, with the inherent, sinful nature of the flesh nature of the parent, Psa 51:5; Psa 58:3; Jas 1:15; Eph 2:3.
This is why every person of responsible age mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, must be born again to enter heaven. The birth of the Spirit, like the blowing of the wind, is of supernatural power, supernatural conviction, and supernatural quickening. Though it is mysterious, as the blowing of the wind, it is real, Joh 6:63; 2Co 3:6; Rom 8:2-3; Rom 8:9; Ecc 11:5.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
8. The wind bloweth where it pleaseth. Not that, strictly speaking, there is will in the blowing, but because the agitation is free, and uncertain, and variable; for the air is carried sometimes in one direction and sometimes in another. How this applies to the case in hand; for if it flowed in a uniform motion like water, it would be less miraculous.
So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Christ means that the movement and operation of the Spirit of God is not less perceptible in the renewal of man than the motion of the air in this earthly and outward life, but that the manner of it is concealed; and that, therefore, we are ungrateful and malicious, if we do not adore the inconceivable power of God in the heavenly life, of which we behold so striking an exhibition in this world, and if we ascribe to him less in restoring the salvation of our soul than in upholding the bodily frame. The application will be somewhat more evident, if you turn the sentence in this manner: Such is the power and efficacy of the Holy Spirit in the renewed man
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(8) The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof.Better (see Note below), the Spirit breatheth where He willeth, and thou hearest His voice. These words are an explanation of the spiritual birth, the necessity of which has been asserted in the previous verses. They must have come to Nicodemus, bringing in their sound echoes of the old familiar words, And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). These words would bring to the mind thoughts of the human body, cold, lifeless, corpse-like; of the breath of life passing into it; of the beating pulse, the opening eye, the action of nerve, muscle, and limb, as, in obedience to Gods will, matter became the framework of spirit, and man became a living soul. There are parallel thoughts of the spirit existing in capacity for life and union with God, but crushed beneath the physical life with its imperative demands for support, and the sensible life with its engrossing pleasures and pains, and sorrows and joys; of the Spirit of God breathing upon it; and of the dormant power awakening into a new life of noblest thoughts and hopes and energies, when man is born of the Spirit.
And yet the new spiritual birth, like the physical, cannot be explained. We can observe the phenomena, we cannot trace the principle of life. He breatheth where He willeth, in the wide world of man, free as the wind of heaven, bound by no limits of country or of race. The voice is heard speaking to the man himself, and through him to others; there is the evidence of the new birth in the new life. We know not whence He comes, or whither He goes. We cannot fix the day or hour of the new birth with certainty. We know not what its final issues will be. It is the beginning of a life which is a constant growth, and the highest development here is but the germ of that which shall be hereafter (1Jn. 3:2).
So is every one that is born of the Spirit.The sense is, In this manner is every one (born) who is born of the Spirit. The universality is again emphatically asserted. Individual spiritual life depends upon individual spiritual birth. The baptism of the Spirit is needed for all. Now, indeed, coming as a fire burning in mens hearts, consuming the chaff of sin, while He purifies and stores up all that is true and good; now coming as in a moment, and arresting a man in a course of evil, revealing the iniquity of sin, and giving the power to reform; now coming as the gradual dawning of day upon the youthful soul who has never been wholly without it; here in a sermon or a prayer, there in the lessons of childhood; now by the example of a noble life or the lessons of history; again in the study of Scripture or the truths written on the page of naturethe Spirit breatheth where it willeth. We may not limit His action, but by His action must every one be born again. Comp. the instances of what men call gradual conversion and sudden conversion, placed side by side in the same chapter, in Act. 16:14; Act. 16:29 et seq.
The rendering of the first clause of this verse by the Spirit breatheth for wind bloweth of the Authorised version has met with so little support that it is right to state briefly the grounds on which it rests.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. The wind In primitive times the air is the most natural symbol of spirit. It is the breath of God. And so in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew the word for spirit is the same as the word for breath. But, specially, like spirit, we know that the air is, though our senses may not behold it. It tells the simplest barbarian that there may be existence which is beyond the reach of his perceptions. At the present day we might take electricity, or magnetism, or oxygen, to show how the mightiest agencies are beyond the reach of our senses.
Bloweth where it listeth Where it pleases or wills. By a beautiful touch the volitional power, that is, the will, belonging to spirit, is here attributed to the wind. The Divine Spirit acts by its own supreme, and supremely wise, will. Yet, as modern science has discovered in some degree the laws of winds and storms, it is demonstrated that the wind, however capricious it may seem, is as truly under law as the solar system. And so the Spirit is not capricious a powerful and arbitrary sovereign but acts freely in accordance not with fixed laws, but with wise and wisely adapted principles and reasons.
Thou hearest the sound Its substance is beyond the reach of our senses; it presses upon us by its weight, unfelt. If it were always perfectly still, men would be insensible of its existence. It discovers its insensible existence by its effects. So marvel not that there is an unseen Spirit, whose substance is unseen, whose weight is unfelt, whose existence can be known to mortal sense only by its effects. It has indeed its own rules and reasons of action; but these rules are to us unknown.
Every one born of the Spirit He experiences the effects of a power which sense cannot reach. He cannot tell how, or why, or whence it acts.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Joh 3:8. The wind bloweth, &c. Our Saviour observed, that there was no cause for Nicodemus to be surprised if there were some things in this doctrine of regeneration of an obscure and unsearchable nature; because even in the natural world many things are so. As much as to say, “It is true, thou mayest not understand how this second birth can be brought to pass, but that is no reason why it should be disbelieved; since there are many great effects in nature, which you must acknowledge, thoughyou cannot explain their causes. For instance, the wind bloweth where it pleaseth, and you hear the sound of it, but you know not whence it comes, , from what repository; or whither it goes, , into what place:” (alluding probably, to Psa 135:7 where God is said to bring the wind out of his treasuries. See Ecc 11:5.) so is every one that is begotten and born of the Spirit. The influences by which he is begotten, are altogether imperceptible to sense, yet the effects thereof are far from being so. Moreover, to the actions and ends of the spiritual life, the new birth is as essential, as the natural is to those of the animal life.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
XXIV
THE EVIDENCES OF THE SPIRIT IN THE NEW BIRTH AND THE MEANS BY WHICH THE NEW BIRTH IS ACCOMPLISHED
Harmony page 81 and Joh 3:8
Following the line of thought discussed in the preceding chapter, we take up the verities of the Christian experience as stated by Jesus in Joh 3:8 : “So is every one that is born of the Spirit.” The “so” refers to the preceding statement that the wind blows where it pleases. We can hear the wind, but we cannot tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth.
The first thought presented is that there are inscrutable mysteries in both nature and grace. No man has ever been able to thoroughly understand any of the mysteries of either. He is just as much staggered when he tries to explain the source of the life of the plant as he is about the life of a Christian. Both are beyond him. He reaches the limit of his investigation. He gets to a point where he has to say, “Here I don’t know. I see the demonstration; the fact is manifest, but if you ask me to explain, I cannot explain. I do not know enough.” Most striking is the mystery in that most wonderful of all events that takes place upon this earth the conversion of a sinner. Those whose attention has been most earnestly and most persistently devoted to the study of that subject all their lives, fall as far short of a real and comprehensive explanation as one who has never given the matter any attention. It is therefore of no more practical use for one to urge the mystery of it as an objection against the teaching of the Bible on the conversion of the soul by the power of the Spirit, than to foolishly scorn the botanist who cannot explain just how the flowers are colored.
