Born of water, Born of Spirit

In this week’s Lesson-Sermon, “Mortals and Immortals,” we read from the Gospel of John in the responsive reading the verse where Christ Jesus tells Nicodemus, “‘Truly truly, I say unto you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.’” Let’s look at authorized Christian Science publications to explore what this means.

“Being born of water has to do with purification, while being born of the Spirit has to do with spiritualization of thought. These two are necessary if one is to submit to the reign of order and harmony, the kingdom of God. Christian Science lays great stress on purification as an actual cleansing from materialism in all its phases. Mary Baker Eddy states in ‘Miscellaneous Writings’ (p. 18), ‘The purification or baptismals that come from Spirit, develop, step by step, the original likeness of perfect man, and efface the mark of the beast.’ [. . .] As [one who is struggling to be healed of some difficulty that does not seem to yield] becomes interested in being ‘born of water and of the Spirit,’ he finds inspiration and enlightenment coming to him from God. This is what he needs in order to meet and overcome the dullness of mortal thought that would seem to hold him in bondage to pain and suffering.” (“Regeneration and Healing are Inseparable,” Ralph E. Wagers, Sentinel, July 20, 1963)

“What does being born of water and of Spirit mean? In its spiritual interpretation of the creation story in Genesis 1, Science and Health explains, ‘. . . water symbolizes the elements of Mind’ (p. 507). So being born of water and of Spirit must mean coming into the understanding that we are actually ideas of divine Mind, or God, not mortals living in a material world.” (“We’re not healing matter,” Andrea Jenks McCormick, Journal, January 2024)

“Moral purification—being ‘born of water’—calls for the cleansing of the senses, for the bringing of the physical senses into obedience to moral law. Spiritual purification—being ‘born... of the Spirit’—is a higher step and calls for the understanding that the physical senses are false consciousness and no part of the real man, God's creation. Jesus said further to Nicodemus, ‘That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.’ (“In the regeneration,” Helen Wood Bauman, Sentinel, April 22, 1967)

You are the child of Spirit, sinless, pure—

Yours is a perfect beauty, born of Soul—

Complete with health, vitality, and grace.

For is not God, your Father, perfect, whole?
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 475:2)

Kenneth Foster, CS