Quotes & Notes on:     John 3:7   

• John Wesley's Notes:
  To be born again, is to be inwardly changed from all sinfulness to all holiness.  It is fitly so called, because as great a change then passes on the soul as passes on the body when it is born into the world.


- Wesley, John, Notes Upon the New Testament, Vol. 1, on John 3:7
 

• Treasury of Scripture Knowledge:

  * Marvel. Joh 3:12; 5:28; 6:61-63
  * Ye. Joh 3:3; Job 15:14; Mt 13:33-35; Ro 3:9-19; 9:22-25; 12:1,2; Eph 4:22-24 Col 1:12; Heb 12:14; 1Pe 1:14-16,22; Re 21:27
  * again. or, from above.
   

• Adam Clarke's Commentary:

    (No comment on this verse).
   

• Family Bible Notes:

   As all men are naturally destitute of the love of God, no one should think it strange that he must experience that change which Christ called being born again.
   

• 1599 Geneva Bible Notes:
  (No comment on this verse).
   

• People's New Testament Commentary:

      Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The necessity is implied in the word "kingdom" [Joh 3:5]. No one born a citizen of England can become a citizen of the United States without complying with our naturalization laws. The kingdom of God has its naturalization laws, and there is no other way of entrance than to be born of water and of the Spirit. We may not understand all the mysteries of the new birth, any more than we do those of the natural birth, but we can understand what has to be done and what is necessary. Two things are needful: the spirit must be renewed; we must be baptized.
   

• Robertson's Word Pictures:
   Marvel not (mê thaumasêis). "Do not begin to wonder" (ingressive first aorist active subjunctive with mê), as clearly Nicodemus had done. In John the word thaumazô usually means "unintelligent wonder" (Bernard). Ye must be born anew (dei humas gennêthênai anôthen). Jesus repeats the point in verse Joh 3:3 (dei and the infinitive instead of ean mê and the subjunctive) with anôthen (from above) only and not ex hudatos.
   

• Albert Barnes' Commentary:

    Marvel not. Wonder not. It is possible that Nicodemus in some way still expressed a doubt of the doctrine, and Jesus took occasion in a very striking manner to illustrate it.
  
  {2} "born again" or, "from above"
  
   

• Jamieson-Faussett Brown:

  Marvel not, &c.--If a spiritual nature only can see and enter the kingdom of God; if all we bring into the world with us be the reverse of spiritual; and if this spirituality be solely of the Holy Ghost, no wonder a new birth is indispensable.
  
  Ye must--"Ye, says Jesus, not we" [BENGEL]. After those universal propositions, about what "a man" must be, to "enter the kingdom of God" (Joh 3:5) --this is remarkable, showing that our Lord meant to hold Himself forth as "separate from sinners."
   

• Spurgeon Commentary:

   The regenerate man is a mystery, and whence his new nature came, and whither it tends, are both spiritual questions which the carnal mind is unable to answer.
   

• William Burkitt's Notes:

  Nicodemus making an exception against our Saviour's notion of regeneration, from the absurdity and impossibility of it, (as he thought,) our Saviour therefore proceeds to clear the matter by a similtude taken from the wind, which at once declares the author and describes the manner of spiritual regeneration. The author of it is the Holy Spirit of God, compared to the wind; First, for the quality of its motion, Its blows when and where it listeth.
  
  Secondly, From the sensibleness of its effect, Thou hearest the sound thereof.
  
  Thirdly, From the intricacy or mysteriousness of its proceeding, Thou knowest not whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. As the natural wind is not under the power of man, either to send it out or restrain it; it bloweth where it listeth for all us, though not where it listeth in regard to God.
  
  In like manner, the Holy Spirit is as wind in the freeness of its motion, and in the variableness of its motion also.
  
  Learn hence, That the way and work of the Holy Spirit of God, in the soul's regeneration, is oft-times very secret, and usually exceedingly various.
  
  Various as to the time: some are wrought upon in youth, others in old age.
  
  Various in his methods of working; some are wrought upon by the corrosives of the law, others by the lenitives of the gospel.
  
  Various in the manner of his working, and in the means by which he works: upon some by a powerful ordinance, upon others by an awakening providence.
  
  But though there be such variety in the method of the Spirit's working, yet is the work in all still the same. There is no variety in the work wrought. The effect produced by the Holy Spirit in the work of regeneration is alike, and the same in all; namely, likeness to God; a conformity in our natures to the holy nature of God; and a conformity in our lives to the will of God.
  
  Again, It is a very secret work, and therefore compared to the wind. We hear the wind blow, we feel it blow, we observe its mighty force, and admire its strange effects; but we cannot describe its nature, nor declare its original.
  
  Thus the Holy Spirit, in a secret hidden manner quickens and influences our souls. The effects of its operations we sensibly discern; but how and after what manner he doth it, we know no more than how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child. Therefore it is called an hidden life, 1Co 2:7
  
  It is not only totally hidden from carnal men, but in part hidden and unknown to spiritual men, though they themselves are the subject of it.
   

• Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary:

   (No comment on this verse).
   

• The Fourfold Gospel:

   Ye must be born anew. Jesus here plainly declares that none are exempt from this gospel requirement. Man must obtain more than his fleshly nature if he would inherit eternal life.

Related Quotes:
 

•  Jesus speaks of himself as being present in heaven, because his divine nature was in constant communication with the powers of heaven. If we conceive of heaven as a locality (a proper conception), Jesus was upon the earth; but if we conceive of it as a present communion with the presence of God (also a proper conception), then Christ was in heaven as he talked with Nicodemus

- Four-fold Gospel, John 3:13
 
• The regenerate man is a mystery, and whence his new nature came, and whither it tends, are both spiritual questions which the carnal mind is unable to answer.

- Spurgeon, C.H., Spurgeon's Devotional Commentary, John 3:7
 
• Jesus here plainly declares that none are exempt from this gospel requirement. Man must obtain more than his fleshly nature if he would inherit eternal life.

- Four-fold Gospel, John 3:7
 
• Who is in heaven-Therefore he is omnipresent; else he could not be in heaven and on earth at once.  This is a plain instance of what is usually termed the communication of properties between the Divine and human nature; whereby what is proper to the Divine nature is spoken concerning the human, and what is proper to the human is, as here, spoken of the Divine.

- Wesley, John, Notes Upon the New Testament, Vol. 1, on John 3:13
 
• Which is in heaven. This is a very remarkable expression. Jesus, the Son of man, was then bodily on earth conversing with Nicodemus; yet he declares that he is at the same time in heaven. This can be understood only as referring to the fact that he had two natures--that his divine nature was in heaven, and his human nature on earth.

- Barnes, Albert, New Testament Commentary, John 3:13