One proposition of the context, however, finds ready acceptance wherever there is common sense: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” It goes back to a fundamental law of being as developed in the creation, when God said that every seed should bear after its kind. These boundaries have never been crossed. A man may, by care and attention, bring about varieties, but he cannot cross the line of species. It has never been done. Each seed bears after its kind. In full accord with that law, our Saviour says to Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” And whoever comprehends the kingdom of God, whoever is able to see it, to get in touch with it, must do so spiritually, because it is a spiritual kingdom. He must be the subject of divine influence. The carnal man cannot understand it. Paul’s proposition is self-evident: “The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” The criticisms of carnal men, however wise in other things, on conversion, revivals of religion, clearly evince that the supernatural is utterly incomprehensible by them.
How often have we seen even such a case as this: One who has been a warmhearted Christian finds that after awhile his love waxes cold; his fervor leaves him. When we talk to him about it, it appears that he recognizes the decadence as readily as we do, and deplores it a great deal more. But no effort of mere will on his part can restore what has been. He will open the Book and read its consolations and promises, and say: “I know that this is true. I know that by my past experience, but I cannot get hold of it now as I once did. I did not go down to my business today without first getting down on my knees and asking God’s blessing upon me, that is, I went through the form of prayer, but without being able to explain it, I do know that it is different in its effect upon me, upon my own feelings, from the prayers I once offered. Under different or similar circumstances I miss the power of prayer. The Spirit of God is not now resting upon me.”
This isolated individual experience is not so remarkable as another well-known historical fact, that every now and then in the history of the world there comes over Christians, not in one little range of country, not in one community, but over the whole sweep of the world, what may be called a declension in spiritual religion. People begin to talk about how it used to be, and mourn for the joys of other days. They begin to compare experiences with one another and inquire what is the matter. “Why is it that I cannot take hold of such matters now like I did at a certain time?” What are we going to do about it? And insensibly as this spiritual power declines, they begin to reach out for and rely upon fleshly counsels and means for manufacturing power and are all the time conscious of the fact that their efforts do not touch the main question; that flesh has failed to do anything in the premises. And arguing from such failures, directly there are men who rise up and say, “It is quite evident that religion is becoming a back number. Science is spreading its light over the world and men are turning to science and turning away from religion, and if this thing goes on awhile longer there will be no Christian religion.”
It is one of the most curious things in history, the number of times men otherwise intelligent, in such a state of spiritual declension, have preached the funeral of the Christian religion, and maybe within one week of the time that pious hearts were failing them, and the enemy was triumphing and gloating over the seemingly rapid decay of that religion which had rebuked their immorality, and which had made such demands upon them for purity and integrity of life inside of one week no one could tell where it came from, any more than we can trace the lines of the wind but suddenly here, there, yonder, over all parts of the country, men are becoming earnest upon the subject of religion. Sinners are inquiring the way of life; Christians are meeting together and talking to one another; little meetings are appointed in private houses, then in the church; soon what is called a revival of religion of tremendous power has come upon the people, and perhaps in one month’s time a complete revolution has been brought about, and we stand there and look upon the phenomena and begin to philosophize about the forces, so far as we are able to see them, so far as they are tangible to us. If we begin to try to account for these things by the natural forces that are in sight, we are struck with this thought: The instrumentalities in sight are utterly inadequate. They are weak things; some of them are just nothing; and yet these instrumentalities under this condition of affairs, have become as potent as Omnipotence itself, in revolutionizing a county, a state, a nation, a large section of the world. We take up the Bible and its words are just as plain as can be that it is the work of the Spirit; that it was not because Paul planted and Apollos watered; it was God that gave the increase; that it did not grow out of any will of man; it did not come from blood, from human blood; it was from heaven; it was from that sovereign Spirit of God that breathes where he pleases and when he likes, that has brought about this strange state of affairs.
Now, to make the application: What can we do, in view of such a state of facts? What can Christians do? What can ministers do? There is one thing that can always be done; one thing that has not merely the command of God, but the promise of God, and ten thousand confirmations of the wisdom of its application; and that is, feeling human helplessness, feeling the inadequacy of any means without our power to bring about a different state of affairs, realizing our own worthlessness in the sight of God, we can pray, we can kneel down and say, “Our Heavenly Father, thou giver of every good and precious gift, give us thy Spirit, so that our cold hearts may be melted; so that our inattentive minds may be fixed on heavenly things and fired with old-time zeal in our religious duties; so that when we speak the hearer’s ear will be opened and his attention gained, and so that the Word of God can run and not be hindered.”
The prayers of God’s people, so it seems to me from the teachings of the Bible, are the appointed means, the means which he has designated clearly and unmistakably designated for bringing about revivals of religion. And yet even here we confront an insuperable difficulty if we leave out God’s absolute sovereignty. The difficulty can be best stated by an illustration: Water from above must be poured down a pump long dry before it can pump up water from below. We work the pump handle in vain. We go through the motion, but it will not draw. So a drought comes into the soul. Our graces languish. We try to pray and are conscious of failure. In one scripture it is stated as a reason why such weak instrumentalities are employed that no flesh shall glory in God’s presence, that it should become manifest to angels in heaven and devils in hell and men on earth that power belongeth to God; that the Lord, he is mighty and no other is great. It is with God, and with God alone.
I cannot describe have never been able to describe the processes of my own mind by which from time to time over again, and every time just as fresh as if it had never happened before, comes the realization of all these things. I go back and compare the present with past experiences, and I find that these coincide exactly with those. And I ask myself why it is that I cannot at my option, whenever and wherever I choose, bring about this state of mind within myself. And then some day, some hour) all at once, I feel overpowered with the sense of God’s presence. The Bible becomes a different book to me; the Scriptures, which had seemed to lose their edge and force and light, become full of light, full of power. My courage rises, my spirit rouses itself. I instantly feel led and impelled to undertake things that I would not have had the courage to undertake except under the impulse of this Spirit of God within me. Every Christian knows these things.
Now I want to add, especially, this: The exhortation needs to be continually repeated. It is one of the things that should forever be kept before the people. Always, if we expect to accomplish anything that shall redound to the glory of God and the good of man, we must come out solely and wholly in the strength of the Spirit of God, and if we are not endued with that power we should seek to be so endued. We should come with our empty hand and empty heart and knock and ask and seek and never forego our petitions until we realize that God has heard and answered the prayer, and that with us has commenced the work that we so ardently hope to see carried throughout the whole community.
In connection with this is the strange use of his Word. Times without number have I repeated that passage of the prophet, that “as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not thither until it has watered the earth and caused it to bring forth seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so shall my Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.” And contemporaneously with this influence of the revival of the Spirit of God in the community is the revival of reliance upon the plain and simple statements of God’s Word. Men will instantly lay aside the stilted method of presenting things; they stand upon a solitary passage of God’s Word, presented in the simplest form, and themselves expect developments from its presentation that they never in their hearts expected from all the appliances that worldly men would bring to bear upon the accomplishment of a sentence.
