John 3:7,8

“ Marvel not at that which I have said unto thee: ye must be born anew. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh nor whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit.

By the expression: “ Ye must be born,” Jesus exempts Himself from this general condition. It was necessary for Him to grow spiritually, no doubt, (Luke 2:40; Luke 2:52); but He did not need to be born again. The gift of the Holy Spirit at His baptism was not a regeneration, but the crowning of a perfectly normal previous development under the constant influence of the Spirit.

Jesus directs the attention of Nicodemus to a fact which, like the new birth, escapes the observation of the senses, and which is proved only by its effects, the blowing of the wind.

The Greek word πνεῦμα has, as well as the Hebrew word רוּחַ, H8120, the twofold meaning of wind and spirit. As it appears from the following so that there is a comparison, this term is certainly taken here in the sense of wind. Tholuck (first edition) supposed that, at that very moment, the wind was heard blowing in the streets of Jerusalem. This supposition gives more of reality to the words: and thou hearest the sound thereof.

When he says: thou knowest not...Jesus does not speak of the explanation of the wind in general. He calls to mind only that, in each particular case, it is impossible to determine exactly the point where this breath is formed and the one where it ends. Perhaps there is an allusion to Ecclesiastes 11:5: “As thou knowest not the way of the wind...” While the development of all natural life connects itself with an organic visible germ and ends in a product which falls under the senses, the wind appears and subsides as if a free irruption of the infinite into the finite. There is, therefore, in nature no more striking example of the action of the Spirit. The operation of the regenerating principle is not bound to any rule appreciable by the senses; it is perceived only by its action on the human soul. But the man in whom this action works does not understand either from whence these new impressions which he feels proceed, nor whither they lead him. He is only conscious of a profound work which is wrought within him and which radically renews him. The adverb of rest ποῦ, with the verb of motion ὑπάγει, is a frequent construction in Greek. It is, as it were, the anticipation of the state of rest which will follow the motion when it has reached its end. The application of the comparison, in the second part of the verse, is not expressed altogether correctly. It would have been necessary to say: so it takes place in every man who is born...But it is not in the genius of the Greek language to make a comparison and its application correspond symmetrically; comp., in the New Testament, Matthew 13:19 f., Matthew 25:1, etc. The perfect participle γεγεννημένος denotes the completed fact: The eye has seen nothing, the ear has heard nothing. And yet there is a man born anew and one who has entered into the eternal kingdom? All is done, and nothing has been visible! What a contrast with the noisy and pompous appearance of the divine kingdom according to the Pharisaic programme!