Jesus has expressed to Nicodemus the imperativeness and inflexibility of the necessity of a new birth for the implantation of the new life. But has Jesus made an arbitrary, perhaps even unreasonable, demand, or has He only stated a law of the spiritual Kingdom, which is as reasonable as the law that governs the physical kingdom?

In the physical realm, we recognize two laws that operate everywhere and always: physical life is the result of physical birth, and the thing that is born partakes of the nature of that which gave it birth. Like begets like. Natural begets natural. Jesus told Nicodemus that the same kind of law prevails in the spiritual realm: spiritual life is the result of spiritual birth, and that which is born of God partakes of the nature of God. Like begets like. Divine begets divine.

John 3:6-7

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Ye must be born again.”

In these verses, Jesus has stated with intentional conciseness and clarity four profound truths:

1. There are two distinct spheres in which men live.
2. Entrance to each sphere is by birth.
3. Flesh begets flesh, and Spirit begets spirit.
4. Anyone who wishes to pass out of the sphere of the flesh into the sphere of the Spirit can do so only by a second birth.

Nicodemus coveted for himself something that Jesus possessed. That which Nicodemus coveted was a spiritual thing. It belonged only to those living in the spiritual sphere; it could be bestowed only upon those with a spiritual nature. But Nicodemus was living in the sphere of the flesh. He was no doubt living up to the best he knew in that sphere; he came to Jesus for more light on how to live a better, more useful life in that sphere. Was it not a reasonable and even laudable desire and should it not be granted?

Again, Jesus goes to the very heart of the difficulty and shows the utter impossibility of making the flesh spiritual. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and it can never be anything else. It may be educated flesh, cultured flesh, traveled flesh, moral flesh, yes, even religious flesh, but it is still flesh.

Even God does not attempt to make the flesh anything but flesh. He tells us why in His Word.

Romans 8:7-8

“Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

The flesh is God-hating and God-defying. It is irreconcilably hostile to God. Because the flesh is what it is, it is unchangeable and unimprovable. So, God does not attempt either to repair the ruin or to reconcile the enmity of the old, corrupt, defiled, rebellious, lawless nature. Even when outwardly clothed in the beautiful garments of geniality, amiability, kindliness, generosity, courtesy, and gentleness, it is still at heart God-hating and God-defying. “They that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

How, then, could God permit one to enter His family as a son or His Kingdom as a citizen with only the old nature of the flesh? How could one obey the laws of a spiritual Kingdom with only a fleshly nature? How could a corrupt, defiled nature that loved sin and hated holiness ever make a man holy? What would God have to build to conform the natural man into the image of His Son? What enjoyment would heaven offer to an unregenerate soul? If on earth those living in the flesh find no pleasure in the companionship and converse with those living in the Spirit, surely this would be even truer in heaven. The pursuits and pleasures, the desires and the deeds of the natural man are the exact antitheses of those of the spiritual man. If Nicodemus were to possess and enjoy the spiritual thing for which his heart hungered, he must have a spiritual nature.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” The old, fleshly nature equips one to live in the sphere of the flesh but nowhere else. So, Jesus held out to Nicodemus no hope of his heart’s desire and need to be met and satisfied through any sudden or gradual change in his old nature. Jesus does not propose reinvigorating or reinforcing the old nature by adding spiritual gifts and graces or subtracting evil tendencies and practices. Jesus will not put a new piece on an old garment. Jesus shows unmistakably that “there is no process, even of divine alchemy, by which the base metal of the flesh can be transformed into the fine gold of the Spirit.” The flesh cannot be improved, changed, or utilized by God. There is nothing in it that God can accept.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Oh Lord, help us to know that the flesh can never be changed. To live a life with You requires a new birth!