Right here, then, on these two points, is the hope of the church and the hope of the world it is that there shall be cultivated in our hearts and in our lives a profounder reverence, day by day, for the Word of God in its simplicity. The truth itself take that, and always count it hazardous, always consider that it is the part of danger to depart even in little things from what God’s Word teaches. We should feel in our souls that every jot and every tittle of the Word is as certain to be fulfilled as that God himself lives, and that we could with more reason expect to get up some morning and see the heavens rolled together as a scroll, and feel the foundations of the solid earth give way, than to expect any promise in that Book to fail, any threat in that Book to become powerless of accomplishment, any passage in it to lose the force with which God has clothed it. Now, just to the extent that we have this feeling about the Book and its teachings, and have the spirit of prayer for the Holy Spirit to be with us and in us, and to clothe us with power and strip ourselves of self, to take all of our conceit and pride and vanity and selfishness out of us, and make us humble, and as little children come into the presence of God, and say, “Lord, restore not only the joy of salvation, but give back to us the power, the conscious power, that God is with us, will the world be impressed by our lives and by our doctrine.” It is perfectly idle to stand back on account of its mysteries. Its mysteries no man can explain, but the fact is there, and being there it is no part of wisdom for us to disregard the methods which God prescribes by which we shall be brought back into touch with him, and by which being in touch with him we shall reach the souls of the people that give us so much concern.
What led me to this thought was a singular case, a case of a remarkable kind where there had been after an interview with the man, a total change in the conditions of the case. Here was the same man that before, with good humor, but without ever being moved by anything on the earth that I could say to him on the subject of religion, now with his heart as tender as a little child. Arguments that I presented before with much greater force than I now present them, and which before had no effect upon him at all, now at a word he seems to comprehend and his whole soul seems to realize how perfectly plain and simple is the path that leads to God and forgiveness and heaven. “It shall come to pass,” saith the Lord, “in the last days, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and until my Spirit is poured out the land shall be full of thorns and brambles, but when I pour out my Spirit the desert shall blossom as a garden.” The hope of the world is, in this promise of God. We, as Christian people, desirous before God to do our part of Christian duty in the battle of life that is before us, ought to get our faces like a flint against any reliance whatever upon any mere human power. And we ought also to keep it before us as a truth that needs to be reaffirmed and kept all the time bright and shining, that if we are to do any good in reaching men, in impressing men, it must come from our being in touch with God’s Spirit, and that means a continuous call to prayer.
Let us now consider the means by which the new birth is accomplished. This we find in Joh 3:14-21 . No event of the past, no matter how stupendous a transaction it was at the time, is worthy of being recorded, or is worthy of remembrance, except it has some bearing, practical and profitable, on the affairs of the present. As strange an incident as ever did occur in the history of the world, and as strange a method of deliverance from a great affliction, was the incident of the brazen serpent. Moses lifted up the brazen serpent in the wilderness that those bitten by the fiery serpents might look upon that symbol, and looking, be healed of the bite of the serpent. Now, if that was written for our admonition, it becomes us to address ourselves mainly to the New Testament lesson on the subject, and hence Joh 3:14-21 : “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him. He that believeth on him is not judged; be that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved. But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God.”
The first thought impressed upon my own mind concerns the origin of all divine movements or remedies looking to the relief of man from the troubles which have come upon him through his own sin. The source or foundation from which flow all streams of mercy to man is expressed in these words: “For God so loved the world.” The love of God prompted every step ever taken under God’s direction for the redemption of man. And the word “world” is here used in its broadest sense, in its most universal significance. It means the entire race of man, not in one generation but in all generations, and it looks upon the whole family of man as in a ruined condition, brought about by man’s own sin. And it says that God so loved the world the sinful, erring, fallen, lost world that he inagu- rated and put in motion a scheme of redemption. The value of this thought consists in this, that it gives us an insight into the mind of God: it reveals his attitude toward a sinner. It reveals him to us in his gracious and merciful character. It shows that man’s ordinary conception of him is a slanderous one. God loves the sinner; salvation is of grace: it arises from no original movement of the sinner, but solely and wholly from the heart of God.
The next thought that impresses itself most on my mind is that until a sinner is brought into very serious trouble by his sins, his mind and heart revolt from any presentation of the subject of religion. As those Israelites said, “We loathe this light bread,” the bread that God had provided for their nourishment. So now the carnal mind the mind of man in his natural state turns away in loathing from spiritual religion. It indicates this, that as the stomach and taste of a man corrupted by a luxurious diet revolt as simple, nourishing and wholesome food and call for more highly spiced, pungent food, so the soul that has become corrupted through indulgence in vices and sin loathes any kind of reading that does not minister to a morbid appetite for highly spiced things. There might be held a convention of ten thousand people, solely for the purpose of devising ways and means of having the religion of Jesus Christ presented to a lost world, and it would not attract half the attention nor excite one-tenth part of the comment in the secular press, that a prize fight would. The question was asked a leading journalist, the editor of one of the largest dailies of the South, “Why is it that you continually put such matter in your paper? Why is it that you rake the world over for every startling incident, every sensational item, items of murder, items of lust, items of horrible tragedy? Why do you do this?” “Because it pays. The people generally loathe any other kind of reading. That is what they want. They call for that.” Approach a sinner, before the afflicting hand of God is laid upon him, with spiritual food and he loathes it. He turns away from it.
But here is the important question, one that ought to concern us more than any other. When a man is in a desperate condition; when the things upon which he had relied heretofore have failed; when the serpent is in the camp and biting; when death is ensuing from the bite, or when his hold upon life relaxes and its landscapes recede from the vision of his blurred eyes, and when the sands of time upon which he stands are crumbling under his feet, and eternity looms up before him, the supreme question in such an hour is, “What shall we hold up before that man?” To what shall he look? Here this statement intervenes, that as, under circumstances of dreadful affliction upon the children of Israel, when on account of their sins they were bitten by fiery serpents and were dying, Moses lifted up the brazen serpent, even so must the Son of man be lifted up so that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.
The world has seen many a procession of this kind. In our minds let us behold a plague-stricken city. The people are dying like sheep with the rot. A remedy is announced. A procession is appointed to move through the principal street. There the crowds gather, pressing against one another, filling both sidewalks. Their hungry eyes are full of expectation. The procession comes bearing aloft some holy object of sight. The people prostrate themselves and adore. What is lifted up? It appears to be a piece of bread. But the priest assures the people that by his consecrating act it has been converted into the veritable body and blood of Jesus Christ; that by that act of consecration he had created God, and hence, notwithstanding the testimony of the senses, what is lifted up is Jesus Christ. It does not look like him; it looks like bread. But that is lifted up and as it moves along through the street the people bow down before it, prostrate themselves before it, and this is what is called adoring the mass.
If, indeed, that was Jesus Christ; if that is what this scripture means, “Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,” then it was a proper thing to do and it was a proper thing to prostrate one’s self before it, look to it, and trust in it. But I venture to say that this was not even accorded to the symbol, that the typical serpent was not lifted up for such an object. There did come a time when men looked upon that brazen serpent as God. There did come a time when the priest filled his censer with incense, and kindling it, came before that brazen serpent and waved his censer as in the presence of God himself, and men worshiped him. But when that took place, God’s servant, Hezekiah, though that relic had been preserved seven hundred years from the time that it was first exhibited in the wilderness, brake it in pieces and said nehushtan, “it is just a piece of brass.”
Let us turn to the Second Commandment. Let us listen to it again, as familiar as it may seem to our mind. We read it from Exo 20 : “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.” Well, but Moses made the likeness of a serpent; did he violate that law? Evidently not, because I have not given the whole of the Commandment. Listen again, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them.” That is, the Commandment does not forbid all sculpture and painting. It was not intended to prevent us from painting the picture of a bird or carving the likeness of a lion or erecting a statue of a man; that was not its object. “But thou shalt not make unto thee any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or on earth beneath, to bow down before it, as an object of worship.” And when it is proposed to make any likeness an object of worship, then the law of the Second Commandment becomes operative, and therefore the brazen serpent was destroyed by Hezekiah. The thought is this that nothing on the earth cognizable by natural sight can supply a remedy for sin, and it was not the fact that they saw that brazen serpent with the natural eye that delivered them. It was the faith in their hearts that looked to God, their true deliverer, that delivered them.
Now, let me apply this. In the illustrated histories of the world (and we have a great many of them) we may see marvelous pictures of great battles. Here has been planted a battery; yonder is its path of death. Here charges a column of cavalry. There passes a division of infantry with fixed bayonets, and in the track of all of these columns of death men are prone in the dust. They are bleeding; they are dying and some are dead. And on that battlefield, over which the breath of war has breathed and its storm has swept, we see the picture of a man in a long robe. As he walks along he looks to see who is dead, who is yet living. There lies a man not yet dead. He is nearly dead. His head is lifted up, that dying man. What does the long-robed man hold up before him? The priest lifts up right before his eyes a cross on which is the likeness of Christ. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so shall the Son of man be lifted up. Now, is it meant that there shall be lifted up before the eyes of that dying man any likeness of Jesus Christ or any likeness of the cross upon which he died, that his natural eye shall see, and from seeing shall put his heart in contact with the love of God? That is the question.
I will answer that question. It is a very important one because it settles the whole question of the work of the church. If in lifting up Jesus Christ before the world we fulfill our mission by lifting up a picture of him if we accomplish the work which was given us by our Saviour himself when we hold up before the sick and dying, bread that is said to be transmuted into God, or a likeness of Jesus Christ upon the cross, or if we put into the lips of a dying man a wafer that is said to be God if that is our mission, then we ought to know it, and we ought to address ourselves to that method of lifting up Jesus Christ.
How is he to be lifted up? The Bible answers it with remarkable clearness. I will give it to you first in prophecy and then in the fulfilment of that prophecy. I quote from Zec 12 : “And it shall come to pass in that day, . . . And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him.” Does that mean that they shall look upon a picture of him? Does that mean that they shall look upon his actual flesh and blood, either in its natural state or as it is claimed when transmuted into such from the bread of the communion? Notice the reading of it: “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced.” Now they must see the pierced One. That is conceded, and the seeing of the pierced One is to bring about the good effect. That is conceded. But the question is, in what guise or shape or form is the pierced One to come within the range of their vision? In what way is he to be lifted up before the sight? That is the question.
I turn to Act 2 , where the prophecy was fulfilled, according to the record of God himself. The marvelous effect described in Zec 12 did not occur on the day that Christ was crucified, when men beheld his actual body on the cross, but it did take place fifty days later on the day of Pentecost. In what way on that Pentecost was Christ lifted up? In what way did they see him whom they had pierced? We have only to read to find out. The Spirit of God was poured out on that day poured out in enduing power upon the apostles poured out in convicting power upon the sinner. Now, when the apostle, endued with power, lifted up Christ, and the sinner, convicted by the Spirit, looked upon Christ that was lifted up, the question recurs, “How was he lifted up?” Here is the answer to it:
“Ye men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know; him being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands were crucified and slain: whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face; for he is on my right hand that I should not be moved. Therefore did my heart rejoice and my tongue was glad; moreover, also, my flesh shall rest in hope; because Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
“Men and brethren, let me speak freely unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcre is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne: he seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore) being by the right band of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.”
“Being by the right hand of God exalted. [What does that word “exalted” mean? Lifted up.] “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” How did he make him Lord as well as Christ? He made him Lord by exaltation, by lifting him up, by lifting him up from the grave, by lifting him up above the clouds and the stars to the throne of power and the majesty of might. Jesus Christ was lifted up before the people, not actually in the flesh, but he was lifted up through the preaching of Peter. Peter states the facts of the life of Christ and the object of his coming into the world, and of his death, and his resurrection. He addresses the sight, but not the natural sight. He addresses the eye of the soul. He says, “I will lift up something, not before your natural eye, not something that you can touch with your finger, not something that you can see, that is of material likeness, but I hold up before the eye of your soul Jesus Christ. Look at that.” Now, what was the result of their looking upon Jesus Christ so lifted up? The result was that three thousand souls were converted in one day.
Consider another scripture. I quote from Gal 3 : “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?” These Galatians saw Jesus Christ lifted up, but they did not see him lifted up in the flesh. They were not witnesses of the transaction that took place in Judea when he was really nailed to the cross. This incident, here recorded as historical, was long subsequent to the crucifixion. The question is, Who set forth before their eyes Jesus Christ? Paul did. Did he set forth Jesus Christ in a likeness that such likeness might become an object of worship? No. How did he hold up Jesus Christ before these Galatians? He did it by going among the people and preaching the gospel, relating to them Christ’s coming into the world, and why he came into the world, and calling upon them with the eyes of their minds, of their understanding, of their souls, to look upon Jesus Christ and to be saved by that look.
I submit only one other Scripture, and then we come to the application of it all. I quote from Rom 10 , which tells us how it is that is, in what manner, through what means, through what process faith comes. Now, as it is said that whosoever believeth on him that is lifted up, shall not perish; but shall have everlasting life how did they believe on him? What things are done in order that faith may come? “So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed, and how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard, and how shall they hear without a preacher, and how shall they preach except they be sent?”
Here is explained to us how we get at the real vision of Jesus Christ. We take hold of him, not by natural sight, but by faith, and that this faith comes from hearing the Word of God preached, and because it comes in that way, God sent forth men to do what? Preach. Did he send forth carvers in wood and stone? Did he send forth painters to make a likeness of Jesus Christ and hold it up before the people? On the day of his departure from the earth he said, “All power in heaven and on earth is given unto me, therefore go make disciples of all nations.” How? “Go preach the gospel to every creature.” Now, in that way he is to be lifted up, by telling of Jesus, by preaching Jesus. Men who live subsequently to the actual crucifixion, sinners who live until his second coming, do see the real risen body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and do with the natural eye look upon him whom they have pierced, but they see him on the judgment seat see him with mourning that hath no repentance in it and with tears that do not fall in mercy’s sight.
We come now to the application. Here is a man for whom we have been praying. When he was well and strong he had little thought on the subject of religion. His soul loathed this light food. But when his steps draw near to the river of death; when the earth recedes from his sight; when his hold on time and things of time relaxes its grasp, what can we hold up before him, and how shall we lift it up? Those who visit him see him in as wretched a condition as that of the snakebitten Israelites in the desert. It is no time for mockery. It is no time for delusion or experiment. Something before the glazing eyes of the dying must be lifted up. Something efficacious must be set forth before him. Something with speedy power to secure the remission of sins and make him feel in his own soul that God has blotted out his iniquities and washed him whiter than snow. 0, may heaven forbid that any visitant to a sick couch shall lift up anything before such a one but Jesus Christ and him crucified, and may heaven forbid that he shall lift up before him Jesus Christ in any other way than in the way which God prescribed when he told his church to go out and publish these good tidings.
Now, the last point of the application. There are times when Christ is preached and men hear the preaching and yet no such effect follows as is described in the prophecy of Zechariah. They hear, but it seems to be a profitless hearing. There is a preaching, but it seems to be a profitless preaching. Here is a secret an open one. There never has been a failure from the true lifting up of Jesus down to the present time. The true effect, as presented in Zechariah, follows the true lifting up of Jesus Christ.
No matter how many exceptions there may seem to be, I declare here, without any fear of successful contradiction, that Jesus Christ has never been lifted up in vain if lifted up as that prophecy prescribes.
I mean that “as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so shall God’s Word be that goeth out of his mouth; it shall not return unto him void, but it shall accomplish that which he pleases and it shall prosper in the thing whereto he sent it.”
I mean that God’s true minister today, as Paul in his time, may exclaim: “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish: To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?”
And when the gracious effect does not follow, there is some defect in either the lifting up by the preacher or in the looking by the sinner. Now, what is that defect on the part of the church? When he commanded the preacher to go out and preach Jesus Christ, he was required to have more than a tongue that could talk, and physical strength to move about. He said to these men before he sent them out: “Wait until you are endued with power from on high.” What does Zechariah say? “And it shall come to pass in that day that I will pour out upon the house of David the spirit of grace and of supplication.” And in that marvelous example recorded in Act 2 the element of power is manifest power on the preacher and power on the hearer.
And it is so till this day that whoever will go in the power of the Spirit and tell the story of the cross to a dying man whose heart is convicted by the Spirit of God, will be the means of salvation in every instance. There never will be any failure, and the whole effect upon us as far as this application goes may be summed up in just two things: We are to concern ourselves in lifting Christ up by the gospel, and we are to lift him in reliance upon the Spirit of God which makes the sight of him efficacious to the sinner’s eye.
These two prescriptions contain in themselves, however, two proscriptions, that as it is our concern to lift up Jesus before the dying, it means that we are to lift nothing else up; that we ourselves are not to put any dependence upon anything else; we are not to seek out for dependence something sensational and startling. I venture to say that if it were published in the city papers that there would be enacted The Passion Play, promising that if the people would come they should see a drama representing the betrayal of Christ by Judas and his crucifixion on the cross, that every seat in the house would be occupied. They would come to look at a likeness. They would come to take hold of something with the natural eye. They would say, “How beautiful one sight; how horrible another sight!” What artistic skill in the representations! What a Judas! Every single motion of his body and play of his features and tone of his voice indicates a master actor, representing a likeness of a reality. But there would be no saving power in it. It would not convert anybody. It would be a disgrace to the congregation, and it would convict the church of going into the picture business, the likeness business, in contravention of the express command of God in Exo 20 .
And that applies equally to the sensational preaching and singing and praying. Whatever of it is devoid of the Spirit of God is contrary to the duty which is enjoined upon us as a church in lifting up Jesus Christ. I say that we cannot lift him up so a dying man can see him, by art, by declamation, by anything that appeals to the natural sight, anything sensual, anything that takes hold of the animal part of our nature. Christ is not so lifted up nor so preserved.
God lives in a song that makes melody in the heart, that comes from the prompting of the Spirit and that soars as a skylark soars, and mounts up as the incense mounted when it arose ascending to the throne of the Lord.
So is the song that converts and prayer that converts, and the sermon that converts. Now, “as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
QUESTIONS
1. What is the import of Joh 3:8 and what is the force of the word “so” in this verse?
2. What can you say of the mysteries in both nature and religion?
3. What one proposition of the context here finds ready acceptance, and to what fundamental law does it refer?
4. What is Paul’s statement of this same truth?
5. How does this discussion of the work of the Holy Spirit apply to a backslider?
6. What historical fact is cited and how does the case apply here?
7. What is the danger which accompanies a spiritual dearth?
8. What one remedy offered for this condition? Illustrate by the case of the dry pump.
9. What are the effects of the enduement of the Spirit on the life?
10. What is our dependence for power in our work?
11. What means does the Spirit use and upon what rests the hope of the church?
12. What observation of the author led him into an appreciation of this fact?
13. What is the means by which the new birth is accomplished as taught by Jesus in this passage?
14. What is the origin of the remedy for the relief of man from his Bin and what the breadth of its application?
15. What special value of this thought?
16. What preparation by the Holy Spirit on the part of the sinner for this remedy and why? Illustrate.
17. What important question arises in this connection and what is the answer?
18. What modern procession is here described, with what ancient idolatrous movement is it in line, what commandment does it violate and how?
19. How is Jesus to be lifted up? Cite scriptural proof.
20. Illustrate the application of this principle.
21. Is the preaching of Christ always accompanied with success? Ex plain.
22. What two prescriptions for success here and what two proscriptions contained in them.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Ver. 8. The wind bloweth, &c. ] Libero et vago impetu. Watch, therefore, the gales of grace; we cannot purchase this wind (as sailors in Norway are said to do) for any money. This hawk, when flown, will not easily be brought to hand again.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
8. ] Our Lord might have chosen any of the mysteries of nature to illustrate the point: He takes that one , which is above others symbolic of the action of the Spirit , and (which in both languages, that in which He spoke, as well as that in which His speech is reported) is expressed by the same word as it. So that the words as they stand apply themselves at once to the Spirit and His working, without any figure; spiritus ubi vult spirat . Bengel, after Origen and Augustine, takes . of the Holy Spirit exclusively: but this can hardly be. The form of the sentence, as well as its import, is against it. The , , , are all said of well-known facts. And the comparison would not hold on that supposition ‘As the Spirit is in His working on those born of Him, so is every one that is born of the Spirit .’ But on the other interpretation, we have The wind breatheth , &c.: so is , i.e. ‘ so it is with ’ (see a similar construction Mat 13:45 ) every one born of the Spirit .
Notice it is not here, but , the gentle breath of the wind; and it is heard, not felt; a case in which the . . . is more applicable than in that of a violent wind steadily blowing. It is one of those sudden breezes springing up on a calm day, which has no apparent direction, but we hear it rustling in the leaves around.
The , in the application , implies the freedom ( 2Co 3:17 ) and unrestrained working of the Spirit ( 1Co 12:11 ).
. ] Our Lord can hardly, as Stier explains (iv. 48, edn. 2), mean Himself by these words; or, if He does, only inclusively , as being . . ., not principally. He describes the mystery of the spiritual life: we see its effects , in ourselves, and others who have it; but we cannot trace its beginnings, nor can we prescribe to the Holy Spirit His course: He works in us and leads us on, accompanying us with His witness, His voice , spiritually discerned. “ Homo in quo spiritus spirat, e spiritu respirat .” Bengel.
This saying of the Lord in contradiction to all so-called Methodism, which prescribes the time and manner of the working of the Spirit assures us of the manifold and undefinable variety of both these. “The physiognomies of those who are born again, are as various as those of natural men” (Drseke, cited by Stier, iv. 50, edn. 2).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Joh 3:8 . . Two renderings of these words are possible: “The wind bloweth where it listeth,” as in A.V [39] ; “The Spirit breatheth where He will,” as in margin of R.V [40] By the one rendering a comparison is instituted between the unseen but powerful operation of the Spirit in regeneration and the invisible but mighty power of the wind. You hear the voice of the wind but cannot see where it comes from nor where it goes to. So in the new birth the Spirit moves and works unseen. Similarly Socrates (Xen., Mem. , iv., 3) says: The thunder as it comes and goes is not seen: the winds also are invisible though their effects are manifest; the soul of man is itself unseen, therefore despise not the unseen but honour God. In favour of the other rendering it may be urged that there is nothing to warn us that we are now to understand that by the word “wind” is meant. It occurs about 370 times in the N.T., and never means “wind” except once in a quotation from the O.T. The Vulgate renders “Spiritus ubi vult spirat,” and if we could not only say “expire,” “inspire,” but also “spire,” the best translation might be “the Spirit spires”. As this cannot be, we may render: “The Spirit breathes where He will,” that is to say, there is no limitation of His power to certain individuals, classes, races. Cf. Joh 5:21 , . The thought here is similar: there need be no despair regarding the second birth: the Spirit breathes where He will. So Bengel, “ Spiritus , proprie, nam huic, non vento voluntas et vox est”. , the Spirit makes Himself audible in articulate and intelligible sounds. The breathing of the Spirit is like man’s breath, not mere air, but articulated and significant voice. The Spirit works intelligible results. He does not roar like the wind and toss men in unavailing contortions as the wind tosses the trees. It is a voice and the result is full of reason, in harmony with human nature and vivifying it to higher life. But for all this, , you cannot observe and regulate the Spirit’s approach and departure. , thus it is in the case of every one who is born of the Spirit. You cannot see the process of regeneration; the process is secret and invisible, the results are apparent.
[39] Authorised Version.
[40] Revised Version.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
John
WIND AND SPIRIT
Joh 3:8
Perhaps a gust of night wind swept round the chamber where Nicodemus sat listening to Jesus, and gave occasion for this condensed parable. But there is occasion sufficient for it in the word ‘Spirit,’ which, both in the language in which our Lord addressed the ruler of the Sanhedrim, and in that which John employed in recording the conversation, as in our own English, means both ‘spirit’ and ‘breath.’ This double signification of the word gives rise to the analogies in our text, and it also raises the question as to the precise meaning of the text. There are two alternatives, one adopted by our Authorised and Revised Version, and one which you will find relegated to the margin of the latter. We may either read ‘the wind bloweth’ or ‘the Spirit breathes.’ I must not be tempted here to enter into a discussion of the grounds upon which the one or the other of these two renderings may be preferred. Suffice it to say that I adhere to the rendering which lies before us, and find here a comparison between the salient characteristics of the physical fact and the operations of the Divine Spirit upon men’s spirits.
But then, there is another step to be taken. Our Lord has just been laying down the principle that like begets like, that flesh produces flesh, and spirit, spirit. And so, applying that principle, He says here, not as might be expected, ‘So is the work of the Divine Spirit in begetting new life in men,’ but ‘So is he that is born of the Spirit.’ There are three things brought into relation with one another: the physical fact; the operations of the Spirit of God, of which that physical fact in its various characteristics may be taken as a symbol; and the result of its operations in the new man who is made ‘after the image of Him that created him.’
It is to the last of these that I wish to turn. Here you have the ideal of the Christian life, considered as the product of the free Spirit of God, the picture of what all Christian people have the capacity of being, the obligation to be, and are, just in the measure in which that new life, which the Spirit of God bestows, is dominant in them and moulding their character. So I take these characteristics just as they arise.
I. Here you have the freedom of the new life.
But there are two sorts of ‘listing.’ There is the listing which is the yielding to the mob of ignoble passions and clamant desires of the animal nature within us, and there is the ‘listing’ which is obeying the impulses of a higher will, that has been blended with ours. And there you come to the secret of true freedom, which does not consist in doing as I like, but in liking to do as God wishes me to do. When our Lord says ‘where it listeth,’ He implies that a change has passed over a man, when that new life is born within him, whereby the law, the known will of God, is written upon his heart, and, inscribed on these fleshly tables, becomes no longer an iron force external to him, but a vital impulse within him. That is freedom, to have my better will absolutely conterminous and coincident with the will of God, so far as I know it. Just as a man is not imprisoned by limits beyond which he has no desire to go, so freedom, and elevation, and nobility come by obeying, not the commands of an external authority, but the impulse of an inward life.
‘Ye have not received the spirit of bondage,’ because God hath given us the Spirit of power, and of love, and of self-control, which keeps down that base and inferior ‘listing,’ and elevates the higher and the nobler one, ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty,’ because duty has become delight, and there is no desire in the new and higher nature for anything except that which God enjoins. The true freedom is when, by the direction of our will, we change ‘must’ into ‘I delight to do Thy will.’ So we are set free from the bondage and burden of a law that is external, and is not loved, and are brought into the liberty of, for dear love’s sake, doing the will of the beloved.
‘Myself shall to my darling be
Both law and impulse,’
But, then, in order freely to understand the sweep and the greatness of this perfect law of liberty, we must remember that the new life is implanted in us precisely in order that we may suppress, and, if need be, cast out and exorcise, that lower ‘listing,’ of which I have said that it is always ignoble and sometimes animal. For this freedom will bring with it the necessity for continual warfare against all that would limit and restrain it-namely, the passions and desires and inclinations of our baser or nobler, but godless, self. These are, as it were, deposed by the entrance of the new life. But it is a dangerous thing to keep dethroned and discrowned tyrants alive, and the best thing is to behead them, as well as to cast them from their throne. ‘If ye, through the Spirit, do put to death the deeds’ and inclinations and wills ‘of the flesh, ye shall live’; and if you do not, they will live and will kill you. So the freedom of the new life is a militant freedom, and we have to fight to maintain it. As Burke said about the political realm, ‘the price of liberty is eternal vigilance,’ so we say about the new life of the Christian man-he is free only on condition that he keeps well under hatches the old tyrants, who are ever plotting and struggling to have dominion once again.
Still further, whilst this new life makes us free from the harshness of a law that can only proclaim duty, and also makes us free from our own baser selves, it makes us free from all human authority. The true foundation of the Christian democracy is that each individual soul has direct and immediate access to, and direct and real possession of, God, in his spirit and life. Therefore, in the measure in which we draw into ourselves the new life and the Spirit of God shall we be independent of men round us, and be able to say, ‘With me it is a very small matter to be judged of you or of man’s judgment.’ That new life ought to make men original, in the deep and true sense of the word, as drawing their conceptions of duty and their methods of life, not at second hand from other men, but straight from God Himself. If the Christian Church was fuller of that divine life than it is, it would be fuller of all varieties of Christian beauty and excellence, and all these would be the work of ‘that one and the selfsame Spirit dividing to every man severally as He will.’ If this congregation were indeed filled with the new life, there would be an exuberance of power, and a harmonious diversity of characteristics about it, and a burning up of the conventionalities of Christian profession such as we do not dream of to-day. ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth.’
II. Here we have this new life in its manifestation.
And Christians should be in the world, as the very breath of life amidst stagnation. When the Christian Church first sprung into being it did come into that corrupt, pestilential march of ancient heathenism with healing on its wings, and like fresh air from the pure hills into some fever-stricken district. Wherever there has been a new outburst, in the experience of individuals and of churches, of that divine life, there has come, and the world has felt that there has come, a new force that breathes over the dry bones, and they live. Alas, alas! that so frequently the professing Christian Church has ceased to discharge its plain function, to breathe on the slain that they may live.
They are curing, or say they are curing, consumption nowadays, by taking the patient and keeping him in the open air, and letting the wind of heaven blow freely about him. That, and not shutting people in warm chambers, and coddling them with the prescriptions of social and political reformation, that is the cure for the world’s diseases. Wherever the new life is vigorous in men, men will hear the sound thereof, and recognise that it comes from heaven.
III. Lastly, here we have the new life in its double secret.
The origin of that new life is ‘hid with Christ in God.’ And so, since we are not dependent upon external things for the communication of the life, we should not be dependent upon them for its continuation and its nourishment, and we should realise that, if we are Christians, we are living in two regions, and, though as regards the surface life we belong to the things of time, as regards the deepest life, we belong to eternity. All the surface springs may run dry. What then? As long as there is a deep-seated fountain that comes welling up, the fields will be green, and we may laugh at famine and drought. If it be true that ‘our lives are hid with Christ in God,’ then it ought to be true that the nourishments, as well as the direction and impulse of them, are drawn from Him, and that we seek not so much for the abundance of the things that minister to the external as for the fulness of those that sustain the inward, the true life, the life of Christ in the soul.
The world does not know where that Christian life comes from. If you are a Christian, you ought to bear in your character a certain indefinable something that will suggest to the people round you that the secret power of your life is other than the power which moulds theirs. You may be naturalised, and you may speak fairly well the language of the country in which you are a sojourner, but there ought to be something in your accent which tells where you come from, and betrays the foreigner. We ought to move amongst men, having about us that which cannot be explained by what is enough to explain their lives. A Christian life should be the manifestation to the world of the supernatural.
They ‘know not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth.’ No; that new life in its feeblest infancy, and before it speaks, if I may so say, is, by its very existence, a prophet, and declares that there must be, beyond this ‘bank and shoal of time,’ a region to which it is native, and in which it may grow to maturity. You will find in your greenhouses exotics that stand there, after all your pains and coals, stunted, and seeming to sigh for the tropical heat which is their home. The earnest of our inheritance, the first-fruits of the Spirit, the Christian life which originated in, and is sustained by, the flowing of the divine life into us, demands that, somehow or other, the stunted plant should be lifted and removed into that ‘higher house where these are planted’-and what shall be the spread of its branches, and the lustre of its leaves, and what the gorgeousness of its blossoms, and what the perennial sweetness of its fruits then and there, ‘it doth not yet appear.’
They ‘know not whither it goeth.’ And even those who themselves possess it know not, nor shall know, through the ages of a progressive approximation to the ever-approached and never-attained perfection. ‘This spake He of the Holy Ghost, which they that believe on Him should receive.’ Trust Christ, and ‘the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus shall make you free from the law of sin and death.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
The wind = The Spirit. The word pneuma, Occurs 385 times, and is rendered “wind” only here. It should be translated Spirit, as at end of verse. “Wind” is anemos. Occurs 31 times, and is always so rendered.
bloweth = breatheth.
it listeth = He willeth. App-102. The
Eng. “listeth” is Old Eng. for Anglo-Saxon lusteth; i.e. pleaseth or desireth.
the sound thereof = His voice.
canst not tell = knowest not. Greek. oida. App-132.
not. Greek. ou. App-105.
is born = has been begotten, as in Joh 3:6.
the Spirit: completing the Figure of speech Epanadiplosis (App-6),
converting this verse into a most solemn and independent statement of facts.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
8.] Our Lord might have chosen any of the mysteries of nature to illustrate the point:-He takes that one, which is above others symbolic of the action of the Spirit, and (which in both languages, that in which He spoke, as well as that in which His speech is reported) is expressed by the same word as it. So that the words as they stand apply themselves at once to the Spirit and His working, without any figure;-spiritus ubi vult spirat. Bengel, after Origen and Augustine, takes . of the Holy Spirit exclusively: but this can hardly be. The form of the sentence, as well as its import, is against it. The , , , are all said of well-known facts. And the comparison would not hold on that supposition-As the Spirit is in His working on those born of Him, so is every one that is born of the Spirit. But on the other interpretation, we have The wind breatheth, &c.:-so is, i.e. so it is with (see a similar construction Mat 13:45) every one born of the Spirit.
Notice it is not here, but , the gentle breath of the wind;-and it is heard, not felt;-a case in which the … is more applicable than in that of a violent wind steadily blowing. It is one of those sudden breezes springing up on a calm day, which has no apparent direction, but we hear it rustling in the leaves around.
The , in the application, implies the freedom (2Co 3:17) and unrestrained working of the Spirit (1Co 12:11).
.] Our Lord can hardly, as Stier explains (iv. 48, edn. 2), mean Himself by these words; or, if He does, only inclusively, as being . . .,-not principally. He describes the mystery of the spiritual life: we see its effects, in ourselves, and others who have it; but we cannot trace its beginnings, nor can we prescribe to the Holy Spirit His course: He works in us and leads us on, accompanying us with His witness,-His voice, spiritually discerned. Homo in quo spiritus spirat, e spiritu respirat. Bengel.
This saying of the Lord-in contradiction to all so-called Methodism, which prescribes the time and manner of the working of the Spirit-assures us of the manifold and undefinable variety of both these. The physiognomies of those who are born again, are as various as those of natural men (Drseke, cited by Stier, iv. 50, edn. 2).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Joh 3:8. ) The Spirit, in the proper sense; for it is He, not the wind (concerning which, however, comp. Ecc 11:5), that has a will [] and voice []: and it is of Him we are born, and he who is born of Him is such as He is. It is not the person born again who would be immediately compared with the wind, but the Spirit Himself.-) where, whence, and whither: above the flesh, earth, and nature. The things opposed are, flesh and spirit; earth and heaven; nature and grace.-) [bloweth, Engl. Vers.: rather, as of the Spirit] breathes, in the word and sound of the Gospel; 1Jn 5:6, And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.-, thou hearest) even now also, whilst thou art hearing Me, thou hearest, on earth, the voice of the Spirit. Comp. the earthly things, Joh 3:12.-, whence) from heaven, from above [, Joh 3:3].-, whither) [quorsum, in what direction] to heaven. Comp. the heavenly things, Joh 3:12.-) So, as the Spirit Himself, whom thou hearest, and yet knowest not. For what the Spirit doeth according to Himself [secundum se; in His own person and character], that He doeth also in him who is born of the Spirit. The Spirit quickens a man. The man in whom the Spirit breathes, in his turn breathes of the Spirit, and gives forth abroad [propagat] the voice of the Spirit, his will being set free through the Spirit.[53]
[53] The Engl. Vers. listeth-sound applies to the wind; whereas Beng. applies these words to the Spirit.-E. and T.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 3:8
Joh 3:8
The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.-These verses have been ever of great difficulty because men try to get out of them what is not in them. Flesh in the mind of Nicodemus is the difficulty Jesus is trying to remove. He introduces the wind and its blowing which cannot be seen. It blows where it will, no one can know by seeing whence it comes or whither it goes, and then he says the one born of the Spirit is like this. That is, it is the spirit of man unseen like the wind and not the flesh, that is to be begotten of the Spirit of God. The effort was to show Nicodemus that it was the spiritual part of man, not the fleshly part that is to be born again. The man which is born, or begotten, of the Spirit is not the fleshly man that you can see, but the intangible, spiritual part of man-the spirit, invisible, like the wind. The Spirit that begets is not compared to the wind, but the invisible spirit-inner man-that is, born of the Spirit is like the wind-invisible.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
wind: Job 37:10-13, Job 37:16, Job 37:17, Job 37:21-23, Psa 107:25, Psa 107:29, Ecc 11:4, Ecc 11:5, Eze 37:9, Act 2:2, Act 4:31, 1Co 2:11, 1Co 12:11
so: Joh 1:13, Isa 55:9-13, Mar 4:26-29, Luk 6:43, Luk 6:44, 1Co 2:11, 1Jo 2:29, 1Jo 3:8, 1Jo 3:9
Reciprocal: Psa 135:7 – he bringeth Ecc 1:6 – The wind Son 4:16 – Awake Amo 4:13 – wind Mat 7:8 – General Mar 4:27 – and grow Joh 3:12 – earthly Rom 9:16 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
8
The religious world in general is overwhelmed by erroneous ideas about the Spirit, as it is involved in the process of the new birth. Then in trying to refute those ideas, the friends of truth may go to extremes and invent other notions that are likewishe erroneous. One of such performances is the strain that is put on the present verse, which is only an illustration which Jesus draws from nature, to prove to this bewildered Jew that he is inconsistent in faltering over the new birth just because some features of it may seem mysterious to him, when he will accept the fact that the wind blows, even though he cannot tell (from any evidence of his senses) from where the wind comes nor to where it goes after it passes him. So is every one means that every person who is born of the Spirit is supposed to accept the proposition on the evidence of God’s teaching, even though some things about it seem strange.
That the passage means just what the common translation makes it say, and that it does not call for some labored interpretation to rescue it from the hand of “sectarians,” I shall give the definitions of the original words in Thayer’s lexicon for this verse. Wind is from PNEUMA, and the definition is, “1. a movement of air, (gentle) blast; a. the wind . . . hence the wind itself, Joh 3:8.” Bloweth is from PNEO, and the definition is, “To breathe, to blow: of the wind, Mat 7:25; Mat 7:27; Luk 12:55; Joh 3:8; Joh 6:18, Rev 7:1; Act 27:40.”
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Joh 3:8. The words of this verse point out to Nicodemus why he must not thus marvel at the new teaching,must not cast it away with incredulous surprise. Nature itself may teach him. In nature there is an agent whose working is experienced and acknowledged by all, while at the same time it is full of mystery; yet the mystery makes no man doubt the reality of the working.
The wind breatheth where it listeth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh and whither it goeth. From the beginning the wind seems to have been the divinely-intended witness and emblem in the natural world of the Spirit of God. Ever present, it bore a constant witness. A commentator (Tholuck) has conjectured that, whilst Jesus spoke, there was heard the sound of the wind as it swept through the narrow street of the city, thus furnishing an occasion for the comparison here. It may well have been so; every reader of the Gospels may see how willingly our Lord drew lessons from natural objects around Him. Such a conjecture might help to explain the abruptness with which the meaning of the word is changed, the very same word which in Joh 3:5-6 was rendered spirit being now used in the sense of wind. Nothing but the abruptness of this transition needs any explanation. The appointed emblem teaches the lesson for which it was appointed. The choice of terms (breatheth, listeth, voice) shows that the wind is personified. It is perhaps of the gentle breeze rather than of the violent blast that the words speak (for the word pneuma is used with much more latitude in the Greek Bible than in classical Greek); in the breath of wind there is even more mystery than in the blast. Thou hearest its voice, it is present though invisible; thou feelest its power, for thou art in its course; but where the course begins, what produces the breath,whither the course is tending, what is the object of the breath,-thou knowest not. Nicodemus, unable to question this, would remember Old Testament words which spoke of mans not knowing the way of the wind as illustrating mans ignorance of the Creators works (Ecc 11:5).
So is every one that hath been born of the Spirit. As in the natural, so is it in the spiritual world. The wind breatheth where it listeth; the Spirit breatheth where He will. Thou hearest the sound of the wind, but canst not fix the limits of this course, experiencing only that thou thyself art in that course: every one that hath been born of the Spirit knows that His influence is real, experiencing that influence in himself, but can trace His working no farther,knows not the beginning or the end of His course. Our Lord does not speak of the birth itself, but of the resulting state. The birth itself belongs to a region beyond the outward and the sensible, just as none can tell whence the breath of wind has come.
It ought perhaps to be noted before leaving this verse, that many take the first part of the verse as having reference to the Spirit, not the wind: The Spirit breatheth where He will, and thou hearest His voice, but knowest not whence He cometh and whither He goeth; so is every one that hath been born of the Spirit. The chief arguments in favour of this translation are the following:(1) It does not involve a sudden transition from one meaning to another of the same Greek word. (2) On the ordinary view there is some confusion in the comparison: the words are not, The wind breatheth where … so is the Spirit; but, The wind breatheth where . . . so is every one that hath been born of the Spirit. These two arguments have substantially been dealt with above. As to the first pointthe sudden transition from the thought of spirit to that of its emblem in nature-perhaps no more need be said. The second argument has not much real weight. The language is condensed, it is true, and the words corresponding to the first clause ( The wind bloweth where it listeth) are not directly expressed, but have to be supplied in thought. The chief comparison, however, is between the thou of the first member and the every one of the second, as we have already seen. On the other hand, the difficulties presented by the new translation are serious, but we cannot here follow them in detail.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 8
Where it listeth; where it will–Thou hearest, &c.; that is, we see the effect produced, but we cannot understand the operation of the cause.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
3:8 The wind bloweth where it {h} listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
(h) With free and wandering blasts as it wishes.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus used the wind to illustrate how the Spirit regenerates. He used wordplay to present an even closer comparison. The Greek word pneuma can mean either "spirit" or "wind," though it usually means "spirit." Jesus said the pneuma (Spirit) operates as the pneuma (wind).
There are three similarities. First, both the Spirit and the wind operate sovereignly. Man does not and cannot control either one. Second, we perceive the presence of both by their effects. Third, we cannot explain their actions since they arise from unseen and partially unknowable factors.
The person born of the Spirit is similar to both the Spirit and the wind in that it is impossible for unregenerate people to understand or control him or her. They do not understand his or her origin or final destiny. Nicodemus should have understood this too since the Old Testament revealed the Spirit’s sovereign and incomprehensible working (e.g., Ezekiel 37).